Today I took a long hike over the fields behind Anne and James’ farmhouse. I climbed a few fences and ducked under an electric wire at one point. Eventually I found my way to a dirt road, another long driveway and explored that until I could see it leading to someone’s house. This is a gully behind Anne’s house.

I have enjoyed so many things about living on a farm. There are a few things that I don’t enjoy–the cold, the mice, and the flies.

Anne’s house is the “old” house on the farm. It is plenty big (3 bedrooms) but poorly insulated. The bathroom/laundry room is through the back porch and oh so cold! There is no fan, so the way to deal with moisture from the shower or dryer is to open the windows and/or doors wide, summer and winter. That makes for some cold midnight trips to the toilet!

It also requires a strong heart, as the cats regularly deposit dead or half eaten animals on the porch or bathroom floor. Yesterday, I dumped a live mouse out of my boot, fortunately before putting my foot in it.

The house also has a problem with mold, which is why they are anxious to move. James has asthma and the house, particularly in winter, is pretty hard on him. (They are patiently waiting for the tenants of a better house to finish building and move on.)

And it is cold. Now that the heat is on, the house can actually be toasty, but the two extra bedrooms remain pretty cold. I’ve learned to sleep with a hot water bottle and thermals.

But for all that, it’s still a nice life here on the farm. I love looking out the bathroom window at cows. I love the peaceful views all around and the long walks down the driveway to check the mail. I get a kick out of hanging the clothes out to dry, especially because they never actually seem to dry out there and often are forgotten until the late afternoon dew (or rain) has drenched them again. Still, it’s a nice routine. (I’m told it is quite different in summer.)

Today when I started out the driveway from the house, my GPSs instructed me to turn right in 1/2 mile–onto the road at the end of the driveway. I thought that was funny.

The views are always beautiful, though sometimes difficult to capture in a photo.But the best part is the quiet. It is incredibly peaceful. I can walk out at night and look up to see brilliant stars  (though less I expected because the milky way does not show up here) and a beautiful moon. Sunrises and sets are fantastic.

Our other “house” at the moment is at the Homestead, in Monavale, the main house at Capernwray where Anne went to Bible school. Although it isn’t quite so quiet, it is still is surrounded by pasture and remarkably peaceful as well. Here are some early morning pictures from there.

Shopping in New Zealand has been fun!

To begin with the exchange rate works in our favor: An NZ dollar only draws 68 cents from my bank (not including international fees, which I ignore anyways) so everything seems like a bargain to me 🙂

Well, not everything. Costs are generally higher–clothes, shoes, and fabric have off-putting price tags. Food is generally more expensive too. Meals and drinks (coffee, sparkling juices) add up as well. I was also puzzled for awhile by the change I received when using cash. I’d hand over a $20 bill and get back a handful of change. Two-dollar and one-dollar coins confused me, as well as their practice of rounding, noted here:

Almost every town centre in New Zealand looks like this:

Cambridge town centre is made up of about 5-6 blocks of shops, with a few larger stores on the outskirts: two Home Depot-type stores, a medium-sized home and appliance store, a couple grocery stores and the Warehouse, which is like Target or Wal-mart, though a bit smaller. Town center has no stop lights or stop signs, just two roundabouts, each having 5 streets intersecting.

There are several banks and two phone stores, as well as dress shops, a dollar store, a video store, florists, meat market, and a several nice home decor stores. About a third of the shops are devoted to food; cafes, asian takeaways, fish and chips, a cheese shop and a gourmet food store. There is one baby store, Angel Boutique which is an odd combination of baby clothes and lingerie! There is also a Subway, KFC, Pizza Hut and a new McDonald’s on the edge of town.

Most cafes serve breakfast and lunch, closing down around 4:30. In fact, the whole town
centre closes up around that time, except for the video store, takeaways, and the grocery store, which closes by 9 or 10. There are a few restaurants in town, which serve evening meals, but not many.

With the exception of quilt shops, finding sewing supplies has been a bit of a challenge. I’ve read the word “haberdashery” in books for many years assuming I knew what the word meant. Here it means “small items used in sewing, such as buttons, zips, and thread.” It has taken me awhile to figure out this important source for thread and other sewing supplies, hidden away in other shops.

I’ve done a lot of grocery shopping on this trip. The first few visits were slow as I figured out both the location and names of various items. Tomato sauce is really ketchup (with less sugar)–when I need tomato sauce for tacos, I have to look for tomato puree. Tomato paste also comes in a much more useful container than what we have at home. (By the way, it is “to-mah-to” with the accent on the middle syllable.)

Here is the American section in the International aisle: We don’t actually buy anything from here. We mostly find it amusing what they perceive as American food. Twizzlers, Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, and Milk Duds! Coke, A&W and 7Up. Reese’s Creamy PB and Goober PB&J. It’s actually kind of embarrassing. They really should have a jar of high fructose corn syrup on the shelf.

