From Sydney with love

Our container with all our household items was re-scheduled to arrive last Friday, around lunchtime. At 10:00 I receive a call from Randy from the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (MAF). He phoned to inform me that a few of our items from our container had been confiscated. I suddenly remembered coercing Amy to err on the vague side of exactly what was in our boxes. Was I in for it now? Apparently the border patrol went through all our stuff and found a few contraband items. My brain was racing ahead of what Randy was telling me, wondering what they had found and what would happen next. I listened carefully as Randy explained our options. We could pay to have the items fumigated, try to send the items back to the US, or have them destroyed. Randy turned out to be very friendly and told me that there were just a few little things that were held back; a few straw Christmas ornaments, and a gourd with seeds in. He suggested that the items didn’t have any significant commercial value, and I could replace them at little cost at the local Warehouse (the Warehouse is New Zealand’s version of Walmart). I was too relieved to be offended. A wave of relief came over me when I realized we were being let of the hook, save a few ornaments. Our stuff had made it through customs.


A little later, the three-man Allied movers crew arrived with all our clothes, books, toys, pots, pans, camera gear, and much more, re-packaged after careful inspection by the border authorities. It turns out that our inspection is quite typical, and the border patrol usually finds some items to confiscate. Christmas ornaments are a likely place to find straw ornaments or pinecones.

It took the movers about two hours to unload the van, even with me hesitating while I tried to remember what furniture we had and where they should take it. We only made them move one piece of furniture twice. It was the heaviest piece though.
After living out of a few suitcases for eight months, we’re now sinking under hoards of stuff we forgot we had. And that’s after numerous garage sales and trips to the Salvation Army donation center before we left the States.

Quinne and Beck had a ball discovering their toys again. It was like Christmas in the middle of winter (that will only sound strange to the few southerners reading this). They both outgrew many clothes before even wearing them. Now that we have new clothes to wear, we hardly recognize each other. After camping in the same clothes for so long, it’s a thrill to have luxuries like slippers to walk around the house in. A choice of shoes seems decadent. We have to choose what to wear now instead of picking the least smelly items from the small pile next to the inflatable camping mattress. All this stuff takes organization, and we’re not used to it. It was simpler with fewer items lying around. We appreciate what we have now more than ever, AND there’s something we’ll miss about the simpler ‘zen’ lifestyle of our former minimalist existence.

Living with the mindset of not buying stuff has been good for us. We’ve held off stopping in at the store to buy something that we knew would be here soon. In the mean time, we found creative ways to do without. We’re used to drinking out of jam jars instead of proper glasses. Now we have a choice of vessels to suit the type of beverage we’re about to elegantly sip. No more gulping. Now we have to remember which fork to use for the salad.

Talking about eating, we now have chooks (chickens). We bought four 12-week old white shavers, which are supposed to be good layers. The bossy one is named Gladys. The others are Pip, Pip Pip, and Nog-a-Pip (Gladys Night and the Pips). Amy has taken them under her wing, and treats them like old friends. She makes sure they have a comfy bed, a warm meal, and fresh water, several times a day.

The pullets are introduced to their new home...


Here's Gladys Knight...


and the pips...

Newsworthy

I’m enjoying a hot cup of tea in the warm kitchen, where we’ve been spending much of our time lately. It’s very cozy sitting by the Stanley wood stove. We were staying in the hop kiln while we waited for our container to arrive. The day it was supposed to arrive, we were informed that it was in Sydney instead. I’m not sure who was more surprised, us or the captain. He must have really bad aim. Wrong dang island altogether. Now they tell us it will arrive in Nelson port next week.

The hop kiln was cold, so we decided to move into our house. We’re glad we did, and we’ve been loving it. The worst of the winter seems to be over, or at least it won’t get colder than it has been. We’ve been treated to several magnificent sunny days followed by cold nights. The wood stove warms the kitchen quickly, and provides a cozy ambiance. With several hot plates at the ready, and a warm oven always on, we’ve been cooking and baking plenty.

