Three Degrees of Separation

We love our new hometown, Queenstown. It's a tiny town of about 10,000 and when one throws in all of the surrounding small towns, you might get 20,000. It's the type of place where the orthodontist only has office hours one day a week because he lives 150km away. We had been here for over three months before we saw our first traffic light. We had to drive six hours to see it, to the big metropolis of Christchurch.

Christchurch is the largest city on the South Island and the third largest in the nation. We drove up there to do some heavy shopping - to buy a vehicle, some furniture and horse riding equipment. Sure, we could have done this shopping in Queenstown, but the prices and selection in Christchurch are better.

But even in the "big city," we continued to be reminded of how small our new world is. On our first stop, the Nissan dealer, we learned that our salesman had sold an SUV to the previous owners of our house and that he had even been in our house. Then at the first furniture store that we went to, our salesman turned out to be the brother of our closest neighbors here in Queenstown. You know that idea of six degrees of separation? Well, we're convinced that it reduces to only two or three degrees of separation down here in New Zealand. We live in a small town in a small country.

It's a big change from the US and from the big cities that we've lived in there. But Queenstown is remarkably cosmopolitan and sophisticated for its small size. We're part of a large minority of emigrants here and it seems that most of the Kiwis we meet have spent quite a bit of time overseas. It makes for a very diverse and interesting community.

Hasbro, the makers of the Monopoly board game, have discovered Queenstown too. They included it in a shortlist of 68 great cities of the world from which they want the public to choose 20 to be properties in their "first global Monopoly," the Here and Now: The World Edition. Voting goes through the end of the month but right now Queenstown is running #18. Something in us is rooting for our little town to slip out of the top 20 in order to keep too many people from learning about this small town we love.

Ollie steals Jolie's bed

The last twenty-four hours has been an endless dance or slow motion, silent turf war, at least from Ollie's perspective. Ollie seems to be the alpha pet. He is relentless and follows Jolie from room to room guarding his territory, which he feels is the entire house. Jolie basically ignores Ollie and does as she pleases. She is tired and wants to rest. Ollie sits right in front of Jolie and intensely stares her down. Jolie just tries to avoid confrontation. She has found the kitten food and definitely thinks it is almost as yummy as treats in the litter box.

This morning I cracked up when I came in the kitchen to find Jolie asleep on the wooden floor and a few feet away Ollie snuggled in the dog bed. How a several pound kitten gets away with stealing the over eighty-pound German Shepherd's bed is beyond me, but is exactly why we needed Jolie to be with us in New Zealand. Jolie is our sweet, kickback girl, and our best buddy. Every few minutes today Colin would say, " I can't believe Jolie is really here with us." We are all relieved she seems to have endured the travel and confinement and is adjusting to life as a Kiwi dog.

Jolie Arrives!

The move is complete. We have the whole family together again. Jolie arrived in Queenstown on the afternoon flight from Auckland. All of us, except kitten Ollie, are thrilled.

Jolie is a veteran world travel now. In September we drove Jolie to the Grandparents' home in Texas. They came to our rescue and agreed to babysit Jolie until she could fly to NZ. She had to wait until six months after her rabies titre in late June before importation. In early January the Grandparents drove her to Houston for her flight to Los Angeles. She had one night in LA and then the overseas flight to Auckland for a thirty-day quarantine at Pethaven Kennels and Cattery. Anyone that needs to quarantine a pet in New Zealand, we loved Pethaven. Robyn and the Pethaven crew took wonderful care of our Jolie. They kept us up to date with Jolie's progress and condition from the moment she arrived in Auckland until she boarded the flight to Queenstown. Jolie looks and acts no worse for the wear after all the travel and quarantine. She seems like our same happy-go-lucky pup with maybe a few extra pounds around the middle. At eighty some pounds she still thinks she’s a lap dog. She flops down in my lap for an all over body rub moaning away they travel aches and pains. When we arrived home, Jolie leaped out the car sniffing her way through the yard and right into the pond.

Ollie was a wee bit surprised with her arrival. As you can see in the pictures he instantly grew a huge bottlebrush tail. Ollie stealthfully follows Jolie around the house, keeping an eye on the big intruder in his home. Jolie basically ignores the kitten. When Jolie tries to sniff Ollie, the kitten makes a deep guttural moan of sorts, hisses and arches his tiny back. They are working out some sort of animal arrangement. Both are lying behind my chair checking out one another. Their noses are about 2 feet apart. I didn’t expect Ollie to be such a tough little kitten. Ollie is staking his territory and literally stands his ground in the face of the big German Shepherd (aka Alsatian down here) intruder.

Unpacking, sort of

Life is happening fast at the moment. I have not been keeping up with my blog journal. I am lost in the moment and want to write about today and am still trying to catch up on my chronological journaling from when the hard drive crashed in December. So, the blog entries will be jumping from present to past and in between. Hopefully you can follow along my scrambled path.

Chronologically I left off at the end of our move into the new house. I want to say disparaging and four letter remarks about the Denver moving company and warn everyone in Denver to avoid the unmentioned moving company, but for now I resist sinking to that level. Seriously if you are moving in Denver just contact me and I will tell you which company not to use.

On a more pleasant note, Christmas came just days after the move. We basically put unpacking on hold. We found boxes of Christmas decorations and placed the decorations amongst the moving boxes and randomly placed furniture. I am usually the biggest tradition monster at Christmas. This year we didn’t follow any of the “rules”. We didn’t even set up a Christmas tree. We had a miniature metal tree and set it on the coffee table. It had little votive candles and Colin hung some decorations he made at school. We had a crazy mix match set of plates and foods and tablecloths. I started to fret that we needed a tree and blah blah blah, but the boys were thrilled with the make shift holiday set-up. They couldn’t have cared less about the finer details. We decided this Christmas was the most relaxing ever!

