The Hills Are Lousy With Sheep

One of the great things about NZ is that you cannot escape the mountains. You are always driving through, around, up or down a mountain. (Much to Amy's annoyance as they don't seem to believe in guardrails) You are also always a relatively short drive from a coast or lake. But what really impressed me is how many sheep they have crammed everywhere. The sheep cover every hill and mountain.

Walking in a Thermal Wonderland

Today, we had a long drive to Tauranga. On the way, we stopped at Thermal Wonderland. While thermal (and stinky), it was not so much a land of wonder. Although we did learn that "Mountain Dew" is a naturally occuring color. Who'd have thunk?



Mountain Dew, not so tasty:

Christmas in Napier

Merry Christmas, all! Avery and I fight over a cracker. In the end, he cheats and grabs the middle. (Only because I didn't think of it first) I didn't want the plastic frog anyway.



Claire enjoys her wipes more than her presents:



Luke sweeps up at a park as we walk through a closed for Christmas Napier:

Pebble Beach

You won't find golf in this posting. Well, now you will because I typed it. The beaches in Napier, NZ were made of perfectly rounded pebbles. No sand anywhere.

Imported Roadkill

Our first night in NZ, we were told that when the Maori arrived in NZ 1200-1300 years ago, hey were the first land mammals to arrive. The only other mammals were bats. No snakes, only one poisonous spider. No land animals basically. So all the furry wildlife is imported. All the sheep, cows and deer in the farmer's pens were all originally imported. And all the ferrets and possums. I understand ferrets were brought as pets and the possums were brought for their fur I believe. Nothing says high clas like a possum sweater. Then somehow, people got tired of both critters and released them into the wild where A)the ferrets kill the Kiwi and b)the possums become roadkill. I guess the Possum is ever doomed to be road pizza no matter where they are.

Unrelated picture:

Full Color Living

Leaving Beijing in the winter to go to New Zealand in the summer is like going from an out of focus black and white movie to full color. Everything in Beijing is in grayscale with occasional swashes in red and yellow. The pollution from burning coal does not help. New Zealand was green everywhere. The colors are richer and brighter. I knew the clouds were actually composed of water. And no one spits in your vicinity.

Christchurch - NZ's 2nd Largest City

I know I had never heard of it before planning this vacation and I was still doubtful when our tour guide told us it was NZ's 2nd largest city. I found out later they filmed the Narnia movie there. Our first night we attended a Maori feast at a Kiwi Preservation center. We got to see the famous Kiwi, but no flash photography allowed.

Stranded in Singapore

For fun, the Singapore Airline reps in Beijing would not give us our onward boarding passes from Singapore to Sydney, telling us they would bring them to us while we waitd at the gate. At boarding time, they said we would have to pick them up in Singapore.

When on the plane, they made a man change seats because of the baby's car seat. Of course, he was unhappy. Then they came back and said we couldn't use our FAA approved car seat because of FAA regulations. Then they announced on the loud speaker that our takeoff had been delayed due to passenger seating issues, but the airport hadn't given them permission to back away from the gate yet anyway. 45 minutes later, it hardly seems like our seating issues had anything to due with the delay.

A flight attendant named Victor attempts to smooth things over and promises he will call ahead to have our boarding passes ready. He doesn't. We arrive at the airport an hour late and with one hour to make the connection when Avery leaves his backpack at the gate. We have to wait for the police and bomb squad before we can get his backpack. When we arrive at the gate, there are no boarding passes to be given.

The airport hotel is booked solid. It's after mdnight and we have to be back in a few hours. We ended up spending the night in the transfer lounge at the airport. Not a great start. Tomorrow is another day.

Rest & Relaxation - It's Hard Work

Today we start our R & R travel to Sydney, New Zealand and Singapore. It will be a welcome break from work, cold winter and pollution. However, I am worried about driving everyday to a new location in New Zealand and sharing tight quarters with 4 other people.

The International Signal For "Pull Over, You Are Slow"

Apparently, flashing your brights at the car in front of you to get them to change lanes IS an internationally recognized signal. At first, I only realized it was happening when riding with other westerners. Then I noticed the Chinese drivers that work with us doing it and I assumed that we had influenced them. Then when I saw the taxi drivers doing it (and taxi drivers being on the receiving end as well), I realized it was internationally known. However, it seems to only have about a 10% effectiveness rate in achieving the desired result, i.e. the guy driving 35 MPH in the passing lane of the 75MPH highway changing to the middle or right lane. One step at a time...