Hello again.  I returned from a three day company conference in Queenstown a day late.  That suited me just fine. The departure from Q'town was late, causing a snafu that Air New Zealand remedied in high style.  They put us up in a very nice hotel, gave us dinner and breakfast, and let us leave Christchurch at the time of our choosing. So we had half a day to see downtown C'church in 22 degree weather (75 degree).  Nice!

The conference itself was brilliant and held at a very flash golf resort (www.millbrook.co.nz).  They had it organized to the hilt with groups going to seminars or our choosing, group breakfasts, lunches, and dinners each day, and Saturday afternoon reserved for recreation.  My choice was a drive into the gold mining area of Skipper's canyon followed by a jet-boat ride. Steep and beautiful followed by exhilarating.  In one spot, the driver put the boat through a gap in the rocks only a meter away on either side and of course there were the requisite 360 spins. 

Saturday night was dress up for Halloween with the President dressed as a priest and the CFO as a hooker-stuffy it never was.  I met up with an old acquaintance from the Takapuna office (near Devonport, Auckland), met scads of others including a guy from Virginia and another from California (20 years ago).  The group is a bit of a U.N. with dentists from Russia, Asia, India, Croatia, Europe, Brazil, and the US.

 

Dentists in the sun	From left- John, Tony, X, Dom	Marilyn and John	We panned for gold

I never went into Queenstown itself which is an adrenaline packed place.  Snow skiing, para-sailing, bungee jumping, white water rafting... are all within a short drive, sometimes a short walk.  There is also some of the best fresh water fishing in the world nearby. The city is set on the edge of a lake with very high and craggy mountains abruptly rising from the lake and the surrounding plains-very dramatic. See the stolen photo below.

 

Christchurch was a surprise.  Absolutely delightful with the best architecture I've seen in NZ.  It has a vibrant cafe scene, arts, music, and reminded me a lot of parts of Sacramento with its big trees, rivers, and flat land.  It is home to the third largest city park in the world, has an historic tram system, and great bus transport throughout the city.

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Now there is hope.

Just some pictures from around the area.  Not much to tell.  I hosted a thank-you lunch for the office troops on Friday at Gusto, a harbour-side restaurant.  Good fun, good food. 

Saturday was a hike up Mt. Taranaki (or Teriyaki as Gary would say), well part way up as you can see by the picture just below.  Grant don't hike on snow and ice, but I went high enough to pass some of the white stuff in the shady parts of the path.

Today, Sunday, is another blue-bird day so I took a walk to Motorua Rock (stolen photo on right), an abrupt little mount that affords great views from the top (see picture below  that is looking over the harbour and onto the city).  Besides that, its rugby on TV, geezer naps, reading and relaxing.

At the end of the last post, I was going to sign off and stop adding to this long strand of drivel.  But things happen and sights  are seen, so here is another little drip from Tuesday.

I applied for a NZ credit card online late last week.  Two days later, a letter arrived saying they needed some additional information.  I called today and was told to go into any Bank of NZ branch and show them my letter and two pieces of identification.  After walking into the CBD I did that at around 10A.  When I checked my email again just before 3P, I had a message that my application was accepted and that the card will be here in a few days.  That, my friends, is customer service.  Last Thursday I had applied for another Visa card attached to my existing account at Wetpac Bank.  That one is at the branch ready for me to pick it up.

While the credit card company was hard at work for me, I was off walking the coastal walkway to Fitzroy and lunching in Strandon (see earlier post for a map) on the return.  Then into the car for a ride maybe 20 minutes up the coast to the first beach turn off I found.  What a slice of heaven it turned out to be.  As I sat there watching the waves roll in, I thought I must be nuts to ever think about being anywhere but close to the sea.  It was like a sodden raincoat had been lifted from me as I soaked up the sun and watched the play of the surf.  Total people on the beach while I was there: 3, Dogs: 2.

Looking west	Looking east

 and north

Judi, my landlady, and I walked to a real estate auction for a house she has had her eye on.  The build up and rules of engagement took longer than the actual auction which was over in under a minute with no one stepping up to met the reserve of $550,000 (about $325,000 USD) for this house in a very good area:

click pic for details

Afterwards she took me to dinner at a nice, oceanfront place called Salt.  Beautiful food served with flair and elegant presentations.  Thank-you Judi for that and all the hospitality you have shown me over the months.  She'll hate the picture below, but it is the only one I have of her hosting people through her garden as part of the Rhododendron Festival.  The other pictures are from around her gorgeous house and gardens.

12 November 2008 - Best City in the World

This morning's paper announced that according to LivCom, a UK-based organization endorsed by the UN, New Plymouth was given awards for:

• The world's most liveable city (pop. 20,000-75,000)

• New Plymouth's Coastal Walkway is 2008's best environmentally sustainable project

• Resident's involvement for the sustainability of the community

Wow !

Last night was a goodbye dinner at Dom and Tina's house; Ivon made up the foursome of adults with Caitlin and Thomas also hanging around until having their fill of adults' chatting.  Fun and far-ranging conversations were on tap as usual.  At the end, Dom gave me a couple shirts from a local logo company- a very nice farewell that I will cherish and wear with Taranaki pride.

This is the third day of perfect weather and I'm told this is pretty much the standard until May.  I'll miss that too.

The troops at work took me out to lunch and gave me a piece of ceramic art of two Koru, an iconic image in NZ signifying new adventures-seemed appropriate and it is highly appreciated.  All of them have been a joy to work with and I'll miss them greatly.

14 November 2008 - Sign off

Tomorrow is the day of departure, a mixed blessing to be sure.  What started out three and a half months ago full of angst, turned into a rich experience filled with some of the most memorable moments and glorious sights of my life.  My time here in New Plymouth has been wonderful which, given that I was surrounded by such fine people, should have been predictable.  But of course that is just the perfection of a backwards glance. 

I could not have asked for a nicer reception at work nor better people to work with and for.  Finding the Hirst Cottage to live at was a stroke of fine luck; an historic home, a beautiful garden, and most importantly a gracious Judi. 

The travels throughout the North Island while Kathryn was here took us to spectacular   sights that the pictures do little justice.  We had a wonderful time together as we both came to understand a more appropriate cadence for living and a culture that holds all of the positives and fewer of the frantic negatives.  And my time on the South Island was a revelation filled with still more superlatives.

There was a point in time that I crossed over from being from the states and started thinking of myself as a local.  While I'll never have the proper accent and will always mangle the pronunciation of places' names (mostly because the Kiwi's do not pronounce all the vowels), I now identify with life here more than I do with life in California.  The cross-over happened on my way to picking Kathryn up in Auckland on 3 October.  I was driving up the highway on auto-pilot never even thinking about driving on the other side of the road.  Later that night, as I watched the rugby game on TV between Waikato and New Plymouth, I found myself emotionally involved in the outcome, wincing at each miscue of my home team.

But it will be nice to be back, amongst friends and the comforts of familiar surroundings.  I miss cooking for people in a proper kitchen, my bike, my guitars, my dogs, and taco stands.  I miss times with Pam, Isabella, Merja and Greg, and lunches with Michael, Vicki, and the old gang at the office.  It will be good to harass Gary and Larry in person and of course I want to hug my kids.  I'll get my fill of all of those and then figure out how to badger as many as possible into following us back to NZ.  Because as the picture says below, it is the soul of the earth.

Aloha,

Grant