Here are some of my favorite items (some because of their packaging) in New Zealand:

Tomato paste and yeast for the packaging. Chilly Philly cream cheese, a combination of cream cheese and sweet chili sauce which makes an easy dip. Cranberry sauce to drizzle on chicken and brie and one of my many favorite sparkling juice drinks. In the background is a new cookbook on Anne’s cookbook stand.

There are malls in the bigger cities, of course. We visited one yesterday and got a kick out of the garage (“gair-age”) that indicated full or empty parking spaces with red or green lights and kept an accurate count of available parking spaces. I also liked this stair-less escalator. Otherwise, the malls were pretty similar to those in America.

Of course, it’s best when accompanied by this little doll 🙂 

While babies are pretty much the same the world over–small, sweet, fascinating and oh-so-dear–being “Gramma” on the other side of the world has its challenges. Mostly I’m up for the challenges, enjoying all that is new and different, but sometimes my brain and mood just shut down for a bit. Snuggling with baby Charlotte is the perfect antidote. And sometimes, a good night of sleep.

I thought I’d write a few posts about what it is like to be an American Gramma in New Zealand. My categories are Driving & Directions, Language & Vocabulary,  Welcome & Isolation, and Customs & Culture.

After almost a month, I finally feel like I’m beginning to understand the lay of the land. I spent the first 10 days driving around with Anne. Even if I was at the wheel, she was there to guide me and remind me of the finer points of driving in New Zealand. Once she went into labor, I was on my own, negotiating the roads between their home in the country and the hospital and/or birthing center in Hamilton.

Since they arrived home, I’ve been staying with friends in Leamington, several blocks from the church and about a mile or so from the town centre (of Cambridge.) I’ve driven the 22 km back and forth most days (and many dark nights) and taken two beach trips by myself when they needed a day “off.” A couple nights ago, I came upon a road block and had to detour many miles on a curvy country road before finding my way “home.” Google GPS is a godsend. I’m also learning my way around town and have even managed to find a few places in Hamilton.

My main route is a two-lane highway with a speed limit of 100 kph. Somehow that number, “100” is a challenge to me. Besides being a speed limit, it is also an indication of how fast the other drivers want you to be traveling and 100 seems too fast for these curvy country roads. (In reality, it is only 62.5 mph, but 100 sounds faster!) My favorite moment in driving is when the road widens for a bit and the drivers behind me can safely pass. Sometimes, I pull off to the side of the road to let them pass but mostly I push myself to a reasonable 90 kph.

It is also visually discombobulating to make right turns. No matter how clear the road is of on-coming traffic, when I actually make my move I’m always expecting a car (or truck) to come whizzing up on my right and crash into me. I’ve learned to look left, look right, and then then look left again before proceeding, but my instincts still tell me it’s not really safe.

Even finding my place in the lane has had its challenges. I’ve done well this trip, but it is still a perceptual challenge. Every few days I cross the High Bridge to Cambridge with lanes that are about three-and-a-half feet wider than the sides of my car, with metal barriers on the outside and orange plastic markers on the left. Annie says that it is designed so that your wheels will contact the edge before the body of the car–and that hasn’t happened–but I still take a deep breath before I proceed and go slowly.

It’s even worse when you are the passenger! If James or Anne are driving, I feel pretty safe, but driving with another American is terrifying! On my last trip, I realized that both Marilyn and I felt that way in the passenger seat, so I avoided really curvy roads and tight bridges whenever I could. I’m worried about having to share the driving with John. (But now I get that it isn’t him so much as any driver used to driving on the right.) Still, my favorite seat is behind the driver on the right if I’m not actually behind the wheel. Knitting. I try not to miss the fantastic scenery, but sometimes it’s better if I keep my focus on the inside of the car.

On this, my fourth trip to New Zealand, I finally have a map in my mind that corresponds with the real map. I’d always pictured the North Island like the drawing on the left, with Cambridge and Matamata situated pretty much smack dab in the middle, east of Auckland. In reality it looks more like the drawing on the right, with Hamilton and Cambridge straight south of Auckland.

On a lighter note, I love the traffic signs here in New Zealand. Among my favorites are Hey Mate. Indicate!!” and “Merge Like a Zip.” There are few traffic lights and even fewer stop signs. There are a lot of intersections (and roundabouts) where the only instruction is to “Give Way.”

And then, there are these:

John and I are returning home from our vacation tomorrow. Several hours later, the Birkey Five will start their journey home from New Zealand.

It has been really fun to share our vacations across miles and time zones.

Our family uses Viber to communicate with texts, pictures, and phone calls. Messages arrive with a little “ding,” a welcome herald of pictures or news from afar.