We baked, did holiday activities and even attended a Christmas potluck dinner with all of our new neighbors on 22 December. We brought two apple pies to the party. At the outset making pies seemed like a quick, easy endeavor. Then the search began for pie plates, vegetable peeler, sharp knife and a rolling pin. We eventually found pie plates and the peeler, but had to substitute a wine bottle for the rolling pin. Two pies became an all day event. Christmas Eve Day I had the ham all glazed and ready to put in the oven. My roasting pan was too big as well as all my cookie sheets. I never thought to make sure the pans would fit in the oven! I threw the ham back in the fridge and raced to Queenstown. Luckily, I found a restaurant supply store with cookie sheets and roasting pans. Each day seems to be filled with unexpected situations. Friends and family keep asking what I’m up to everyday. I have no great answer. I guess I fill my days at the moment buying new roasting pans or trying to find a rolling pin or towels for a shower. I don’t remember any previous move being this disorganized, but maybe my memory is just blurry.

Also, I am completely distracted from the move. The weather is beautiful and we live in the country again. I usually wake before any of the boys and head out to explore. I am feeling a bit possessed actually. Even when I am tired and want to sleep later, I wake up and have to head out to explore before anyone awakes. Each day I choose in a new direction. Sometimes Liam likes to join me and sometimes Doug and Colin too. Colin usually waits to join us until we tell him about a good find like a waterfall or dead, decaying sheep. A baby alpaca was born several days before Christmas. We peek on him and his mom every day. He’s the tiny white guy in the slideshow. How can we worry about unpacking with springtime wildflowers and baby alpacas and Christmas?

Happy Waitangi Day!

While half of the US is voting, we have a national holiday here in New Zealand. Waitangi Day is New Zealand's National Day, but not an Independence Day like we're familiar with as Americans. New Zealand didn't make a hard break from the United Kingdom so the concept of independence doesn't really apply here. The Union Jack is still on the flag, the Queen is still on most of the coins and bills and from what we can tell, being part of the British Commonwealth is still seen as a positive here by most of the population.

So in that vein, it shouldn't be too surprising that the National Day commemorates when New Zealand became part of the British Empire, not when New Zealand became a nation. Back in 1840 on this day, the Maori and the British signed the Treaty of Waitangi. Britain got a new colony and the Maori got rights to their land. But it didn't take long for the Pakeha , the Maori name for the white Europeans, to break the deal. Sounds a lot like what happened in America between the Europeans and the Indians.

As you might guess, this is a controversial holiday here in New Zealand. Lots of protests and public debate. The prime minister hasn't attended the commemoration ceremonies at the site of the treaty because she and other politicians got "roughed up" at the 2004 ceremony. The leader of the opposition party did attend this year - must be an election year...

Super Tuesday

While we are miles away and not allowed to cast absentee primary ballots, we are watching closely with the rest of the world. If you're in a Super Tuesday state, get out there and vote today! You are voting not only for yourself but for all of us around the world who wish we could vote.

Super Bowl Monday

We just watched our first midday Monday Super Bowl with some Kiwis and Americans. It was also the first party we’ve thrown in our new home. Not everything went as planned…

This morning I was chatting with my sister on the phone and Liam kept interrupting me. First, he passed by with a handful of towels saying someone spilled water on his paper airplanes in the toy chest. A few minutes later he passed by mouthing that there was lots of water in the toy chest. Liam is usually a drama king and prone to a bit of exaggeration so I just shushed him and kept talking to Allison on the phone. Then both Liam and Colin came bursting into the kitchen yelling water is pouring out of the ceiling. That got my attention! I ran downstairs and sure enough water was coming at a steady flow through the ceiling into the hallway outside Colin’s room. I called Doug and after a search through the garage, we eventually turned off the water main into the house and the pump. We mopped up the hallway and spread the wet toys out in the sun to dry.

We had a crowd arriving in a couple of hours and no water to even brush our teeth. So much for a homemade Super Bowl spread. Oh nooooo, there isn’t a Whole Foods in Queenstown. Where will I find lunch all prepared for hungry football viewers? I headed into town and found a great little deli for sandwiches, some salads and brownies. Yeah, we had a lunch to serve.

I was rushing back to the house, saw cars parked in the drive way and I cut the corner into the garage a bit too fast. I completely munched the left (passenger) wheel well and front corner of the car. A bigger Oh Nooooo…what would Doug think? Liam and Colin looked wide-eyed and horrified. Their mom had just tried to take out the garage with the car. Liam just kept mumbling, “It wasn’t your fault, Mom.” I told Liam it was actually my fault and that I would talk to Pop AFTER the Super Bowl. I looked both boys in the eye and said DO NOT SAY ANYTHING TO POP UNTIL AFTER THE SUPER BOWL. As I was speaking I could clearly see my mom saying the same thing minus the Super Bowl bit to my sister and me, some thirty years ago, after she had hit a boulder in the Twichell’s yard. Life does feel cyclical at times. We walked in just in time to have a champagne toast in honor of the game with champagne brought by our new neighbors who are part-time residents here and spend the rest of the year in Colorado Springs. I hoped as I lifted my champagne glass that my hand was not shaking too badly.

As the game started the plumber arrived. I said I would handle the plumber, while Doug enjoyed the game. The plumber headed out to the garage to turn on the water main and pump. I was following him and I could see Doug coming out the door and heading our way. I mentioned casually to the plumber that I had just smashed the front corner of the car and that my husband heading out to join us didn’t know about it. The poor young guy looked at me like I was crazy.

Doug took the smashed car with complete grace and calmness. I think, in retrospect, a party in a flooding house on Super Bowl Monday was the perfect time to bang up the new car. The Giants winning also seemed to be in my favor!