Maya turns 4 today. Wow, time does fly quite fast and its amazing how quickly your small baby grows up into this walking talking person that you can have a pretty good conversation with :). Once again, we've managed to spend Maya's birthday in another country. She spent her first three birthdays with my family in India, and this year its a relatively small affair with just Cecile and us.
Cecile was kind enough to bake a wonderful Devil's chocolate cake (recipe from tartine book). The cake turned out very nice and we had it for breakfast!. We also had gougiere's for breakfast but they were largely ignored in favor of the yummy cake. In true Kiwi style maya wants to go for a picnic for her birthday. We are off to Kaiteriteri beach later this morning. She also wanted PBJ sandwiches in her lunch box for the picnic. Kinda cute that she likes the simple stuff :)
Maya and PJ are getting along extremely well and play together quite nicely. They currently are entertaining and having a performance for 4 bears all of whom spent time with PJ at St. Catherine's. Cake is being served after each performance. We've been doing a fair amount of reading from adoptions books to Maya and PJ and this seems to be incorporated into the play. PJ is quite proud to be from St. Catherine's while Maya proclaims she is a Kaiser baby
Saturday, January 20, 2007
Tuesday, January 16, 2007
Other Nelson, NZ blogs ..
Here are some other blogs from folks who live in and around Nelson.
Kinda nice to read about other folks perspectives of living in the same place ..
Kinda nice to read about other folks perspectives of living in the same place ..
And now we have bicycles ...
We continue our acquisition spree for things that we did not bother to get over from home. I thought we could buy good second hand bicycles here, but Nelson is too small a town to have a second hand bicycle market (though it has a HUGE second hand car market, kinda sad that there so many more cars than bikes).
We went to the nice folks at Stewart Cycles and spoke to Mike the owner Turns out that they have a pretty decent buy back policy and we can return the bike in 6-9 months time and get back upto 50% of what we paid. We decided to go for a more comfortable flat bar road bike. Mari bought the Diamondback XR3 and I went for the GT Legato 4.0. Mike and the Stewart cycle folks are definitely recommended for folks in the Nelson area. We also did stop by Kevin cycles, they did not seem to have the range of bikes or a buy-back policy :)
Let the riding begin ...
We went to the nice folks at Stewart Cycles and spoke to Mike the owner Turns out that they have a pretty decent buy back policy and we can return the bike in 6-9 months time and get back upto 50% of what we paid. We decided to go for a more comfortable flat bar road bike. Mari bought the Diamondback XR3 and I went for the GT Legato 4.0. Mike and the Stewart cycle folks are definitely recommended for folks in the Nelson area. We also did stop by Kevin cycles, they did not seem to have the range of bikes or a buy-back policy :)
Let the riding begin ...
Rainy Days in Nelson
What to do in Nelson in the summer … “pause” when it rains? : )
Walking to the library with cool bumble bee umbrellas is fun the first day, but when it rains 3 days in a row, it’s time to take the children elsewhere to expend excess energy.
It was pouring non-stop the 2nd day so we drove to Chipmunks. Cecile took the girls there for a good 3 hours. Thanks Cecile! When I went to pick them up they didn’t want to leave. There was a huge inflateable slide they had to climb stairs to get to, and a climbing structure/maze with balls, etc. There was also a fenced off area with tricycles, and wheeled locomotives requiring pedal power. Another area had 3 video game monitors for improving hand-eye coordination. On a rainy day it was crowded, but not so crowded that the girls got trampled on. Since adults weren’t allowed up the slide with them, Maya and PJ watched out for each other and waited for each other at the top of the slide. After 20 minutes of watching them go up and down, I saw that they waited patiently for the crowd to all slide down before they themselves went down. It was good to see several Chipmunk staff wandering around and making sure the children played safe.
Adults are free to come in and watch their children. There is also café food and seating both inside and outside.
We have been going swimming everyday because the children are interested (they really enjoy the hot shower), the public pool is about 3 blocks away (Maya insists on walking to the pool) and swimming gets them very, very tired. At the Riverside Pool, there is a toddler pool about 2 feet deep. The water is on the cool side so kicking and moving around is a must. Maya and PJ love taking turns on the pool’s boogie board because they are able to float on it and kick across the pool. They have gotten very comfortable in the water, so much so that they like to wear their goggles, Maya likes to dunk her face in the water, while PJ likes to blow bubbles.
Another activity to do in Nelson when it rains is go to the Museum.
It's pretty good. Maya and PJ lasted about 1.5 hours in the museum. There was an outside patio where they had snacks, ran around and yelled a lot. There was one big photo puzzle, divided into about 20 squares (24x24") that Maya and PJ had fun putting together.
It stopped raining after the third day. : ) back to riding bikes, trikes, and walking in the sunshine.
Walking to the library with cool bumble bee umbrellas is fun the first day, but when it rains 3 days in a row, it’s time to take the children elsewhere to expend excess energy.
It was pouring non-stop the 2nd day so we drove to Chipmunks. Cecile took the girls there for a good 3 hours. Thanks Cecile! When I went to pick them up they didn’t want to leave. There was a huge inflateable slide they had to climb stairs to get to, and a climbing structure/maze with balls, etc. There was also a fenced off area with tricycles, and wheeled locomotives requiring pedal power. Another area had 3 video game monitors for improving hand-eye coordination. On a rainy day it was crowded, but not so crowded that the girls got trampled on. Since adults weren’t allowed up the slide with them, Maya and PJ watched out for each other and waited for each other at the top of the slide. After 20 minutes of watching them go up and down, I saw that they waited patiently for the crowd to all slide down before they themselves went down. It was good to see several Chipmunk staff wandering around and making sure the children played safe.
Adults are free to come in and watch their children. There is also café food and seating both inside and outside.
We have been going swimming everyday because the children are interested (they really enjoy the hot shower), the public pool is about 3 blocks away (Maya insists on walking to the pool) and swimming gets them very, very tired. At the Riverside Pool, there is a toddler pool about 2 feet deep. The water is on the cool side so kicking and moving around is a must. Maya and PJ love taking turns on the pool’s boogie board because they are able to float on it and kick across the pool. They have gotten very comfortable in the water, so much so that they like to wear their goggles, Maya likes to dunk her face in the water, while PJ likes to blow bubbles.
Another activity to do in Nelson when it rains is go to the Museum.
It's pretty good. Maya and PJ lasted about 1.5 hours in the museum. There was an outside patio where they had snacks, ran around and yelled a lot. There was one big photo puzzle, divided into about 20 squares (24x24") that Maya and PJ had fun putting together.It stopped raining after the third day. : ) back to riding bikes, trikes, and walking in the sunshine.
Monday, January 15, 2007
Restaurant Review: China Town Seafood, Christchurch
Have noticed that there is a dearth of restaurant reviews for NZ, more specifically for the South Island. I'll do my little part and contribute brief reviews of places that we have eaten at.
We just returned to Nelson from an excellent long weekend trip to Christchurch. Did some research on potential dim sum places (out here its called yum char) and came up with two names. China Town Seafood in Christchurch and Foo San in Riccarton (near the university). Since we were in downtown, we opted for China Town, plus my research indicated it was potentially a better choice. It also got a decent review in Cuisine. China Town is located at 71 Kinmore Street.
We were heading back to Nelson after lunch, so we opted to eat early and got there at 11:30. The lower section is closed on Monday which gave us a slight fright, as we thought the restaurant was closed, however the door to the upper section was open. We were the only party at that time and were seated quite promptly. A few of the seafood dim sum items were not yet ready, but there was enough to get started. Overall we thought the dim sum was quite good, and the quality of the seafood was very good. We had a few plates of shrimp, scallop, chicken and vegetarian dumplings, pork sui mai, pork and corn dumpling, turnip cake, steamed bok choi and fish balls (the kids really liked this and gobbled them up). For dessert we had sesame seed balls and egg tart. We had not had dim sum since we left San Francisco 6 weeks ago, and we were pleased with this place. Mari thought it was better than Good Luck Dim Sum in SF, I thought it was not as good but a very viable alternative (the quality of the seafood used was significantly better here). It was also extremely reasonable and our bill was NZD $46. A similar meal at Ton Kiang would have cost us USD $75 or so
We just returned to Nelson from an excellent long weekend trip to Christchurch. Did some research on potential dim sum places (out here its called yum char) and came up with two names. China Town Seafood in Christchurch and Foo San in Riccarton (near the university). Since we were in downtown, we opted for China Town, plus my research indicated it was potentially a better choice. It also got a decent review in Cuisine. China Town is located at 71 Kinmore Street.
We were heading back to Nelson after lunch, so we opted to eat early and got there at 11:30. The lower section is closed on Monday which gave us a slight fright, as we thought the restaurant was closed, however the door to the upper section was open. We were the only party at that time and were seated quite promptly. A few of the seafood dim sum items were not yet ready, but there was enough to get started. Overall we thought the dim sum was quite good, and the quality of the seafood was very good. We had a few plates of shrimp, scallop, chicken and vegetarian dumplings, pork sui mai, pork and corn dumpling, turnip cake, steamed bok choi and fish balls (the kids really liked this and gobbled them up). For dessert we had sesame seed balls and egg tart. We had not had dim sum since we left San Francisco 6 weeks ago, and we were pleased with this place. Mari thought it was better than Good Luck Dim Sum in SF, I thought it was not as good but a very viable alternative (the quality of the seafood used was significantly better here). It was also extremely reasonable and our bill was NZD $46. A similar meal at Ton Kiang would have cost us USD $75 or so
Sunday, January 14, 2007
More Christchurch adventures ..
Kinda nice to be in a relatively big city. So many things to do and see, so little time. The weather has not been great, but fortunately we have not been rained out either.
We visited the farmer's market at Lyttleton yesterday. It is quite a nice farmers market with great food (and good coffee also) and some good produce and fruit. Unfortunately we are not staying around for too long and have a relatively long drive back, so we could not stock up as we would have liked to. We got some great bread (baguette and foccaicia), some brie cheese, cilantro pesto and tomatoes for picnic sandwiches. We also munched on scones, pies and an eccles cake for breakfast. As in most places in NZ, there was an excellent playground next door so we hung out with the kids and other parents for some more time. By this time, PJ was super tired and needed a nap, so we headed back to Living Space and put her down. Mari and Cecile went to the Arts market in the square while I entertained Maya at home.
Later the evening we visited the QEII leisure center in New Brighton. The have a pretty good pool for toddlers including a wave pool. Mari entertained the kids in the nicely heated pool while Cecile and I went for a quick run along the beach in New Brighton. The weather was overcast and foggy, so it was not a very scenic run. But we did get our exercise for the day. We wrapped up the day with a pretty good dinner at FishMongers. We had the grilled Akaroa Sallon with Salad, a grilled mahi-mahi with tempura and the family portion of fish and chips. Overall it was a pretty good place and not as greasy as most regular fish and chips places.
The weather outlook was not very promising as we walked for our morning dose of caffiene at Vivace Espresso. Quite a few locals rate this place as the best coffee in Christchurch. The coffee was quite excellent and we'll be back tomorrow on our way out :) The muffins were moist but a bit bready, but the almond cake was quite delicious. We decided to chance our luck and headed out to Akaroa. The weather gods were smiling on us, it was warm and sunny in Akaroa. We stopped at the visitor center and book the Black Cat Akaroa Harbor Nature Cruise. Akaroa has a pretty good playground next to the beach (obviously!), so while the kids were playing there, Mari and Cecile headed into town to explore and buy some delicious croissants from one of the gazillion french bakeries / cafes.
Mari, Cecile, Maya and PJ went on the harbor cruise. Since we had done the same cruise last year, I elected to take the Heritage Park hike for the next couple of hours. I met up with them after the cruise and we lunched on some delicious BBQ Salmon and Lemon Fish Ciabatta sandwiches from a stall near the wharf. We also had some paua patties from the local fish and chips shop (since it had received excellent reviews in general and specifically for it paua). I suspect paua is an acquired taste. Its supposed to be abalone, but did not look or taste like abalone to me ..
We are headed back to Christchurch tomorrow. I suspect we'll stop at a winery and potentially Hanmer Springs on our way home. We'll try to do a yum cha (dim-sum) meal in Christchurch before hitting the road ..
We visited the farmer's market at Lyttleton yesterday. It is quite a nice farmers market with great food (and good coffee also) and some good produce and fruit. Unfortunately we are not staying around for too long and have a relatively long drive back, so we could not stock up as we would have liked to. We got some great bread (baguette and foccaicia), some brie cheese, cilantro pesto and tomatoes for picnic sandwiches. We also munched on scones, pies and an eccles cake for breakfast. As in most places in NZ, there was an excellent playground next door so we hung out with the kids and other parents for some more time. By this time, PJ was super tired and needed a nap, so we headed back to Living Space and put her down. Mari and Cecile went to the Arts market in the square while I entertained Maya at home.
