Trip to Oamaru, Otago

They have penguins here. Wild ones. Not in zoos and sea worlds. 

Penguins are my all-time favorite birds (with ostriches coming a close second). So we went to a town called Oamaru a couple hours south of us that has several colonies of penguin. Two of Little Blue Penguins, and one of Yellow Eyed Penguins. If it were legal to own one, I would so own one. But I can't, so we visited. :) 

Maggie was looking very cool in my shades. 

We stopped at a berry farm for a picnic. 

 

Sometimes they pose nicely.

Sometimes they don't!

Maggie got the best view! 

Inside here is a penguin. the grey and white are her feathers! This is probably not the right camera for the job but we were 3 feet away and they looked so soft and cuddly! The boxes are made from wood and set in the hill for the penguins to live. Some of them eschew the boxes and dig their own burrows but most of them have "gone condo" pretty quickly. Who wouldn't? No rent, great view, easy access to the beach! 

In the background is the structure for people to sit and watch the penguins come home at dusk and leave at dawn. (Fishing makes for long days.)

This is a fur seal. Not to be confused with a seal or sea lion. Fur seals look just like the others but they don't eat penguins. This big guy put up with the kids' squeals and screams of joy for a while before heading out to sea. 

Ben really liked the fur seal. He wasn't as into the penguins. Maggie liked it all and I think Caty really enjoyed the penguins. 

The lady who gave us a private tour of the protected colony of Little Blue Penguins took our picture. It was a private tour because no one else was there that day. This country is so small but there are no people. Everything is deserted. Fine with us!

Maggie is jonesing for her milk and a nap!

Happy Caty!

Adding this to my collection of cool road signs. I also have one of an alligator (Louisiana)! Hoping they have kangaroo ones in Australia.

Then we went off to see the Yellow-Eyed Penguin colony. This one is protected by just a sign that says to stay off the beach at certain hours. And people actually do. Go figure.

So, the view was OK. 

Ben was getting tired too but hiked down like a trooper.

Some of the big black lumps on the beach are seaweed and some are fur seals. Some were both!

What a handsome guy! 

Ben, being after my own heart, really LOVES sheep. We could watch them all day.

When the penguins are coming home to roost (is that the right bird expression?), you have to stay up at the viewing areas. 

Yellow-eyed penguin coming home after a long day fishing. 

There were other penguins but this one was the first and then I forgot to take photos. It was the best day ever! 

View of Oamaru from the South.

Pretty church.

Pretty downtown Oamaru.

At a big park in Oamaru, Right before all the king's horses and all the king's men arrived.

Maggie needed a milk-break. Look at all my grey hair! Yikes! 

Pretty rose garden in the park.

Then we went to McDonalds. Yep. The food is similar but the fries always have twice as much salt as in the states. And the burgers have barbeque sauce and weird stuff on some of them. I stick to the Quarter Pounder - it's the same as in the states. The kids konked out on the way home and Erik and I had a nice, quiet drive home.

Not sure where to next. Probably skiing! The mountains around Christchurch have been covered with snow for a while now. I didn't take this one but this is what it looks like around here now. Love it!

Things I miss from the States & things I don't

I had a nice chat with an American friend who's been here a few years and just got back from her first visit home. Some things she said made me miss the states, other things she said made me think I'm starting to adapt. I have been wondering if I will miss the same things as I do now, when I too have been here a couple years. Anyway, since I was thinking along these lines, here is what I have come up with, for what it's worth.