Quinne is on winter break from kindergarten for three weeks. She has two more weeks left. We’re enjoying the quiet time to work in the garden and get the house organized. It’s very peaceful here, and the snow on the mountains make them look endearing in their winter attire. Here’s a view from a short walk around the corner from our house.


I haven’t been able to get out to take pictures as much as I’d like. I stayed in yesterday morning and watched the kids playing in the hallway. Like many old New Zealand houses, the hallway of our house is very wide, and runs the length of the house. I scratched my itch to take pictures by pointing my camera at the kids. The light was very interesting coming through our glass-paneled front door. Then I had fun with post-processing…


Amy and I are off in a helicopter to the Kauharangi National Park next month.

Hello All. Amy here. I've come out of my blog writing hibernation to share Oliver's exciting news with you. You see, if I didn't announce Oliver’s news, you wouldn't hear about it. And besides, I want to be the one to toot Oliver’s horn for him.

So, about that helicopter ride in Kauharangi National Park… the reason we get to go on it is that Oliver won first place in a photography competition, and the prize was a helicopter trip for two plus a fancy lunch in a lodge in Kauharangi National Park.

The photo competition was part of the Motueka Festival of Lights. People in town were invited to submit photos in a few different categories. Out of over 450 entries, this photograph of Oliver’s won 1st place in the category “A Portrait In Low Light,” and 1st place overall.


Oliver’s other exciting news is that he had his first story printed in a newspaper. Last week we went to a lantern festival. Oliver took many great pictures, and when we got home he wrote an article about the event. The next day he phoned the paper, asked if they would be interested in purchasing his article and a photograph to go with it. Sure enough they wanted to, and the article ran on the front page of the paper. Here’s the article:

FESTIVAL OF LANTERNS
by Oliver Weber

The Motueka Japanese Garden came to life on Monday evening with a flurry of little people. With one hand wrapped around their parent’s hand, and the other holding their gently glowing lanterns, small children wandered through a magical world of gnomes and elves during the annual Festival of Lights lantern walk hosted by the Motueka Steiner School for the general public.

The melodic procession of bundled children stopped along the way to peek at the displays of mythical creatures gathered among the undergrowth. Under a crystal clear winter sky, a small group of Motueka Steiner School students played the traditional German lantern festival tunes on their recorders to accompany the bobbing lanterns. The lanterns were a perfect symbol of inner warmth that represents the inward turning aspect of winter.

Earlier in the day, families gathered in the Motueka library under the guidance of a group of Steiner School parents to carefully create the beautiful candle lanterns they would later use to light their way through the garden. Due to the popularity of the lantern walk, we can surely expect the gnomes and elves to make future appearances at many more Motueka Festivals of Lights lantern walks.


Oliver back. Thanks Amy for the toot. The funny thing is that I wrote the article so that they would publish the picture, and they printed the article only. They intended to publish both, but for some reason they inserted the article only. I actually wrote the article because the school deserves publicity for the magic experience they create for the little children in the communithy. It’s a wonderful experience for the little kiddies. Here’s the picture the paper didn’t publish…


I was keeping a very low profile so that I didn't ruin the magic of the moment, so I didn't use any artificial light. It's not easy when the only light is from candles in a lantern. The first lantern festival was at Quinne's kindie where I took several pictures of the kids in the garden walking around with their lanterns, and they turned out really well. The local newspaper photographer arrived also to take some pictures. When I told her that the teachers would rather that we don't use a flash, she looked stunned and promptly disappeared. She wrote a nice article, and I let her use one of my pictures for it.

It was really Quinne and I who won the photo contest. I couldn’t have taken the picture without her. I explained that to her, and she was very happy that we won the competition, but expected to be the one to join me in the helicopter. She’s so kind hearted that she understood when I told her that I would take Amy instead, and she happily settled for a fluffy instead.

Well, time to put another log on the fire. Good night from a cozy corner of a warm kitchen on the top of the South Island in the middle of winter.