Ranui

I had an appointment out in Ranui today, which is about 19 km away out in west Auckland.  It's nearly on the edge of the Native Forest, where the city suddenly stops and there's only one small road through to the piha (beach).

I took the express bus along the Western Motorway.  What a difference from Los Angeles.... only two lanes in each direction, nearly no traffic, and blasting right along.  The motorway doesn't last long, however.  Every few miles there's a stop light and turnoff onto surface streets before getting back on.  The motorway was more like a bypass than a freeway.

We drove past the bay, Pollen Island, and hundreds of pohutukawa trees in full bloom.  On a surface street a car ran a stop sign in front of us, and the bus driver had to swerve and hit the brakes pretty hard.  Several people were startled and yelled (but no harm done).  Once we continued on our way, several people on the bus shouted up to the driver, "Good driving!" and "Well done!"  You'd never hear compliments like that on an LA bus.

I arrived at my destination (and since I was the only one left on the bus, the driver brought me right to the front door, rather than dropping me off 200 meters away at the bus stop).  Residental area, farms, and a cow pasture. It was nice.

 

I saw a fig tree!

The Tetanus Fox

"Merry Xmas, the Fox"

This is a sculpture that someone put out in December down on the harbor.  It's just rusty old metal but looks kinda cool.  Amiri wants to touch it soooo badly but we won't let him.

Putting it into perspective

Kiwi treats

We've learned about two desserts that appear to be uniquely Kiwi. 

One is fairy bread.  It's just white bread, spread with butter, and liberally covered with those tiny round multi-colored cake-decorating sprinkles, which are called "hundreds and thousands"  (written as 100s and 1000s) here.

The other is pavlova.  Basically just egg white and sugar meringue, they're sold in the grocery store as light, white, airy, crispy, crumbly dics.  They're meant to be covered in whipped cream, fruit, syrup, chocolate shavings, etc., and sliced into wedges. 

Now, I've never met a dessert I didn't like, but I haven't tried either of these and they don't really sound like they'd hit the spot for me.  Apparently fairy bread is a favorite of kids, while pavlova is a more sophisticated treat.

A sweet breeze

This morning when I opened the window the air smelled sweet.  Like flowers.  Lillies.  It amazed me; I've never smelled such nice air like that.  Even Adnan said he smelled it too.  The wind changed direction, but it was still there.  We suspected it was tree pollen, because there are no huge lilly gardens anywhere nearby, and Adnan and I are both suffering with some baaaaad hay fever.  Thank goodness for antihistamines.

Amiri: 34 months; Arram: 9 months

Amiri is becoming more and more vocal (not that any of you get to see it on Skype... he clams right up when the camera's on...) and is just so quick to pick things up.  He'll repeat entire sentences back to us, or jump right in to Mom and Dad's conversation.  Today he suggested we pick up toilet paper when he overheard that we were going to stop by the store anyway.  And he makes up little stories; like the airplane that goes up and down--zoom!--beep! (and 'beeps' my nose with his finger). 

His favorite book is one that shows mama animals cuddling with their baby animals.  We have to point out which one is the mama and which one is the baby.  And what they're using to cuddle (arms, paws, claws, nuzzling with noses), and what each animal says.   He likes to find and point out examples of babies elsewhere in life --basically, anything that's small. 

He has also learned to play solitaire on the computer.  I taught him for ten minutes one afternoon, and now he's actually pretty good!  I think the hardest part for him is just in controlling the mouse precisely enough.  It's quite entertaining to listen to his commentary when we let him have computer time.   "Eight on top of nine.  Oh, yeah.   Excellent!  Oh!  Find ace!  Find ace!  Mama, find ace!  Mama!  (Mama:  "Nice work, Amiri.")  Put ace up there.  Put two on ace.  Hooray!  Deal three cards.  Put five on top of six."


Arram has turned into a fun little proto-person overnight.   It's like he emerged from a cocoon and suddenly has a personality.  And, what happened, has he always been this cute?  I can't stand how cute he is lately.  He's charmed us with eye contact and smiles for a while now, but now he's laughing, and babbling, and purring (thanks, Asia, for that term; I love it).  He's frequently joyful, and it's infectious.  He has five teeth now, and I think there might be three or four more on the way, and he loves showing them off in his wide grins.