Things I miss

• Accurate weather forecasts (case in point: today was supposed to be "mainly fine with high clouds", well, it's raining with low clouds)
• Buying 3 gallons of milk at a time (my tiny fridge can only hold 2, 2-liter bottles. (A gallon is 3.79 liters.)
• The price of milk (it's NZ$3.45/2-liters here - That's US$5.19/gallon - I just looked up the US average cost is $3.50/gallon.) 
• Pay at the pump for gas 
• Central heating. No one has it here. Seriously, even new houses. They have large, built in space heaters they call heat pumps but they aren't ducted to any other rooms. 
• Pepperoni!!!!!! And I checked: it's illegal to import. But a good pepperoni might be worth international smuggling charges.... or not.
• Coupons!
• Salad bars. Oh, AJ's Salad Bar, how I miss you! 
• Hidden Valley Ranch dressing
• Hot dogs and bologna (they're the same thing you know, just in different forms!) ;)
  My Bologna has a first name,
  It's O-S-C-A-R.
  My bologna has a second name,
  It's M-A-Y-E-R.
  Oh I love to eat it everyday,
  And if you ask me why say,
  Cause' Oscar Mayer has a way with B-O-L-O-G-N-A!!!!
• Light beer 
• My Rx arthralgia medicine! It's not available in NZ and I'm using one of three other kinds that are available but I'm getting stiff joints again. :( 
• The "shopping experience" as my friend put it the other day. I used to take it for granted that the stores would be brightly lit, and inviting. The closest thing to Target here is The Warehouse and it seriously is depressing to walk in there with half the lights out and no ceiling panels, funny smells, no pleasant music, cold spots along the back wall. I see that all of that is really a superficial use of money but I kind of liked it. 
• Cup holders on shopping carts. Sigh... 
• A drive-thru Starbucks on every corner.
• 48 ounce iced teas with lots of ice for 99 cents at the convenience store! With a big ol' straw that is both long enough to reach the bottom of the cup and wide enough to get nice big gulps of the tea! 
• Being able to talk on the phone and drive. It's illegal here and I know you shouldn't do it, but still... :) 
• The news! I miss having multiple 24 hour news networks. I really do. I have actually taken up reading the newspaper here. I never used to because I'd already heard about everything by the time the paper was out. 
• Big cars and pick up trucks. There are cars here that are so small, I wonder if they have lawn mower engines and pedals!
• US$25 pedicures with little flowers and jewels on my big toes. 
• Huge trash cans! We actually got a note saying the next time we "overloaded" the "rubbish bin" they wouldn't collect it! It's half the size of the ones in Phoenix and they only come every other week!! It wasn't "overloaded" either. So, the lid didn't lie flat, there wasn't anything falling out of it for heaven sake. I have no idea what people do with trash after a birthday party, or God help us: after Christmas! Maybe I'll fill up my mini-van (aka  people mover) and drive around to the parks and fill their rubbish bins up! That's actually not a bad idea... 
• Things aren't handicapped accessible the way they are in the states (which is not good because some people are TRULY handicapped and need that - also it helps me when I have Mags in the stroller.)
• Free refills on drinks. How much could it possibly cost to refill my soda (aka fizzy drink). I hate that they serve 10 ounces of Pepsi for NZ$4 and then every refill costs another $4! Even in bars, as the designated driver, I have to pay for refills. 
• My humongous fridge, washing machine, even bigger dryer, dish washer (also totally silent), you get the picture. I have to shop, run the dishwasher, and do laundry every friggin' day just to break even. 

