World Buskers Festival

The World Buskers Festival has been in Christchurch for the last two weeks, wrapping up today. Buskers are street performers (in case I'm not the only one who did not know this word until recently). They're doing shows all over town for free (donations requested). We really wanted to go see some acts last weekend, but the weather was awful and we skipped it. Finally this weekend the sun came out in Christchurch -- hooray! -- and we strolled downtown for a few shows.

On Friday night we saw some acrobats, who were really more of a circus act than a street performance. Because most streets don't have a trapeze handy. They had a pirate ship theme and were pretty entertaining.

At the end of the show, they announced they were not being paid by "the Christchurch City Council, the New Zealand Government, or any other criminal enterprise" and asked everyone to donate generously. It was interesting how they tried to play on Kiwi pride to boost donations. They said a couple would pay at least $22 to see an American blockbuster at the movie theatre, that they were 'home grown Kiwis' and that the crowd should support them at least as much as they'd support the American blockbusters. An appeal to Kiwi patriotism. Well played.

On Saturday afternoon we wandered into Cathedral Square to see a few more acts. The sun was shining - it was a glorious day. This guy was kind of creepy and funny. Here he is shouting at the pigeons. Later he took off his trench coat to reveal a red speedo.

Then we went over to Victoria Square to sit in the grass and see a few more acts. These guys were brilliant. They did a bunch of gags with a variety of props they pulled out of their pink suitcases and juggled and stuff. Very simple, classic comedy.

The next act were two American guys from New Hampshire. They juggled fire and did back flips and stuff. And then Gareth was volunteered to hold a flaming torch! Look at Gareth's impression of the Statue of Liberty:

He was one of 4 men instructed to hold a torch up high. He suspected he was being set up. Sure enough, the buskers said they needed 4 volunteers, please just raise your hands, ahh, thank you, you 4 men with your hands up... hahaha. They made him hold a rope to hold this ladder in place. Then they did some other tricks while Gareth's hands started to sweat and burn holding the rope.


Finally, his rope-holding skills were going to be put to use. The 2 dudes climbed up the ladder and did some crazy Cirque-du-Soleil stuff at the top. Mad applause all around.

Lesson learned today: even if you've already packed your sun screen in anticipation of your move, UNPACK it and PUT SOME ON before you go sit outside all afternoon in the sun.

A trip down highway 73

Here are some photos from Highway 73 - the road from Greymouth to Christchurch that goes over Arthur's pass. It was a beautiful sunny day for a drive.

Below is one of the many one-lane bridges along this major highway. The trick with these is to pay attention to who has the right-of-way. Red arrow: you yield. Black arrow: you go (after making sure there isn't already someone else on the bridge, of course.)
The Otira viaduct. The road through here has a 16% grade - steep!! This was taken from a lookout point.

News from Greymouth

Gareth is holding down the homestead while I'm away in Greymouth, on the west coast. It's about a 3 hour drive from Christchurch. I'll be doing hearings here for work tomorrow.

Greymouth is the largest town in the West Coast district, a very scarcely populated area of New Zealand's south island. District population: less than 14,000. This might have something to do with all the rain they get here. No one likes to live in the rain. Lucky for me, it's been sunny today.

I like to check out the local papers when visiting small towns, and so I picked up the Greymouth Star (est. 1866) to read while I ate dinner tonight. Thought I'd share some of the local flavour through the news...

Front page: a West Coast girls' dance troupe has qualified for a world dance championship in America after placing in an Australian competition. There's a colour photo of the proud girls. "The competition was the toughest we have ever competed against. The Australians were technically brilliant and the Americans were amazing. ... The Coast Girls did not look out of place and performed with professionalism." Note the West Coast pride in that last remark. Translation: we're just as good as those big city Aussies and Americans. Way to reprezent, West Coast dancers!

The volunteer fire brigade was called out to Blake Street last night to deal with a burning petrol spill. The fire was quickly put out with a shovel of sand and was considered a 'nuisance call.' According to the reporter: "It was annoying that volunteers had to be called away from their homes unnecessarily." Yes, that would be annoying.

