India Writes from New Zealand
Thousands of miles to the south, Zola, Tallulah, and India are having a marvelous time on the North Island, albeit with a lot less gear and no air travel. Kids are in great form, though Lu is a tad confused about where her dad has gone and why. Zola thinks it is cool that his dad is skiing with Wyatt’s dad, but harbors secret worries about avalanches and all sorts of other icy perils.
Yesterday was spent hiking around Kapiti Island, a bird sanctuary and Maori homeland five kilometers off the coast of the mainland. Kids spotted the rare Takahe (only 200 left in the world and 14 on this island) and had a ball playing with two American kids (the lovely Evelyn, age 8 and adorable Isaac, age 5) who are living in Christchurch for the next six months while their dad teaches at the law school there. Both Zola and Lu fell a little bit in love. Lu ran about trying to clutch Isaac’s hand and shrieking with glee. Zola mooned about and tried to look tough as kakas (a brown parrot) landed on his shoulders and head. Zola and Lu said their goodbyes with long faces (and a few tears for Lu.) They are ready for a kid-dominated social life, that’s for sure.
With Ginny here, I have been running lots of the wide, steel grey beaches. It is a beautiful spot, though I have not been burning 5000 calories a day yet. We are on the lookout for a handsome, fit young man for Ginny (not sure a mellow Kiwi holiday with a mom and two kids is the best way to attract one!). We spent today walking around Wellington, exploring the fabulous National Museum (where Lu got her hand stuck in an elevator door but escaped with minor bruising), and climbing Mt. Victoria. Not quite the Alps, but it was a good, brisk, hour and half plus climb up to the lookout. Again, the kids were troopers and we made it all the way down again on our own steam, had dinner by the waterfront, and made it home in one piece. Lu fell asleep standing up next to the bed as soon as we got home, drooling on a stack of her books.
Last night we celebrated Earth Day with a candlelight dinner on the beach and marveled at the stars. The kids were delighted to have a home-cooked meal, chocolate chip cookies straight out of the oven (and a fair amount of cookie dough) and some down time. No requests for TV or the DS until this morning, when Lu spent half an hour watching runway shows on Fashion TV. Not a bad start to our North Island tour. Tomorrow we head north and east, towards Hawkes Bay.