New Blog Address

For technical reasons we have moved our blog to :

http://thetruckas.blogspot.com/

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Easter, Thanks to the Grandparents!

Celebrating holidays over here has been interesting.  One of my main complaints about New Zealand is that they don’t celebrate Halloween here.  Easter is celebrated, but it’s different.  For example, there are no Easter baskets, so we used big metal bowls.  Not so pretty, but the kids were only interested in what was inside them, so it was ok.  They also don’t color Easter eggs.  I couldn’t believe it.  Instead they buy chocolate eggs with lollies (candies) inside and have the kids search for them.  Like most other things kiwi, Easter is very low key compared to what we are used to.  No public Easter egg hunts, no Easter parades and it goes without saying that there aren’t Easter-themed decorations, toys or books.  Maybe there are in the bigger cities, but not here.  So, thank goodness for grandparents!  Everyone sent  treats for the kids.  Paul and Martha sent gifts for their baskets like bubble bath and Peeps.  It would have been a travesty to have Easter without Peeps.  My dad and Molly sent a package that contained an Easter egg coloring kit.  If they hadn’t, we would have had to boil beets  to make our own dyes, I guess!   And my mom brought Easter-related gifts like bunny coloring books and stickers.  She also brought the Easter dress I wore when I was 3  for Liska and we even found a 35-year old jelly bean in the pocket.  I felt a little sad that we didn’t have pretty Easter baskets.  It was strange to celebrate Easter in autumn.  And it made me miss the ridiculous Easter egg “hunt” we had gone to with Guillermo, Maya, Natalie and Will the previous two years in Chapel Hill. Each year the city covers a local baseball field with thousands of plastic eggs filled with the kinds of candies that no one really  likes, lines the  kids up, blows a whistle and lets them loose to trample each other while grabbing as many eggs as they can.  At the same time, it was nice not to have so much hype around Easter this year.  Instead, we had the perfect amount of Easter treats, thanks to all of the wonderful grandparents, and  a relaxing, quiet day together. Well, quiet except for the constant sound of candy munching.

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Visit with Ray and Molly

Apologies to my dad and Molly for this post being so late!  Ray and Molly visited after Christmas and we had  a great time.   The kids were on holiday from school so they had lots of time with Boppa and Grandma Molly, who were so generous with their time and energy with the kids and gave Brad and I a huge break!   Some of the visit was spent relaxing in Wanganui.

Strolling around Virginia Lake

Swimming with Grandma Molly

In the garden with Boppa

My dad is a wonderful (published and award-winning!) fiction writer and he has been writing short stories for Lazlo and Liska for some time now.  During his visit he got to read his stories to the kids, which was  special for all of them.

Boppa reading one of his stories to Lazlo and Liska

One can only stay in Wanganui for so long before going stir-crazy, so we decided to head to The South Island.  The ferry ride, alone, from the North to the South Island is stunning, so Brad and I weren’t too concerned about my dad and Molly enjoying themselves.  Picton, a wee little town (that’s what people say here), is the main port on the South Island and is so very pretty.

Picton

We drove down to Nelson Lakes National Park, one of the loveliest spots I’ve ever been.  It has two glacial lakes, surrounded by mountains and hiking trails.

Nelson Lakes National Park

Nelson Lakes National Park

Next we drove over to Nelson, a quaint and artsy town, where we visited the local playgrounds and attempted to entertain the kids in the rain.  When the sun re-appeared we took a water taxi out to Abel Tasman National Park .   Abel Tasman is a favorite kiwi park and has miles of secluded, pristine beaches, azure colored waters, lots of hiking trails and some of the country’s best kayaking.  Hiking would have been fun, but with the beach pretty much to ourselves for most of the day, none of us were motivated to do anything but make sandcastles and play in the water.

Abel Tasman National Park

Abel Tasman National Park

We were very sad to see my dad and Molly go, but feel so lucky they were able to visit us here.  We know it’s not an easy trip to make, so we truly appreciated their willingness to come.  So do Lazlo and Liska, who are still talking about their visit with Grandma Molly and silly Boppa!

