Closed for Christmas

New Zealand pretty much shuts down for Christmas. Both of our offices are closed from tomorrow until the 5th of January. Even our local fish 'n' chip shop is shut until January 14th. Some people in my office are going away til February. Yes, it's the good life...

We're going up to Auckland to spend the holidays with Gareth's sister & family. It really doesn't feel like Christmas to us at all though. The days are too long, the air too warm. A Christmas Story has not been on tv even once. If anyone in our neighborhood has decorated their houses with lights, we have no idea -- it doesn't get dark until 10pm. Who's out that late?

Maybe by next year we'll be more in the groove for a summertime Christmas... We see a future involving Christmas camping trips, maybe a holiday bach by the beach. It won't be anything like the Christmases we grew up with, but it could be a good thing in its own right.

Okains Bay

We drove an hour and a half to Okains Bay on the Banks Peninsula for the weekend. Okains is one of many bays that circle the outside of Banks Peninsula. Here's a map (Okains Bay is in the northeast corner of the peninsula):It's a gorgeous drive. This is a photo from Summit Road, looking down onto the Bay. It's a pretty crazy windy road out on the Peninsula with lots of dips and turns - it's not for the faint of heart or weak of stomach. Sheep or cows would sometimes charmingly wander into the road. But they get out of the way pretty quick...

This photo was taken looking down from Summit Road toward Akaroa. The valleys are populatd by sheep and some cows. When you stop to take photos, you hear "baaa baaa" echoing from the hills. In other words, exactly what you'd expect from New Zealand's south island.

Here we are at the beach on Okains Bay. It was nearly empty. We set up some chairs and read books until Gareth fell asleep in his chair. Ahh, the serenity!!

Here's "the city." The town centre of Okains bay had a dairy, a school, a church, and a teeny tiny library. There was also a Maori and Colonial museum, but they were charging $7 per person to get in. I think the Chicago Art Institute charges less than that... We skipped it.
This was probably our last camping trip until after the baby is born. I'm getting to be a bit too big to sleep comfortably in a sleeping bag on an air mattress. We have so much more to explore - as soon as the boy is big enough, we'll be back out there!

We don't need no stinkin' shoes

There are barefoot people everywhere here.

In the grocery store...
In the food court at the mall ...
At the home improvement store ...
They're barefoot in the street, in the airport, sometimes in restaurants (we've actually only seen little kids barefoot in restaurants, but still). These photos happen to all be of men, but women and children do it equally. This was pretty surprising at first, but we're getting used to it. Kiwis just prefer to go natural, I guess. Or maybe the high price of shoes here has something to do with it. But don't they worry about stepping on glass? Or catching some kind of foot disease? We don't know. We just know there are barefoot people everywhere.

Gareth gave it a go today. We went to the mall and to the grocery store. Gareth left his flip-flops in the car. Look at him, all fancy-free in the mall.
He reports that it's good fun, except in the freezer aisle. Brrrr!

Lake Tekapo

We took a trip south to Lake Tekapo over the weekend. (FYI, "Tekapo" is pronounced with the emphasis on TEK.) Lake Tekapo and nearby Lake Pukaki are a crazy turquoise blue color. We learned this is created by 'rock flour.' The campground gave us a sheet of Quick Facts, which tells us:

The turquoise blue of the lake is created by rock flour. The glaciers in the headwaters of Tekapo grind rock into fine dust on their journey down towards the lake. This rock flour is suspended in the water and when combined with sunlight creates this unique water colour.

It really has to be seen to be believed.

This is Lake Tekapo.

These purple and pink flowers were all over the area. They're called foxglove.
And here's Lake Pukaki. We were lucky to see it on a clear day - we understand that usually Mt Cook in the background there is shrouded in clouds. Mt Cook is the tallest mountain in New Zealand (3754 metres/12316 feet). Imagine driving along the highway and then turning a corner to see this.


On the shores of Lake Tekapo is the Church of the Good Shepherd, an itty bitty church built from stone in the early 1900s. It was a sweet little church with a nice view out over the lake.