He loves baths.  No, LOVES baths.  I'll put just a couple inches of warm water in the tub, and he turns on his tummy and kicks like a frog, and then he'll roll over on his back and float, ears underwater but little face poking up, alert and enjoying.  He crawls really fast now, often ending up investigating in places we'd rather he didn't (recycling bin; shoes by the door).   He can a-l-m-o-s-t pull himself up to standing against furniture, and once he starts walking, it will get a lot more exciting around here.

And his eyes are changing color:  once solid blue, they are starting to turn brown near the pupils.  If he's anything like his brother, the brown will spread outward and they will be fully hazel in a few months.  It is a little bittersweet for me to see his baby eyes go... they were such a striking blue with tiny, nearly-white rings at the center.  I fell in love with him while looking into those eyes for the first time. 

Boxing Day

Happy Boxing Day, everyone.  It's the day you give presents to your servants.  But since we don't employ any help, it's just another nice summer day for us.  It's a public holiday, meaning that post offices and government buildings are closed.  Many shops are closed, too, although some of the chains put on big Boxing Day sales.  For instance, the Dick Smith electronics store was jammed today, but the mall next door was closed.  Most restaurants appear to be open, although there is a 15% surcharge (incentive for the staff working on a holiday).  Our regular Saturday market was closed, sadly, but we had a nice walk with our little guys anyway.  Arram curled up and fell asleep in his basket.

Merry Christmas

I've never had a Christmas like this.  It was a truly beautiful summer day... hot without being scorching, bright and sunny, a nice breeze... and the faint hints of Christmas music wafting over the harbor. 

Here's from first thing in the morning.  This is his "Oh boy, Christmas presents!" face.

And here's Arram trying to figure out what Christmas presents are.

Amiri got a bike from Santa.  It's a scoot-bike, without pedals, for little kids to learn balance and coordination without those confusing pedals in the way.  We went out to the Plaza to learn.

He loved it!  The Plaza was nearly empty (Everyone was in the suburbs with family?  At the beach?   Gone to the bach?) so we had lots of fun with the place to ourselves.

Then we went home for naps, and once the kids were refreshed, it was time for dinner!

Tis the season

... and they're being jolly! 

 

They have both been good boys this year.

...And look at Sky Tower!

Mama and Amiri went out for an adventure today.  Whenever we go for a walk, he always repeats our destination, and says, "And we'll look at the Sky Tower!"  So today, we went to look at the Sky Tower.  Up close.

We started out at Britomart.  That's the facade behind him.

Across the street is the Ferry Building.

We hopped on the free bus and took the circuit through downtown, getting off just in front of the big tower.  It's so high!   Look up, Amiri!  Look up!  Way up!  No, over here!   Higher!  Up! 

There it is!  Sky Tower!  Wow!

He was excited to touch it.

Surrounding the tower is Sky City, an entertainment complex featuring a casino, restaurants including a rotating cafe at the top, a viewing deck, bungy jumping, and a convention center.

Momo Tea

I decided to have a little treat at lunchtime and go to Momo Tea, a nice little Asian place down Fort Street.  Spicy chicken soup, spring rolls, and strawberry milk tea with pearls, yum.  The drink is like chewy candy.  With caffeine.

Cheers!

Lettuce eat salad.

Look at how they package lettuce at the supermarket.  The entire plant, roots and all, is pulled up whole and then wrapped with the cute little root bundle segregated like that.  There are directions to just cut the roots free, rinse the leaves, and eat.  I guess leaving it intact keeps it fresher longer??

Student: "What does indigenous mean?" Pompous TA: "Autochthanous."

I feel a little like a fourth grader writing a report on The Animals of New Zealand, but I spent an hour looking this stuff up last night just out of curiosity, so I may as well pass along what I learned.



The only native land mammals are bats:  the long-tailed and the lesser short-tailed.  They are small, insectivorous, and live in trees.

Without large mammals, NZ became a ecosystem of birds.   The most famous is the kiwi, a bumbling flightless bird that scrabbles about in the underbrush, searching for grubs with nostrils at the end of its beak.  They are rather slow and stupid and were decimated once humans arrived.  Exceedingly rare in the wild.






Some other cool NZ birds are the tui, the kea parrot, the morepork owl, the takahe, and the weka.  NZ has the highest proportion of flightless birds of any nation.

