A ride on a cart with Audrey and Noah, what fun! On Tuesdays I take Milo to Playcenter. It’s like a parent-coop-preschool, where you can bring your kids and they can play with the cool toys and do messy stuff like paint and glue and scissors. It’s not a childcare center–parents stay there with the kids for the most part. We met Laura there with her two kids, Audrey and Noah, and have become buddies. Laura is headed back home (Alaska) in a couple weeks, and when I mentioned to a kiwi mom there that I was sad to see her leave, she callously advised me to make new friends. She was just trying to be helpful, so I know I shouldn’t let the comment niggle me….but it does.  When you’ve just moved, spent a long time being lonely and then finally found a new friend, the last thing you want to do is repeat that whole process. 

Milo and I spent a couple hours in Hagley Park this week oogling over the flowers. This rose is impressive, no? This one looks the same all year round, but we also enjoyed some seasonal blooms and a week-long display of flower arrangements.

Most of these rose blossoms in the formal garden don’t actually have any appreciable scent, but that doesn’t stop Milo smelling them! Thankfully that’s all he does, because I suspect that the gardeners carefully hand clipping the grass edges wouldn’t be amused if he started picking petals.

“BIG” and “small” are two of Milo’s favorite descriptors right now. Since most of these dahlias fit into one or the other category, Milo was happy to browse the extensive collection with me, exchanging superlatives.

Look at these crazy things! I do love plant variety collections! Why we as humans like the extremes, the tiny pincushion blooms cheek by jowl with the enormous dinner-plate frizzy ones, I don’t know…..but take a look at any dog breed book (or chicken breed, or pig breed, or cat breed…you get the idea) and you’ll see that strange habit played out in the flesh.

There were a bunch of little “cottages” set up with different floral themes. They all had a big open viewing window just Milo’s height. It was the undertakers association, strangely enough, that sponsored this portion of the displays.

Milo and I lowered the average age of the flower arrangement audience by a good 10 years….or so it seems.

It must be a British sense of humor…..for some reason there was a whole display of decorated outhouses. I think this part of the flower show started as a way to poke fun after the earthquakes, when the sewer systems weren’t functional, but they were so well loved that they were brought back by popular demand. This one showed all the neglected garden plants surrounding the outhouse, casualties of the earthquake devastation, while the port-a-loo is brimming with color. Perhaps they’re saying how rich human manure is as a fertilizer? Well, whatever the intended message, Milo was impressed.

“Waddle waddle waddle!”  That’s how Milo says “Penguin,” and these fellows were the biggest ones he’s ever seen.

Our friend Damien turned 40 last week and celebrated getting old by heading up to Lake Clearwater and renting a “Bach” — Kiwi for a cobbled-together camp dwelling, varying in sophistication from outhouse-rustic to basic hot showers, but nothing much more fancy than that. We joined them for the weekend. Unlike lake houses that we’re used to at home lining the water’s perimeter, this collection of camps is arrayed in a concentrated little “village” and the lake itself is left open for trout fishermen and the like.

Saturday morning Damien and Jeremiah puttered around the lake trying to temp the fish with fake flies and spinners, and Milo enjoyed running around the path examining flowers and bugs.

The bug catcher came out later. Milo is an excellent little imitator–which means I must look pretty funny when I’m catching him a butterfly. He stalks and pounces, one knee down, then holds for a second or two just like Mama does while she makes sure the insect crawls up into the cage.

We caught moths, butterflies, bees and even a spider, but the flies were too quick for us. Fortunately for the insects, Milo likes releasing them as much as he likes catching them.

Here’s Milo’s self portrait, using the camera timer up in the living room of the bach. The camera provided a long stint of amusement on the drizzly Sunday morning.

Milo tried to feed the porcelain bunny a carrot, but it wasn’t too interested. Bunny has a bit of carrot juice on his whiskers now, but that is the extent of the action. The carrot actually disappeared, but we found it again in the trash–a friend played a little joke on us.

Just up the valley from Lake Clearwater is the Rangitata river basin, a massive gravel plain partially covered with vegetation. The road back there has been improved (widened) though it’s still unpaved, and tour buses filled with avid Tolkien fans wend their way back there ever since the filming of the Lord of the Rings has put the valley on the map.

Mount Sunday in the background was used filming the Lord of the Rings (Edoras, and a battle scene), so the area has enjoyed recent tourist fame and sports and nice wiggly bridge. No fish in the stream though.

The Mount Potts station owner (a station is a huge hill country ranch, this one is 1200 hectares or 3000 acres) has opened a cafe that feeds the tour-bus customers to the remote valley, and the proceeds from the restaurant business must swamp anything he got from giving film crews access to the valley. Our crew enjoyed a cup of coffee and a couple beers before reluctantly setting back out to Christchurch.