A set of mag wheels was stolen from the Greenfield Motors car yard last night, the "second lot of mags to go missing in Greymouth recently." I hope my rental car is safe. I'm not sure what mag wheels are or if my Toyota has them...

Tomorrow's forecast: 21C, "sunny and settled".

A fulltime law advisory officer for the West Coast is sought. This was a little disturbing to me. Apparently, the current law advisory officer only works part-time, "and although she is not a lawyer she has access to a lawyer..." So, up til now to qualify as a law advisory officer for the West Coast, you just had to know a lawyer?? I cannot imagine giving out legal advice on that basis. "Trust me, I know a guy, he's a lawyer, this is totally what he would do..." ???

There's one page of World news. Stories deemed worthy include the end of a heatwave in New South Wales, Australia; Bin Laden claiming responsibility for the last bomb scare; a report from Haiti; and "Pope to priests: Go forth and blog." So hip, that Pope.

There's a Rural section with the farming news. For reasons I can't explain, I really like the farming news. In Greymouth, this includes export price trends for lamb, mutton, beef, and venison. A 13kg lamb, including its pelt, will fetch you $33.30 this week (down from the year's high of $50.60). Wet conditions have increased the risk of facial eczema in cows. This is evidently a fatal condition: "Farmers need to act now, those who are not already getting zinc into their animals are playing Russian Roulette with their animals' lives." If we had cows, I'd be finding them some zinc, stat.

In Sport, "Pakistan pulverised." This has something to do with cricket, a sport that is impossible to understand unless you grew up with it. But there's a really cool photo of a cricket bowler throwing the ball - his body is suspended in the air, Matrix-style.

More in Sport: in addition to reports on cricket, football (soccer), and golf, there's one for wood chopping. It's a story about a West Coast man who has been given lifetime membership in a chopping circuit. There's a photo of him holding an ax. Cutting wood with an ax is a sport in the South Island. Love it.

On tv tonight: a bunch of crap. This is the same everywhere, Greymouth included. (TV is national here, there aren't local channels).

And that's what's going on in Greymouth this 25th of January...

Mortgaged

We met with the solicitor this morning to sign our lives away. That's right: we signed the loan documents from the bank.

When we bought our house in Phoenix, signing the loan documents was a major ordeal. There were bank documents and title company documents and escrow company documents. We must have signed our names 147 times. It took hours. They actually brought us bottled water to help us through it.

This morning was nothing like that. We arrived at our solicitor's office at 8:30. We signed and initialed 3 documents. Just 17 minutes later, we were out the door again. Unbelievable!

The next step is a walk through, which we're trying to schedule for the weekend before we close. Then on settlement day (1st February), our bank will deposit the money into our solicitor's trust account, and the solicitor will transfer the money to the sellers' solicitor's account. Once the money has been transferred, we can get the keys and the house is ours. Pretty simple, really.

We do find it a little strange that the bank has never actually verified that we have jobs or assets. The bank has agreed to loan us a fairly substantial sum of money based only on our word that we will pay them back. In today's financial climate, we're not sure we would have so readily trusted us. Maybe that's just the New Zealand way...

Bump update

The bump continues to grow...

We're just about 23 weeks along now and thought we'd share a little update.

We've found out that we're having a wee boy. This was great news, since we wanted either a boy or a girl... :)

We feared the name would become an issue. We had a lot of girls' names in mind that we both liked, but no boys' names. And then we found out he's got boy bits. We scrapped our list of girls' names and headed to the mall to buy a Baby Name book (we had already read every available baby name website on the 'net). We were on our way there in the car when we passed Quinns Road. Gareth said, "Quinn!" I said, "Quinn!" Now, we are planning to call him Quinn. Quinn the Eskimo. The mighty Quinn. Q.

We've had several visits with our superstar of a midwife, Sheena, and things seem to be coming along very nicely. Last time she put the doppler doohickey on my belly, we could hear his little heartbeat and we could hear him swishing around in there. He's probably doing the backstroke, unless he takes after me, in which case, the doggy paddle. We've seen ultrasound photos and he seems to have all the right bones and limbs. We're very pleased.

