Until I got to NZ

It is truly bizarre how often it is that I think I never _______ until I got to New Zealand.  For instance food: I had never had marmite, fejoas, or pavlova until I got to NZ, and that's totally reasonable as they are NZ food. The strange ones are that I never like green beans, tomatoes, mustard, avacado... the list is a bit strange and growing and now I not only eat them, but enjoy them regularly.
But the one that is really chaffing me is that I never got lost before I got to New Zealand and now I seem to be more lost than not. Strangely and most thankfully, this feeling of displacement only is challenging with my geographical situation and I actually feel more comfortable and secure with my personal life, emotions, ect.
Seriously, though, I used to pride myself not only on being able to adventure out and about with directional ease, but even was able to give others directions. I know this is in large part to having spent so much time in the places I had been, but come on! I have been here four months and literally just last week successfully found the fast way home from the highway (you know the one I take a couple times a week!).
A friend and I went to back to the Waitakare Ranges last weekend and again ended up not only displaced but on the complete wrong side of the trail (on a highway in fact) with little to no effort on our part - it was shocking and beyond irritating.  I now am someone who gets lost... a lot. Seeing as this doesn't seem to being changing or even getting much better (like missing the bus), then I am actively practicing having a better, more comedic look at myself and my surroundings each time they become altered in unforeseeable and unidentifiable ways.
Anyways, we had a pretty good time, played in some mud, concluded we needed hiking boots, and really did have a good time. We are going back to the same trail this weekend, with our new boots, to try it again.
Saturday night I babysat and Sunday I went to Newmarket for some shopping and a movie.
I am always shocked at how much I look forward to the weekends, how little I seem to get accomplished - though I feel busy, and how fast they go. I know this is a common occurrence for everyone I know, but I have never felt it so strongly while at the same time not really being stressed or worried about it. I am trying to focus on always getting the most out of my time, even or maybe especially if that is just watching a movie while babysitting. If I get the most of my time, whatever that is, then it would seem to make sense that everything will get done at exactly the right time and pace.

Jersey Boys!

My muscles have recovered from a tricky and invigorating Friday night at a rock climbing gym out west of Auckland. I of course got a bit displaced getting there, but it was good practice at altering my attitude towards the inconvenience and irritation of traveling the scenic route accidentally. It may not have been every 22yr-olds prefect Friday night, but I loved it, plus I was home in time to watch the Warriors (Auckland's Rugby League team) play.

Inside the Civic is beautiful

Saturday I woke up to make homemade, buttermilk pancakes for the family (the have been voted the best in the house and Mackay inhaled about six!) and then I went back to bed to read and have a nap. A little work out and a fabulous dinner with the grandparents and some family friends made a very yummy and relaxing day.

With my "Fallen Angel" in hand

As an outing I did for Au Pair Link I wandered down Richmond Road for a little brunch at Malt Bar on Sunday morning and then aimlessly jumped on the bus downtown. I was, again, in a bit of an off mood so considered seeing a movie, but ended up whimsically buy a ticket for the 1pm showing of Jersey Boys, the musical! It was absolutely fantastic.  Having just decided to go without any prep or anticipation it was a bit less then it could have been - what I mean is I really can't say enough for the power or appreciation of planning and anticipating great things and then for them to happen, instead just stumbling upon them.
On the bus ride home I was contemplating the origins of my glum moods on the weekends. My week days are so demanding and busy, the recovery may be a bit harder than I give myself credit for. It is also difficult to balance planning exciting (and demanding) events for my days off and remembering to just say in bed a little longer just to relax.

Another angle I considered is that I am not entirely sure what is left of a person when their culture, family, friends, jobs, routines, home, and general comfort and convenience (that word again) is altered or stripped away. I think it leaves me with my values and self-nurtured resources and who knows what else. I also have a hard time understanding or sympathizing with myself when I am in anything but a happy-go-lucky mood, because I can't find a cause for any other attitude. I am so grateful for where I have taken my life and it is sometimes hard to remember and appreciate what that really means.

Back to Routine

I can't believe it is already the middle of May and almost Winter here. Time moves differently when the year isn't defined by a school schedule, but by a two-year old's and the opposite seasons thing just seems funny. It is definitely beginning to feel and look more like fall so my brain just keeps thinking its getting towards the end of the year, not the middle, oh well by the time all these little nuances have become normal I will have to just switch back.
Mackay and I have kicked our colds, Mia is feeling better after her three-month immunizations, Andrew is back from Germany and Mother's Day celebrations are over so we are all gettting back to our routines - thank goodness.
Friday night I went out with another au pair to an Auckland Blues rugby union game. Since they were competing for the 15th position in the Super15 competition, I wasn't expecting a whole heck of a lot so it was surprising and exciting  for them to win. It was a bit chilly and there was barely a crowd, but it was still a blast.
Saturday was a laid back day with babysitting in the evening. Sunday was also mellow with some family and friends over for afternoon tea and dinner. Yesterday, I took Mackay to the Degas - Dali exhibit  which went pretty well considering how tired he was and that, you know, he is 23months old and maybe hasn't refined his tastes for fine art.