In Florida we were 18 hours behind the half of our family that was together in New Zealand. When we woke up in the morning, they were sound asleep. By mid-morning, they were just waking up. Our late afternoon/evening, was the middle of their day.

After an arduous few days of travel, the Birkey’s arrived in Queenstown to join Anne and James at the end of their holiday trip to the South Island. They first went to the family cottage in Manipouri to decompress. They visited Milford Sound, beautiful Queenstown and the Caitlins, but otherwise spent their time relaxing at the cottage and visiting the Bruce sheep farm in Gore, visiting with James’ extended family.

We started our trip to Florida with airline tickets to Ft. Lauderdale, a rental car, and an Airbnb reservation for the first night, a private home with a yacht parked outside our window. We studied the weather maps and decided to head south first to catch the ONE sunny day predicted on the Keys. And the sun did shine, for almost our whole trip down and back up the Keys. We enjoyed the beach at Bahai Honda, the town of Key West, and a lovely lunch in Key Largo. We also visited the Biscayne National Park before leaving the far south.

About this time the Birkey’s (5) and the Bruces (2.5) traveled back to Anne & James’ home on the North Island. Between them they had 10 checked bags (!) but the extra adults (slightly) improved the travel experience. They settled into Anne & James’ farmhouse, which the boys loved–especially the cats. They took a lot of day trips and enjoyed “all the sweet places that are so close.” We enjoyed the daily texts and pictures, often places we could picture from our own travels, sometimes new places that we haven’t yet seen.

John and I drove north (following the sun) to Titusville, where we had planned to spend a day at the Kennedy Space Center, but ended up chilling on a beach instead. We spent two days with my Aunt Carol & Uncle Ray before heading to Disney, where we stayed at the Fort Wilderness Lodge. We made it to all four parks, wandering around without much of a plan, but enjoying the entertainment and a few rides. (We also started planning a family trip to Disney 🙂

And now, we are all winding down, preparing to travel home. We are back in Fort Lauderdale, ready to drop off our car in the morning and board a late morning flight home. We’ll be home in 4-5 hours.

About the time we arrive home, the Birkey Five will be boarding a flight in Auckland, headed once again to Hawaii. They arrive and go straight to a hotel to sleep, getting up the next morning with a day to kill (enjoy?) before boarding an overnight flight (red-eye) to Chicago, arriving Sunday morning at 5 a.m. John will pick them up and I’ll have breakfast ready.

We enjoyed our trip–and theirs too. It was so much fun to share their adventure through texts, pictures, one phone call, and a Periscope video. Facebook and Instagram too! (Smart phones really are wonderful.) It definitely doubled our pleasure.

This week we used our National Park pass–for seniors–for the very first time.

I bought the lifetime pass for John when he turned 62, two years ago, and we hadn’t made it to a National Park yet, so I was pretty excited to hand it to the ranger at the entrance to The Everglades.

I bought a new passport book and started collecting the cancellation stamps that are located in each National park. We bought one of these years ago with our children. This one is for our retirement.

I immediately started having visions of our future travels. 401 National Parks, Monuments and Reserves. We would travel the land, seeing the depth and breadth of our amazing country, checking off parks along the way. Mountains. Canyons, Seashores. Historical Sites. Swamps.

(Okay, so the Everglades wasn’t very exciting. )

While I was off on my reverie of future plans, I paused to ask John if this was a dream he shared. Was he interested in seeing the National Parks across the country? His slow, thoughtful response was my first clue that we look at life from different perspectives. He’d like to see two places: Carlsbad Caverns and the Grand Canyon (again.)

I decided that I have a “project personality,” a bent to turn things into projects and run with them for awhile, until the next project takes over. It’s how I diet, exercise, read the Bible, pray, sew, write, travel, and well, do life.

The funny thing is that John just retired from a career of doing projects. He built a entire radio station in Alaska (1980-82), a whole new studio and office complex for Oldies 104 (1983-4), automation systems (1993 and 1998), another studio and office complex for ESPN (1998), new towers (2005-6), night phasor rebuild (2007), and the State Street studio (2011). Most recently, he completed the expansion and renovation of the State Street studio two days before Christmas and only ten days before his last day at ESPN. Projects have been all-consuming for John over the years. He eats, sleeps, and dreams his projects, pretty much checking out of the rest of life until complete. Maybe that’s why he isn’t on board for my National Park Project. Yet.

In the meantime, we’re moseying our way around Southern Florida, taking a day at a time, chasing the sunshine (whenever we can. The Sunshine State is reluctant to show its face.) Yesterday John had a big pot of steamed crabs, clams and mussels and about a cup of melted butter. We’ll go north to visit my aunt and uncle in Titusville and make a stop to see Mickey, John’s last employer. We also have a lifetime Disney Main Entrance Pass.

Not bad, eh?