Happy 9th Birthday Colin!

Colin had two Birthday parties. First he took his best mate Cole out on the town. The played mini-golf, hung out in the video arcade and ate pizza and ice cream. (Unfortunately Liam couldn't join his brother because he was home with the flu. Bummer.)

On Colin's real birthday, he woke early to find the Easter Bunny had unexpectedly visited and set up a treasure hunt. It was a little out of season but Colin took it in stride. Liam was feeling better and joined in too.

Colin planned the meals for the whole day.

Breakfast: Happy Hens scrambled eggs, fresh baked croissants, and peaches (luckily, the hens started laying again this week)

Lunch: Black bean burritos

Dinner: Macaroni and cheese, big, greasy sausages (a salad was added for the rest of the family) and of course mint chocolate chip ice cream birthday cake (we had to have mint chocolate chip ice cream made at a local shop because it is not sold in local grocery stores)

We played Life and had friends over to share the birthday cake!

The big hit of the day were the Fart Bombs from Auntie Allison and Uncle Stephen!

Sugar Plum Possum Fairy

One of our neighbors, Grant McMaster, is always telling tall stories to the Kirkpatricks. For example, he told me that chicken eggs are called bumnuts. So with my newly acquired Kiwi lingo, I asked the grocer where the bumnuts were and received a startled and confused look. I returned to Grant to discover bumnuts is a word coined by Grant's grandfather and used only by Grant and his grandfather. We are all wary of any information we receive from Grant. His stories sound authentic, despite their absurdity.

Colin and Liam have been planning a practical joke for Grant for months. To perform their joke they have been waiting to trap a possum. We still haven't caught one, but another neighbor aware of the boys' plans, who has also no doubt been the victim of a Grant joke, left a dead possum on the bench by our front door. The boys spent an evening creating a costume for their stiff creature dubbed the Sugar Plum Possum Fairy! Colin and Liam snuck down under the cover of darkness to Grant's house and positioned their fairy outside Grant's front door, terrified as the automatic garage light illuminated them. They ran all the way home. Once home they began to worry whether Grant would see the fairy possum that night. The suspense was too much for them. They snuck back to Grant's circling around the yard to avoid setting off the garage light. While Liam remained hidden in the bushes Colin raced to pound on the front door and then tore back into the bush with Liam. They didn't wait for the door to open. Grant is the type of adult that both fascinates the boys and slightly terrifies them. They love to hang out with Grant, but they can't read him. They can never discern the truth and seriousness from jokes and play with Grant.

Both boys wait expectantly with giggles and a bit of trepidation for Grant's retaliation. Colin peaks out the front door when he wakes. The boys say they are fortunate that they can stealthily pass Grant's house, shielded from his windows by the manuka, on their way to their hens. They aren't sure what Grant's next move will be. The suspense continues uncomfortably.

Another NZ farming-related story

This is a deal nobody should miss.

Fallen lines spark cattle combustion

News story and photograph today in the Farming Section of stuff.co.nz:

Wow, this is like some real life Far Side (Notice the cow on its back in upper right hand corner of Photo.)

Swimming with fur seal pups

This weekend I left my boys to fend for themselves. I came home on Sunday and noticed the pizza boxes in the recycle bin. Liam gleefully reported, "We didn't eat any meals at home. We had pizza and Turkish kebabs and ice cream!"

While the boys were on the fast food frenzy, I was at the top of the south island, in Marahau, for a NZ UWC meeting. As a team building activity to start the weekend, we went snorkeling with fur seal pups in the Abel Tasman National Park. Snorkeling trips are not usually offered at this time of year because the water is a wee bit chilly (12 degrees Celsius or in the low 50s Fahrenheit). I wore two pairs of long undies and two 5 mm wetsuits. With the two wetsuits, I was warm and toasty and stayed in the water about 40 minutes.