Later the evening we visited the QEII leisure center in New Brighton. The have a pretty good pool for toddlers including a wave pool. Mari entertained the kids in the nicely heated pool while Cecile and I went for a quick run along the beach in New Brighton. The weather was overcast and foggy, so it was not a very scenic run. But we did get our exercise for the day. We wrapped up the day with a pretty good dinner at FishMongers. We had the grilled Akaroa Sallon with Salad, a grilled mahi-mahi with tempura and the family portion of fish and chips. Overall it was a pretty good place and not as greasy as most regular fish and chips places.
The weather outlook was not very promising as we walked for our morning dose of caffiene at Vivace Espresso. Quite a few locals rate this place as the best coffee in Christchurch. The coffee was quite excellent and we'll be back tomorrow on our way out :) The muffins were moist but a bit bready, but the almond cake was quite delicious. We decided to chance our luck and headed out to Akaroa. The weather gods were smiling on us, it was warm and sunny in Akaroa. We stopped at the visitor center and book the Black Cat Akaroa Harbor Nature Cruise. Akaroa has a pretty good playground next to the beach (obviously!), so while the kids were playing there, Mari and Cecile headed into town to explore and buy some delicious croissants from one of the gazillion french bakeries / cafes.
Mari, Cecile, Maya and PJ went on the harbor cruise. Since we had done the same cruise last year, I elected to take the Heritage Park hike for the next couple of hours. I met up with them after the cruise and we lunched on some delicious BBQ Salmon and Lemon Fish Ciabatta sandwiches from a stall near the wharf. We also had some paua patties from the local fish and chips shop (since it had received excellent reviews in general and specifically for it paua). I suspect paua is an acquired taste. Its supposed to be abalone, but did not look or taste like abalone to me ..
We are headed back to Christchurch tomorrow. I suspect we'll stop at a winery and potentially Hanmer Springs on our way home. We'll try to do a yum cha (dim-sum) meal in Christchurch before hitting the road ..
The morning tea ritual ...
Its quite amazing to see how our habits have altered after the move and its interesting to figure out the reasons behind it.
We've started making masala tea (tea with milk + ginger + cardomon) every morning and sitting around the breakfast table eating and chatting. We used to do this in SF also, but without the tea and probably a bit shorter.
Not sure why and how the tea part came in, but its now become something of a ritual. I suspect its primarily because we are still in the process of making friends here and this seems like a good way to begin the day as a unit :)
Mari's theory is because the kids are on summer break, we need to plan and figure out what we'll do each day with the kids. We are not in a rush/hurry to go anywhere and hence the lingering around the breakfast table. Having a good cuppa tea ensures a smoother start to the day etc. In SF we had a pretty good schedule and would get the kids out of the house relatively early ...
We've started making masala tea (tea with milk + ginger + cardomon) every morning and sitting around the breakfast table eating and chatting. We used to do this in SF also, but without the tea and probably a bit shorter.
Not sure why and how the tea part came in, but its now become something of a ritual. I suspect its primarily because we are still in the process of making friends here and this seems like a good way to begin the day as a unit :)
Mari's theory is because the kids are on summer break, we need to plan and figure out what we'll do each day with the kids. We are not in a rush/hurry to go anywhere and hence the lingering around the breakfast table. Having a good cuppa tea ensures a smoother start to the day etc. In SF we had a pretty good schedule and would get the kids out of the house relatively early ...
Friday, January 12, 2007
To Christchurch we go ..
We decided to visit the beautiful city of Christchurch and spend an extended weekend in the big city. Last year, Mari, Maya, Lara and myself had spent a week in Christchurch and liked the city a fair amount. We also figured it would be good to show Cecile the sights and sounds of a relatively big NZ city. We made reservations for a two bedroom apartment at Living Space (we also stayed here last year, obviously we are creatures of habit!). The place is quite excellent, has great facilities and you interact with interesting international folks. Its also close to Christchurch center and to some great coffee shops and restaurants.
The weather did not look very promising on the coast, so we delayed our departure to 7:00 am. We took the coastal route and stopped for breakfast at McDonald's in Blenheim. Yes, I know, McD's is not something I recommend, but their breakfast is quite good and we get a craving for it on a quarterly basis (including Maya!). The McD's out here are few and far in between, so some planning is involved if you want to stop at one :). The play structure was quite nice and fancy with some fairly fast slides. I suspect they need to do this to compensate for the erratic weather. Summer out here has so far been more like winter in San Francisco. Fairly cold and quite a bit of rain (significantly more than what CA has gotten so far!).
From Blehheim, we continued south on Hwy 1 towards Kaikoura. The scenery changes quite abruptly midpoint thru. Near Blenheim the mountains are quite brown and bare (one of the few places in NZ that is not very beautiful), midway thru, the coastal rainforest scenery kicks in. Not sure what causes such changes and why, even though you are on the same coast etc.
At Rakautara (20 km north of Kaikoura), we stopped at the famous Nim's Bin for some crayfish. We purchased a medium sized crayfish ($45) with garlic butter and a dozen mussels ($10). This apparently is a bargain compared to what you pay at restaurants in Kaikoura. The location was quite nice, next to water, cute gardens, nice picnic benches etc. The mussels were fresh and quite excellent. The cray fish was very meaty and the garlic butter complemented it quite nicely. Personally, I thought it did not have a lot of taste compared to dungeness crab. Not sure if size matters in this case. Will definitely try it a few more times before we pass our final verdict. We continued our journey to Kaikoura. The day was still quite overcast when we arrived in Kaikoura. The kids played on the beach for a couple of hours. The adults took turns going on 45 minute walks before we packed up and started heading towards Christchurch.
I was driving and forgot to fill up at Kaikoura. 30 mins later I remember that we are a bit low on fuel, and am hoping that we will see a gas station sometime soon. I start quizzing mari on how many more miles to the next big town, how many more miles in the mountain etc, trying to remain calm etc. Luckily 30 mins later we do see a gas station and fill up (and in accordance with Murphy's law, we then see a gas station every 10 minutes).
We reach christchurch in a few hours, and decide to jog our memory to see if we can find the Kapiti Cheese Store so we can buy some dinner provisions. Unfortunately our memory is not great, and we circled the city a few times and did not find it. We then headed to Living Space, checked in, parked the car and took the kids out for a walk to the Cathedral and the square.
Christchurch is definitely much more livelier and active than Nelson at 7:00 pm. I remarked to Mari that we've become country folks and are not used to the busy city life :) The kids ran and jumped around the square for some expending their stored static energy (from sitting in the car a bit too much). We saw a fairly busy soulvaki place (Dimitri's Soulvaki at 709 Colombo Street) and decided to dine on Gyro and Falafel. We bought a vegetarian falagel, a chicken soulvaki and a pork gyro. All three shared the same sauce and additional stuff. The falafels were not very good, but the bread and the sauce combinations made up for it quite nicely. The chicken and pork gyros were quite good and hit the spot. Definitely a place to go if you want a quick meal.
Got quite a few food places and cafes on our list for this trip. More reports as we experience them. The weather is supposed to be quite miserable (rain, rain and more rain), hopefully the forecast will be wrong
The weather did not look very promising on the coast, so we delayed our departure to 7:00 am. We took the coastal route and stopped for breakfast at McDonald's in Blenheim. Yes, I know, McD's is not something I recommend, but their breakfast is quite good and we get a craving for it on a quarterly basis (including Maya!). The McD's out here are few and far in between, so some planning is involved if you want to stop at one :). The play structure was quite nice and fancy with some fairly fast slides. I suspect they need to do this to compensate for the erratic weather. Summer out here has so far been more like winter in San Francisco. Fairly cold and quite a bit of rain (significantly more than what CA has gotten so far!).
From Blehheim, we continued south on Hwy 1 towards Kaikoura. The scenery changes quite abruptly midpoint thru. Near Blenheim the mountains are quite brown and bare (one of the few places in NZ that is not very beautiful), midway thru, the coastal rainforest scenery kicks in. Not sure what causes such changes and why, even though you are on the same coast etc.
At Rakautara (20 km north of Kaikoura), we stopped at the famous Nim's Bin for some crayfish. We purchased a medium sized crayfish ($45) with garlic butter and a dozen mussels ($10). This apparently is a bargain compared to what you pay at restaurants in Kaikoura. The location was quite nice, next to water, cute gardens, nice picnic benches etc. The mussels were fresh and quite excellent. The cray fish was very meaty and the garlic butter complemented it quite nicely. Personally, I thought it did not have a lot of taste compared to dungeness crab. Not sure if size matters in this case. Will definitely try it a few more times before we pass our final verdict. We continued our journey to Kaikoura. The day was still quite overcast when we arrived in Kaikoura. The kids played on the beach for a couple of hours. The adults took turns going on 45 minute walks before we packed up and started heading towards Christchurch.
I was driving and forgot to fill up at Kaikoura. 30 mins later I remember that we are a bit low on fuel, and am hoping that we will see a gas station sometime soon. I start quizzing mari on how many more miles to the next big town, how many more miles in the mountain etc, trying to remain calm etc. Luckily 30 mins later we do see a gas station and fill up (and in accordance with Murphy's law, we then see a gas station every 10 minutes).
We reach christchurch in a few hours, and decide to jog our memory to see if we can find the Kapiti Cheese Store so we can buy some dinner provisions. Unfortunately our memory is not great, and we circled the city a few times and did not find it. We then headed to Living Space, checked in, parked the car and took the kids out for a walk to the Cathedral and the square.
Christchurch is definitely much more livelier and active than Nelson at 7:00 pm. I remarked to Mari that we've become country folks and are not used to the busy city life :) The kids ran and jumped around the square for some expending their stored static energy (from sitting in the car a bit too much). We saw a fairly busy soulvaki place (Dimitri's Soulvaki at 709 Colombo Street) and decided to dine on Gyro and Falafel. We bought a vegetarian falagel, a chicken soulvaki and a pork gyro. All three shared the same sauce and additional stuff. The falafels were not very good, but the bread and the sauce combinations made up for it quite nicely. The chicken and pork gyros were quite good and hit the spot. Definitely a place to go if you want a quick meal.
Got quite a few food places and cafes on our list for this trip. More reports as we experience them. The weather is supposed to be quite miserable (rain, rain and more rain), hopefully the forecast will be wrong
Wednesday, January 10, 2007
Restaurant Review: Hopgoods, Nelson, NZ
Mari and I went to Hopgoods for dinner earlier today for our 8th year anniversary. We are pretty casual and had completely forgotten about the date, however our good friend, Dave Greenberg, reminded me about it later that day and all of us had a good laugh about it :) Since Cecile is here, we decided to take advantage of the situation and go out for dinner, leaving Cecile in charge of the two lovely kids.
The two places on my list in nelson were Hopgoods and The Cut. We decided to goto Hopgoods since our local friend Paul had also mentioned it and the chef Kevin Hopgood uses a lot of local Nelson produce and wines. Mari made a reservation and off we were on date nite ...
We got there on time at 6:30 pm and were seated immediately. Seems like folks eat dinner more like 8:00 pm or so out here and the restaurant was quite empty at 6:30 pm. Since Mari likes red wine we ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir from Orinaki (i suspect i have the spelling wrong, will fix this later tomorrow) which was quite good. We started off with an appetizer of blue cheese and apple tart for mari and a chicken liver parfait with home baked walnut and raisin bread for me. The appetizers were quite excellent (9/10) and set an incredibly high standard for the rest of the meal. The toasted walnut bread was just divine and perfect with the parfait, my favorite dish of the meal.
For our main course, Mari chose the pan fried dory with crispy potatoes, asparagus and fried ravioli. This was quite delicious, the dory was a wee bit overcooked and a bit dry, bit overall it was a good combination. I chose the slow smoked tasman bay lamb (12 hours!) over garlic smashed potatoes, green beans and tomato jus. The lamb was incredibly tender and quite flavorful (personally I would have liked a wee bit more fat on it!), i loved the mashed pototaoes along with the yummy soft garlic. Overall I thought the mains were quite good but did not match the excellence of the appetizers :)
I was quite stuffed and drunk at this point. Mari insisted on having desert (which to her is the most important part of the meal). We ordered the bitter chocolate with orange sorbet, but switched the orange sorbet for the white chocolate icecream. The dessert was ok, not as good as the flourless chocolate cake from Pizetta 211 (the best pizza in SF, if you have not been there, go there NOW), Mari did like it and managed to finish off the whole thing. She did claim that she was super hungry and famished after swimming for 60 minutes or so at the local pool.
