The Next Adventure is About to Begin

The bags are packed, I think, and will be looked through again tomorrow.  We have said many fair wells and goodbyes, and we will be leaving at noon tomorrow.  It's hard to believe that we will be in a New Zealand winter in a few days and the kids will start another school year in less than a week. 

They have all graduated from their various schools and will be moving on.  Becky and David will be going to Paekakariki School as year 7s(?), the school they attended in the spring of '08 (it was fall in NZ), and Abby will be a year 10 at Kapiti College.  All three will be entering the school in the third quarter, then will do the last quarter of this school year and the first two of the next school year.  Kinda weird but cool!

They have all grown so quickly and have their mother's good looks!  We're hoping they will get involved in extracurricular activities.  They all want to be a part of the restart to the Wellington Lacrosse Association, so we will see what happens. 

I feel like I will really miss my family and friends, but feel so much support from all of them.  Thanks and we will be back in June of '13.  Be sure to check back, as I hope that we will make regular entries to keep you up to date.

Almost home

As I await bedtime the night before departing for the US…..I realize this is the 4th time now that I’ve experienced the pre-leaving NZ blues. I have just completed my 3rd return to this beautiful place since we lived here as a family in 2008. This trip was much the same as the other 2 return trips over the past year, yet it was somehow different. I’m not sure whether it is the growing familiarity of the trip itself, the certainty that I’ll be back twice more this year, or the fact that we are now actually homeowners in this country that has made it different. The other times, I’ve felt a sense of urgency to do all the things I wanted to do to re-experience the time when we actually lived here. This time it was like being home in some ways. Spending a day alternately lounging around the house and going out for a walk on the beach seemed just fine.

Yesterday Abby and I took a walk next door to Campbell Park where I ran into the tenant who lives in our house. We chatted. He told me how much he loves the house and Abby and I told him how much we loved it, too. Earlier this week, as we took an after dinner walk on the beach, we ran into some people we knew when we lived here and they said “oh, hi….did you guys really ever leave?” In many ways, it seems like we belong here. Each time, I long more to be here permanently yet as time goes on, I also feel less of a sense of urgency about it. I know this place and our house are here for us. They’re waiting and so are we.

A few highlights of the week. I so enjoyed spending this time alone with Abby. We went to our old haunts in Wellington, we ran on the beach, Abby went to school while I worked (one boy at school declared his love for her), the others welcomed her, she was choreographed into multiple dance numbers at Aidan, Naomi, and Ayla’s dance class....and I even went swimming today! We had dinner at Jennifer and Michael’s friend’s house in Wellington (one Kiwi, one Brit, and 5 Americans). Tomorrow we will spend our last day in Wellington walking through the Botanical Garden, bungie jumping, and, yes, shopping.

We have missed the rest of our family and wish they could be here with us. Becky and I are hatching a plan for us all to come here next spring (or is it fall? Which hemisphere are we in?). I feel so grateful that we have this place. Until next time.....

Pictures are of: Abby and Naomi playing in the sand today after boogie boarding; Abby in Wellington; Abby in the Aukland airport; sunrise out the back of the house on our first moring here

Bittersweet

Another wonderful trip to New Zealand is coming to a close. The feeling of bittersweet is becoming a familiar one to me as these journeys become a regular part of my life. As I sit here on the Air New Zealand flight, after a fitful but adequate nights’ sleep, we approach San Francisco. San Francisco’s not bad, but it’s not Paekakariki. No place really could be. There’s nothing like going to bed and waking up to the sound of waves beating against the shore. Nothing like watching the sunset over the South Island. Nothing like watching the kids play with gaggles of kids next door in Campbell Park after a Kapa Haka performance in Memorial Hall on a Friday night. It’s all so idyllic. And I suppose that’s why we’re buying a house that we have no immediate intention of living in. Because it’s beautiful and because we can. Even if it makes things tight for us over here, knowing we have an investment in a life over there is somehow comforting….

A quick report on the trip. The kids had a blast going to school, hanging out with old friends and the beloved Miss Flighty (the Year 4 teacher at the Paekakariki School), playing with Aidan, Naomi, and Ayla, sleeping late, and eating yummy fresh eggs, cheese, butter, and tasty NZ carrots (David ate a cheese omelet every morning we were there!) And as my friend, Jennifer says, it’s pretty good when you’re sad to leave the place where you are and also anticipating getting to the place you’re going because there are people in both places that you love and who love you. As we head home, we have two people waiting for us whom we missed terribly and love beyond belief. We’re coming, Jim and Abby. We’ll be home soon…..until the next trip.

