In which we find ourselves in another part of the world
We’ve had good colours the past few days.
Above is tonight’s sunset, with clouds that look like what I was trying to draw in 6th grade art class when they taught us about perspective.
The other day we had a big wind blowing, and it somehow churned up the water to make a sharp demarcation between the shallow and the deep part of the bay.
And another sunset from a few days ago. The cloud near the horizon looked like a narwhal. More or less.
It rained most of the day today, but the storm has now moved out to sea. The sunset is just peeking through, and by morning it’s supposed to be clear.
I came across this perfect little pohutukawa tree this morning while out metal detecting. It must’ve been a good luck tree because I got the most spendies (that’s detectorist slang for currently spendable money… there are many older coins that don’t work anymore for various reasons) ever. $36.40, a whole handful of change.
Here’s the display of my morning’s finds that I posted in the Facebook group where I (and a few thousand other NZ detectorists / onlookers) hang out. The Colonel Sanders pendant is especially cool.
Everyone got to sit and take a picture on Santa’s knee at the pétanque Christmas party.
My present was a solar powered bug zapper. Lee got a bag of chocolates that she donated to another member.
Yesterday was my final dose of prednisone. My face is back to its normal level of symmetry.
My Bell’s palsy is a blip now receding in the rearview mirror of life. A minor illness, in the end, probably most significant as a reminder of the enormity of the blessing that is not-illness.
This weekend our friend Emily visited from the South Island, where she’s about to start an adventure of her own on five acres of gorgeous hilly country.
We went for a nice walk in Shakespear Regional Park, which is right out at the end of the peninsula we live on. But this was our first time there… yay for visitors motivating us to do things! And yes, I know there’s an “e” missing, but that’s how this particular Shakespear family spelled it.
Before entering and exiting the forest, you have to disinfect your boots.
The picture doesn’t do justice to the massive trunk on this puriri tree. The forest trail was really neat. And lots of the native trees are labeled so you could learn to recognize them with a little practice.
The whole park is fenced in and predator-free, meaning the native birds can thrive. There are kiwi, but you can only see them at night and if you’re really lucky. Emily is something of a birder, so according to her (and a couple of other birders we talked to) we added several species to our life lists, including a bellbird, a North Island robin, a stitch bird, and a saddleback.
I spotted this impressive eel in the creek.
The waterfall in Waterfall Gully. I had wondered about this as a metal detecting spot, because swimming holes are generally full of lost stuff. But this was way too pristine for me to dig around in, and there’s not enough water for swimming anyway.
It was a really nice morning and I know we’ll be back now that we’ve broken the ice.
This house, about 10 minutes walk from our place, seems pretty close to the beach suburb ideal that people here strive for. It’s not squillion-dollar mansions around here, but it’s a lot like the American dream I remember hearing about in my childhood.
The people we bought from live on that same street now. They wanted more space, more fenced flat space on a quieter road actually, for the kids. They don’t yet have a tractor to put the boat in the water, but I expect that will come soon.
I’m just back from New Zealand’s big health IT conference.
The conference took place against the backdrop of big layoffs announced by the data and digital section of the national health organization Health NZ… the place I worked until the previous round of cuts a few months ago. Since this is mostly a nationalized health system, those layoffs affected this conference as follows:
** You and/or your team are on the chopping block, or
** Your main customer is on the chopping block.
The cost cuts are not confined to data and digital people… one particularly silly little incident made national news a few weeks ago when a proposal to remove Milo (sort of like Ovaltine) from the wards was floated.
The Milo canister in the picture only stayed up at the Health NZ booth for a few hours, but the message was heard by all.
I’m in Hamilton for a work conference this week, and again this year they have their giant tree all lit up. This year the light show seemed especially good.
Below is a cropped version, and i think highlighting the kid makes it a better picture.
We celebrated this most American and most autumnal (and most colonial) (except maybe Columbus Day) of holidays a day (or two depending on your time zone) late. We were only six at table this year, but we did the whole thing. The turkey was flown in from the South Island. It got three days of dry salty herby rub and came out really good.
It’s strawberry season here, so our salad was an easy way to nod at New Zealand’s hemisphere. But everything else was verbatim from the meal we grew up with. Including Stove Top stuffing. Delicious!
The weather cleared up in time for the meal, so we got to show off the view. We had only two couples over this time, old friends and brand new. The conversation was so good that I completely forgot to get pictures during the actual meal!
We had a big catamaran spend the night in the bay the other day… very pretty.
We bought these stained glass panels at the Salvation Army a couple of months ago. But it took the impending Thanksgiving company to get me motivated to get them hung in the foyer.
Here’s a better shot of just the glass panels.
We found a family while out walking last week who’ve taken the fairy house idea to new heights.
Their property stretches along the street for a while, and the display takes all the available space.
It’s a mix of handmade and store bought. As we were looking, a lady walking by commented how nice it was and how impressed she was that no one messed it up.
Fun!
Lee saw a post on a local Facebook group from a lady asking for a metal detector to find her lost house key. I responded and went over that evening.
There was a tale of a German shepherd getting tangled up in her lead while getting out of the car, a friend’s key not attached to the regular key ring, and tall grass.
The magic metal detector found the key in less than a minute. Yay science!
Another understated Christmas display.
Kangaroos aren’t from here, and in fact there are efforts underway to eradicate the populations of wallabies that were introduced in the 19th century.
But Australia is the closest “big” market. So a lot of chain store stuff is produced for that market and NZ gets some too.
(Of course, maybe this family is actually Australian…)
Brattleboro Adventure – the Auckland Edition 