Merry Christmas 2009

Afternoon Tea seems just so civil.
Typical Waiheke Bay
They seem just so happy about the weather.

Merry Christmas To All.
Tomorrow is Christmas Eve here in New Zealand and we will be on the move again so Sheryl and I would like to take this opportunity to wish you all a Merry Christmas.
After leaving Adam and Lana's we drove to Auckland and are now on Waiheke Island, an hour's ferry ride ride away. It's a beautiful island reminding us of Hawaii with its many fine little beaches, shops and cafes. Wineries seem to be everywhere and their settings over the bays and harbours are simply spectacular.
Tomorrow we will be back in Auckland having our family Christmas celebrations on Christmas eve with Tyler and Meghan as they will be picking up her sister, Ellen, at 6 am Christmas day at the airport. We then will all reunite again in Rotorua (Klamath Falls' sister city) for Christmas day and all things thermal - its the Yellowstone of New Zealand.
Christmas is just plain odd to us in New Zealand as it is the start of summer here. The beach Bar-B-Q seems to be the traditional event and shorts the preferred attire. They seem quite aware of how nice the weather is compared to the states. Note the above photo.
Christmas carols are equally strange to us. In Perth we heard Chinese folks singing White Christmas in a little Chinese Restaurant and it just didn't seem normal...but who am I to judge traditions? I think what is important to us all at these time of year is that special feeling of family, be it around a snowy tree, a beach Bar-B-Q or a Chinese wok.
Merry Christmas everyone.

Tyler's Very Best Friend

The 4.5 of them. (Lana is 7 mos pregnant)
Adam's boat and shark cage.

In 1988, when Tyler was just 8 he found his perfect friend living just down the road from us in New Plymouth. Adam Al-agez was equally daring-do and the two diminutive adventurers roamed the area having no end of fun. Adam was the very best friend Tyler ever had and his parents, our good friends who we visited last week, said Adam cried for days when Tyler left in '88. Fortunately we have kept the Christmas card communications going over the years and Sheryl and I even visited Adam and Lana in Tauranga in 2003. They are a GREAT young couple and we knew if Adam and Tyler ever hooked up again they would pick right up again.....
Of course it happened.
Ty, Meghan, Adam and Lana had met once during their winter and vowed to get together again when it was warm and they had some time to spend together. Surprise, Adam's great love is fishing! But now his time is spent in his beautiful boat fishing in the ocean, not with a flyrod on the trout streams. (Does this sound like Tyler? - Adam has built a shark cage to go out and watch the Mako Sharks of New Zealnd from 2 feet away). So this week they are staying with Adam and Lana at their house RIGHT ON THE BEACH, and Monday they went fishing in the ocean (I got invited along - yippee) and Tuesday they went trout fishing. ( I still have no report on that day, but we did catch a few snappers out in the ocean). It has been such a pleasure to watch them all together and to see what a fine fine young man Adam is. The more we see of Adam and Lana the more we like them.
I have no idea when they will ever again meet, but as our lives have unfolded we somehow have managed to repeatedly see our Kiwi friends, all of whom we first met 37 years ago. We will just wish them all the best.

Finally Recovering

One Thursday night in Sydney Sheryl and I went to a Starbucks(they have the best wifi) and each plugged an earbud into an ear and listened to the Civil War football game between those nasty ducks and our beloved Beavers. The delightful evening slowly turned gray, then black and when it was over I became violently ill. It started as a headache, turned to nausea and projectile vomiting which was followed by The Vapors, a touch of consumption and by midnight I think it was malaria complicated by creeping berri berri. By morning I had developed two ovarian cysts, speading ebola and a hernia.

But now we have made it to New Zealand and I seem to be on the mend. Good luck to the ducks in the Rose Bowl (I don't really mean it) and to the Beavs in Las Vegas.

New Zealand seems to have brought me back around and seeing Tyler and Meghan in their home in Levin seems to be doing the trick. What a fun young couple. Ty took us around to his school, we met his principal and vice principal who absolutely gushed about what a fine teacher he is and what magic he has brought to their Spanish progam. Meghan has been invited to all sorts of end of the year coffees, meetings etc. clearly painting a similar picture of success, they sure make us proud.

After a couple of nights with them we are back in Taranaki and visiting the Spencers, our great pottery/teacher friends from the 70's. Yeah, old friends are absolutely wonderful. We have talked on into the night for 3 nights , been tramping and just catching up. Its been WONDERFUL to be back in New Plymouth which will always be our other home.

