Tsunami warning

As a result of the big earthquake in Chile, we were under a 'nondestructive' tsunami warning this morning.  It was predicted to be only 1-2 meters high, but could go quite a way inland and cause trouble.  They warned people away from beaches and low-lying areas, and cancelled some waterfront activities, like a bike race.  The Princess cruise ship that was docked at Prince's Wharf departed about an hour before the wave was due.

And what happened at 10:22, when the first swell was supposed to roll in?  Nothing.  The water level didn't seem to rise at all, and the surface remained just as still and calm as ever.  And no one seemed very concerned... there were sailboats in the harbor, as usual.  Ferries continued running.  Sightseers strolled the waterfront.  Well, Auckland IS on a protected harbor.  Apparently, along the exposed east coast, tsunami sensors detected surges of 0.4-1.0 meters, but the waves weren't visibly unusual.

Quick video of happy brothers playing

Blimey, they're loud, aren't they?

By watching where the schoolkids were going, I found a shortcut for walking to work from the train station.  It cuts through some trees. 

There's not really much to watch in this video.  I just turned on my camera so that you could hear the buzzing.


When I arrived at the office I was completely sure I had just run a gauntlet lined with screeching wetas.  I shared my anxieties with the English guy down the hall who has on more than one occasion shivered and squealed at the thought of a weta dropping on him from above.   (I guess us new arrivals to NZ have something in common.)  But he assured me that he'd done an investigation, since he lives in the country and had encountered the buzzing in the trees too, and that I was safe.  They are just cicadas.  Big and creepy, yes, but not Big And Creepy.

Views from the train

Here's a self-portrait of shadows through the station glass.

Mostly the traintracks run through unpretty parts of town, but there are a few points of interest, like the estuaries in the west.

And the imposing Mount Eden prison on Boston Road, with its turrets and barred windows and all.

And there's graffiti everywhere.  Graffiti is pretty much the most common crime in Auckland.  I guess when it faces the tracks, no one bothers to try to remove it.  Some of it is just scribbles, but this building in New Lynn nearly has a complete mural.

And then when I get to work, I can put the urban grit of my commute behind me and just watch the cows in the field next door.

 

Or the ducks when they come quacking under my office window.

Happy birthday, dear Amiri

Birthdays mean balloons.  Apparently they play a Balloon Game at school, which readily transitions to home use.

Amiri decimated his Fish Market dinner (on our picnic towel).  He'd asked for pizza a few days ago, but this afternoon was quite adamant that Schutz Mommie was what he wanted.  Birthday boy gets to pick, so daddy got it for him.  After that came the birthday cake.

He was quite entranced with the flames, and liked counting the candles.

He blew them all out like a champ.  Surely he got his wish.

 

Then he got three presents from mom and dad:  Go-Fish cards, a Sponge Bob pencil, and a wooden alligator. 

Happy birthday, three year old!  Thanks for making me a mom.

I'm going to drool on you

Ride em, cowboy

At the Farmer's Market on Saturday, we had big business to conduct with the pita bread lady.  While we were buying our load of bread and our backs were turned, Amiri dashed off and found delight with the rocking horse that had again appeared after a few months' hiatus.  

 

He was so intent, so focused on having fun.  All business, with his grocery-getting backpack on.  Daddy took a picture with his phone.  We saw two other people doing the same thing.

Appletastic

Here's how Amiri eats an apple.  He rotates it around and around in his hand, looking for the largest expanse of unbroken red skin.  And then he bites right in the middle of it.

It amuses Arram, who got a few bites of apple too.

Neighborhood watch

I had to call 111 last night.  Some drunk people started fighting downstairs after the bars closed.  From the aggressive sound of them (they woke me up, and we're on the fifth floor!), I thought someone was going to get hurt.

The dispatcher answered the phone with, "111 Emergency, what blah blah blah*?"  I said, 'Some people are fighting in the street outside!'  She said, 'I see you're on blah blah blah Street, is this the disturbance that's just outside of the Viaduct Harbor restaurants?'  I said yes, and she said, 'We're already aware of that disturbance, someone is on the way right now.'