It has rained heavily about a dozen times already today, with wind and a bit of sunshine in between, so I am going to curl up under my duvet and wool blanket for some reading before going back to work this afternoon.
The rest of the week holds rain, with a chance of showers, a parenting workshop put on by Au Pair Link, and some rock climbing.

Fairy Falls and the Sky Tower

It was a long and busy week to which the days seemed to have mushed into one another. Mackay graciously shared his cold with me so neither of us were our best to start the week, and Andrew spend the last 10 days in Germany for work. It was a long week, that easily could have been worse. Enough said.

Mackay and Mia went on their first trip to the Sky Tower with Andrea and I on Saturday. Being the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere and the icon of the Auckland skyline it is an obvious "must do" Auckland tourist trap. It was a beautiful fall day and the view was spectacular. What was probably better than the view was watch Mackay try to not step on the glass parts of the floor, that is until we 'stomped like an elephant' on them and he had deemed then secure.

A fellow au pair and I went back to the Waitakare on Sunday to hike Fairy Falls. As usual the guide book and trail signs over estimated our trip time by about double so it took us a little over an hour. The views and varied flora and fauna were well worth the trip.

Waitakare and La Cigale

Up Mt. Zion

Karekare Beach

Wednesday was Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) Day, the equivalent of Memorial Day so no work! An au pair from Seattle who I met a few months ago and had dinner with a few weeks ago decided to go hiking in the Waitakare Mountain Ranges. With a little of research online and I grabbed a book from the library we ended up on a four hour loop up Mt Zion and down Karekare beach - the beach the movie The Piano was filmed.

Again the weather was perfect, if anything a bit warm- so much for being Autumn. Its about an hour drive and took us to the west coast of NZ. It was all just beautiful - black sandy beach with grassland and swampy areas, cliffs, "mountains," rain forest, ect.... We sat on the beach for little lunch and then headed home.

After cleaning up and sipping wine on the back porch for a bit, we drove to Parnell (CBD area) for dinner at La Cigale French Bistro. It was highly recommend by Andrew and Andrea, and was the setting for Masterchef NZ a few weeks ago. We were not disappointed. I gorged myself on the best charcuterie platter, duck l'orange, and dark bitter chocolate musse I have ever and may ever have. 

La Cigale

The rest of my week was uneventful and went fast. Mackay is into boundary pushing this week, which means a lot of repeating myself mixed with some patients and disciple, but is going well (for me at least). I helped out babysitting yesterday morning, while Andrea did some work for peapods at "mommy showcase," and then again last night as Andrew is going to Germany for the next 10 days and they needed to get in a date night. I still have absolutely no complaints as to my work/personal time and love being able to help out. The "work" I do caring for the kids and helping around the house is surprisingly rewarding and always appreciated. I am making dinner tonight to kick off the next 10 days of possible chaos or maybe calm - we're not really sure - probably a bit of both. 

The weather is a bit crummy today so I was considering staying my sweat pants all day, but just saw that some how NZ is showing the new Avengers movie earlier than the States, so I am off to the movies. (And then back into my sweats.)

Practicing Missing the Bus

A weekend at home to rest and relax went surprisingly fast and was just what I needed. I babysat Wednesday and Friday. To my utter amazement I am still running at 100% no-troubles-babysitting. Mackay for all his two-yearness is incredibly easy to put to bed and once is down is almost never heard from until morning. Mia is... well still working on being as wonderful as her brother, but at least is predictable. She is becoming more interactive and spending more time awake smiling and wanting to be held (for better or worse). 

Mia is the greatest!

Looking down Queens St

Saturday I laid in bed until I couldn't stand it anymore, just because I could, and then went upstairs to make buttermilk pancakes, yum. I did laundry and piddled on the internet for a bit and then bused down to the art gallery. 

View of Auckland Skyline
from Albert St bus stop

For unknown reasons to me, I have the hardest time getting to the bus on time even though I check the times on line, and know they run early, and its only a 4 minute walk... so I decided to practice missing the bus both to and from the art gallery. What I mean by that is that I was sitting at the stop, it was a beautiful day, and I was mad because once again I was waiting for the next bus to come in 25 minutes. Then it hit me (not the bus) that this is what they are talking about when they say its about the journey not the destination... the reason I was mad was because I had a plan to be at the art gallery in 25 minutes and how stupid was it that I was just sitting waiting for my destination to arrive. So I decided to instead pull out my kindle, soaked up the beautiful day and enjoy the journey - practicing missing the bus. 