Speaking of birds, NZ was a much more exciting place 500 years ago.

 

And then there are the creepy crawlies...  like the tuatara lizard.

And the weta.  Like a cricket with mutant superpowers acquired in the galloping weirdness of island evolution.  I get the heebiejeebies just thinking about this thing. 

4 inches long.  Weighs over an ounce.  "The weta’s place in the ecosystem is comparable to that held by mice and other rodents elsewhere in the world."  Genus Deinacrida, which is Greek for terrible grasshopper.  The Maori word weta means something like 'God of Ugly Things'.  They live all over the islands, on trees and in grasslands.  They bite and scratch with large spines on their legs.

Wetas have already taken up residence in my nightmare closet.  I will have to be talked down from the rafters should I ever encounter one in real life.

Herb garden and hydrangeas

From the farmer's market (I just love that place!)  Cilantro and basil starts, for homemade pesto soon.  Potted in old baby formula cans, of course...  The hydrangeas were just $2 for a big bouquet--what a great way to bring a little happy into the house. 

Video of Arram

Here, watch this.  It's cute.

Kajoos

Amiri has been talking about the Elephant Restaurant on a daily basis.  (That's the place we went to for my Firecracker Chicken challenge.)  He recalls how he ate shrimp, cashews, and water, and keeps asking if we can go back.  Today we decided on a whim to pop down there and get an order of the cashews for takeaway--they're inexpensive.  So Daddy and Amiri went.  The girls on staff made a big deal over the little guy.  His curls, his little sunglasses, how cute that Daddy took him on an outing.

So they gave him a free t-shirt.

 

See the logo?  Elephant Restaurant.

Umbrella.  Umbrella.  Elephant with umbrella.

M-O-N-S-O-O-N.  Spells Amiri!

The cashews are coated with a really spicy chili salt.  Amiri ate so many of them his lips swelled up from the heat.  He's hamming it up a little in the photo.  He drank so much milk!

Sandringham

I took the bus down to Sandringham today.

See?  Non-yucky.

(a little blurry because the bus was bouncing)

I went to the Indian market, the spice store, and to three butchers.  I got spicy beef sausages, beef mince, boneless chicken breasts, a whole chicken, lamb shanks, and a lot of dry goods.  Now we're set for quite some time!  Here's Sandringham Street as I was hobbling back toward the bus stop under my 15-kg backpack.  Just a nice little suburb.

 

The lamb was what necessitated the three butchers--the first two places didn't have it in stock and I was getting nervous because there are only so many halal butchers in town.  But I did find it at the last place.  And you know what that means we had for dinner... NIHARI!!!

Gas prices

In the US, this would be approximately $4.74/gallon for gas and $3.08/gallon for diesel.  The price of living on an island.

What's this?

These plants grow all over in the ditches.  Are those berries or flower buds?  It looks kind of cool... probably it's just some garbage plant and I'll be all disappointed that it's nothing special.  I'll try to figure it out and report back.

Point Erin

I walked to Herne Bay today and took a look at the little park at Point Erin.  It's dominated by a playground and swimming pool, but has some nice vistas too.

In the bay were sailboats and a small rocky island with a tree clinging to it.

 I walked through the trails; which way to go?

It was a beautiful day and everything was so green.

The park was just at the entrance to the Harbor Bridge across Waitemata Harbor.

And here's the view of the city, looking back.

Making a friend

Look, little birdie, here's a snack!  It's ok, you can take it.

**I missed the big moment**

But he took it right from my fingers!

Naptime, waving bye-bye to Mama

Car free

Several people have asked me about how I like driving here.  Answer:  I don't.  As in, I don't drive.  We haven't bought a car, and have no plans in the near future to do so. 

Aside from the psychological bigness of moving to the other side of the world, going car-free has been the biggest lifestyle change for us.   Cars rule in LA, of course, and you just can't NOT have one if you hope to accomplish anything.  Why ditch them now, after being so dependent on our vehicles?   Well, precisely because we were so dependent on them and we were sick to death of the cost, hassle, and aggravation. 

Can I even tell you what a large proportion of my stress came from driving?  ...If I only had a nickel for (every time I was sitting at a dead stop on the freeway / every minute I spent circling, looking for parking / every unsafe driver I saw on the road / every close call / every repair / every vandalism / every time I reflected that it was really only a matter of time before one or more of us are involved in a serious collision)...  So, although this is an adjustment, it's quite a relief.