Sure enough, a properly officious yet non-threateningly small and fuel-efficient police car arrived less than a minute later.  The brawlers continued to holler for a while even after the cops showed up, but eventually they all were presumably hauled off somewhere secure to sleep it off.  No ambulances came, so everyone must have been OK. 


*Unintelligible Kiwi-speak

Updates

The 'Samoa for Lowa' signs have been replaced with 'Bali is Gnarly'.  Now THAT is a location-appropriate slogan.  I didn't get it for a while.  But Kiwis do.

Adnan had Kapiti ice cream samples this afternoon at the grocery store!  A young lady, apparently dressed something akin to this, was handing out scoops of Triple Chocolate on a salty cracker.  I was all, Why didn't you CALL ME??

Kapiti aka Coppity

Kapiti!  Just the name makes me happy.

Kapiti is a small town on the south of the south island, between Dunedin and Invercargill.  It's also a small island with a bird sanctuary, and the Kapiti Coast is just around the bend from Wellington on the bottom of the north island.

And I'm sure those Kapitis are just gorgeous, every bit of them.

But what I'm talking about, and writing a free commercial for, is the ice cream and cheese company.  They make this ice cream bar... vanilla plus boysenberry syrup covered in thick chocolate.  On a stick so you feel like a kid who really knows her ice cream.  And this cup of vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup.   Oh.  Mmm.   Sometimes we have to run down to the convenience store.  Because we just can't stand to go another minute without Kapiti in our lives. 

Oh!  and the cheeses!  They make this camembert that I want everyone in the world to be able to try.  On those wafer-thin crackers... I kind of don't know what to do about it, it's so good.

There is a Kapiti store just off of Queen street.  We have purposely avoided ever going there, because we are both self-aware enough to realize that once we set foot inside that store, we have doomed ourselves to buy entirely too many unhealthy dairy products.

More about daycare

When I picked Amiri up this afternoon, he was sitting up on a tower outside, looking over the little fence and watching the babies play.  He ran to me with a big shriek and smiles.  Arram was sleeping when I arrived, and accepted some cuddles and then serenely drank his bottle on the walk home.

And you know how they say that going preschool is good for kids?  Well, here's another example of how NZ is awesome.  The govt supports early childhood education (ECE) by ensuring that all daycares above a certain size have qualified teachers and a real curriculum for children aged 3 and up.  And then, they also encourage parents to enroll their children in these programs by providing a financial incentive:  20 hours per week of ECE, free.  So, as soon as Amiri turns three (in six days!!!), his daycare bill goes down by half!

Grown up boys

Our little guys had a big day today:  the first day of School!  (OK, it's daycare, but we call it school.)  It's just a few blocks away.  Arram is in the Baby room, and Amiri is in the Toddler room.  He will be moved over to Preschool as soon as a slot opens up: since he's potty trained and will be 3 very soon, he's ready to advance.

Daddy dropped them off this morning and they seemed happy to arrive.  The school has a kitchen and a chef, and the kids are served three vegetarian meals a day:  morning tea, lunch, and afternoon tea (breakfast and dinner are at home).  Today they had apricot scones, green beans and soy burger, and mixed fruit.

We worried about them all day, of course.  But when I picked them up after work, they were both as happy as can be:  Amiri was climbing a tower outside and Arram was relaxing on a lady's lap.  Amiri made some friends, didn't wet his pants, and learned about sandbox play and about babies (he was fascinated to watch the babies in the other room through the window).  Arram did a lot of walking, holding on with only one hand, and had lots of cuddles from his teachers.  They both ate well and were friendly.  Hooray!

Amiri starts his career as an artist

Note for my frequent visitors:  There were some weird permissions errors when I posted this video at first and some people couldn't watch it... try this version.  I uploaded it a different way this time.

Bird friend

He comes to visit us every day.  Sometimes he gets bold and hops in through the open door.

SO TIRED

Amiri has had a couple of big days this week.  One day, he took off his pants, went to his room, and just dropped where he was.

 

I like this picture because he looks like such a couch potato.  'Got me my popcorn, my ginger ale, had a hard day, gonna fall asleep in front of the TV...'

The Brothers!

Amiri and Arram really love each other.  They play during mealtimes.

 

And they cuddle.  Amiri insists on kissing Arram before bed every night.