The seal nursery was perfectly round rocky and shallow inlet of the Tonga Island Marine Reserve. A few of the inattentive moms lounging on the rocks above seemed to be the designated babysitters. The rest of the cows were off hunting. I felt as buoyant as a fur seal pup. I could barely submerge myself. While we bobbed in the nursery, the pups swam out to investigate. They reminded me of typical puppies - silly, playful and clumsy. One head-butted my stomach. I wished I had taken pictures, but I was lost in the moment rolling in the water with the pups.

If is going rain, could we at least have snow?

It has rained every day for so long I can't remembered when it started. I am not sure how the ground here absorbs all the water. In California, we would have washed away by now. We live right on the edge of the snow line. Flakes fall and melt on contact with the ground or maybe in the air just above. The mountains are tipped in snow and then melt to green and browns about half way down to the lake.

We all have skiing on the brain. We were racing into Queenstown early one morning last weekend. As we zoomed past a car that was pulled over on the side of the road, Liam yells "that's Natalie and Goran!" Natalie and Goran are two ski team instructors that stayed with us last winter for a while. First Natalie from Canada, then her friend Goran from Slovenia. Eventually spring arrived and Natalie headed off overseas. Goran's mom, Lidija, came to visit. Lidija and Goran left as the season ended. It ends quickly in Queenstown. One day there's snow and the next it melts.

I guess just thinking about skiing and snow, made Liam think of our ski friends from last season. We miss them. As we drove into town, the air was cold and felt like snow. I u-turned to return to the parked car to see if we had found Natalie and Goran. As we slowed and pulled next to the car, I said Liam, "those guys don't look anything like Natalie or Goran!" They were two young guys with long hair in ponytails sitting on the back of their car at the edge of the lake, one of them strumming on his guitar looking towards the rising sun. We said hi and mentioned we had mistakenly thought they were some friends of ours. They smiled, nodded and kept playing.

Routeburn Hike - Day One

Last Wednesday Mom, Colin and I (Pop had to work) went on an overnight hike up the Routeburn. The Routeburn starts a couple miles above Glenorchy and heads into the mountains, ending in Milford Sound. Mom, Colin and I went only for one night so we only went to the first hut about 4.5 miles from the trailhead. The hike was slightly uphill, which I thought was nice because we had large packs.

We left the car at 10:30, later than planned. We knew we had to hurry because a storm was suppose to come in at 1:00 or 2:00. The hike started with a bridge over a river and meandered through a beech forest, now and then crossing streams on swaying bridges. Around one third of the way, we met the river we crossed in the beginning. Walking along the river was amazing. The water was stunningly blue and there were many small waterfalls. We tramped up the river for what seemed like a century. Just about the time I wished I had not put all that weight in my pack, we crossed the river and emerged on a large, grassy plain enclosed 360 in snowy topped, jagged mountains. We knew we were close. The map showed the second river crossing was over two-thirds the way there. After hauling our bags another 25 minutes across the flats, we arrived at the hut. Yippey!

The complex consisted of 3 summer toilets (it is winter here in N.Z.), 1 winter outhouse, the main hut and the Department of Conservation personnel hut. Inside the main hut there was 1 kitchen (without running water) the main room (3 benches and 1 fireplace) and 2 bunk rooms (each with 5 bunks).

Free of the weight of our packs, we went down to the river and had lunch. It was the typical hiking lunch - cheese crackers and salami. It was a really good lunch due to the fact we had been hiking for 2 hours. That afternoon Colin and I played by the river while Mom napped and then did something, I do not know what. Before long the valley started to get dark, the sun blocked by one of the mountain peaks.

We tried to start a fire and failed. The only things we could get to burn were candles and some leaves Colin found. After the fire episode we prepared diner- freeze-dried beef stroganoff. Sounds great, doesn't it? Not. Once we added water it started to resemble brown mush. It tasted OK. To cap of our excellent dinner, Mom brought out the chocolate. Yum!

That night we slept in our sleeping bags, on foam mats, under the moon (we could only see it out the window though). I fell asleep right away.

Day 2 will be posted soon.