We're now planning to give birth at home. We've given a lot of thought to it, done some reading, talked with everyone we know, and this is definitely what we want to do. There are so many reasons to give birth at home. I'll be more comfortable in my own house than I would be in a hospital room. I'll be surrounded by familiar sights and smells. The only people who will be there will be those we invite - no teams of doctors (or their interns - ack!) will be dropping by to have a look at my vagina. I think the more comfortable and relaxed I am, the safer I feel, the more likely that labour will move along smoothly.

Pain control is of course an issue. I've heard that labour can be a bit... uncomfortable. During the several years we were trying to get pregnant, I always imagined I'd have an epidural during labour. It was just something I assumed would happen although I hadn't really given it any thought. Now I've given it a lot of thought, and I'd really like to have a natural birth. I have no idea if I'll be able to cope with the pain, but plan to find out. I've been doing a lot of positive visualisations - similar to what I did before running my first marathon actually ("It will hurt, but I will get through it. I'm built for this. I'm strong enough." etc.)

I think it's pretty commonly accepted that fear increases our experience of pain. So I figure if I'm in a safe and familiar place, I'm less likely to be afraid and less likely to experience pain to the same extent. Not that there won't be pain, I haven't fooled myself into thinking anything like that. It's just that I'll have more control over what is going on around me and maybe this will help me cope better.

We haven't discussed all the details yet, but I think we'll be renting a birthing pool so that I can labour in the water if I want to. I guess this is tremendously helpful for some women but not so much for others. Not sure which category I'll fall into. I can always just hop in the shower if I want, or roll around on our exercise ball, or shout at Gareth to get me to the damn hospital and shoot me up with some drugs...

A woman at my work gave birth to several of her 5 children at home, and is now about to assist her own daughter with a home birth. I can't wait to hear how it goes for them. The daughter was more than a week overdue last time I asked, so that baby should be arriving any day now...

Never phone the U.S. embassy

My work colleague has plans to travel to America for a skiing holiday at the end of the month. We're very excited that he's going, because it means we can ask him to bring stuff back for us, like Cholula Mexican hot sauce or Gatorade drink mix.

The U.S. has new-ish requirements for overseas visitors, including Kiwis. Kiwis can still travel to the U.S. without a visa under the Visa Waiver Program, as long as they meet certain requirements. For instance, if you are a drug trafficker or a terrorist, you are not eligible for a visa waiver. Regular people are eligible, but now they first need to apply online for travel authorisation at least 72 hours before they travel. My colleague was asking me about this the other day. I suggested that he go online to find out exactly what needed to be done. He said he would phone the U.S. Embassy instead.

Here is where I discovered an interesting cultural difference. I would never consider telephoning the American government for help in any situation. I would always look first to the appropriate website. I would assume that the information online is the most complete and up-to-date information available, ready to be consumed by me without any attitude from some bored government worker. I would further assume that the government does not want me to call them, because if everyone called, they would have to talk to all those people, and that would just be time-consuming and expensive. For this very reason, the government has provided everything I need to know on the Internet. This way, no one has to bother anyone else.

Compare this now with the attitude of my colleague, who has lived in New Zealand all his life. It is perfectly reasonable in his mind to phone the government to get questions answered. Of course the U.S. Embassy wants to help him, that's the whole reason those workers are there: to help people. Moreover, he knows there was nearly a terrorist attack on Christmas day, and rules may have been changed since then. He wants the most up-to-date information, so he needs to talk to a live person. He thinks this will be the most efficient way to get his questions answered.

What do you think happened when my colleague phoned the U.S. Embassy? Luckily, he made the call on speakerphone so we could all listen in.

U.S. Embassy in Wellington: Embassy.

Him: Hi, this is [full name], I'm traveling to the United States for holiday in a few weeks. I'm calling to find out what I need to do before I go.

I have to pause here. I would have never told the government worker my full name. Again, I assume they don't care to talk to me in the first place - they probably care even less to know my name. My Kiwi colleague on the other hand - he's ready to make a friend out of this phone call. It kind of reminded me of Crocodile Dundee trying to introduce himself to everyone on the sidewalks in New York City.

U.S.: Are you a citizen of New Zealand?

Him: Yes.

