Phone problems fixed

Our apologies to everyone who has tried to call us. The Lingo phone system does not support forwarding to New Zealand phone numbers, in fact the system breaks when you setup a New Zealand phone number as a default forward in case of a busy signal. We fixed that today so from now on our home number will work.

+1.847.674.4758

Please feel free to call, after 3:00pm your time.

The first Park.

When you have an active energetic social boy like we do parks become a very important part of your day. Dennis is always wanting to go to the park and play. Therefore we have become quite the connoisseur of parks over the year. Let me tell you the Wellington parks are excellent. They remind me of parks when I was growing up. Just a bit more rugged and designed for children to have fun as opposed to keep the lawyers at bay.

Here is a picture of Dennis coming down his favorite slide in Wellington. Dennis discovered this our first day from the 14th floor of our landlord's offices. We went to it the first morning at 5:00am when Jet Lag prevented us from sleeping.

From our perspective this park is hard to beat. It has everything a child needs. Slide, swings, climbing obstacles, teeter totter and other children. It is far from car traffic actually fairly isolated from pedestrian traffic as well. It is compact enough that sitting on the benches you have an excellent view of the whole area. But the most important thing about the park is that you can make your child believe you are watching him play and secretly be enjoying the amazing views of the harbor ...

Botanical Gardens

For those of you who got a good laugh at my story of walking up and down in New Zealand I would like you to know that the effort is greater than I described; however the views are worth every bit of it. For example to the right is the view from the Botanical Gardens.

Two things I want you to notice. First of all that 22 story building to my left is lower than we are. (It is at the same level as our apartment.) Second the cable car tracks right behind me. They are at an incline. We just came up the cable car, which is the only reason why I am still wearing a coat.

Kitchen

Chris cooking our first meal here in New Zealand.

Hills

Wellington is hilly is an understatement of epic proportions. My walk to work in the morning only sends me up one hill. It is a gradual incline only on the last five blocks of the walk. But that is enough for me to work up a muck sweat. I do have an alternate route to take that will take off three blocks of that incline and move my ascension to "Pilmers Steps" a alley way of stairs that goes up five stories, putting me out on Boulcott Ave, then a short walk uphill to the Terrace overpass which I can climb with two flights of stairs. From there it is a very gradual downhill slope until I get to Molsworth Street for my final run up to the Ministry of Health.

But this is nothing compared to some of the other hills we have here in Wellington. I walked to Victoria university last night for my Tae Kwon Do class. Take the afore mentioned stairs to The Terrace, then turn left where I walk uphill for about half a mile, then turn right where I go into a switch back or two which brings me up to the Recreation Center. Once I get to the Rec Center walk up four flights of stairs to the locker room, then back down the stairs to my Tae Kwon Do class. I was tired before it even started. We have not even tried to walk to the Botanical Gardens which is by far closer, and higher than the university. A way up is provided by a cable car. The track is at a 45 degree angle straight up from Lampton Quay going westerly for about 1000 feet. Delightful ride well worth the $2 even without the views.

The Botanical Gardens are another wonderful hilly location. Quite beautiful in and of themselves but add to that the delightful views of Wellington it was awesome. Every hill we climbed (up or down) came with another view that was worth the trip. The children's play area was on three levels we were seated at least 20' above the swing sets looking down upon Dennis as he was at the apex of his swing. (I did not want to leave the gardens, in addition to the views my calves hurt to much for the next hill.)

Now you know why all Wellingtonians have strong, shapely calf muscles!

First Day in Wellington

We arrived safely Thursday the 17th and had a long day. In Auckland we got our passports stamped. Then we had to grab all our luggage (400 lbs) and clear customs. Once the baggage was conveyed back to Air New Zealand for the flight to Wellington, we had some time to spare. Dennis spied a video arcade corner. Tom and I had some lattes. I browsed the book and souvenir shops while the guys ate breakfast #2 at McDonalds.

The weather was cloudy so we did not get to see too much of the western shore of the North Island. What we did see really was gorgeous--mountains with beautiful bright green and dark green next to the blue ocean. Breakfast #3 was yogurt and muesli with fresh and dried fruit.

About 9:30 a.m. we were greeted at the Wellington airport by Karla and Warwick. Warwick greeted me with flowers, a kiss and a chocolate cupcake for my birthday. Karla greeted us with her warm smile and our taxi cab. Many airport taxis are vans that pull little covered trailers for luggage. We filled that trailer with 8 large checked bags. There was no street space for unloading so the driver pulled up onto the sidewalk.

