Tertile retrospective on New Zealand life

I'll save you the trouble; "tertile" is a third of something. Like a year. As in four months. As in how long we've now been breathing the fresh New Zealand air and mixing it up with the Kiwis. If you want to street view us or send money (preferably the latter, living in Auckland is frightfully expensive) check out 7 Emmett Street, Auckland. Nice house. We live in the basement. Yep, we're literally bottom dwellers, as it were.

Apparently Kiwis are the 8th happiest folk in the World, probably due to their laid back, noncommittal nature. Chill reins. Though I'm sure it happens, we have yet to hear a word raised in anger and nary a toot on the horn in what is world class traffic. On the other hand, sometimes it is a little hard to know where you stand with a Kiwi because they express commitment in muted tones compared to the US. It's kinda like trying to taste subtle differences in Pinots after participating in a jalapeño eating contest. We've been given a working theory by a helpful local couple based on three states of commitment: yea, nah, or eh. If the sentence ends in an enthusiastic yea, you're golden. nah? Ain't happening. Watch out for the eh: shaky ground. You have to be listening for it as the sentence trails off. It means, usually, no but I don't feel comfortable saying "NO!". Sometimes, there's waffling and you'll hear "Yea, nah, eh." in one quick diminuendo. It is absolutely critical that you know whether you ended on a nah or an eh. Sometimes, eh works to your advantage. I bought a 3D printer here months ago and have yet to be billed. We must have ended billing terms on an eh.

John and Catherine from across the
street and across the world!

We've had a host of visitors pass through Auckland, not to see us mind you, just passing through. Friends and neighbors from Boulder. The Boston contingent. Esteemed colleagues. All have been good sports as we did our best to play local tour guide during their brief sojourns. The irony of working in NZ, is that our dear friends have now seen more of New Zealand than we have. We are working on it though.

That we have no wheels, of any sort, has not deterred us from visiting the terminus of just about every ferry, train, and bus. People complain about the Auckland public transit and while it ain't Paris or DC, it deserves more credit than it gets. Sometimes we find a one man tour operation that will shuttle us where we want to go and leave us alone otherwise. That's how we saw the beautiful volcanic beaches of Piha and the neighboring KiteKite (say KittyKitty) falls. We took one train to the Tasman Sea and walked back to the Pacific Ocean! Sounds more impressive than the five hour urban volcano hopping hike that it was, but still very cool and a chance to see new parts of the Auckland area.

Dunedin street art

We took our biggest trip (since the Queen Charlotte Track in December) flying south, south, south to Dunedin, the first New Zealand city with Scottish flair. Our Aucklander friends had us wondering why we would bother with Dunedin (Dunners they call it), but, in fact, we loved it. Playing hide and seek with first class street art murals was a great introduction to the city. The food and cafe scene was tops, better than Auckland in many respects, and the train station? Wow! That's just the town. Get out to the Otago peninsula for killer hiking up grassy bluffs and through pine tree stands. And then there's the beaches! Now the water is, well a bit chilly. Make that blue balls cold. After all, this is penguin country where we watched some eighty blue penguins (a rare, very small penguin) come home from the sea in the chilly dusk.

The blue penguins of the
Otago Peninsula

To tour Dunedin area we did what we've been dreading since we arrived four months ago: we drove. (NZ drives on the right. Or is it left? At any rate, opposite the US.) Before we drove, we maxed out the rental insurance. Then we drove. In the end, no worries and no damage. I think all that walking we do has taught us where cars come from and where they go. You see, as a pedestrian, if you don't learn quick you're dead. No two ways about it. Cars have priority. It's not like the drivers are malicious, they just do not see you. You can tell from their eyes that, as they are running over your toes, they look right through you to check for traffic. Pedestrians are absolutely invisible.

A beach to remember

Being self-employed, it's taken awhile to fill the pipe (especially given the summer break), but Cath is off with a bang now. Too much really: time to slow the pace to a more sustainable trot. The new Cath has a pretty good hold, but struggles with this new coaching role thing. She would prefer to just tell 'em what to do rather than engage in socratic tedium to guide them along, but those of you who know Cath know that already!

Life, in general, not just people, like the climate here. Plants grow like crazy and keep a small army of ground keepers in business. And along with the plants, we have insects. The mozzies (mosquitoes) are around, but hardly a bother. But larger creatures lurk. We have no dryer, so we leave our clothes to dry outside on a rack. I grabbed a pair of shorts from the the rack and slipped them on on my way out. Yow! I stripped right back down licketeysplit and shock out those shorts. Out fell the biggest freakin' insect I have ever seen! After a little investigation, turns out it was a weta. Still gives me the shivers ...

We still enjoy the easy breathing, wrinkle erasing humidity, though that may wear thin in the winter when it becomes just damp. 25°C (77°F) feels pleasantly warm, almost hot, even with the near constant breeze. A/C (almost always reverse heat/heat pumps here) is not common, so inside buildings can be toasty given enough people or equipment. At least that's the excuse Cath gave me for buying a new wardrobe!

Even the grocery stores have French grade produce, particularly the fruit. No need to worry about the seasons for each one because you'll only see them in season. Cherries, mangoes, kiwiberries... often make an appearance for only a couple of weeks. Get 'em while they have 'em: yummy. We still go to the farmers market on the weekend for some specialities like smoked salmon and hand made ravioli. Typical local fish are snapper, salmon, lemon fish (a small shark), and monkfish.

We have not yet found our exercise rhythm. We've done a bit of biking on the weekends, but this isn't Portland or Boulder and riding for fitness in the city is a challenge. Kiwis are fitness oriented, however. There's a gym on every corner. Over lunch and after work we see groups in the parks doing everything from yoga to boxing to touch rugby (figure that one out). We don't have a great situation right now for storing toys like bikes and kayaks, much less transporting them. We'll see: a work in progress.

Adele live in her last 'dry'
performance!

March 25th was a special day when we cashed in our Adele tickets bought in a hard fought battle back in November. It was a crazy good show: we were lucky to have the chance to see her in one of her very last tour performances. Even more so since the very last performance, on the following day, was in a real sky fall: non-stop torrential rain.

Our adopted sailing team needs all you guys to channel energy to make those pedals spin for the America's Cup. She's all alone here in New Zealand while everyone else is warming up in Bermuda. It's been kinda a rough road of it this year with tight funding compared to the giants in the field. But hey, who doesn't love the underdog!

We continually work on our Kiwi vocabulary, phraseology, and pronunciation. Now repeat after me. "You walk with your leegs and stand on you heed." Say "yees" a lot. Really a lot. The snapper fishing tourney started on a cracker of a day, which is way better than fine and unlikely to ever go to custard. Those are pretty much the three key states of weather: cracker, fine, and custard. And then there's "deck". Even the Kiwis know they can't say it right, so they make a joke, or an advertisement, of it. I'll duck out and leave you with that brilliant one ...