It’s December 27 here, and since we’re 17 hours ahead of Iowa, we’re not sooo late with those holiday wishes as it’s still the day after for you all. We had a really nice, if not very different for us, Christmas. I spent much of Christmas Eve Day baking, to the tunes of various years’ Christmas at Luther from my iPod coming from the surround sound, just lovely as they say here. We did make it to St Mary’s Anglican Church family Christmas Eve service at 7 PM in Levin. The music was not particularly inspiring but the nativity story was played out with a LOT of cute angels and 2 three year old shepards, as well as all the other necessary characters. The sermon message reminded us about how Jesus turned everything upside down, beginning with being born in a stable and continuing throughout his life. We had a relaxing Christmas morning, with Allie’s recipe for french toast for a special breakfast...thanks, Allie! The difference with it was that we had FRESH, LOCAL strawberries on top, haha! (We bought fresh local blueberries the day before, too!) The Hulls took us with them to their extended family Christmas in Wellington for the day, where their 3 grown children live, with five grandchildren ages 2-12 between them. It was sooo nice to be included. We took Carole’s potato buns (or at least a good imitation) and mint brownies, and gave the Hulls one of the Iowa picture books that we brought as gifts, and it generated a lot of interest amongst everyone. The day after Christmas here is celebrated too, it’s Boxing Day. I think it’s British, but no one I’ve asked seems to know it’s origin otherwise. So the NZ custom for these two summer days is lots of family gatherings often on the beach, with BBQ. We have seen some increased activity that way here in Waitarere, with a lot of cars outside baches that up to this point have appeared empty. And, as in the US, since the holiday is on a weekend this year, everyone also has Monday and Tuesday off this week, and next week will be similar. It is interesting to be on this end of the globe during the Christmas season, as it becomes more evident how US music (Christmas songs with snow) and culture gets around. I’ve also noticed that the commercialism of the season has happily NOT crossed the big pond. The Hull family exchanged basically one not-so-huge gift per person, such as a book, cookbook, shirt. It was all about getting together as a family. What a concept! There was no mention of a prayer though, or reading the Christmas story, we missed that.
We took a day trip a few days ago to Dannevirke and Norsewood. Our destination was determined by the fact that 1) they were close by about 1.5 hours northeast of us, and 2) they were settled by Norwegian immigrants! Dannevirke is larger but mostly closed down on a Saturday afternoon, even shortly before Christmas! Norsewood was tiny, but more interesting. It’s got a charming small immigrant museum, open during daylight hours on the honor system! You put your $2 in the box out front, go in the door and turn on the lights and walk through. It’s pretty cute, with a lot of artifacts actually. I’m going to send them a Vesterheim postcard later, ha! Then we found the local sock factory outlet where we helped out the local economy a little. The exchange rate is favorable to us, with a NZ dollar worth about 75% of the US dollar. I like it when I take out $100 at the ATM and it shows up as $75 in our Decorah online banking, ha!
I have felt my first earthquake! Don’t get too excited, Kevin didn’t feel it at all and he was in the house too. It was just after I woke up on Dec 23 and was still in bed, feeling the bed jiggle briefly like I was laying on jello :) Kevin was standing in the bathroom. We didn’t hear anything at all, either. Coffee in hand a few minutes later, I checked out the website that Randi and Matt, the earthquake experts, had shown us. www.geonet.org.nz Indeed, there was a 4.1 earthquake at 7:02 AM, in Masterton, which is on the other side of the Taratua Range that we see from our backyard. Pretty exciting for me...and I hope we don’t feel anything much stronger! Neighbors around here didn’t feel it, I think because I was in a jiggly bed I felt it easier. But we have heard repeatedly, “oh, you WILL feel earthquakes while you’re here”. And now checking out the website again, I can see there have been several over the weekend, mostly in Christchurch, whew.
Today we took off on foot for the nearby Waitarere Forest. It is adjacent to our little beach town, on both the north and south borders, and some scenes from The Lord of the Rings were filmed there. We got off the beaten path some and ended up reading on the beach for a while. Next time we might take the bikes (one came with our house, one was lent to us by Chris Hull) and stick to the paths more, to get a better overall flavor of the woods. It is pine, and is managed by the forest service. It does get logged but is also being replanted.
Post your questions or email if you want to know more! I started out trying to keep a journal, especially since we couldn’t get on email often. I should start that again, as I can see I’m not posting very often. In general, we miss you all, but the snow not so much, ha! Kevin says if he misses snow he stares at a white piece of paper, then sticks his head in the freezer, til the feeling passes. We’re glad we came and it’s all going well, but will be happy to come home, too.
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