And it's actually a lot easier than I anticipated.  Here's how we're doing it and some of the results.

• We live in the central business district (CBD), the densest, downtown part of the city.  Within a 1-km radius are the grocery, several parks, the kids' daycare/kindy, the library, all sorts of shops.  This is all very walkable, even with the kids in tow. 
• We have a bike for longer/faster trips, and there are some nice bike trails through town. 
• We sought out an apartment just a few blocks away from Britomart.  This makes the entire city (whole country!) easily accessible.
• Buses are plentiful, on time, usually not crowded, and usually not yucky.
• Taking the ferry to the North Shore is reportedly actually faster than fighting traffic across the Harbor Bridge.
  
• Big once-a-week shopping trips are not possible, nor is bulk shopping, because all our purchases need to fit inside our backpacks.  We just make more frequent, smaller trips.
• We get more exercise.
• We think more carefully about our purchases (and therefore waste less), because they're more 'expensive' when you add in the hassle of carrying them home on foot.
  
• We save money:  gas (at nearly $5/gallon), maintenance and repairs, insurance, registration, parking, etc.
• Hiring a taxi for transporting a big shopping spree home is always an option--doing this a few times a month is still cheaper than owning a car.
• We make money:  we sublet out the carpark that came with our apartment to a neighbor.
  
• We minimize our aggravation.  Driving in any big city is hard.  Driving in a new big city, in an unfamiliar car, with all the controls on the wrong side, on the wrong side of the road, with new traffic signals and signs and roundabouts.... that's extremely hard.  I just moved across 19 time zones with two babies, okay, I don't need to look for ways to add challenges to my life.

All grown up

Amiri has given us the wonderful gift of willingness to use the potty*.  He suddenly turned a corner and decided he was on board, and rarely has an accident.  He has even successfully 'gone' out at stores and restaurants.  We are very proud, and he loves to tell people about his accomplishments.  Today we bought him his first real big boys' underwear, and he told the ladies at the shop it was because he he can use the big potty**.



*Many apologies to my expat-in-NZ-blog readers for straying so far into the mommy-blog realm with this topic.  However, those among you who have ever shepherded a little one through potty training will acknowledge that achieving this milestone is a celebration worth shouting from any available mountaintop.


**Many apologies to Future Teenage Amiri for posting this publicly.  Here, I'll get your protest going:  "Mommmmm, stop embarrassing me!"

Christmas is coming

Christmas is a big holiday here, just as in the States.  The decorations look the same:  holly leaves, evergreen garlands, fake snow, twinkle lights.  The decorations started going up around town at the end of November.  There are sales at all the stores.  We missed Santa's Parade because of naptime, but "Christmas In The Park" is coming.

Here are some differences I've noticed:  Obviously, there's the weather.  The wonderful early-summer feel.  It's very incongruous with the wintry decorations and doesn't feel like Christmastime to me at all.  The sales are frequently for garden supplies, BBQs, and bicycles.  Christmas hampers are also a big seller:  it's a big basket of food or goodies (for example, 20 kg of BBQ-ready meats; an 'entertaining' hamper with cheeses, crackers, nuts, crisps, beverages)  that stores put together and sell as a package.  I guess that feeling of Plenty must be associated with the holiday.

Christmas trees in the house?  Yes, they exist, but they're nearly always fake trees, because the "standard" pine trees aren't common here.  Ornaments are called baubles.  I've also heard a number of people say that they're not putting up a tree, it's silly to put a dead tree indoors, when they can just go to Farmer's and enjoy the fancy one there.  That fits, I think, with the Kiwi attitude of not going overboard, keeping your celebration fun but low-key.

The kumi kumi

I found another unfamiliar vegetable at the market.  I picked up a kumi kumi for $2.98 and looked up how to prepare it when I got home.  When small like baseballs, they can be sliced and used like a zucchini.  When large like this one (the apple is there for comparison), they are prepared like a pumpkin.  After roasting, this tasted just like a sweet, mild (if somewhat stringy) buttercup squash.

Yoga

Look at how this silly baby contorts his legs while he sleeps.  He's our little pretzel.