You can squint all you want, but you’ll never find us in this photo–I just took it off the Buller Gorge marathon website because that’s what the race was like–well over a thousand runners filling up half the road in the scenic Buller Gorge, Westport, New Zealand. We had driven this way just after Christmas during torrential rain, but this weekend’s weather cooperated perfectly. And no, we didn’t actually run a marathon, we ran the half.

The half marathon started just downstream of this tunnel bit–the marathon runners got to go through it. Buller Gorge River looked sparkly and tame when we were there, but we’ve seen it muddy, fast and treacherous too.

I pushed Milo for the race, and here we are just coming into Westport, almost finished. There were so many people at the start that it took us 2 minutes just to cross the starting line, but after a few miles it thinned out. Being the only Mama pushing a pram in this race, we got lots of comments, all in good humor. “What does a ride cost?” “Can I trade places with the baby?” I told them they could ride with me on the down hills, but they’d have to push on the ups! For whatever silly reason, I found it particularly fun to pass guys. “You know it’s bad when you’re passed by a baby!” they’d say.  Though truth be told, at 1 hour 50 minutes, we didn’t pass any of the fast runners, either men or women. Still we had fun!

Jeremiah beat his previous personal record on this run, coming in about 1 hour 28 minutes. Molly didn’t beat any records, but felt good nevertheless.

This guy has a hard-core beard! One of the most enjoyable parts of running with a big group of people is admiring all the shapes and sizes. And if you ever thought you couldn’t run a half marathon, all you need for inspiration is a glimpse of the people that do. Anyone can make it. Folks with sinewy legs in their 70s, women with jiggly tushes flopping around inside spandex tights, middle-aged guys with pot bellies….and fit old men with bushy beards!

There was a kid’s run in the afternoon around a couple blocks in town and through the finishing shoot. Milo had a blast watching them come in (“More, more!” he kept asking), and I have to admit, the varied running styles and stamina strategies were more interesting to watch than the adults.

We camped for the weekend at one of those drive-up campgrounds with kitchens, showers, and playgrounds. Milo was thrilled to sleep in a tent….or at least to play in a tent. He had the usual tough time settling down to sleep the first night, so the second I tucked him into his car seat, turned on the new Raffi CD from Omi and Abi, and lost myself in a novel. Just the car seat restraint let him relax and fall asleep, no fuss no muss, and no frayed tempers. Brilliant.

Milo was nervous about the waves when walking on his own, but when on Mama’s back he thought it was a good joke if we had to hustle back from the encroaching water.

The camp ground was right across from the beach, though you wouldn’t catch me in that cold water. We enjoyed an evening beach walk and Milo bid the sun goodnight.

The park where the race ended had a nice kid playground….built for giants, but Milo wasn’t a bit nervous climbing that tall ladder.

A half marathon only takes the morning, so in the afternoon we went walking at Cape Foulwind. Unfortunate name, Captain Cook probably had some misadventure there. Though it was a strong spunky wind that snatched at our hats, it wasn’t stinky the day we visited.

The ever-present sheep made their appearance once again, much to Milo’s delight. They even left poop on the path, just for his amusement.

In case you need directions…..we’re a long way from home.

We stopped at Reefton on the way back to break up the 4.5 hour ride, taking a walk though this friendly beech forest. Starting out on the old mining road it felt like a logging road at home, ferns fluttering on the shady bank, a creek burbling down below, and even a few big-leafed maple-like trees at the side.

Milo has been two for a whole week now. We celebrated his birthday at the Hagley park wading pool (central park in Christchurch) with an international bunch of friends–two families of Brits, Canadians and Americans. We’ll make the most of these summer birthdays while we’re in the southern hemisphere! The breeze made it a little hard to keep those candles lit, but we managed.

How many kids does it take to blow out two candles? Just kidding! Blowing out the candles was a group effort.

COOKIE is Milo’s favorite word, so when Jeremiah sent out an email invitation to his birthday party, he grabbed an internet photo of cookie monster cupcakes as an embellishment. Then a couple of his work colleagues said they were coming because they wanted those Cookie Monster Cupcakes….he had created an expectation that needed to be fulfilled. And he sure fulfilled it, they looked professional!

Jeremiah spent three evenings creating these impressive Cookie Monsters, after researching construction techniques on you-tube. I was pressed into assistance to provide never-ending frosting and googley-eyes, but my main project was the train. Phew, if it takes this much effort for a two-year-old’s birthday, just think of the enormity of effort required at year five!

I had my qualms about bringing the new birthday boat to the pool because I didn’t have boats for all the kids….and Milo did find it very hard to share the new love of his life with his friends. But they were good spores and it worked out fine.

February 6th is Waitangi Day, commemorating the treaty with the Maori signed in 1840, considered New Zealand’s founding document. I don’t imagine the Maori celebrate the day with quite the same pleasure as we did…. We celebrated the day off from work to go hiking with some friends. Jennifer on the left is an American friend Jeremiah met at an engineering conference. Jen on the right and her husband Dustin and son Tristan are Canadian buddies that Milo and I met at the wading pool. The Canterbury plains stretch below us, dotted with the inevitable sheep and cattle.  We usually hike alone, so it was really nice to have company and it’s exciting to have new friends.  Plus, us three women got in some good girl chat, a real treat!

Lunch at the summit was punctuated by parental remonstrations to the boys to be gentle, throw rocks AWAY from people only, refrain from pushing, etc. Milo and Tristan actually get along quite well, but also constantly test those standards of conduct. Time out seems reasonably effective at this age.

Here they are, trotting along, oblivious of the view but having a blast. Tristan walked the whole ridge line and he’s just a year older than Milo, so I still hold out hope that by the time Milo is too heavy to throw on our backs, he’ll be ready to do at least some amount of walking on his own two legs.

Look, a railing, perfectly slanted for ease of climbing! No one fell into the water this time, but it wasn’t for lack of trying!

Here we are, picking the fruits (yes, that’s botanically correct) of our labor. I’m not sure if Milo remembers poking these seeds into the ground back in the spring, but he sure enjoys picking them. Too bad he doesn’t enjoy eating them….he leaves that to Mama and Daddy.

Last weekend we joined forces with a British family and walked up to Packhorse Hut in the Port Hills (Banks Peninsula, just 30 minutes from our house)….except in lieu of horses, we had PackDaddies. Emma carried their youngest, William, I carried Milo, Joe and Amelia used their own two legs, and the Daddies (Ian and Jeremiah) carried the rest.

Look Amelia, if you stand on tip-toe you can just see the roof of the hut. We’re almost there! Amelia was so proud when she got to the hut without any Whinging (Complaining, in British).

This hut came with resident games! Milo was nice and gentle with Baby William. For some reason he views kids his own age and older as competition, but if I tell him that someone is a baby, they usually get special no-pushing treatment from Milo.

The Banks Peninsula is wonderfully accessible from Christchurch and you quickly get out into a rural feel (we started our hike in a sheep pasture). That pine forest in the background is being logged and we could hear cattle mooing way up from the valley, so it’s not wilderness, but it’s a wonderful backyard to Christchurch.

The hut sits up on the crater edge of an old extinct volcano, the center of which is now Lyttelton Harbor. I wish I could see a fast-forward film of what it used to look like when it was active until now, grassy and eroded.

Breakfast Mayhem! Yum! It’s impressive that this stone hut built in the early 1900’s has survived all the earthquakes. Only the chimney toppled.

The kids all stayed up way too late playing Quiddler and were consequently tired the next day, but they had fun.

Tea with a View. And I even got to drink it while it was hot, this leisurely morning.

Pretty posh spot for a stretch! Trail runners started arriving around 8:30, touting camelbacks and Icebreaker merinos, two hours into their morning exercise. The hut makes a nice destination for both walkers and runners.

Everyone did some climbing!

Milo’s ready and waiting, new backpack filled with survival gear (two rubber duckies, a bug catcher and a tennis ball).

Over the style and down the hill, we’re on our way home.

Milo is thrilled to walk, and thankfully our friends were happy to dawdle along. Joe there in the background is becoming an expert bee catcher.

When we rented this house we negotiated full rights to make the backyard a veggie garden (or “Vege” patch as they say here). We have to put it back to grass before we leave, but for now it serves a useful purpose. With the warmer weather the zucchini and cukes have started their bounty and I’m guessing that the tomatoes will come into their own in 3-4 weeks. This soil seems to need more fertilizer than I’m used to (to be fair, I haven’t used compost like at home). My other steep learning curve has been with something as simple as watering–the plants need a lot more watering than at home where it’s more humid and where we get rain more frequently in summer. It feels great to not purchase every bit of food we consume, and with Jeremiah’s recent hunting successes the freezer/fridge is feeling more bountiful.

The box of Christmas goodies dispatched from the Shaw residence in Greenwich NY arrived at our house on Monday, stuffed with family gifts and items we had bought online in the States. So we scheduled our Christmas gifting for that evening, beginning, as Harro tradition holds, with the stockings. Milo was thrilled. He had shopped at the grocery store with us and knew which stockings belonged to whom, and what little kid doesn’t recognize a cookie when he sees one? He may not have experienced the other items yet, but he somehow knows they’re delicious. Don’t worry Omi, we included a new toothbrush as well.

Green Eggs and Ham, Jamberry, Are You My Mother? (in Spanish and English), and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom were a few of the classic titles my Mom and Dad sent to augment Milo’s library. I think I love reading the familiar lilting rhythms even more than Milo does.

The beads were on top, and Milo claimed them straight away.  Thank you for all the lovely surprises, family!