Pictures are of: Kapiti Island with big waves on a windy day; a late afternoon view from Paekakariki Hill; David and Aidan still in swim gear at the top of Paekakariki Hill; Becky and Ayla at our NZ Halloween make-up party; David and Becky near Memorial Hall after the Kapa Haka show

fun in nz

nz has been so much fun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hey its becky .we have been doing so much stuff.Naomi DavidAidan and I went booge boarding down the campell park hill.i wish you knew how much fun nz is.i went to lindalle and got fizzies ,te papa in wellington,we went bike riding,we went to the school and met the teacher that we are having for school Miss Flighty who is very very very nice (but one thousand times).David and Aidan went swimming in the freezing cold water brrrrrr.They also went to cubs and made fires in cans.I also played with Naomi and Aidans nintendo DS's.

Pictures are of view out the front window of the Bergers' house (which, by the way, will be very close to the view we get from our new house). Big waves in front of Kapiti Island. The other is of the kids helping Michael blow out the candles on his birthday cake. See the view out the window in the background? Nice.....

Tramping with the little elves

This country is so beautiful, partly because it's just so beautiful but partly because it's so darned diverse. The weekend that was going to be an all girls' overnight tramp to a hut a couple of hours from here turned into a weekend of rain. But it cleared today, somewhat. What started as a somewhat rainy, windy day by the sea became a sunny, almost warm day as I approached Wellington on the train. Then, as we drove north toward Kaitoke Reserve, north and inland from Wellington, the skies moved from overcast to sunny as the clouds raced across the sky. Did we need our rain gear or our bathing suits? It was hard to tell. That's New Zealand, as far as I can tell.

The pictures here are of the hike we took in one of the few remaining old growth forests in this part of the country. It also happens to be the place where the little elf scenes were filmed in Lord of the Rings (Rivendell)

The day ended back by the sea, like this.....

And now, as I get ready to go to bed, I'm looking at the moon setting, fiery orange, out over the sea. Ahhhh.....

Look, Becky, Abby, and David...I got the fizzies!!!

Next time maybe you can come get them yourselves!

Love,

Mommy

Coming Home.....well, sort of

Yesterday I arrived back to one of the most beautiful places in the world, and with the exception of four important things (Jim, Abby, Becky, and David), I felt like I had come home. By the time I'd been in Paekakariki just an hour or two yesterday, it was as though I'd never left. Melissa told me that when she walked into the house and saw me for the first time, she almost didn't feel like she had to say more than "hello" because...why should she? She just saw me yesterday, right?

Although I'm mostly here because of a really cool piece of work I'm doing with my dear friend and colleague, Jennifer (who is lucky and/or smart enough to live here), I built in a few extra days. Today was mostly about getting over jet lag, but luckily, I don't suffer from jet lag too much, and so....I had a fabulously wonderful day. When I visit places I've been before and loved dearly, what I mostly like to do is go on a little revisiting tour of places that were part of my life. So I woke up, hung laundry, went for a run in Queen Elizabeth Park with Melissa, ended up in the Village for a cup of latte, came home and took a shower, went to Paraparaumu to the Pac 'n Sav, where I bought the store out of my favorite yogurt mix, came back, did a little work, walked into the village to look for fizzies fort the kids, came back, cleaned up the kitchen, and went to pick kids (not mine, but very familiar ones) up at the Paekakariki School, came home, made snacks, went for a swim, and began to fix dinner. It was a whirlwind version of my typical days here a year ago when we were living those blessedly wonderful months of our lives.

People at the school recognized me, some said hi, some looked at me funny as if to say "you're not supposed to be here," others hugged me and said "welcome home." A few kids asked where Becky, David, and/or Abby were. It was familiar. And I longed to have my family with me.

I miss you, family. Everywhere I turn, I think of you. You were supposed to be with me today when I swam. When I went to the village to look for fizzies. I was supposed to pick you up from school. Jim and I were supposed to go for a bike ride in QE park. Here is so beautiful, but you are my home. Hey....any chance my home could take a detour over here???? Just kidding.