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Visit with the Jankes

We were lucky enough to have Robin, Rob, George (7) and Otto (5) visit us from Singapore over the holidays.  We spent some time in Wanganui then in Rotorua, the tourist capital of NZ and home to stinky geothermals.  Rotorua isn’t the prettiest place around but we needed somewhere to go where there would be indoor things to do with the kids if the weather didn’t cooperate.  It was an interesting place, we saw geysers and boiling mud, watched sheep being sheared and toured a kiwi tree/red stag/alpaca farm.  Then all of us minus Brad (who had to work) went to the South Island for a few days.  We stayed on d’Urville Island, a beautiful but remote place.  We planned the trip at the last minute at the height of the holiday season  so the only lodging we could get was at a “wilderness resort”.  I knew it would be rustic but the cabins on the website looked cute so I figured we were ok.  When we arrived, however, they led us behind the cabins on the website to a shack that should have been condemned.  Robin refused to bathe because it was so nasty.  Fortunately, the benefit of the natural beauty far outweighed the creepiness of the accomodations.  Between sharing bunkbeds in a room, playing on the beach, hiking to a waterfall, finding eels in a pond by searchlight at night  and getting rides on a quad bike from a very sweet man, the kids had a fabulous time, too.

Brad, Liska, Rob, Otto and Robin feeding alpacas

Marlborough Sounds

Geothermals in Rotorua

Picton, on the South Island

Going crazy on the bunkbeds

On the quad bike with Sam

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Christmas Lists

I found these while cleaning my study.

Lazlo:

1. Remote controlled helicopter for an army with a door that can open and little men so they can jump out

2. Legos: life boats, rescue helicopter, police set and airport with fork lifts for the luggage

3. A castle book about guards and what they did and how they keep clean and how they put their armor on

Liska:

1. Beautiful fairy wings so I can fly

2. A princess dress

3.  A real crane so I could lift things up

4. A real pretend castle

5. To be Santa

6. I want to be an adult

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Christmas

Of course we would have preferred spending Christmas with our families, but it ended up being nice.  Friends from Canada had us for Christmas Eve dinner and other friends invited us for Christmas Day lunch.  Lazlo and Liska got great gifts from the grandparents.  One of Lazlo’s gifts was a 1000-piece Lego set.  He spent 2 quiet days  assembling it.  Those who know Lazlo well will understand why I mention this, as he doesn’t sit still for much of anything, nor is he quiet.  Ever.

Princess Liska

Lazlo in a lego trance

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Creche Holiday Show

Liska’s (Baptist) preschool had a holiday show for the parents.  Lazlo insisted on joining the show as well.  Perhaps he figured it would be ok since Liska didn’t know any of the songs either.  So they were angels together, both clueless.  I thought it was sweet, but Brad wanted to pull her from school after hearing “Twinkle Twinkle Precious Star, Jesus Loves You As You Are….”.

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Senior Party

Before they head off to kindergarten, each child at Lazlo’s kindy gets to have a “senior” party.   At the party Lazlo and two friends he picked got to sit at the front of the class and lead songs, next he got a pretend birthday cake and hat and then he and a friend passed out  potato chips.  Lazlo asked if Liska could sit at the front with his two friends (she was there with me) and then chose her to give out the chips with him.  To be fair, his 2 best friends happened to not be at school that day…but I still thought it was sweet he chose Liska to be his #1 helper.

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Headresses

Lazlo’s kindy had a Christmas party, both kids picked out their party outfits.  They sang NZ versions of Christmas carols including the 12 days of Christmas in which some of the gifts were juicy fish heads and a pukeko in a ponga tree.

Ready for kindy Christmas party

Lazlo worked  hard on this creation.   Those are toothpicks around the perimeter of the box, along with feathers, so it’s treacherous to put on and take off.  And the things he is holding are  medieval weapons.

2-headed monster

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Mt. Taranaki

For my birthday I wanted to go on a family tramp, so we drove to Mt. Taranaki to hike.    It was beautiful.  Liska dubbed herself “tramper girl” and was climbing steps up to her waist.  We then drove to New Plymouth, a city we had not yet visited.  Brad claims he wanted to go to New Plymouth to take the kids to Pukekera Park but I’m pretty sure the real reason was the gourmet fish and chips shop he had read about in the Lonely Planet.

Mt. Taranaki

Tramper girl

Walking in New Plymouth

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