Overall, we though Hopgoods was quite excellent and well worth a repeat visit. Mari gave it an 8/10 and I gave it a 7/10 for restaurants at that price, fairly high marks for us :). The service was quite attentive yet casual. We took a good walk by the Maithai river to walk off the yummy food and I suspect we'll be back with Maya, PJ and Cecile sometime in the next couple of weeks. Including wine and a decent tip the meal cost us NZ $150 which is fairly reasonable.
If you are in the Nelson area, you should plan on eating here :)
The two places on my list in nelson were Hopgoods and The Cut. We decided to goto Hopgoods since our local friend Paul had also mentioned it and the chef Kevin Hopgood uses a lot of local Nelson produce and wines. Mari made a reservation and off we were on date nite ...
We got there on time at 6:30 pm and were seated immediately. Seems like folks eat dinner more like 8:00 pm or so out here and the restaurant was quite empty at 6:30 pm. Since Mari likes red wine we ordered a bottle of Pinot Noir from Orinaki (i suspect i have the spelling wrong, will fix this later tomorrow) which was quite good. We started off with an appetizer of blue cheese and apple tart for mari and a chicken liver parfait with home baked walnut and raisin bread for me. The appetizers were quite excellent (9/10) and set an incredibly high standard for the rest of the meal. The toasted walnut bread was just divine and perfect with the parfait, my favorite dish of the meal.
For our main course, Mari chose the pan fried dory with crispy potatoes, asparagus and fried ravioli. This was quite delicious, the dory was a wee bit overcooked and a bit dry, bit overall it was a good combination. I chose the slow smoked tasman bay lamb (12 hours!) over garlic smashed potatoes, green beans and tomato jus. The lamb was incredibly tender and quite flavorful (personally I would have liked a wee bit more fat on it!), i loved the mashed pototaoes along with the yummy soft garlic. Overall I thought the mains were quite good but did not match the excellence of the appetizers :)
I was quite stuffed and drunk at this point. Mari insisted on having desert (which to her is the most important part of the meal). We ordered the bitter chocolate with orange sorbet, but switched the orange sorbet for the white chocolate icecream. The dessert was ok, not as good as the flourless chocolate cake from Pizetta 211 (the best pizza in SF, if you have not been there, go there NOW), Mari did like it and managed to finish off the whole thing. She did claim that she was super hungry and famished after swimming for 60 minutes or so at the local pool.
Overall, we though Hopgoods was quite excellent and well worth a repeat visit. Mari gave it an 8/10 and I gave it a 7/10 for restaurants at that price, fairly high marks for us :). The service was quite attentive yet casual. We took a good walk by the Maithai river to walk off the yummy food and I suspect we'll be back with Maya, PJ and Cecile sometime in the next couple of weeks. Including wine and a decent tip the meal cost us NZ $150 which is fairly reasonable.
If you are in the Nelson area, you should plan on eating here :)
Monday, January 08, 2007
Top ten things to do with (or without) kids near Nelson
Here is my list of the top ten things to do in-and-around Nelson
- Visit PJ, Maya, Mari and Lobo :)
- Drink a flat white and fluffy at Morrison Street Cafe
- Tahunanui Beach, the playground and the beach cafe
- Walk around Wakefield Quay and a meal at the Boatshed
- Kaiteriteri beach
- Mapua and a visit to The Naked Bun and/or The Smokehouse and/or Flax
- Hike / Kayak / Swim Cable Bay
- Hike to Center of NZ and return via Founders Park
- Fish and Chips at Haven Fish and Chips
- Visit the Nelson Saturday Market
Sunday, January 07, 2007
Trip Report: Queen Charlotte Wilderness Park
PJ, Maya, Cecile, Mari and me spent the past few days at Queen Charlotte Wilderness Park (QCWP). It was an amazingly awesome experience and I'm quite glad we found the place on the web and chose to go there. I thought we had a reservation from Jan 1 - 3, however when i sent a confirmation email to Ron, he reminded me that our reservation was not till the 5th. Since they did have room, we rescheduled it for the 1st. A day later Ron sends me a mail saying we should come on the 5th rather than the 1st since the weather forecast is quite bad for the first few days of 2007. This was amazingly nice of Ron, and I suspect happens only in NZ :)
We left Nelson early in the morning (6:30 am) to catch the Endeavor Express ferry to Cape Jackson. We had a quick breakfast at Le Cafe in Picton, which was ok (5/10, good scones, average coffee). We had heard good things about the Village Bakery, and we bought a croissant, chocolate croissant and a savory scone. For the first time in the past 4 weeks we've had a decent croissant, however the scone was quite awful which negated the experience.
The boat ride to Cape Jackson was quite nice and pleasant. The weather was sunny and brisk, the scenery quite wonderful (lots of green mountains). There were quite a few people on the boat doing the Queen Charlotte Track and/or day walks in the area. I suspect Mari and I will be doing that track sometime over the next few months (when we have some good visitors to take care of the kids). Its a 3-nite / 4-day hike and relatively easy. You can get your backpacks transferred to the next destination by boat to make it even easier, and stay in decent lodges and/or backpackers along the track.
There was another couple from London along with a 16 month baby, Miranda, who were also headed to QCWP. That was good for the kids since they had another kid to play with.
PJ had a good time playing with Miranda for most of the trip, and was surprisingly quite gentle with her. QCWP caters breakfast and dinner, but you are on your own for lunch. They have a well stocked store (had an excellent Pinot Noir from Sanctuary Wines for dinner the next day). They also had 4 dogs which made the kids a bit tentative for a large part of the trip. The hiking trails around the lodge are quite extensive and well described here.
It was quite excellent to have Cecile with us, since we managed to do quite a few of the hikes and took turns taking care of the kids. Ron was an excellent host and offered to drive us to the lighthouse with the kids the next day.
Part of the group started the hike towards the lighthouse in the morning. The dads stayed behind and played with the kids. A couple of hours later we got in the land rover and started towards the lighthouse. The ride was quite interesting and bumpy. Our timing was quite excellent and we met the moms at the end of the track. We had a picnic in the area and could see the old retired horses grazing in the meadow. They do come upto the ridge when they see the truck, since Ron gives them a few treats when he passes by. After lunch, Ron took mari and the kids back to the lodge, while the rest of us marched towards the lighthouse. It was quite a interesting hike and the wind was intense. It did seem like the wind could pick us up and fling us around any minute.
The walk back was quite nice and pleasant. I had also done a fair amount of this hike the previous day with Mari. It was good to be out and about in nature. The trail meanders between the two sides of the island and its quite nice to see both sides periodically.
Dinners were quite nice and filling. I would not call the meals gourmet, but they were quite substantial and hearty. This was probably the only area that could benefit from an upgrade. They did cater to Mari's vegetarian/seafood request, even though it was a last minute request. We had garlic bread, venison, mashed potates and pumpkin cake the first night, and pineapple bread, baked chicken, chocolate cake and ice cream the second night. Mari and Cecile also shared fabulous home-made tartine lemon bars with the group the second night.
The third day we packed up, bid farewell and got back on the ferry for the long ride home. The ferry on the way back stops at all the places to pick up and drop backpacks and/or passengers for the Queen Charlotte track. We spent a few hours in Picton, had a pretty good lunch near the playground from a roadside stall and headed back home to Nelson. Overall we gave the trip a pretty high rating and will head back there with some other visitors.
The best part about QCWP is the business model. Ron and his family purchased the park in 1993 or so. They own approx 1500 acres and 20 km of coastline. They stopped farming the land in 2003 and are in the process of removing all the introduced animals, sheep, cattle, pigs, and goats, which is not an easy task. This enables the forest to recover and grow back to what it was a few hundred years ago. In 2003, QCWP became NZ's first commercial carbon sink. Since a forest by its very nature, consumes carbon and emits oxygen, QCWP is consuming excess carbon generated by industry. They sell this "excess carbon" to a third party who estimates the amount of carbon that is consumed, and then re-sell this to other parties. There is a fair amount of information on commercial carbon sinks etc on the web and I think is part of the Kyoto protocol (obviously i don't know enough about this). One more thing to learn more about ...
We left Nelson early in the morning (6:30 am) to catch the Endeavor Express ferry to Cape Jackson. We had a quick breakfast at Le Cafe in Picton, which was ok (5/10, good scones, average coffee). We had heard good things about the Village Bakery, and we bought a croissant, chocolate croissant and a savory scone. For the first time in the past 4 weeks we've had a decent croissant, however the scone was quite awful which negated the experience.
The boat ride to Cape Jackson was quite nice and pleasant. The weather was sunny and brisk, the scenery quite wonderful (lots of green mountains). There were quite a few people on the boat doing the Queen Charlotte Track and/or day walks in the area. I suspect Mari and I will be doing that track sometime over the next few months (when we have some good visitors to take care of the kids). Its a 3-nite / 4-day hike and relatively easy. You can get your backpacks transferred to the next destination by boat to make it even easier, and stay in decent lodges and/or backpackers along the track.
There was another couple from London along with a 16 month baby, Miranda, who were also headed to QCWP. That was good for the kids since they had another kid to play with.
PJ had a good time playing with Miranda for most of the trip, and was surprisingly quite gentle with her. QCWP caters breakfast and dinner, but you are on your own for lunch. They have a well stocked store (had an excellent Pinot Noir from Sanctuary Wines for dinner the next day). They also had 4 dogs which made the kids a bit tentative for a large part of the trip. The hiking trails around the lodge are quite extensive and well described here.
It was quite excellent to have Cecile with us, since we managed to do quite a few of the hikes and took turns taking care of the kids. Ron was an excellent host and offered to drive us to the lighthouse with the kids the next day.
Part of the group started the hike towards the lighthouse in the morning. The dads stayed behind and played with the kids. A couple of hours later we got in the land rover and started towards the lighthouse. The ride was quite interesting and bumpy. Our timing was quite excellent and we met the moms at the end of the track. We had a picnic in the area and could see the old retired horses grazing in the meadow. They do come upto the ridge when they see the truck, since Ron gives them a few treats when he passes by. After lunch, Ron took mari and the kids back to the lodge, while the rest of us marched towards the lighthouse. It was quite a interesting hike and the wind was intense. It did seem like the wind could pick us up and fling us around any minute.
The walk back was quite nice and pleasant. I had also done a fair amount of this hike the previous day with Mari. It was good to be out and about in nature. The trail meanders between the two sides of the island and its quite nice to see both sides periodically.
Dinners were quite nice and filling. I would not call the meals gourmet, but they were quite substantial and hearty. This was probably the only area that could benefit from an upgrade. They did cater to Mari's vegetarian/seafood request, even though it was a last minute request. We had garlic bread, venison, mashed potates and pumpkin cake the first night, and pineapple bread, baked chicken, chocolate cake and ice cream the second night. Mari and Cecile also shared fabulous home-made tartine lemon bars with the group the second night.
The third day we packed up, bid farewell and got back on the ferry for the long ride home. The ferry on the way back stops at all the places to pick up and drop backpacks and/or passengers for the Queen Charlotte track. We spent a few hours in Picton, had a pretty good lunch near the playground from a roadside stall and headed back home to Nelson. Overall we gave the trip a pretty high rating and will head back there with some other visitors.
The best part about QCWP is the business model. Ron and his family purchased the park in 1993 or so. They own approx 1500 acres and 20 km of coastline. They stopped farming the land in 2003 and are in the process of removing all the introduced animals, sheep, cattle, pigs, and goats, which is not an easy task. This enables the forest to recover and grow back to what it was a few hundred years ago. In 2003, QCWP became NZ's first commercial carbon sink. Since a forest by its very nature, consumes carbon and emits oxygen, QCWP is consuming excess carbon generated by industry. They sell this "excess carbon" to a third party who estimates the amount of carbon that is consumed, and then re-sell this to other parties. There is a fair amount of information on commercial carbon sinks etc on the web and I think is part of the Kyoto protocol (obviously i don't know enough about this). One more thing to learn more about ...
Thursday, January 04, 2007
Trip Report: NZ and Nelson Lakes (by cecile)
kia ora to all! so, its been a week since i arrived. nelson is quite the quaint little town, but it is the big city over here! i've been around town trying to fit in with the locals, today i just bought one of those reuseable handy dandy, green eco friendly bags. it was pizza nite once again. i must say, we make tasty pizza. what have i done so far, well, i went on a couple of hikes and periodically run the river in the morning. i'm trying to run up this one mountain, but haven't quite succeeded yet! i more like run, walk, more like walk. it's called the centre of NZ, but really isn't, i did find out at the bottom where there's this big field was where the first NZ rugby game was held. that was quite interesting. i am getting bit here, more so than when i was in india, interesting. let's see what else, i bake a lot since i've gotten here, so that means extra running for me in the morning. everything is very pretty and serene over here. very peaceful, weather is interesting, never really going to know what the weather will be like. we're going on this wilderness thing tomorrow, so i better go to bed, have to wake up nice and early. all in all, i've been enjoying myself over here!