(...some other questions about eligibility...)

U.S.: Do you have a criminal record?

Him: Oh, just a ticket for underage drinking back in 1978. Nothing else.

U.S.: Since you have a criminal record, you will need to apply for a visa. You will have to fly to Auckland for a 20-minute interview with a visa officer. You will have to pay a fee of $180.

Him: .... um, it's just a ticket, I think the fine was $20... it was 30 years ago when I was a juvenile .... that's not really a criminal record, is it?

U.S.: (not listening, and apparently reading from a script) As you have a criminal record, you will have to apply for a visa.

My bewildered colleague argued a little more with the disinterested worker before ending the phone call. He was devastated. And to add insult to injury, he had paid $2.00 per minute for this.

"And I told her my name!!" he said.

"Don't worry," I told him, "there's no chance she took note of it."

At this point, I felt an obligation as an American citizen to help out. I did what I had advised him to do in the first place - I went to the website. Sure enough, the Department of Homeland Security website has everything an overseas visitor needs to know about gaining authorisation before traveling to the U.S. It's all laid out in plain English. Most importantly, it clearly says that a Kiwi is eligible to travel to the U.S. without a visa as long as he does not have any convictions for offenses involving controlled substances or "crimes involving moral turpitude" - a phrase that is helpfully explained on the website. Based on this information, my colleague decided his $20 ticket for underage drinking would not bar him from visiting America afterall.

It's a shame that my colleague had such a bad experience phoning the U.S. Embassy, but it highlights a big difference between our two countries. New Zealand is small enough that you really can call a representative of the government and talk to a live person who might be interested in knowing your name. Not so in America. There are just too many people there.

Helloooo....summer?

We are allegedly in the middle of summer here. The forecast says otherwise:

	Tue	Wed	Thu
Max	15	19	20
Min	6	14	13

For the Celsius-impaired, that's a high of 59F tomorrow, climbing all the way to 68F by Thursday. The temperature right now (Monday, 10am) is a chilly 9 (48F).

Yes, it's true that we complained about the heat in Phoenix, but it wasn't the heat we didn't like. It was the relentless, year-round, ouch-I-just-burnt-myself-on-the-seatbelt heat. We like heat, we really do! In fact, we want more of it. Bring it, Christchurch. Bring us some heat. Please.

We are told that summer doesn't really arrive until January or February, so maybe balmy days are just around the corner. I swear that this time last year while we were waiting to get our visas, the newspapers showed pictures of heaps of people at the beach. They looked warm.

We have had some hot days here, but they are sporadic. Before you even start sweating, a southerly wind blows in and cools you right back down, makes you go get some socks. And of course it was very hot in Auckland over Christmas. So it's not like we haven't felt any warmth since arriving in New Zealand. I'm just saying that a little more heat would be welcome.

It could be worse though - we could be buried in Britain's freakish snowfalls ...

Zucch-tastic

Gareth shows off his giant zucchini.This was grown from seed. Gareth glows with pride from his creation. Wait til you see his heirloom tomatoes.

Incidentally, what I'm calling "zucchini" is called "courgette" in New Zealand and that's probably what I should be calling it. But sometimes people need a break from assimilation...

1st Kiwi Christmas

Our first Kiwi christmas was a not like any other christmas we'd had before. We were in Auckland. We wore sun hats and shorts. Gareth and Neil barbequed some meat and veggie burgers.

Neil's even got his Santa apron on. Ho Ho Ho. It stayed sunny until well after 8pm. We went to the beach a couple days later.

It wasn't all novelty though. There was some of the 'regular' christmas stuff too. Family was gathered. Presents were opened. Way too much food and drink were consumed (in Lindsay's case, too much sparkling grape juice. Just enough ice cream and cake.)

New Zealand is the first place in the world to see in the New Year too. So it was cool to be here for that, although, we didn't actually see much more than the inside of our eyelids when midnight struck. It was a very low key New Year.

2009 was a big year for us, what with emigrating and all. 2010 is looking to be pretty big too - we move into our new house and we welcome our baby boy into the world. And there will be no rest in 2011 either - that's when the Rugby World Cup comes to New Zealand....