Please Excuse The Grandparents

Merry Christmas Kaylin and Brooklyn.
Santa is coming soon, so be good. We will see you in a few weeks.
Love Bah-Da and Pa

Taking Leave of Oz

We had intended to fly from Adelaide to Sydney but we suddenly had the opportunity to rent a car and drive. As we had plenty of time we opted on the car and hugged the coast from Adelaide to Melbourne. Wow. The Great Ocean Road was indeed great with a coast that rivals Oregon.
We had never seen much of Melbourne before so we had a couple of days seeing the lovely city. It took us by surprise as to just how beautiful and energetic Melbourne was. Accomodation was impossible as it was a Saturday when we got there and we ended up in a once-upon-a-time nunnery. No bathroom and I could stand in our tiny room and touch both walls. A nasty place. But we loved Melbourne and went and found the one-time home of Mike and Patty Reeder. It was fun to visualize their 5 years of life there in that terrific city.
We then drove to Sydney, hugging the coast and stayed with our friends the Daytons who we know from our days in New Plymouth, New Zealand. Old friends are just the best. It’s amazing how you just pick up right where you left off 36 years ago. Wes is now into vintage auto racing and took us out to the amazing Sydney Olympic Venue where he was involved in an auto event. Another great time. But Ouch. It is just so hard at this time of life to essentially say, “goodbye forever”.
Sydney too was just great. We spent a day at Bondi beach swimming with the locals (and presumably sharks)and enjoying the warm water. Another day we took the Manly ferry, went to a performance at the Sydney Opera House and dined at The Rocks.
Overall Australia just stunned us with its life, energy, vibrancy and spinning economy. Commerce is roaring, things are EXPENSIVE and if the country had a bigger population it would eat us for lunch. While we were there they achieved the dubious honor of now building the largest homes on earth, overtaking the US.
We left last week having really enjoyed the country. If it were closer to home I am sure we would return to see some of the places we’ve missed. (Tragic note: We did not see ONE can of Fosters the entire trip).

Some Things Never Change

It was 1972, some 37 years ago that Sheryl and I arrived in Adelaide. Our apartment fourplex was brand new and spic and span. I guess some things do change as it now looks tattered and torn and worse for the wear of the last 37 years. Come to think of it, so do we.
Adelaide looks the same but seems MUCH busier. We took in their Christmas parade which always seems odd in the heat, but oh well, the shopping must go on. Then yesterday we headed north to the schools we had taught at, those many years ago. I had always felt that my school was just a stop-over for the Aussie teachers as they soon moved on to a better school. It was not a friendly place, was not well run and I couldn't wait to be done with the place after my first year of teaching.
I full well know that after 37 years there will be no one left who would remember me but there were a couple of young science teachers that perhaps someone might know and could tell me where they were or some tid bit of an update. Hah. The school is much bigger now, has a new wing, more portables, but it didn't take long to realize its still the crappy s--t hole it once was. I stood outside the bulletproof reception window while the lady did a bonzer job of ignoring me as she bantered with her mates. Finally she lowered herself to asking me what I wanted and in my friendliest, most charming manner I explained my situation and essentially she told me to go to hell, she had no time for me, I could not look around the school and I could go to the department of education if I had questions. Ouch.
Some Thing Never Change.
I went back to the car, we had a good laugh and I felt very reassured that no,it was not me, it was that rotten school I had worked at that had left me with such poor memories of my teaching in Australia.

( We then went to Sheryl's school where they greeted her with open arms, are sending her the news letter, and, I believe, offered her a Knighthood).

Back "Home" in Adelaide

Western Australia has been quite an adventure for us from the heat of the dry north to the incredible beaches and turquoise water of the entire state. The south west corner is full of enormous eucalyptuses and windswept beaches with NO people as the Southern Ocean rolls in. Wineries are EVERYWHERE. In fact there is now a glut of grapes and they are moaning about it, but I digress.
We finished up back in Perth and boarded the Indian Pacific for one of the world's classic train rides across the Nularboor Plain and on tho South Australia. Three days and two nights along the straightest stretch of track in the world. A lot of nothing out there. We stopped at Kalgoolrri, a mining and prostitution town (no kidding) and took the midnight tour (of the gold mine!) and then were off again. Stopped in Cook, a town of 5 where it was 105, too hot for us. Finally we made it to Adelaide, rented a car and drove out to Henley beach where we lived in 1972. How sad. Our "flat" seems pretty run down these days and it was a bit depressing but then we don't look much better after the 37 years of wear.
We have changed our plans once again and will drive to Sydney rather than fly as there is a lot to see along the way.
This has been an interesting time for us as we have no plans most of the time and really are just feeling like snowbirds that have really gone south. It hasn't been one of those thrill-a-minute type trips, but rather a much more layback style of travel. We are getting a lot of reading done and just enjoying the hospitality of Oz.