Things I don't miss

• Sweating. I so do not miss the temperatures in Phoenix. 
• Being constantly tempted by the fast food offerings
• Grouchy, mumbly, anxiety-ridden teenagers. Here, the kids call me ma'am and stop on the sidewalk (aka footpath) to let me pass with the stroller. They hold doors, smile, make eye contact - there's an idea! In short, they are polite (even when their parents aren't around). 
• Pumping my own gas - they have full service here - but you still have to walk in to pay (thus leaving three screaming kids in the car)
• Driving everywhere! (Here, I can walk to both kids' schools in 5 and 10 minutes; also to the fish and chip shops, three salons, two pubs, Curves (not that I do), the grocery store, a nice cafe, the post office, the video rental place, the doctor's office, two pharmacies, seriously about 15 parks - and a train park, and church (not that I do - I'm usually late - but still). 
• Medical costs! Rx's have all been between NZ$3 and $7 for 3 month supplies! Some doctor and dentist visits have been free! And I get reimbursed for all costs that I do pay by our private insurance which is NZ$50/week for a family of five! 
• Plastic carrier bags. At The Warehouse it is ten cents per bag and at a grocery called Pack and Save, they don't even have bags. They put your groceries into a new cart all loose and then there is a station, once you've paid where you put them in your own bags. I have been taking reusable bags to the stores for years and sometimes I saw other people doing it too. But here, it's more like a religion. I really like that. 
• Being always afraid to let kids out of my sight. Caty's old enough here that she just walks to a friend's house. Or bikes, or scooters. Then you see them all zooming around the neighborhood. Kids come and ring the doorbell and ask to play. Then they all head out to the park. Like when I was a kid. I read an article here where they called it, "free-ranging" the children. I like that term. 
• TV. We have a few channels here, it's called "FreeView". You pay a one time cost for a little black antenna-box-thingy and it's a DVR too (but with very primitive menus and options). Then you get about 12 channels in digital. We only have the one family TV now and we all watch a lot less of it. There are a few shows I really pine for: House, Fringe, Bones (we have these but are a season behind - or more) In Plain Sight, and maybe one or two others. 
• Everyone talking on the phone everywhere. You go to a store, park, birthday party, playdate, anywhere and NO ONE IS ON THE PHONE. At first it was so weird but now it's kind of cool. You don't have parents ignoring kids at the park, they're playing with them, looking at them, engaged. I have to say I was guilty of this in the states but here I felt like a cad being on the phone or texting or checking FB. (Now I save that more* for when I get in the car before I drive off.)
  And you don't have to listen to other people's shouted conversations. Sadly, I feel that the true reason for this is the exorbitant prices for cell phones and minutes - once they figure this out and make it cheap, NZ will probably become like the US.
  *But I still do it sometimes anyway. :) 
• Rude drivers. I'm the rudest one on the road around here. Awesome! People are so polite. I love it. 
• This one is likely to get me in trouble with some people but: Lazy people on mobility scooters! I've seen precisely one mobility scooter in the last month or so. In fact, right now I can see an elderly man with those metal crutches that clip to your arms taking a slow walk down the street. People walk here. A lot. So it's like they don't lose the habit. They stay more fit. I am usually the fattest person at the playground. And that was certainly NOT the case in the states. This amounts to motivation to lose weight - and I have and I will. But I have to say that since things ARE walkable here, it's easier. In the States half the streets in my neighborhood didn't have sidewalks and I don't know where I would have walked to anyway. Circle K and Juan's restaurant I guess. And I did walk to Juan's sometimes. But here, I can put the car away for days on end. 
• Jelly & Jam. Man, they have perfected jam here. There's a brand called Barker's and it's made in Geraldine, NZ about 90 minutes south of here. It makes Smuckers seem like a lightweight. So, so good! 
• School buses. ALL the kids walk to school and the schools are close enough together that all the kids CAN walk. (But honestly most of them scooter back and forth. I have never, ever seen so many razor scooters IN USE.)
• School photos. No traditional, fake background. This is what Maggie and Ben brought home:

I suppose there are other things too, but I'm not coming up with anything else. And of course, you'll have to allow for the fact that it's lunch time and I'm a bit hungry. I notice there are quite a few food and shopping references. Erik wouldn't come up with these because he doesn't do any shopping but much of my life is made difficult by things that could be easily changed. And I can't help thinking that the other stay-at-home mom's here could benefit from some changes. At the same time, if the annoying stuff changed, then maybe NZ would lose that retro-feel, that unspoiled by capitalist and touristy ventures look. Many times I have thought: Holy mackerel! In the states there would be a 4 star resort there and a housing development with a golf course! It's so beautiful! Where are all the PEOPLE? The NZ government doesn't regulate the hell out of every last thing and no one can sue you for an accident and there just aren't many residents or tourists here so it's natural, pristine. Like I imagine parts of Alaska might still be like.