...so, i have about a week left over here until i depart for the winter town that i call home. anywho, so Nelson Lakes. i'm suppose to report on that. well, we went to Nelson lakes on New Years i believe. we had a nice breakfast of homemade pancakes and went off with our journey to Nelson Lakes. It's about an hour and a half drive from Nelson. The roads are quite windy over here. i think i started getting sick after awhile. anywho, right before we got to the lakes, we stopped at Elaine's coffee shop, which was probably the only coffee shop around, suppose to be the best coffee in town (because it was the only one) turned out that it wasn't. After that we headed off towards the lakes. Once there, Lobo and i went for a hike that they call "the loop" while Mari and the girls stayed behind. the little track maps said that it would take about one and a half hours, but i think it was a lot shorter than that. it was a nice little hike, when we got back from the hike, Mari and Lobo went for a hike while the girls and i walked around and biked. it's a cute area. a lot of water and a lot of trees, during their winter its suppose to be a nice ski area as well. anywho, so that was Nelson Lakes. On the ride back, i started to get a bit woozy again, so i took a nap. And that started the beginning of my year. Happy day!
...so, i have about a week left over here until i depart for the winter town that i call home. anywho, so Nelson Lakes. i'm suppose to report on that. well, we went to Nelson lakes on New Years i believe. we had a nice breakfast of homemade pancakes and went off with our journey to Nelson Lakes. It's about an hour and a half drive from Nelson. The roads are quite windy over here. i think i started getting sick after awhile. anywho, right before we got to the lakes, we stopped at Elaine's coffee shop, which was probably the only coffee shop around, suppose to be the best coffee in town (because it was the only one) turned out that it wasn't. After that we headed off towards the lakes. Once there, Lobo and i went for a hike that they call "the loop" while Mari and the girls stayed behind. the little track maps said that it would take about one and a half hours, but i think it was a lot shorter than that. it was a nice little hike, when we got back from the hike, Mari and Lobo went for a hike while the girls and i walked around and biked. it's a cute area. a lot of water and a lot of trees, during their winter its suppose to be a nice ski area as well. anywho, so that was Nelson Lakes. On the ride back, i started to get a bit woozy again, so i took a nap. And that started the beginning of my year. Happy day!
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Some NZ photos ..
So we've finally uploaded some photos onto Flickr. We paid for a shareware export tool, FlickrExport and it worked out quite nicely. We'll export most of our iPhoto albums over to Flickr over the next few weeks. The Yahoo! photos iPhoto plugin did not work for us. Did some more research and realized it did not work for quite a few other folks. Kinda sad :(
Anyway, here's the Flickr Set of the kids in NZ. Most of them are family photos rather than the awesome NZ scenery. There are also some photos when we first met PJ at St. Catherine's
Anyway, here's the Flickr Set of the kids in NZ. Most of them are family photos rather than the awesome NZ scenery. There are also some photos when we first met PJ at St. Catherine's
Saturday, December 30, 2006
Four weeks and counting ...
Wow, its been four weeks already, time is flying at a slightly faster rate than we'd like. The kids are on summer vacation and having a blast. Cecile is visiting us from San Francisco and its the holidays, so Nelson is way more crowded than it was a few weeks ago!
We visited Blenheim last weekend, Mari contributed an excellent trip report. For Christmas, we visited Mapua beach which was quite deserted and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We went back earlier today and it was very crowded. Had a pretty good lunch at the smokehouse (smokehouse platter, fish cakes and the fish chowder). Mari and the kids visited the aquarium, and thought it was pretty good and worth a visit. We then had dessert at Naked Bun Patisserie. Unfortunately they had run out of croissants and bake bread only on Sundays!. The tiramisu and brownie were quite good though and the coffee met the excellent standards of most NZ cafes
Its awesome to have Cecile around. The kids love her company and it spread the workload across more folks and makes things easier on us :) We hope to do quite a few day and overnight trip with her in and around the Nelson / Tasman / Canterbury area over the next few weeks.
This weeks we've been showing her the sights and sounds of the local area including the excellent farmers market. Fish farming is indeed quite a big thing in NZ. I did some research about the organic salmon we purchased a few weeks ago and found the company, Organic NZ Salmon. Would have been good to visit them when we were in Blenheim. Their salmon was incredibly tasty (in general farmed salmon is quite blah), so this week we purchased a whole salmon (just 2 lbs) and will grill part of it with a soy-ginger marinade and prepare the other part using Sukhi's curry paste and coconut milk
We've been taking the kids swimming to Riverside Pool quite regularly and they enjoy it. It also gets them significantly tired and they go to sleep much earlier and sleep longer. I suspect and hope they become good swimmers before we leave NZ. Would like to take them on a kayak trip at Abel Tasman if possible. Speaking of water, I've found a local sailing school, SeaSense. We plan on taking classes there early next year and hopefully do a few sailing trips and get some experience. Should be a good activity to do with kids.
We've been doing quite a bit of baking and cooking out here. Mari is definitely using her Tartine cook book. Next up on the list is gougiere's We also bought the Morrison Street Cafe cookbook, and hope to make a few dishes from there. Maya insists on cooking stuff from her cookbook (thanx Jill!), so we made some great pizza earlier this week. Tasted almost as good as Pizetta 211 (which is definitely the BEST thin crust pizza place in the Bay Area and is worth a visit). Next up on our list is Mexican food night later this week.
We visited Blenheim last weekend, Mari contributed an excellent trip report. For Christmas, we visited Mapua beach which was quite deserted and we pretty much had the place to ourselves. We went back earlier today and it was very crowded. Had a pretty good lunch at the smokehouse (smokehouse platter, fish cakes and the fish chowder). Mari and the kids visited the aquarium, and thought it was pretty good and worth a visit. We then had dessert at Naked Bun Patisserie. Unfortunately they had run out of croissants and bake bread only on Sundays!. The tiramisu and brownie were quite good though and the coffee met the excellent standards of most NZ cafes
Its awesome to have Cecile around. The kids love her company and it spread the workload across more folks and makes things easier on us :) We hope to do quite a few day and overnight trip with her in and around the Nelson / Tasman / Canterbury area over the next few weeks.
This weeks we've been showing her the sights and sounds of the local area including the excellent farmers market. Fish farming is indeed quite a big thing in NZ. I did some research about the organic salmon we purchased a few weeks ago and found the company, Organic NZ Salmon. Would have been good to visit them when we were in Blenheim. Their salmon was incredibly tasty (in general farmed salmon is quite blah), so this week we purchased a whole salmon (just 2 lbs) and will grill part of it with a soy-ginger marinade and prepare the other part using Sukhi's curry paste and coconut milk
We've been taking the kids swimming to Riverside Pool quite regularly and they enjoy it. It also gets them significantly tired and they go to sleep much earlier and sleep longer. I suspect and hope they become good swimmers before we leave NZ. Would like to take them on a kayak trip at Abel Tasman if possible. Speaking of water, I've found a local sailing school, SeaSense. We plan on taking classes there early next year and hopefully do a few sailing trips and get some experience. Should be a good activity to do with kids.
We've been doing quite a bit of baking and cooking out here. Mari is definitely using her Tartine cook book. Next up on the list is gougiere's We also bought the Morrison Street Cafe cookbook, and hope to make a few dishes from there. Maya insists on cooking stuff from her cookbook (thanx Jill!), so we made some great pizza earlier this week. Tasted almost as good as Pizetta 211 (which is definitely the BEST thin crust pizza place in the Bay Area and is worth a visit). Next up on our list is Mexican food night later this week.
Friday, December 29, 2006
Visit to Blenheim trip report
We wanted to explore outside of Nelson and buy some good wine so decided on Blenheim (northeast of the South Island in New Zealand). Blenheim is part of the Marlborough region which is the wine growing region. A few minutes into our drive, we picked up a hitch hiker on his way to Picton. After telling him that we were on our way to Blenheim, he said that there wasn't much to do there and that there was a very nice playground in Picton. So we dropped him off at Picton so he could take the Ferry to Wellington.
After the 1.5 hour drive to Picton, the playground was perfect timing for Maya and PJ. The playground was spacious, had plenty of structures, and a wading pool. After eating lunch at Le Cafe (good fish soup, decent kids spaghetti, excellent coffee) we headed to Blenheim. After checking into our hotel, Chateau Marlborough (excellent website, not so excellent hotel), and settling in, the girls were ready to roam around. It doesn't get dark until after 9pm so needed to get them tired and hungry. Right across the road from our hotel was Victoria Gardens. No structures, but a lot of open space filled with grass, flowers and trees. Maya and PJ had fun chasing after their balls, throwing it up in the air and chasing after it. There was a bell tower sort of structure with stairs on all four sides in the garden. We had fun walking around inside and out of it, in different directions calling out each others names trying to find each other. It was still early and they remembered that we were supposed to be headed to a playground. So off we went. It was 3 blocks away. It was a school playground. Once we were on the grounds, we saw one of those big inflated structures that you jump in. Aside from ourselves, there was a basketball player shooting baskets and a few people in the school room. The girls passed the playground and kept walking towards the jumpy structure. They were on a mission. It was inflated. They jumped right in and had a blast for 30 minutes or so before someone camp to pack it up. No worries, Maya and PJ still had the playground to explore. After another 30 minutes we headed back home because they were hungry. : )
We bought pizza and had it at the hotel lounge because the restaurant was completely booked - it was $10 night. The pizza and pasta were okay.
The next day was winery and chocolate factory day. After visiting a couple wineries (Wairau River, Saint Claire), buying a few bottles, and having a small snack, we took the girls to the Makana chocolate factory. Maya and PJ enjoyed watching the chocolates being made and tasting the yummy samples.
It was still early so we visited the big Blenheim playground at Prospect Park for over an hour. It was freezing so we had to keep moving around. Went to one more winery (Highfield)and had an excellent early dinner. We also bought a case of sauvignon blanc wine from there.
Overall we though Blenheim was an ok town and not very picturesque. We suspect we'll do day trips to the wineries there in the future and avoid staying overnight. Picton is way more picturesque and we could potentially take a ferry ride into queen charlotte sound, so we suspect we'll visit Picton again. We are planning to visit Queen Charlotte Sound and stay at the Queen Charlotte Wilderness Lodge which seems pretty awesome.
After the 1.5 hour drive to Picton, the playground was perfect timing for Maya and PJ. The playground was spacious, had plenty of structures, and a wading pool. After eating lunch at Le Cafe (good fish soup, decent kids spaghetti, excellent coffee) we headed to Blenheim. After checking into our hotel, Chateau Marlborough (excellent website, not so excellent hotel), and settling in, the girls were ready to roam around. It doesn't get dark until after 9pm so needed to get them tired and hungry. Right across the road from our hotel was Victoria Gardens. No structures, but a lot of open space filled with grass, flowers and trees. Maya and PJ had fun chasing after their balls, throwing it up in the air and chasing after it. There was a bell tower sort of structure with stairs on all four sides in the garden. We had fun walking around inside and out of it, in different directions calling out each others names trying to find each other. It was still early and they remembered that we were supposed to be headed to a playground. So off we went. It was 3 blocks away. It was a school playground. Once we were on the grounds, we saw one of those big inflated structures that you jump in. Aside from ourselves, there was a basketball player shooting baskets and a few people in the school room. The girls passed the playground and kept walking towards the jumpy structure. They were on a mission. It was inflated. They jumped right in and had a blast for 30 minutes or so before someone camp to pack it up. No worries, Maya and PJ still had the playground to explore. After another 30 minutes we headed back home because they were hungry. : )
We bought pizza and had it at the hotel lounge because the restaurant was completely booked - it was $10 night. The pizza and pasta were okay.
The next day was winery and chocolate factory day. After visiting a couple wineries (Wairau River, Saint Claire), buying a few bottles, and having a small snack, we took the girls to the Makana chocolate factory. Maya and PJ enjoyed watching the chocolates being made and tasting the yummy samples.
It was still early so we visited the big Blenheim playground at Prospect Park for over an hour. It was freezing so we had to keep moving around. Went to one more winery (Highfield)and had an excellent early dinner. We also bought a case of sauvignon blanc wine from there.
Overall we though Blenheim was an ok town and not very picturesque. We suspect we'll do day trips to the wineries there in the future and avoid staying overnight. Picton is way more picturesque and we could potentially take a ferry ride into queen charlotte sound, so we suspect we'll visit Picton again. We are planning to visit Queen Charlotte Sound and stay at the Queen Charlotte Wilderness Lodge which seems pretty awesome.
Monday, December 25, 2006
Week three update ...
Yep, its been three weeks since we arrived. Time does move at a fairly fast rate. A few more trivia facts about NZ to commemorate this week
- Roundabouts are awesome. Not sure why the US does not have them, but they make traffic flow so much smoother and faster in low density areas. I suspect its significantly better than a stop sign even in medium traffic but probably worse than traffic lights?
- Very few homes in Nelson (and probably NZ) have a dryer. So you wash your clothes in the washing machine on a non-rainy day and hang your clothes on the drying lines. Quite a fun activity with the kids
- Most of the roads are fairly windy and max speed is 100 km/hr (62 miles/hr). In general your average speed is more like 60-70 kmph ( 40 mph) since most roads are 2 lanes. A fair number of vehicles are towing something behind them (boat, additional gear)
- Things have changed significantly since our first visit. There are more shops open on weekends past 3:00 pm. Previously most shops would be closed on Sundays. The large chains operate 7 days a week
- Its a good place for kids. In every small town, there will be a good playground, public restrooms and most likely a swimming pool or a swimming hole (if a river runs thru town)
- I have some strange problems with my cell phone. Our current phone works in the Nelson area but did not work in Blenheim and does not work downtown :(. Mari's phone which has been unlocked does not work at all. Any tips to debug the hardware/software would be appreciated :)
- Dec/Jan seem to be peak tourist months with spots booked weeks/months in advance. Guess we'll be spending time in Nelson and surrondings over the next month. I'm hoping to start taking some big boat sailing lessons in the New year.
- Last item on our TODO list is to get us some bikes so we can go on a long bike ride and find some longer term help for the kids (so we can get work done)
Merry xmas and happy holidays ...
Wishing all our friends and family out there a very merry xmas and happy holidays. Kinda strange to be celebrating the holidays in a new country without friends and family around, but we should be seeing most of you sometime over the next few months :)
Maya was scared that Santa would visit and scare her. So we told her that we did not give Santa our new address and Santa will not be visiting us etc. She did make sure that all the doors were locked before she fell asleep. The kids are still not aware of the presents and gifts trend. So we are skirting by another year without giving them gifts on xmas day. (they get a fair number of things the rest of the year though ....)
Things were quiet around here. Except for Subway and Pizza Hut everything is closed. We went to Mapua beach today and had a good morning in the water followed by a picnic lunch. We'll go there later this week or next week since they have some good restaurants (The SmokeHouse, Flax, Naked Bun) out there that we'd like to visit. The aquarium seems a wee bit small, but is probably worth a visit
Maya was scared that Santa would visit and scare her. So we told her that we did not give Santa our new address and Santa will not be visiting us etc. She did make sure that all the doors were locked before she fell asleep. The kids are still not aware of the presents and gifts trend. So we are skirting by another year without giving them gifts on xmas day. (they get a fair number of things the rest of the year though ....)
Things were quiet around here. Except for Subway and Pizza Hut everything is closed. We went to Mapua beach today and had a good morning in the water followed by a picnic lunch. We'll go there later this week or next week since they have some good restaurants (The SmokeHouse, Flax, Naked Bun) out there that we'd like to visit. The aquarium seems a wee bit small, but is probably worth a visit
Thursday, December 21, 2006
Recommended reading material ..
We've been reading a few good books that some of you might be interested in with regard to children and behavior that are definitely a must read. The books are:
- Your Two-Year-Old: Terrible or Tender - Our friend Smita recommended this series just before we left. They do explain quite a bit of what your kid goes through and we think we have a slightly better understanding of them and their behavior at times.
- Your Three-Year-Old: Friend or Enemy - It just amazes me that the book can tell you exactly what your child is going through and why, and how similar all children are across countries / cultures etc ...
- Tartine - the cookbook from the famous San Francisco bakery. Mari has been baking quite a few yummy treats from this book. Tonite its time for the date tea cake :)
- Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond. Jared Diamond's Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed is the glass-half-empty follow-up to his Pulitzer Prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns, Germs, and Steel explained the geographic and environmental reasons why some human populations have flourished, Collapse uses the same factors to examine why ancient societies, including the Anasazi of the American Southwest and the Viking colonies of Greenland, as well as modern ones such as Rwanda, have fallen apart. (taken from Amazon.com)
Its summer break for the kids ...
The kids were settling in nicely at Richmond Montessori (a school that we highly recommend!). Unfortunately for them (and us!), they now have a fairly long summer break till Feb 7. Fortunately the school does have a summer fun session the last two weeks so they go back to school on Jan 21.
On the last day of school, the teachers and children organized a music concert. This was a small fundraiser for the school so they could purchase additional equipment, project materials etc. The children sang around 5 songs and it was quite cute to watch these young kids perform. Maya and PJ were part of the concert and did pretty good considering that they were involved for only the past 2 weeks. Most of the songs also include Maori and maya is starting to say some Maori words (mari and i are a bit lost on this, and we need to pick up a few words)
We went to the local climbing gym earlier today. It was quite empty, so the kids had a blast running around and jumping. They also put on their harness and tried a couple of climbs. The swing rope and the metal ladder kept them occupied. Its quite amazing as to how you adapt to a climbing gym and how the holds and texture of the walls vary. We are fairly decent gym climbers at Mission Cliffs and Planet Granite. At Vertical Limit it was a different story. The holds were a bit too smooth and slippery, the setup of the climbing rope / belay device was a bit too close etc. Hopefully we'll adjust to it and start climbing much better. They also use a different rating scale down under!
We plan to do some amount of traveling and camping around the South Island if and when the weather gets a bit warmer. We are off to visit Blenheim in Marlborough tomorrow for a 3 day visit. We wanted to stay at Queen Charlotte Wilderness Park, but they were booked for the rest of the month. We are planning to go back there with Cecile in early January.
On the last day of school, the teachers and children organized a music concert. This was a small fundraiser for the school so they could purchase additional equipment, project materials etc. The children sang around 5 songs and it was quite cute to watch these young kids perform. Maya and PJ were part of the concert and did pretty good considering that they were involved for only the past 2 weeks. Most of the songs also include Maori and maya is starting to say some Maori words (mari and i are a bit lost on this, and we need to pick up a few words)
We went to the local climbing gym earlier today. It was quite empty, so the kids had a blast running around and jumping. They also put on their harness and tried a couple of climbs. The swing rope and the metal ladder kept them occupied. Its quite amazing as to how you adapt to a climbing gym and how the holds and texture of the walls vary. We are fairly decent gym climbers at Mission Cliffs and Planet Granite. At Vertical Limit it was a different story. The holds were a bit too smooth and slippery, the setup of the climbing rope / belay device was a bit too close etc. Hopefully we'll adjust to it and start climbing much better. They also use a different rating scale down under!
We plan to do some amount of traveling and camping around the South Island if and when the weather gets a bit warmer. We are off to visit Blenheim in Marlborough tomorrow for a 3 day visit. We wanted to stay at Queen Charlotte Wilderness Park, but they were booked for the rest of the month. We are planning to go back there with Cecile in early January.
And the house rental search is over ...
We managed to find a furnished place to rent in Tahunanui Hills close to Nelson, on the way to Richmond. Our approximate address is Orakei Street, Nelson 7011, NZ. Similar to our San Francisco place, this house is also on a fairly steep hill (which should make hikes and bike rides quite interesting). We are a 10 minute walk from Tahuna beach and playground (which is definitely worth a visit if you have small kids) and a grogeous view of the tasman hills, abel tasman park and beyond.
Our landlords own a sailboat and they are off sailing for the next year or so. Its a 50 year old, 4 bedroom, 1 bath house. We did not see too many furnished places on the market and figured we'd take a place we like. Except for the number of bathrooms, the house is real nice. We'll get a port-a-potty in case both kids have an emergency at the same time :). We move in on Feb 4th and hopefully we'll get lots of visitors.
For people looking to rent a house, we found the listing on Homefind, a service that we would definitely recommend. They charge NZD $80 and give you access to their listings for 6 months. We found a place very quickly with them (with the first listing). In general it is significanly more difficult to rent a furnished house. In general homes out here are much smaller than the US counterparts and a fair number of the listings were for 2 bedroom houses and not suitable for children
Our landlords own a sailboat and they are off sailing for the next year or so. Its a 50 year old, 4 bedroom, 1 bath house. We did not see too many furnished places on the market and figured we'd take a place we like. Except for the number of bathrooms, the house is real nice. We'll get a port-a-potty in case both kids have an emergency at the same time :). We move in on Feb 4th and hopefully we'll get lots of visitors.
For people looking to rent a house, we found the listing on Homefind, a service that we would definitely recommend. They charge NZD $80 and give you access to their listings for 6 months. We found a place very quickly with them (with the first listing). In general it is significanly more difficult to rent a furnished house. In general homes out here are much smaller than the US counterparts and a fair number of the listings were for 2 bedroom houses and not suitable for children
Monday, December 18, 2006
Weekend update ...
We had a pretty busy weekend which pretty much means things are back to normal :). We did visit the farmer's market on Saturday and did most of our weekly shopping.
After that we went to The Grape Escape which basically is a cafe, wine bar and kids playground all rolled into one. Such combinations are much more prevalent in NZ than other countries. It definitely is a great thing for families and we had a good time. The kids did a fair amount of jumping and riding on the tractor. They also got to see some adult and kid llamas but kept a safe distance from them.
We did sample some pretty good organic wine from Richmond Plains and a good Reisling from Te Mania Wines. Grape Escape acts as the cellar and retail store for these two wineries. The kids keep us fairly busy so we have not had time to enjoy them as yet. Reviews at a later stage, but I dont think we really know how to judge wine very well. Later that evening, we went to our first kiwi neighborhood BYO bbq at our friends Diedre and Wally from Shakespeare Cottage. This was their first annual Shakespeare Walk bbq and we met a few locals there.
Richmond Montessori had a xmas picnic on Sunday at Rabbit Island. We got there on time at 11:00 am and due to some vehicular problems the folks from the school did not show up till 11:30 am or so. We were not aware that Rabbit Island is a fairly big and popular picnic spot so did a fair amount of driving across multiple loops trying to find the group. We were about to give up and have our own little picnic when the rest of the gang arrived and saved the day. The place is quite spectacular with a nice sandy beach and we spent quite a few hours there with the kids. Santa's helper did come and visit, which freaked Maya out a bit. She's getting much better with regard to costumed characters but has a fair way to go. We recycle a children's cookbook (thanx Jill!) and gave that to Maya. She's already made a few dishes from the book (smiley face bagel, fish and cheese quesadilla) and is quite proud that she now has a cookbook just like mommy.
Later that evening, we went and saw the Nutcracker, a performance by the folks at Nelson School of Music. We had watched the kids version of Nutcracker in NYC last year which was a wee bit scary for the first few minutes. So Maya kept telling us and PJ that she might be scared for some time, but then it gets better. The interpretation was quite different and disjoint, but the kids liked the music and the dance show. When the two male dancers made a shirtless appearance, PJ was quite surprised and kept saying: "They dont have a shirt, I have a shirt too", which was quite cute and funny.
After that we went to The Grape Escape which basically is a cafe, wine bar and kids playground all rolled into one. Such combinations are much more prevalent in NZ than other countries. It definitely is a great thing for families and we had a good time. The kids did a fair amount of jumping and riding on the tractor. They also got to see some adult and kid llamas but kept a safe distance from them.
We did sample some pretty good organic wine from Richmond Plains and a good Reisling from Te Mania Wines. Grape Escape acts as the cellar and retail store for these two wineries. The kids keep us fairly busy so we have not had time to enjoy them as yet. Reviews at a later stage, but I dont think we really know how to judge wine very well. Later that evening, we went to our first kiwi neighborhood BYO bbq at our friends Diedre and Wally from Shakespeare Cottage. This was their first annual Shakespeare Walk bbq and we met a few locals there.
Richmond Montessori had a xmas picnic on Sunday at Rabbit Island. We got there on time at 11:00 am and due to some vehicular problems the folks from the school did not show up till 11:30 am or so. We were not aware that Rabbit Island is a fairly big and popular picnic spot so did a fair amount of driving across multiple loops trying to find the group. We were about to give up and have our own little picnic when the rest of the gang arrived and saved the day. The place is quite spectacular with a nice sandy beach and we spent quite a few hours there with the kids. Santa's helper did come and visit, which freaked Maya out a bit. She's getting much better with regard to costumed characters but has a fair way to go. We recycle a children's cookbook (thanx Jill!) and gave that to Maya. She's already made a few dishes from the book (smiley face bagel, fish and cheese quesadilla) and is quite proud that she now has a cookbook just like mommy.
Later that evening, we went and saw the Nutcracker, a performance by the folks at Nelson School of Music. We had watched the kids version of Nutcracker in NYC last year which was a wee bit scary for the first few minutes. So Maya kept telling us and PJ that she might be scared for some time, but then it gets better. The interpretation was quite different and disjoint, but the kids liked the music and the dance show. When the two male dancers made a shirtless appearance, PJ was quite surprised and kept saying: "They dont have a shirt, I have a shirt too", which was quite cute and funny.
Saturday, December 16, 2006
End of Week Two ...
Its been two weeks since we arrived in Nelson. Has definitely been quite interesting and we seem to be getting back into our regular groove. As reported previously, we did purchase a car. The kids like their new school a lot, maya is sad that she cannot goto school on weekends!. We've started taking the kids swimming at the local pool.
The last big item on the agenda is finding a place to live for the next 9 months. Surprisingly its been a bit harder to find a place than I expected. Hopefully we'll get this sorted out in the next week or two. I've got a pretty sweet office space on the top floor of the house, and the DSL connection is quite zippy. Did a fair amount of work (and blogging) this week, and hoping to be a bit more efficient and productive from next week onwards
In other news, Cecile is coming to visit us starting Dec 27th. The kids were happy to learn that she's coming and maya is excited to show Cecile her new school. Its been interesting being on our own the past few weeks. Life is definitely harder than it was in San Francisco, but not as hard as I imagined it would be. The kids have summer vacation from Dec 20th - Jan 25th. Will definitely help to have Cecile around during that time :)
The last big item on the agenda is finding a place to live for the next 9 months. Surprisingly its been a bit harder to find a place than I expected. Hopefully we'll get this sorted out in the next week or two. I've got a pretty sweet office space on the top floor of the house, and the DSL connection is quite zippy. Did a fair amount of work (and blogging) this week, and hoping to be a bit more efficient and productive from next week onwards
In other news, Cecile is coming to visit us starting Dec 27th. The kids were happy to learn that she's coming and maya is excited to show Cecile her new school. Its been interesting being on our own the past few weeks. Life is definitely harder than it was in San Francisco, but not as hard as I imagined it would be. The kids have summer vacation from Dec 20th - Jan 25th. Will definitely help to have Cecile around during that time :)
Mari the baker and food news ...
I'm glad Tartine has a CookBook and mari bought it along to NZ. She's gotten into the cookbook quite heavily and has been making delicous treats the past week. This week we've had yummy lemon pudding, delicious whole wheat scones and shortbread. Here's hoping that this continues for a long long time. I'm hoping for the gougiere and croissants next :)
In other food news, we went to the local Malaysian Restaurant Spices on Hardy Street. We went there a bit early, 5:30 pm, so we could finish dinner and put the kids to sleep after a long hard day. People eat quite late out here, the place was quite empty even when we left at 7:00 pm. The food was not bad (5/10). Some of the dishes were quite good (nasi lemak, specifically the lamb rendang), others mediocre (seafood mee goreng) and others just plain bad (roti canai). How can u serve roti canai without the sauce? We did order a side of peanut sauce which was terrible.
After dinner, we stopped at the Gelato place. The ice-cream place closes at 5:00 pm in summer on a Friday night!!!! We did go back earlier this morning, and it was decent but definitely did not come close to Sketch
Today was saturday, hence it was farmers market day :) The kids slept in today (8:00 am), so we were a bit late getting there and it was fairly crowded. We now have a routine there and a specific set of vendors we frequent which makes it nice and convenient. Since its summer here, we get fresh raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. Reminds me to make my french toast this week, so i've got to find some good brioche bread :). Saw some fresh organic sockeye salmon today which I did purchase. The vendor informed me that all salmon in NZ is farmed!. I suspect fish farming is quite a big industry in NZ, need to do some more research on this. We also found a very yummy pie company, MyPie.
In other food news, we went to the local Malaysian Restaurant Spices on Hardy Street. We went there a bit early, 5:30 pm, so we could finish dinner and put the kids to sleep after a long hard day. People eat quite late out here, the place was quite empty even when we left at 7:00 pm. The food was not bad (5/10). Some of the dishes were quite good (nasi lemak, specifically the lamb rendang), others mediocre (seafood mee goreng) and others just plain bad (roti canai). How can u serve roti canai without the sauce? We did order a side of peanut sauce which was terrible.
After dinner, we stopped at the Gelato place. The ice-cream place closes at 5:00 pm in summer on a Friday night!!!! We did go back earlier this morning, and it was decent but definitely did not come close to Sketch
Today was saturday, hence it was farmers market day :) The kids slept in today (8:00 am), so we were a bit late getting there and it was fairly crowded. We now have a routine there and a specific set of vendors we frequent which makes it nice and convenient. Since its summer here, we get fresh raspberries, strawberries and blueberries. Reminds me to make my french toast this week, so i've got to find some good brioche bread :). Saw some fresh organic sockeye salmon today which I did purchase. The vendor informed me that all salmon in NZ is farmed!. I suspect fish farming is quite a big industry in NZ, need to do some more research on this. We also found a very yummy pie company, MyPie.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
And we now have a car ...
One more step closer to settling down and getting life back on a normal track. We bought a used Toyotal Caldina from Nelson Suzuki. We dealt with Mark Chapman and had a pretty good experience.
Its quite confusing to decide what car you want, the make, the model etc. We decided that we could live without a 4WD (winter is still quite a few months away, and i suspect we'll go stay in a ski place for a week at a time and take the shuttle etc). We did briefly consider getting a minivan so that we could transport more folks when we have guests etc. Ultimately we decided against it, since we preferred a smaller car etc. We saw and liked the Toyoya Caldina, its a 5 door wagon, slightly smaller than the Volvo XC and drives quite nicely. Also gives us enough room too load the bikes, camping gear etc and take off on an extended road trip etc. Its got a small 1.8l engine and gives u decent mileage (or so i think)
We are back into getting a Japanese car, after our not so pleasant experience with the Volvo Cross Country which we purchased from Royal Motor Sales. Luckily for us, we did have the extended warranty which saved us quite a bit of money, but the car was in the shop a fair amount. The warranty had some sleeper clauses like not covering airbag defects. No more Volvos for us.
Its quite confusing to decide what car you want, the make, the model etc. We decided that we could live without a 4WD (winter is still quite a few months away, and i suspect we'll go stay in a ski place for a week at a time and take the shuttle etc). We did briefly consider getting a minivan so that we could transport more folks when we have guests etc. Ultimately we decided against it, since we preferred a smaller car etc. We saw and liked the Toyoya Caldina, its a 5 door wagon, slightly smaller than the Volvo XC and drives quite nicely. Also gives us enough room too load the bikes, camping gear etc and take off on an extended road trip etc. Its got a small 1.8l engine and gives u decent mileage (or so i think)
We are back into getting a Japanese car, after our not so pleasant experience with the Volvo Cross Country which we purchased from Royal Motor Sales. Luckily for us, we did have the extended warranty which saved us quite a bit of money, but the car was in the shop a fair amount. The warranty had some sleeper clauses like not covering airbag defects. No more Volvos for us.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Sending boxes to New Zealand via Fedex ...
We had a fair amount of stuff to carry, so we opted to use Fedex to ship some clothes, books and gear. We had this a few years ago when we moved to London (pre-maya) and it had worked out quite well. This time we were not so lucky, and our boxes have still not arrived! (its been 10 days since they were shipped).
NZ has pretty strict rules and checks about anything coming into the country. Fedex does not bother to tell you this in the US. When our boxes did not come in a few days, i checked the tracking number and noticed it there was a clearance delay. Sent them email, called them and realized we needed to fill in a few more forms which were emailed to us. Not sure why those forms have not been web-enabled as yet :(. We sent those forms in and were told we needed to fill in still more forms and send in copies of our passport and visa (why didn't they ask this the first time around). They also have the bad habit of not responding to email and different people leaving you voicemail at different times etc. It seems to be finally sorted out (according to the tracker), and i'm hoping we get the boxes in the next few days ..
Also for some strange reason, NZ customs insists on charging GST for items over NZ $400. Kinda wierd and not sure why. I accessed the two boxes at NZ $1000 and was socked with $100 in GST, which obviously necessitated another call and message from fedex ...
For the curious, here's the tracking history:
NZ has pretty strict rules and checks about anything coming into the country. Fedex does not bother to tell you this in the US. When our boxes did not come in a few days, i checked the tracking number and noticed it there was a clearance delay. Sent them email, called them and realized we needed to fill in a few more forms which were emailed to us. Not sure why those forms have not been web-enabled as yet :(. We sent those forms in and were told we needed to fill in still more forms and send in copies of our passport and visa (why didn't they ask this the first time around). They also have the bad habit of not responding to email and different people leaving you voicemail at different times etc. It seems to be finally sorted out (according to the tracker), and i'm hoping we get the boxes in the next few days ..
Also for some strange reason, NZ customs insists on charging GST for items over NZ $400. Kinda wierd and not sure why. I accessed the two boxes at NZ $1000 and was socked with $100 in GST, which obviously necessitated another call and message from fedex ...
For the curious, here's the tracking history:
| Date/Time |  | Activity | | Location | | Details | |||||||||
| Dec 13, 2006 | 6:33 PM | Int'l shipment release | AUCKLAND NZ | | |||||||||||
| 5:17 PM | Int'l shipment release | AUCKLAND NZ | | ||||||||||||
| 2:02 PM | In transit | AUCKLAND NZ | | ||||||||||||
| 9:04 AM | Clearance in progress | AUCKLAND NZ | | ||||||||||||
| Dec 12, 2006 | 5:55 PM | Clearance in progress | AUCKLAND NZ | | |||||||||||
| 1:45 PM | Clearance delay | AUCKLAND NZ | | ||||||||||||
| Dec 11, 2006 | 12:05 PM | Clearance delay | AUCKLAND NZ | | |||||||||||
| 9:36 AM | Clearance delay | AUCKLAND NZ | | ||||||||||||
| Dec 8, 2006 | 5:48 PM | Clearance delay | AUCKLAND NZ | | |||||||||||
| 9:32 AM | Clearance delay | AUCKLAND NZ | | ||||||||||||
| Dec 7, 2006 | 1:35 PM | Clearance delay | AUCKLAND NZ | | |||||||||||
| Dec 6, 2006 | 1:15 PM | Clearance delay | AUCKLAND NZ | | |||||||||||
| 12:10 PM | Clearance delay | AUCKLAND NZ | | ||||||||||||
| 3:52 AM | At dest sort facility | AUCKLAND NZ | | ||||||||||||
| Dec 4, 2006 | 2:12 AM | In transit | HONOLULU, HI | | |||||||||||
| Dec 3, 2006 | 7:57 PM | Departed FedEx location | LOS ANGELES, CA | | |||||||||||
| 6:35 PM | Arrived at FedEx location | LOS ANGELES, CA | | ||||||||||||
| 2:14 PM | Departed FedEx location | MEMPHIS, TN | | ||||||||||||
| 12:54 PM | Arrived at FedEx location | MEMPHIS, TN | | ||||||||||||
| 7:06 AM | Departed FedEx location | OAKLAND, CA | | ||||||||||||
| Dec 2, 2006 | 4:01 PM | Left origin | ALAMEDA, CA | | |||||||||||
| 10:57 AM | Picked up | ALAMEDA, CA | | ||||||||||||
| 10:25 AM | Picked up | ALAMEDA, CA | | ||||||||||||
| 10:25 AM | At local FedEx facility | ALAMEDA, CA | |||||||||||||
More NZ tidbits ...
Here are a few more random facts and stuff that happened that make you smile/wonder/frown about living in a different country.
- The people in NZ without a doubt are the nicest, most social people in the whole world. They are super friendly, always helpful and honest. Even the used car salesmen are quite nice and dont try to push you to buy a car immediately :)
- There are playgrounds everywhere. The quality is quite high, overall much better and more varied than the US ones. Most of them seem fairly new
- The Kiwis have inherited the crappy bureaucratic traditions from the British (and India). Hence there is a line pretty much for anything and everything all the time (post office, atm machine, fish market etc).
- The weather in Nelson is quite variable and very much like San Francisco. A typical day has rain, wind and sun combined and significant differences in temperature
- I had funded my BNZ account from my US Bank. My online statement showed I had the money, however I could not withdraw it nor do any electronic transfers. A trip to meet real people at the bank was needed. Someone, somewhere had put a hold on the account for no reason, which prevented any and all transactions. Took the bank 60 minutes or so to figure it out. Overall, quite frustrating ...
- The used car market is huge here. Most of the cars are imported directly from Japan.
- Trademe is a pretty good alternative to EBay in NZ. We've used it successfully to buy a bicycle for Maya and nearly managed to get a car on it. More car stories coming soon as we try to close the deal today ...
- Visited Cable Bay and Kaiteriteri beaches over the weekend. The kids had fun and was great to get out of the city. Amazing how close all these spots are (or how small nelson is)
- Morrison Street Cafe is still our favorite cafe. We are pretty much regulars there now :)
We get our first visitors ....
Dave, Bob, Josh and Tim were heading over to Awaroa Lodge in Abel Tasman National Park from their awesome Dolphin Encounter in Kaikoura. We got to spend the evening with them, primarily because the regularly schedule Aqua Taxi's last run in the Park is at 3:30 pm. Kinda ironic they call it Aqua Taxi, rather than just Aqua Shuttle, which it what it really is.
The kids were thrilled to see them, and Maya spoke quite a bit to both Dave and Bob along with multiple hugs and kisses. She described some of the school activities, the lunch schedule and what she has been doing in NZ. Nice to watch Maya chat up a storm :). We gave them an option of the BoatShed or Haven Fish and Chips for dinner. Since they would be eating pretty good meals at Awaroa, they opted for the local greasy newspaper fish and chips consumed facing scenic Nelson Bay. We ordered a sampling of various fish (Blue Cod, Snapper, Grouper, Cardinal, Fish Kebab, Mussels, Scallops, Fish Stick) and a couple of orders of fries. I liked it much better than the first time, probably because we ordered the better fish on the menu. The Blue Cod in particular was quite excellent. It definitely is a super greasy meal, and cannot be repeated more than once a month!. We also ordered drinks and lemonade from the nice bar next door (sand????) and had a pretty good time. As usual, PJ managed to eat nothing but chips and ketchup, while Maya did try pretty much everything we ordered.
We got them some pretty decent accomodation at RiverLodge Motel which is across the street. They had to leave a bit too early in the morning, before our favorite cafe opened (morrison street cafe), so instead we paid a visit to the coffeeshop of the world that cannot be named (and should not be visited either, but thats another story) :(
The kids were thrilled to see them, and Maya spoke quite a bit to both Dave and Bob along with multiple hugs and kisses. She described some of the school activities, the lunch schedule and what she has been doing in NZ. Nice to watch Maya chat up a storm :). We gave them an option of the BoatShed or Haven Fish and Chips for dinner. Since they would be eating pretty good meals at Awaroa, they opted for the local greasy newspaper fish and chips consumed facing scenic Nelson Bay. We ordered a sampling of various fish (Blue Cod, Snapper, Grouper, Cardinal, Fish Kebab, Mussels, Scallops, Fish Stick) and a couple of orders of fries. I liked it much better than the first time, probably because we ordered the better fish on the menu. The Blue Cod in particular was quite excellent. It definitely is a super greasy meal, and cannot be repeated more than once a month!. We also ordered drinks and lemonade from the nice bar next door (sand????) and had a pretty good time. As usual, PJ managed to eat nothing but chips and ketchup, while Maya did try pretty much everything we ordered.
We got them some pretty decent accomodation at RiverLodge Motel which is across the street. They had to leave a bit too early in the morning, before our favorite cafe opened (morrison street cafe), so instead we paid a visit to the coffeeshop of the world that cannot be named (and should not be visited either, but thats another story) :(
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Its been a week!
yes, time does fly and its been a week since we arrived in Nelson. We've partially settled in and accomplished quite a few things (bank, phone, school, insurance). The next few things are relatively big items (long term house rental, second hand car) and we are hoping to make progress/wrap that up sometime early next week (so we can get back to doing some real work for a change)
The DSL/wireless at our rental cottage (shakespeare house) was quite flaky. Diedre and Wally were very understanding and gave us use of the apartment as a workspace which helped quite a bit. We also swapped their wireless router and installed the Belkin router which seems to have a much higher range than the previous crappy DLINK DSL-604T. We tried upgrading the firmware on their old DLINK from v1.0 -> v3.0) and that failed miserably. The new version range was even lower than the old one, and the tech forums were virtually useless.
The kids seem to be getting up real early out here (6:00 am or so). They have their own room, so kinda cool to hear their conversation. Maya seems to see monsters everywhere enlists PJ's help to eat all of them up :). Nice to see them interact and play with each other nicely most of the times. Maya is warming up to the teachers really quick and things look good on the school front.
Since today was Saturday, we had to head to the farmers market to stock up on fruit, produce, meat, eggs, cheese, salami and bread. We went there fairly early and saw quite a few more vendors than last week (maybe we were jet lagged last week). Kinda nice to meet and get to know our supplier and most of them remembered us from last week. (kinda easy to remember the family with 2 cute girls!). I dont think we'll be missing the SF farmers market for the next few months. The quality of the food here is quite high, and the variety is significanly more than we expected. We also found a local italian bread shop which bakes yummy bread/rolls/pies etc
The DSL/wireless at our rental cottage (shakespeare house) was quite flaky. Diedre and Wally were very understanding and gave us use of the apartment as a workspace which helped quite a bit. We also swapped their wireless router and installed the Belkin router which seems to have a much higher range than the previous crappy DLINK DSL-604T. We tried upgrading the firmware on their old DLINK from v1.0 -> v3.0) and that failed miserably. The new version range was even lower than the old one, and the tech forums were virtually useless.
The kids seem to be getting up real early out here (6:00 am or so). They have their own room, so kinda cool to hear their conversation. Maya seems to see monsters everywhere enlists PJ's help to eat all of them up :). Nice to see them interact and play with each other nicely most of the times. Maya is warming up to the teachers really quick and things look good on the school front.
Since today was Saturday, we had to head to the farmers market to stock up on fruit, produce, meat, eggs, cheese, salami and bread. We went there fairly early and saw quite a few more vendors than last week (maybe we were jet lagged last week). Kinda nice to meet and get to know our supplier and most of them remembered us from last week. (kinda easy to remember the family with 2 cute girls!). I dont think we'll be missing the SF farmers market for the next few months. The quality of the food here is quite high, and the variety is significanly more than we expected. We also found a local italian bread shop which bakes yummy bread/rolls/pies etc
Hike to Center of NZ and a weather report ..
Since the kids were in school, Mari and i had some time to run a few errands, drink coffee in relative peace and take a long hike in the hills around Nelson. Nelson is quite picturesque, the clean green ocean on one side and the backdrops of the mountains on the other side. (pictures coming soon, i promise). There are a few long walks close to the center of town, i.e. u dont need a car :)
Mari and I took a 2 hour stroll to the center of New Zealand and then walked along the ridge to Founders Park. Was a good uphill climb and seems like it will make a good trail run once we get in the groove and are all settled etc. The weather out here is quite variable. It has been raining on and off since we got here. Most days it does clear up and allows the kids time to go explore either along the river or the beach or the multiple playgrounds. When the sun is out, its fairly out and you definitely need sunscreen, when u r in the shade, u need a jacket. Kinda similar to the weather in San Francisco.
Mari and I took a 2 hour stroll to the center of New Zealand and then walked along the ridge to Founders Park. Was a good uphill climb and seems like it will make a good trail run once we get in the groove and are all settled etc. The weather out here is quite variable. It has been raining on and off since we got here. Most days it does clear up and allows the kids time to go explore either along the river or the beach or the multiple playgrounds. When the sun is out, its fairly out and you definitely need sunscreen, when u r in the shade, u need a jacket. Kinda similar to the weather in San Francisco.
Thursday, December 07, 2006
Review: Nelson Coffee Houses and Restaurants ..
Noticed that there were not too many reviews of places to eat and drink in Nelson. So here's my contribution to all the foodies :)
We've been visiting the coffee shops around the area. The coffee is quite good and we don't really miss San Francisco cafes.
Pomeroy's is an institution out here, it is more of a coffee retailer rather than a coffee house. I got a latte as takeway. Out here on takeaway orders, they add the amount of sugar you want, which makes it a bit like a Cubano. The coffee was strong, not bitter and overall i'd give it a 7 out of 10. We'll go back soon to rate it more appropriately. Update: We went there yesterday for coffee. Definitely lacking in atmosphere (though the coffee smell is quite divine). Had a mocha which was way too sweet and quite horrible (IMO). Need to downgrade this to a 6/10. Mari liked her latte.
Next up was Morrison Street Cafe recommended by the dude at the climbing gym. The baked goods out there were quite tasty, and we sampled the Chocolate brioche, the poppyseed muffin and the broccolli and blue cheese muffin (yeah sounds wierd, but is quite a good combination). We had part of the muffin with mari's freshly made lemon curd (recipe from the tartine cookbook). Had a double shot latte togo yesterday and a single shot latte at the cafe today. Great coffee, 8/10. Update: We went there on saturday morning for breakfast with the kids. Their baked good are quite terrific. We had the sweet blueberry muffin (PJ's favorite) and the savory asparagus/bacon muffin (maya's favorite). They even had fluffies, so both Maya and PJ got their very own fluffy. Definitely our favorite cafe so far :)
We also visited our favorite restaurant in NZ, The Boat Shed Cafe for lunch. We first visited this place 6 years ago when we were in Nelson for quite a few days, and we liked it so much, we went there 3 times or so. Last year we stopped over for dinner here with Lara on our way to Golden Bay. We had the mussels with a tomato chorizo sauce, the seafood broth and a blue fin tuna over linguni. Maya once again amazed me with her capacity to put away large amounts of food. The food did live up to our expectations and i'd still rate it quite highly. 7/10
Finally we had Fish and Chips for dinner tonite at Haven Fish and Chips (near Wakefield Quay, the Boat Shed etc). Our landlady, Diedre, thinks they are the best in Nelson. The quality was quite good and there was a decent line to buy them. Our favorite place for F&C in NZ is still The Fishmonger in Parnell, Auckland. We also decided that we will not have F&C more than twice a month :)
Speaking of NZ delicacies, the pie is quite common out here and is a great snack. Our current favorite is KB, since their crust seems a bit healthier than the others.
We've been visiting the coffee shops around the area. The coffee is quite good and we don't really miss San Francisco cafes.
Pomeroy's is an institution out here, it is more of a coffee retailer rather than a coffee house. I got a latte as takeway. Out here on takeaway orders, they add the amount of sugar you want, which makes it a bit like a Cubano. The coffee was strong, not bitter and overall i'd give it a 7 out of 10. We'll go back soon to rate it more appropriately. Update: We went there yesterday for coffee. Definitely lacking in atmosphere (though the coffee smell is quite divine). Had a mocha which was way too sweet and quite horrible (IMO). Need to downgrade this to a 6/10. Mari liked her latte.
Next up was Morrison Street Cafe recommended by the dude at the climbing gym. The baked goods out there were quite tasty, and we sampled the Chocolate brioche, the poppyseed muffin and the broccolli and blue cheese muffin (yeah sounds wierd, but is quite a good combination). We had part of the muffin with mari's freshly made lemon curd (recipe from the tartine cookbook). Had a double shot latte togo yesterday and a single shot latte at the cafe today. Great coffee, 8/10. Update: We went there on saturday morning for breakfast with the kids. Their baked good are quite terrific. We had the sweet blueberry muffin (PJ's favorite) and the savory asparagus/bacon muffin (maya's favorite). They even had fluffies, so both Maya and PJ got their very own fluffy. Definitely our favorite cafe so far :)
We also visited our favorite restaurant in NZ, The Boat Shed Cafe for lunch. We first visited this place 6 years ago when we were in Nelson for quite a few days, and we liked it so much, we went there 3 times or so. Last year we stopped over for dinner here with Lara on our way to Golden Bay. We had the mussels with a tomato chorizo sauce, the seafood broth and a blue fin tuna over linguni. Maya once again amazed me with her capacity to put away large amounts of food. The food did live up to our expectations and i'd still rate it quite highly. 7/10
Finally we had Fish and Chips for dinner tonite at Haven Fish and Chips (near Wakefield Quay, the Boat Shed etc). Our landlady, Diedre, thinks they are the best in Nelson. The quality was quite good and there was a decent line to buy them. Our favorite place for F&C in NZ is still The Fishmonger in Parnell, Auckland. We also decided that we will not have F&C more than twice a month :)
Speaking of NZ delicacies, the pie is quite common out here and is a great snack. Our current favorite is KB, since their crust seems a bit healthier than the others.
The kids start school ...
We went back to Richmond Montessori on Wednesday morning. We liked the small class size, the student/teacher ratio and the way they were organized. So we decided to enroll the kids there immediately. Signed the paperwork and the kids started school earlier today :). They don't have a website, hopefully mari will convince them they need one, and build it for them using CivicSpace On Demand
The teachers are young and full of energy. They follow Montessori principles quite closely but are a bit more flexible. I suspect Maya and PJ will love the school and their teachers. Maya has already started playing school at home with PJ as the student. The only downside is Richmond is approx a 15 minute drive from Nelson, so we'll probably try to move to a place closer to Richmond when we start looking for long term housing ..
The teachers are young and full of energy. They follow Montessori principles quite closely but are a bit more flexible. I suspect Maya and PJ will love the school and their teachers. Maya has already started playing school at home with PJ as the student. The only downside is Richmond is approx a 15 minute drive from Nelson, so we'll probably try to move to a place closer to Richmond when we start looking for long term housing ..
Howto: Transfer money from a US bank to Bank of New Zealand
I suspect this will not appear on Bank of New Zealand's web site anytime soon. I did send them a polite letter asking them to do so, and got a nice reply about how it has been submitted to the committee who collates requests yadi yadi yada ...
To save future travellers from such hassles, here's what BoNZ's email customer service told me which has all the necessary information that my bank in the US could process and send the tranfer. The Transfer normally takes 3 days.
To save future travellers from such hassles, here's what BoNZ's email customer service told me which has all the necessary information that my bank in the US could process and send the tranfer. The Transfer normally takes 3 days.
In order for funds to be sent successfully from Banks and Credit Unions in the United States, the following instructions need to be followed. If these instructions are not followed, there is a risk of your payment being delayed or being returned to the United States.
The instructions you will need to forward to your bank in the United States are:
"Pay via FEDWIRE type code 1000 Customer Transfer utilising product code centre Payment through SWIFT by MT103 (Customer Transfer).”
Pay to Receiver:
ABA #021000089
Citibank N.A.
New York, NY
For A/C with Bank:
A/C 10933728
Bank of New Zealand
Wellington
Favour Beneficiary:
Your account name and full account number
Bank to Bank Info:
Your Bank of New Zealand branch address
There is a fee of $15 to receive an incoming TT. The overseas bank may also charge a fee to process the transfer.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Moving is hard ...
or "Moving is more difficult than you'd expect or remembered"
I've moved a fair amount of times in my life, but i have never remembered it to be so hard or taxing. I suspect having kids and the added responsibilities makes it that much harder. Trying to restart your life in a new place reminds you of all the things you took for granted. We were in a pretty good groove in San Francisco and are busy trying to get into a groove in Nelson. In all fairness, mari, maya and PJ have been awesome troopers and our spirit and energy levels are quite high.
Here are some of the things that have been keeping us busy over the past few days
lobo
I've moved a fair amount of times in my life, but i have never remembered it to be so hard or taxing. I suspect having kids and the added responsibilities makes it that much harder. Trying to restart your life in a new place reminds you of all the things you took for granted. We were in a pretty good groove in San Francisco and are busy trying to get into a groove in Nelson. In all fairness, mari, maya and PJ have been awesome troopers and our spirit and energy levels are quite high.
Here are some of the things that have been keeping us busy over the past few days
- We visited the Nelson Montessori school at Founders Park yesterday. I was never a fan of school visits, primarily because I think you cannot make a reasonable decision based on a 1-15. hour visit, some of which are planned and coordinated. However, we did stay at this school for 2+ hours in a largely unplanned event. Maya and PJ were participants and were part of the classroom for that period. It was quite interesting to see the differences between this school and their old school in SF. More on this later when we make a decision
- We rented a car today and are mobile :) Makes quite a big difference. We also paid a visit to the nearby town of Richmond (12 km away) and visited the Montessori there. It was an after lunch visit with much fewer kids and much more mellower. We'll go back tomorrow in the morning and visit them again. Both schools were not as diverse as we'd have liked them to be. We kinda expected it though.
- Getting a new SIM card for the cellphone was easy. However only one of our phones worked, even though both were supposed to, and were unlocked, tri-band etc. Interestingly enough the local Telecom Company (Telecom NZ) uses CDMA rather than GSM (i thought CDMA was restricted only to US and Japan)
- Opening a bank account was quite easy. I had faxed most of the paperwork from the US and the account was already created which was awesome. However figuring out how to transfer money was quite a difficult task. The local folks had no idea how to do it, and insisted that the wiring instructions were sufficient. They did not have intermediary bank information and did not know they needed it for US transfer
- The coffee is surprisingly good here. Also quite a few ethnic restaurants in the town.
- Finding things you like and choosing grocery stores is an interesting exercise. You have to kinda visit all of them to figure out where to get things from etc.
- Renting a car - Easy
- Our landlady, Deidre, is just awesome and has been super helpful with many things, including activities for the kids. Shakespeare Cottage in Nelson, NZ is definitely highly recommended :)
- Health insurance, relatively easy. We did most of the work for this in the US and needed to sort out just a few details. Basically, you only get emergency health insurance, and the rest you pay as you go.
- For a small town Nelson (and i think most NZ towns) has a LOT of car dealers, banks, medical offices / pharmacists and lawyers. Way more than a place in the US. Surprisingly some of the bank have a sign: "Not a registered bank in New Zealand". Why would anyone deal with these entities?
lobo
Sunday, December 03, 2006
First days in Nelson ...
The kids were a bit tired, but we wanted them to stay awake for a few more hours, before their afternoon nap. So, we headed off to the local farmers market near the town center (at Montgomery Square, Bridge St @ Trafalgar St). It was a combination of arts and crafts, local fruits, veggies, cheese, bread and eggs and some yummy cooked food.
We stocked up for the rest of the week out there with:
Kinda wierd to see a fair number of shops closed on saturday and sunday, and the remaining few work only half days on saturday. I also went and got a SIM card for my cell phone. Wierdly, mari's cingular cell phone from the US which was specifically unlocked for this trip was not able to pick up a signal. I had purchased a Nokia 3220 in SF which did work.
There is a play structure close by across the river, next to the gym and swimming pool. I suspect we'll be getting membership there and hopefully the girls will become good swimmers before we return back. There is a grapefruit and orange tree in the garden outside and they've been entertaining themselves with the fruit, making juice etc.
Sunday is currently a lazy day. Lots of blogging :) We went in search of coffee at Pomeroy's. The web site seems quite pretty, but does not have basic information about the hours that they are open. They were closed on Sunday, so we ended up having coffee at the local flea market / garage sale (Montgomery Square). The latte was quite good. In the afternoon, we are headed to a Christmas Parade in town and visit Founders Park
We stocked up for the rest of the week out there with:
- whole wheat bread, ciabatta roll and muesli
- some free-range eggs (free range out here, means really free range, unlike the US)
- apples, avocadoes and strawberries
- some hot smoked salmon and salmon pate
- wild game salami
- sheep's cheese
- olive oil from blenheim (echo olives by A and K Jeffries)
Kinda wierd to see a fair number of shops closed on saturday and sunday, and the remaining few work only half days on saturday. I also went and got a SIM card for my cell phone. Wierdly, mari's cingular cell phone from the US which was specifically unlocked for this trip was not able to pick up a signal. I had purchased a Nokia 3220 in SF which did work.
There is a play structure close by across the river, next to the gym and swimming pool. I suspect we'll be getting membership there and hopefully the girls will become good swimmers before we return back. There is a grapefruit and orange tree in the garden outside and they've been entertaining themselves with the fruit, making juice etc.
Sunday is currently a lazy day. Lots of blogging :) We went in search of coffee at Pomeroy's. The web site seems quite pretty, but does not have basic information about the hours that they are open. They were closed on Sunday, so we ended up having coffee at the local flea market / garage sale (Montgomery Square). The latte was quite good. In the afternoon, we are headed to a Christmas Parade in town and visit Founders Park
Flight over to Nelson ..
We flew Air New Zealand from San Francisco to Auckland. Its a pretty convenient flight for children since it leaves at 7:15 pm. We fed the kids at home and got to the airport fairly early and had 90 minutes to kill before the flight. Maya and PJ were having a great time walking on the escalator, so we did that for a fair amount of time figuring this would tire them out etc (our regular tactics which works quite well for all kids!).
Maya is quite comfortable stepping on and off escalators, but this was the first extended escalator visit for PJ. Was quite interesting to see a normally confident, do first - think later PJ, hesitate and wanting to hold hands as she stepped on and off the escalator. By the time the flight boarded, the kids were quite tired and ready to sleep.
In the past year, AirNZ has added video terminals on all seats. The kids also got a fairly useful kids treat bag (stickers, crayons, coloring paper) that kept them occupied for the next few hours. They then crashed pretty much for the rest of the flight. I managed to catch up on some movies and watched Water and WordPlay. The food was quite awful, luckily we did not have to eat most of it :) (we had some excellent sushi from yum-yum fish and dim-sum from good-luck for dinner at home)
Immigration, Custom and the transfer to the local flight was quite uneventful. Its amazing how much work it is to push 8 bags through the various procedures. Obviously NZ biosecurity wanted to check out the spices and our camping gear. They've become quite efficient at this and were out of the international area fairly quickly. Immigration has a seperate line for families with kids under 5, which helped quite a bit.
The flight to nelson was on a small 40 seater SAAB place and took approx 90 minutes. We took a super shuttle (since it had a big trailer to haul our 6 bags and 2 car seats) to our cute little cottage in nelson. Our hostess Deirdre is quite helpful and very nice. We settled in and went exploring
lobo
Maya is quite comfortable stepping on and off escalators, but this was the first extended escalator visit for PJ. Was quite interesting to see a normally confident, do first - think later PJ, hesitate and wanting to hold hands as she stepped on and off the escalator. By the time the flight boarded, the kids were quite tired and ready to sleep.
In the past year, AirNZ has added video terminals on all seats. The kids also got a fairly useful kids treat bag (stickers, crayons, coloring paper) that kept them occupied for the next few hours. They then crashed pretty much for the rest of the flight. I managed to catch up on some movies and watched Water and WordPlay. The food was quite awful, luckily we did not have to eat most of it :) (we had some excellent sushi from yum-yum fish and dim-sum from good-luck for dinner at home)
Immigration, Custom and the transfer to the local flight was quite uneventful. Its amazing how much work it is to push 8 bags through the various procedures. Obviously NZ biosecurity wanted to check out the spices and our camping gear. They've become quite efficient at this and were out of the international area fairly quickly. Immigration has a seperate line for families with kids under 5, which helped quite a bit.
The flight to nelson was on a small 40 seater SAAB place and took approx 90 minutes. We took a super shuttle (since it had a big trailer to haul our 6 bags and 2 car seats) to our cute little cottage in nelson. Our hostess Deirdre is quite helpful and very nice. We settled in and went exploring
lobo
Leaving SF ...
Its a strange feeling to pack up and leave. As with many things, it sounds like a good idea in the planning phases, but when you actually get down to do it, there is this small voice at the back of your head. Are you sure? Is this the right thing? Will the kids adjust nicely?
As with most other things in life, sometime you just have to go for it :)
Moving is a great time for getting rid of a lot of stuff and cleaning up. Mari performed a major cleanup and gave a lot of our old stuff to goodwill. We also gave away most of the baby stuff to friends and family. Our friends, the Tejedas, will be staying at our place in San Francisco, so we did not have to pack and clean the entire house. This saved us from a fair amount of work.
The kids were excited to get on a plane. Maya was a bit hesitant and kept saying she wanted to stay back with Cecile and the grand parents. But as the day came closer she seemed to get ready for the move. She remember her last trip to NZ with Lara and the spaceship (the orange camper van we rented last year). I dont think Pranjali understood what moving really meant. We packed pretty minimally, but still ended up with a fair amount of stuff. Our packing list included
As with most other things in life, sometime you just have to go for it :)
Moving is a great time for getting rid of a lot of stuff and cleaning up. Mari performed a major cleanup and gave a lot of our old stuff to goodwill. We also gave away most of the baby stuff to friends and family. Our friends, the Tejedas, will be staying at our place in San Francisco, so we did not have to pack and clean the entire house. This saved us from a fair amount of work.
The kids were excited to get on a plane. Maya was a bit hesitant and kept saying she wanted to stay back with Cecile and the grand parents. But as the day came closer she seemed to get ready for the move. She remember her last trip to NZ with Lara and the spaceship (the orange camper van we rented last year). I dont think Pranjali understood what moving really meant. We packed pretty minimally, but still ended up with a fair amount of stuff. Our packing list included
- Clothes
- Winter fleeces, jackets, long underwear
- Rain Gear
- Toiletries
- Lots of books for the kids
- Arts and Craft materials
- Favorite toys (blocks, matching set)
- Camping Gear (tent, sleeping bags, pads, utensils, water bottles, camelbak)
- Backpacks (mari and I are hoping to get a couple of backpack trips without the kids!)
- Indian and Thai Spices
- Labtop Computers, Camera, iPod, Wireless router, DVD-R
- Car seats for the kids
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