Cardboard Box City (including security)

Walking to the gallery I passed this super cute city of cardboard boxes that was being put on during the school break in front of the civic center. 

As the library is next door to the gallery I checked out some books on the artists of the exhibit and sipped on a chai before visiting my friends VanGogh, Degas, Warhol, the Richardsons, and Freud. 

Sunday showered and everything but technically didn't get out my sweats until 6pm when I left to go to Sunday Chapel (Chapel being the bar and bistro around the corner) with some girls I met from Tongariro.  Just another week in paradise. 

Tongariro Crossing

Working hard, playing hard is a bit tiring (not that I am complaining in any way what so ever). I have spent most of this week cleaning, doing laudry, cooking, baking, oh yeah and taking care of two children under two years of age and seriously living well!! I am still shocked at how rewarding and enjoyable my domestic activities are. It is probably only blissful because of the balance I get by not really having any on the weekends, if I don't want, and on top of that having the completely awe inspiring opportunities I have here like... going to Tongariro Crossing last weekend.

I went with a tour bus put on by my au pair managing company and so was accompanied by six other au pairs. They were all extremely lovely young women who maybe didn't don't know what they were getting themselves into when they signed up for this trip - but hey neither did I - the main difference being I am from Colorado where people are super active and hikes/treks are taken seriously. But on with the adventure.

The "house"

We left Friday afternoon (Andrea gave me the afternoon off and braved taking care of both children during waking hours by herself). The trip takes about 6 hours and Tongariro National Park is approximately 250 km south of Auckland. We stopped at a grocery to get dinner, the next days meals (though I'd brought along most of that), and then wandered into some podunk town in the middle of no where to stay in a "house."

Scree climbing

The "house" was suppose to be a really nice backpacker, but for unknown reasons, even to our guide, we'd been bumped to an over glorified camping shed. It actually wasn't so bad, just cramped living space, one bathroom and not what had been advertised by the agency. We left camp at about 0800 to meander to the Crossing. It is on this little meandering I learned that none of the other girls had really every hiked and due to petro shortages the guide wouldn't be accompanying us. When we started the trek it took about 10 minutes for the group to get out the parking lot with all the picture taking and gaggling, so it was then that I made the best decision of my day- ditch 'em.

South Crater to Red Crater

I plugged in my iPod and hunkered down for the 19.8km (12.3) trek. It starts out in a valley called Soda Springs with lots of brush and a little stream. This was a 45-minute warm up for the next 45 minutes of "devil's staircase." Its about a 70 story stair climb to the South Crater. Out of the 150 or pictures I took none of them were done here as I was just trying to keep one foot moving up in front of the other. From the South Crater to the Red Crater its another couple hundred feet climb - but no stairs here in fact some of it was so vertical I had to go almost onto all fours and almost all of it was scree.
Up until the Red Crater the landscape was mostly volcanic rock (red and black).Then at the end of the Red Crater I was able to look over the edge to the Emerald Lakes.  At this point of the trek is where I really started to not have so much fun since the descent from Red Crater to the lakes is on traversed by walking (kinda) on scoria which is on top of scree - aka loose round volcanic rocks moving on top of all the gravely, dusty, moving, broken scroia parts.

Blue Lake and Emerald Lakes (r side)

Emerald Lakes

Scoria and Scree

Blue Lake

Red Crater to Blue Lake

Vista from top of Blue Lake

Once I reached the top of Blue Lake I was able to see, well, almost the whole Eastern part of New Zealand. Then I was on the down. Lots of down. In total I went up for 3 hours or 3600 feet and then down for 2.5 hours or 4300 feet. On the way down I went from volcanic moon-scape like rocks to brush, pairire and eventually luscious rain forest. When I got the end, my van wasn't there to pick me up...... I text the driver and when he arrived he said that I was the fastest trekker he had ever had on his tours and he wasn't expecting me for another couple of hours - which is when the rest of my group showed up. I was so in love the hike I just sort of melded into a meditative, hyper-active state. I didn't take any breaks and I stopped three times to grab food out of my pack. The weather (complete and amazing luck) and scenery was so incredible I couldn't help but keep moving.

When the group was recompiled we went back to "town" for showers, dinner, and bed. I did get a chance to lay outside and watch the night's sky. I have never seen so many stars - it is indescribably!!! Sunday we did a little travel through the park, including a waterfall trip and stop at the out-of-season ski lodge and headed back to Auckland.

Rain forest

THE END!

It looks different the next day

Waterfall

Kiwi Crossing!!

 P.S. If you can't tell by the pictures - yes I was hiking "Mt. Doom" from Lord of the Rings - unfortunately I didn't think I had time to summit it (ha).