Laundry revisited

Laundry drying on the line. How beautiful it is! The vibrant colors! How it blows gently in the wind! How eco-friendly to be using the sun instead of a tumble dryer which eats up energy and creates waste! And the divine smell of the sun permeating from your clothes! It is all so romantic isn't it?

A few weeks after our arrival in New Zealand, I mentioned that I was still ambivalent about the lack of a tumble dryer but that I was endeavoring to be positive and give it a go.

Yeah, well, the ambivalence is gone now. I really, really miss my tumble dryer and think that line-drying laundry kinda...well,er, um........ TOTALLY SUCKS.

Consider the weather we are having right now.



Drying laundry for a family of 4 (with two of those people being small children who have multiple changes of clothes) inside on a drying rack is a challenge. And consider the fact that houses in NZ tend to be on the colder side with no central heating which means it can take a couple of days to dry and we get heaps of condensation on our single paned windows. And the laundry smells a bit musty and it tends to be wrinkly and has a "crunchy" texture to it which I am not fond of.

We do have a dryer in our rental but a) it is quite ancient and not terribly good at its job and b) electricity is astronomically expensive here so I am loathe to use it much. However, the last few miserable, rainy, stormy, cold days have driven me to use the dryer a bit despite its limitations and despite our looming electric bill. The towels felt so soft and fluffy which only made me long for my old energy wasting, unaesthetic and purely American laundry facilities even more.

So much for being eco-friendly and PC. I want my tumble dryer!!!!!

Giddy...

for the new Crowded House album and the prospect of seeing them live here in New Zealand.

Crowded House - Saturday Sun from Crowded House on Vimeo.

Maori culture in everyday life

Every other week, Miss M's school has an open assembly where they sing and present awards to students for good behaviour, learning and sport accomplishments and other noteworthy deeds. The assembly is always started off with singing the New Zealand national anthem. It is first sung in Maori and then in English (and by a few, in NZ sign language). These are the 3 official languages of New Zealand (Aotearoa). Here is the first verse to the anthem:

Māori Version

E Ihowā Atua,
O ngā iwi mātou rā
Āta whakarangona;
Me aroha noa
Kia hua ko te pai;
Kia tau tō atawhai;
Manaakitia mai
Aotearoa

English Version

God of Nations at Thy feet,
In the bonds of love we meet,
Hear our voices, we entreat,
God defend our free land.
Guard Pacific's triple star
From the shafts of strife and war,
Make her praises heard afar,
God defend New Zealand.

This isn't the best video so skip it if you like. You can see one of the teachers and some of the children doing the sign language version of the anthem which is cool:

Miss M got a "Principal's Award" today for "excellent story writing" and so she was presented with a special sparkly pencil:


Miss M doesn't watch a whole lot of TV but some days after school we will let her turn it on to watch cartoons. Lately, though, I find her clicking through the channels to find the Maori channel (yep! There is one!) and she will sit and watch kids programs or a cultural program in Maori and she is just utterly fascinated.

She continues to learn some Maori at school and I hear her singing songs in Maori at home. How cool is that?

Sea lions, Albatross and Oystercatchers, oh my! Otago Peninsula Part Tres

And a few more of the greatest hits of our weekend:



This is a Hooker's Sea Lion at Sandfly Bay. We kept our distance though I think Mr. W was ready to run up and hug him:

And the piece de resistance, the Royal Albatross. This guy (or gal) flew about 20 feet over our heads. There were also numerous Spotted Shags (cormorants) and some Royal Spoonbills on this cliff- a birder's delight!
The Royal Albatross Center was well-done and I spent a lot of time reading the interpretive signs to Miss M, who after hearing about these magnificent birds, decided to donate one of her gold coins to the center.

Castles, Toy trains and Epic Views, oh my! Otago Peninsula Trip Part Deux

Our little cabin was on a working farm so we awoke to roosters cock-a-doodle-dooing and sheep baaing each morning. There was also a mini train that the kids got to ride on (and Mike had to push):

We visited a castle, Larnach Castle to be exact:

We frolicked in the gardens and had incredible views of the peninsula:

Oamaru, Moeraki and Dunedin, oh my! Otago Peninsula Trip Part 1

We had a fabulous trip down the east coast to Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula a few weekends ago. I would have to say it ranks as one of our best trips so far. First stop: Oamaru and Moeraki where we saw the Moeraki boulders (above). These boulders are perfectly round and mostly smooth and really are a freak show. Some were cracked open and had mini-tide pools in them. They are beautiful really and, as the link above describes, are quite special to the Maori people.


Oamaru is home to some yellow-eyed penguins:



We saw about 10 or so float in on the waves and waddle up the beach and disappear into the "bush". Fascinating little critters and to think, this is one of the only places in the world where you can see these penguins, unless you happen to visit some of the sub-antarctic islands. They are endangered due to the destruction of their habitat by humans.

Then on to Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula. We stayed at a lovely little cabin that overlooked the harbor.

It is starting to happen....

A New Zealand accent.

Miss M has been at school full-time for about 2 months now and in the last few days, Mike and I have noticed her saying certain words with a kiwi twang. "No" is the most noticeable and is pronounced "nu-oh". An inflection at the end of a sentence, as if a question mark has been placed there instead of a period (or a"full-stop" as they call them here), is typical of the kiwi speech cadence and we notice her doing that as well.

Soon we will hear her saying "yes" as "yiss" and "ten " as "tin". Then we will really be convinced she is turning into a kiwi. But for now, here is a glimpse of what is to come with her budding kiwi accent:

How to Speak New Zulander
(for bist effict, rid these out aloud)

Peck - to fill a suitcase
pissed aside - chemical which kills insects
pug - large pink animal with a curly tail
min- male of the species
mess kara - eye makeup
mcKennock - person who fixes cars
Mere - Mayor
leather - foam produced from soap
lift - departed
kittle crusps - potato chips
guess - vapour
fush - marine creature
fear hear - blonde
ear - mix of nitrogen and oxygen
duffy cult - not easy
amejen - visualise
chuck - very young poultry
bug hut - popular recording
bun button - been bitten by insect
sucks peck - half a dozen beers
Ear New Zulland - an extinct airline
one doze - well known computer program
brudge - structure spanning a stream
sex - one less then seven or "sivven"
tin - one more then nine
cuds - children
cuttin - baby cat
sivven sucks sivven - large Boeing aircraft
sivven four sivven - larger Boeing aircraft
earplane - large flying marchine
beggage chucken - place to leave your suitcase at the earport

And a wee video: