The Legoland Report: from July 23 in Carlsbad, CA

Wookie to scale

love the spinner!

Rowers

Eric & Beethovan

the Knight's Tournement

exiting The Dragon coaster

the awesome buffalo!

Yes there be dragons!

Ben as a Navi warrior

Robin goes to San Francisco

Eric, Ben & Henri visit D.C.

(Ben & Eric are interviewed)

What did you like about Legoland?
E: I went on roller coasters, ate & walked.  The roller coasters were fun.  I thought the roller coasters were AWESOME!  I wanted to do them again. 

B:  I did roller coasters & the pretty fun Knights Tournement.  It picked you up & spun you around & it was really fun.  Eric’s face was red. 

How many Lego pieces did you see?

B:  So many I can’t count.  How about more than 10. I think the Lego cities were pretty cool.  I recognized lots of New York, DC &  Sandy Eggs (San Diego).

What prebuilt things did you like?
B: I liked Washington DC.  I thought it was pretty cool.  I liked the Daytona Racetrack it was pretty awesome.

E: I liked the Buffalo in the grass.  B: I loved those.  H:  Those were great!  R: I really liked the gargoyles & San Francisco.   The Smithsonian Castle was really cool & NYC’s Bethesda Fountain.

H:  What I liked about Legoland was it was a lovely park with amazing trees & grasses, incredible bonsai trees for lego scale.  Every place had little jokes (a picnic at a park, a car accident in San Francisco, a toilet & bathtub delivered to a store).  Because there was so much detail in all of the creations I could spend all day looking at them.  I also liked seeing how Legos are born.  A mold for an 8 dot brick is over 100 lbs of stainless steel.  The lego forge has such high precision that when a mold is retired it is cast into the concrete in a new building so that no one can ever use it.

R:  It was an awesome day!  The journey to Legoland was a great family outing: a little bit o’theme park & shilling of stuff, lots of creativity, whimsy, humor & running around fun.  The weather was cloudy & pleasant & the crowds minimal.

What you decided to spend your money on?
E: I spent my money on legos. 
B:  I decided to get a caricature because I thought is was really cool and now it is awesome.  It is me as a Navi dude.  It is so cool it is on my wall & on my buzz. 

What would you want to do again?
H: more time in the lego cities.
B:  Everything!  for much longer.  The technic coaster.
E:  Everything, stop tickling me.  Probably the technic coaster.

Gluten Free Nirvana

a super cute dragon tea cookie--GF!

They make tasty quiches too!

6 salads & lentil patty @ local restaurant--GF

Christchurch seems to be a GF epicenter of New Zealand.  On the taxi ride from the airport to the Holiday Park we spotted a bakery with huge GlutenFree sign.  wow!  The grocery store  (a very ordinary style one) had half an aisle of GF items (most made in NZ or Australia).  Stores at the mall advertise GF sausages!  For the first time in years I had licorice candy!!!  When we’ve stopped at coffee shops around town there are several gluten free choices (muffins or “slices”)!  There are zillons of Indian Restaurants.  The on campus coffee bars are filled with choices: GF sushi, quiches & cookies.  The other day when I asked the barista for the GF “slice” (a NZ bar cookie) she said, “which one?”  The entire top of the case was GF!!!  Despite all the walking my jeans are getting snug...but what the heck?? In this country I really can eat dessert first!

This morning Ben, Eric & I made a quick drive to this awesome bakery that Henri discovered.  The Gingerbread Man Bakery supplies all the GF goodies to the campus coffee shops.  We picked up some mini-pizzas, cookies & mini savory pies.

No Worries

Welcome to New Zealand where the national motto seems to be “No Worries”.  People are really helpful, positive, tend to have good manners. 

Helpful people at the airport seemed natural as they are welcomers of tourists (one of the NZ cash flow endeavors).  It was a real treat to have a security person say to us, “Can I help you out?  You look a little lost.”  This is a huge contrast to the generally grumpy & stressed out security personnel in US airports.

School kids on public city busses actually thank the drivers as they exit!  WoW!

We have been so lucky to meet genuinely helpful people.  The family we will be renting from organized school uniforms for the boys (used & free), folks at the Quaker Meeting had a great recommendation on more permanent apartments while we wait for the house to be available.  Henri’s colleague, Greg, had us & a whole host of other folks out for dinner (Greg & Ing have 4 boys between the ages of 2 months & 5 years)!!!!  Ing (Greg’s wife) is a total energizer & loves hosting people.  She’s a community builder that I look forward to getting to know.  The boys loved running around in their pastures, feeding the goats, chasing the chickens & little kids.

At Ing & Greg’s I met several awesome women who are getting me connected into Christchurch.

Even though Gwen G. had only 4 more days in Christchurch before flying back to the states she took me to the cheapest car rental place & the coolest fabric store ever! 

I am so happy to have “Shopping Basket” the car.  The boys & I have been on some small fun adventures with it.  Remember driving on the LEFT side of the road is an adventure for me!

We love the Library!

A fun sculpture outside the library

the classic NZ ketchup bottle

What is great about Christchurch???

While at the Holiday Park Henri discovered the Upper Riccarton library.  It became a terrific destination for all of us...the boys could each get on the internet for an hour & leave messages for friends, hunt down comic books, I could find literature & fluffy reads, Henri could use the internet hot spot to check in with work & we could all enjoy tea & snacks at the cafe.  Yes, every library does have a cafe attached.  The libraries even have posters you can borrow to hang in your room!  We may borrow some to brighten up the dorms we are now living in.

2 kinds of fresh chinese tea & lemon slices @ Library cafe!

Important Kiwi Culture
While signing us all up for library cards, fabulous librarian Rebecca gave me a crash course in important Maori (pronounced “Mau 'ree”) legends and names (it was the tail end of Maori language week).
1. Maori place names tell you about the landscape & what was there in ancient times.  The name of Upper Riccarton is Te Kete Wananga o Putaringamotu  which means “place of the speaking ground” or  "place of echo".  Christchurch is built over river deltas from the “braided rivers” that originate in the Southern Alps.  The marshlands of this specific area were such that a practiced interpreter could tell if someone was approaching on the trails.  All one had to do was put an ear to the ground to listen.  Pretty cool name for a library!

2. The waka is Maori boat or long canoe. Part of traditional Maori greetings are to tell your name, lineage and your waka (how you traveled to the island).  Our waka is the airplane.

3.  The waka and the fish  So the great Creator was out in his waka fishing with his magic jawbone.  Now he went on to do a great many things with that jawbone...but this time he pulled up an enormous fish from the depths of the ocean.  The fish was too big to fit on his waka.  So he let the fish and the waka be.  The fish became the North Island of New Zealand and the Waka became the South Island (The boys learned this legend the following week at school!).

School Days

After 5 days we were all mostly adjusted to the time, had visited the boys schools, had tea & lovely home made cakes with Anne-Marie, Zhang Ji & their kids (our future landlords), gone to Quaker Meeting & got to know the lay of the land in the area where we will be living. 

By Monday August 2 the boys were ready for school.  Henri headed in to meet his colleagues in the Civil Engineering Dept, Ben to Kirkwood Middle School, Eric to Ilam Primary & me to search out our second phase of housing.

In New Zealand all kids wear uniforms to school.  The kids are attending regular public schools near the University.  As you can see the elementary school uniform is something kids can play in.  Eric says it's very comfortable.  The intermediate school uniform is a bit more formal/British.  Yes those are really long wool socks Ben is wearing.  The boys tend to wear shorts all winter (rugged NZ culture).  The girls wear green & black plaid skirts.  Ben has PE every day at school & the PE uniform is green knit shorts & a white polo shirt.  Both have school fleeces (blue & green)...a NZ concession to winter.

New Zealand Sunrises

Coming from the states our internal clocks were a little messed up.  We spent our first week in Christchurch in a Vacation Cabin in a Holiday Park (campground) @ Church Corner.  There we got our bearings & began exploring town on foot & by bus.  Here’s the church at Church Corner.  Looks like a piece of England.

The Holiday park was great because: we had a separate cabin so we didn’t wake up anyone nearby , it was really quiet, it was close to a grocery store, the library & the major bus lines. Diane, the park manager, had great tips and a warm personality.

Also the cabin (while having tiny portable electric heaters) had an amazing NZ commodity....electric matress pads!  I am the woman of constantly cold toes & these are amazing!  I didn’t even wear socks to bed!  We didn’t need 20 pounds of blankets to stay warm! 

The first few mornings we were up & breakfasted by 4:30 or 5 am.  The grocery store didn’t open until 6:30 am.  It was then we discovered New Zealand has fabulous sunrises!  The great part of arriving in late winter is that we’ve been able to see some beautiful night skies.  On our second morning Ben & I saw the Southern Cross constellation as we walked to the grocery store.  Here are a few of the sunrises.

Flying Over

Here’s a look at the bags we are bringing with us. Missing from this pile are each boys’ backpack. I kept having overpacking angst while we were @ Sascha’s. But we brought it all anyway.

Here are the boys waiting in the airport for our 11:15 PST flight. We all managed some sleep on the flight. Ben watched 7 on demand movies & Eric about 4. {“The Spy Next Door” it is WAY better than “The Tooth Fairy”. Jackie Chan has comic flare as well as awesome fight choreography.}

We landed in rainy green Auckland (North Island). During our 3 hour layover before flying to Christchurch (South Island) we met a US/Kiwi family with 3 girls the boys’ ages. All had a great time playing cards, chasing each other & giving the parents time to enjoy caffeine.

The flight over to the South Island was stunningly clear so we all had views of the Southern Alps & the kids enjoyed their new friends.