We are in a furnished two bedroom apartment in the center of the business district. The furniture is modern chrome and glass, which isn’t our taste, nevertheless it is comfortable. The apartment feels spacious since the kitchen, dining and living are all open plan and has 8 tall windows. Dennis enjoys having his own room with some space for books and toys. We hear traffic but no horns; drivers can be fined for inappropriate tooting. Karla did some grocery shopping for us so we could eat and rest.

Most of our stuff arrived unharmed. Two pictures with glass frames broke and I am missing a toiletry bag that was checked. TSA left notes in our luggage letting us know they had been there. The apartment did not have a vacuum cleaner. We called management to borrow a vacuum and they brought us a brand new one. They did not have a vacuum in the building!

The three of us were going to go out, explore and find a toy store. Tom’s key got stuck in the lock. We called management to get the key out. Tom and Dennis went out while I stayed back at the apartment. Tom got our bank account opened where Dennis got a water bottle and a canister bank. In the meantime, I studied the guidebooks and maps and figured out where the toy store is and how to get to the zoo and botanic gardens. We met at Toyworld and Dennis got two action figures, a fly wheels, extra wheels for it, a Hot Wheels semi truck, and a quantum fazer gun. At the store Dennis tested all the scooters. A few times we asked him to slow down so he wouldn’t run over other shoppers.

Around 5:30 we returned to our apartment both tired and hungry. I sent Tom out to scout for dinner. He asked a nice lady for a restaurant recommendation. We had a delicious meal at Café Pravda: fries for Dennis, salmon and salad for me, lamb for Tom. Dennis was so tired we had to eat and run. By 7:00 p.m. both Tom and Dennis were in bed asleep. I followed a half hour later after enjoying my birthday cupcake with hokey pokey ice cream (vanilla with butterscotch bits).

Bye!!

We are off to New Zealand this morning. These past few weeks have been bitter sweet. We have great relationships here which we have built over the past 23 years. Leaving them is painful.

Leaving is also painful because of all the packing we did. Eight bags, 50 pounds each! Here is a picture of them, it doesn't do them justice.


Please feel free to e-mail or call us our contact info stays the same for now. Yep our phone number +1.847.674.4758 will ring in New Zealand starting Thursday.

Coffee and Cars

Yesterday we sold our cars. It was such a relief to have those last two large items taken off our hands. Friends came by and cleared out our refrigerator and cupboards. We mailed six big boxes to parents and we stagged some clothing for our church.

It is a beautiful Spring morning and as we are pretty much ready to I want to sit down outside with a cup of coffee and enjoy my last Spring day for six months. We have neither coffee or cream or the means to get some. I knew I should have insisted people pick up the cars today!

Home Sweet Home

Home is an interesting concept. We lived in the Keeler house for seven years. I don't remember when it turned into our home, at first it was our house. I think it took the better part of a year before I considered it our home. When we sold it I agonized over the transaction for it was MY home!

Now we live on Harding in Evanston by the graciousness of some friends of ours. When we first moved into the house it was a house. It wasn't our house nor was it our home. Here four months later it has become our home. Not in ownership but in familiarity, caring for it (for I have done some painting with the owners blessing,) and memories. There have been many sad partings within the walls of this house, our home.

Now we are moving to another country and another home. We will be living

http://www.centurycity.co.nz/inner_city/332TheQuay.html

Go ahead and Google " 332 Lambton Quay, Wellington " to find out where it is.

This will be our home for a month. We are talking to a owner of a house very near here to let us rent it for three months while they are out of the country.

Music

During the course of the past 14 hours I have ripped 64 CD's which we have in our library. It amounts to 8.83Gb of music. The CD's will be boxed and sent off to one of our lucky parents to store until we return. Of course the CD's may not be sold, or for that matter even played while we are gone, for if they were it would be a copy write violation.

We are finally going to enter into the 21st century music scene. No longer will we be pulling out CD's to play on an antiquated piece of hardware. From this point forward we will need a computer to play music! We will of course have to find speakers to go with the computer.

If any of you reading this has an opinion of the type of speakers we should get please let us know. For now we will be using the speakers that come with our laptops ... which do not quite fill a room.

MORE STUFF!!!

After having gotten rid of half our possessions, And putting 90% of the rest in storage;
And throwing away a not insignificant portion of the remaining "stuff;"
And taking a trailer load down to my parents and her parents;
And giving a car load to my sister;
And giving a bunch to friends ...

We have stagged the following to give away at our open house tomorrow!

Party

We are having a party this weekend. Time for us to say good bye to all our friends. It is at 2:00pm this Sunday April 6th at the house we are renting 9239 Harding, Evanston IL.

If you are reading this for the first time please forgive me I thought we had told everyone. And please come to the party. We want to say good-bye in person.