Here's Arram working on his spider-crawls

I took my brain for a roller coaster ride

I was tired on the train today.  So instead of reading or fiddling around with my phone, I just sat and kind of blankly stared out the window.  Not really looking at anything, just letting the scenery wipe across my retinas.  When the train stopped at the stations, I noticed something curious.  I had the very strong sensation that the train was still moving, but in the opposite direction.  I tried to reason myself out of this by comparing stationary objects in the station with the stationary windowpane of the train and verifying that nothing was, in fact, moving.  Regardless, I couldn't shake the feeling and it was entertainingly disorienting.

I know that some smarty-pants people read this blog... what is that phenomenon called?  My google-fu is broken.

This picture is for Asia, because she asked for More Boys

I continue to take pics of our little monsters.  Here he is at the Schutz Mommie.  (That's Fish Market, in Amiri-ese.)  He was totally intimidated by the big fish but was so brave to pose by it anyway!

A day in Wellington

I made a quick trip to Wellington for the day.

I took a JetStar flight there.  I showed up at the airport over an hour early, expecting the American level of paranoia during the security checks.  But I had the kind of trip that no American has experienced since, oh, September 10, 2001.  Here are the things I did which blew. my. mind.  I carried a hot coffee AND a bottle of water through the X-ray.  I didn't take off my shoes or my jacket.  I never showed my ID to anyone... I felt like I might as well be getting on a train.

Wellington is the capitol city, and the artistic, cultural center of New Zealand.  Unfortunately, it is not blessed with spectacular architecture.  I saw the Parliament building, not-so-affectionately nicknamed The Beehive...

 

And also the rugby stadium, aptly called the Cake Tin.  There was a huge rugby tournament happening and the city was packed.

 

I wish I would have gotten a good picture of one of these, but I missed it so I'll just have to do a good job of explaining.   The main road from the airport into the city travels along the shoreline around the semi-circular harbor.   The road is roughly at sea level, and then just a little inland from the road, lush and green cliffs rise up sharply.  Wellingtonians have built houses all along these cliffs.  They seem to hang precariously hundreds of feet above the road.  But here's the thing:  The garage for each of these houses is on the same level as the road.  The only access to the house is to climb up 300 or so stairs.   Imagine parking your car just off the street, and then lugging your groceries a quarter mile straight up a cliff!   Buying a house like that must be a very serious decision, just from the perspective of moving the furniture.

You know those chair-elevators that disabled people sometimes have in their 2-story homes?  Many of the houses with these ridiculous cliff-side locations have them.  But they're outdoors and link their garage with the house, like a personal funicular.

Wattie's Instant Insulin: coming soon to a grocery shelf near you

New Zealand has a love affair with sugar.  Real sugar, too, not ersatz cheap replacements like high fructose corn syrup.  (And I have to admit, Coke really does taste better with sugar vs HFCS... just like in Mexico.)  But even though they use the 'good stuff', they find ways to sneak it into nearly any product.  I compulsively read the labels now.

Wattie's is the worst offender in this regard.  It's an Australian division of Heinz, and makes all manner of canned and frozen vegetables, baked beans, sauces, baby food, soups, and pre-packaged convenience foods.  Wattie's is in every aisle at the grocery store, and is usually the cheapest option outside of store brands.

When we first arrived, one of the first meals I made was spaghetti, using Wattie's jarred tomato pasta sauce.  We really didn't enjoy it, because it tasted candy-sweet.  Sure enough, sugar was the second ingredient behind tomatoes.  We hardly ever buy Wattie's products now:  not for health reasons (although it certainly can't hurt), but because the sweetness is just plain unpalatable.

I surveyed their ingredients in the baby/toddler aisle, too.  They leave sugar out of the products for little babies.  But their toddler foods, intended for 1-year+ kids, are chock full of it.  The conspiracy theorist in me sees a strategy for establishing a sugar addiction early on.  Not cool, Heinz.  Inducing 57 varieties of diabetes.

Happy Waitangi Day, I guess

On this day in 1840, the Treaty of Waitangi* was signed.  This wrapped up years of hostility between Maori* and pakeha*, but then ushered in new problems.  The Treaty made New Zealand part of the British Empire, gave Maori the same rights as British citizens, and importantly, guaranteed their rights to their land.

Maori took the Treaty seriously.  Finally, the pakeha were giving them some respect.   But there were some significant differences in the wording between the English and the Maori translations, which were misleading.  White settlers largely ignored the Treaty, regardless of the wording, and continued to steal the Maoris' land and deny them rights.  Although it was legally binding and established the core parliamentary structure of NZ today, Maori soon came to see the Treaty as a lie, a symbol of pakeha duplicity and the disenfranchisement of the people who were here first.

Waitangi Day is recognized, but is downplayed because of this shameful history.  In Auckland, for instance, Auckland Anniversary (which was last weekend) is substituted as the public holiday, instead of Waitangi Day.  There are no celebrations, like parades or anything, although a few stores are having a sale.  Heads of state visit the marae* at Waitangi for 'let's-work-together' speeches, and flags of New Zealand and the United Tribes of New Zealand are flown.  There is a bit of a kerfuffle this year about the placement of the flags:  Maori want to see the tribal flag take a place of honor relative to the union flag.


*
Waitangi:  why-TON-gi.  A town near here, on the Bay of Islands.

Maori:  MOW-ree.  The original settlers of NZ, descended from Polynesians. 

Pakeha:  PACK-ee-a.  Maori word for white European settlers.  Retains somewhat unkind connotations today.

Marae:  mah-RIE.  A large Maori meeting house for ceremonial purposes.  Pakeha visitors must be escorted onto the sacred marae grounds by a sponsor from the local tribe, and must observe elaborate social conventions lest they offend their hosts.

The trains aren't yucky either.

I took my first train trip today.  There are six or eight tracks underneath Britomart (sorry for the crummy photo).  The trains are carpeted inside, with nice upholstered seats that face forward, behind, and to the side.   They make frequent stops, but are faster than buses.  I got to see a lot of the city.

School had just let out, and there were lots of highschoolers on the train.  They were all wearing their school uniforms:  blue or white button-up shirts with khaki or navy pants or skirts, and sensible shoes.  They chattered and laughed, as teenagers do.  But they were also well-mannered.   I heard one boy quietly nudge his friend, "Hey, you should give up your seat so the lady behind me can sit with her kids." 

But is it really necessary?

I've recognized some of the commercials here as ones I've seen in the States.  But there's something different about them.  They dub different vocals into them.  From American English to Kiwi English.  Exactly the same words, just a different accent.  It cracks me up!

Animals not of New Zealand

There are no kangaroos, koala bears, or duck-billed platypuses in New Zealand.  Or crocodiles.  Or poisonous snakes.  That is Australia.  New Zealand is SOOOO not the same thing as Australia.  The nearest part of Australia is over 1400 miles away across the Tasman Sea!

"If I could have this, or halal Vienna Beef, I'd choose this three out of four times."

Here's our beautiful dinner tonight.  Spicy beef sausages from our favorite butcher shop in Sandringham.  They're salty and snappy and full of freshly ground beef and green chilis.  While they're cooking, occasionally they burst their skins and juice squirts out.

Sesame buns.  Two kinds of mustard, ketchup.  Salad of mango, cucumber, capiscum, lemon, red chili pepper, and salt.

FEAST.

Falling down

Amiri and Arram love to play a game that Amiri named 'Falling Down.'   It would be more appropriately called 'Putting the couch cushions down on the floor, climbing up, bouncing around on the couch springs, wrestling with each other, and occasionally tumbling off." 

Here is what the start of every morning looks like at our house.

 

Amiri is listening to Daddy's watch tick.

That's what you get for hiring foreigners to do your PR

There are ads on the sides of buses that espouse reasonably-priced travel packages to the lovely island country of Samoa.  They say, 'Samoa for Lowa!'  Get it?  It's clever because it rhymes.

It just occurred to me today that this is an exceedingly weird ad.  As an American, I 'get' it.  Because I say sa-MO-a.  For LO-wa.

But New Zealanders say SAM-o-a.  Pasifika peoples say something closer to SAM-ua.  For LO-wa?  No.  No rhyming.  No cleverness.  That's just poor spelling, is all that is.