Getting Back Up

16/04/2012 Leave a comment

Hi!

 

Have you missed me?

 

Well life has been a series of busy lately, and while all of it has been fantastic, none of it really lends itself to being ‘blog-worthy’.  Or at least, not in a way that I can think of just yet.  So what has been happening in life down here in kiwiland?  Well, let me tell you.

 

A couple weekends ago two of our really close friends got married.  It was an absolutely fantastic day, the ceremony went off just as was planned and the Bride and Groom had a great time.  I was so very happy to be not only invited but to also be a part in helping them plan and get ready for their day.  Having only known them for a few months, it’s truly amazing just how close we’ve become.  I can’t express enough or in the proper words just how humbled and grateful I am to the pair of them for allowing me to spend time with them and share in their joy on that day.  Love you both R&K!

 

This past weekend, another pair of our friends moved into their new house! And we, of course, helped them move!  Now, I know that does not necessarily sound like a barrel of laughs, and it was some hard work, but it was also absolutely great.  We got to spend time with friends, help them move onto their next big step, and generally just enjoy everybody’s company.  And while helping them move, unpack, and settle into their new place, I had time to look back, reflect, and focus on just how far this life that I’m living now is to the ones that I’ve lived before.  Doing physical labor, but laughing and joking at the same time. Everybody coming together collectively to help out, and then sitting around a table (which is gorgeous!) for a well deserved dinner.  I am struggling to figure out if life gets better than that.   The house is gorgeous, the couple fantastic, and our time spent together equally precious.  Congrats R&E!

 

What else, what else.

 

The job hunt is not so much a hunt as it is shooting arrows wildly into the forest in every direction, only to have them shot back at you with no points and no fletching. Not helpful.  But! perseverance will prevail!  Employment will be gained! Somehow.

 

Now, the biggest new thing happening to me personally is that I’ve committed to a Personal Trainer. Tom is going to be kicking my butt left, right, and sideways twice a week for 45 minutes.  After 7 months at the gym, and a significant amount of body tightening up, It was time to get even more serious.  I’ve got weight I want to, must, lose and it’s not going to come off on it’s own.  And while I’ve stuck with going to the gym at least twice a week for 7 months, I need something more. I need to keep pushing myself even more, harder than before.  I must lose this weight.  The rest of my life depends upon hitting that healthy moment and then keeping going.  And that’s not an exaggeration.

 

Today was my second session with Tom and everything went well.  Really well, actually.  But it was the last ‘exercise’ that got me into a contemplative mood.  Essentially all I had to do was lay down on the ground on my chest and then stand back up again five times, and then lay on my back and get up again five times.  Sounds simple, right? Wrong.  It was definitely not easy.  There was so much involved, just so much energy and movement and muscles.  It was by far the hardest exercise that I did.

 

Just like life.  It’s fairly easy to get knocked down time and time again.  It’s the getting back up that’s the hardest part.  And all of this, the man who is supporting me, the friends that I’ve found and love, and the gym, this is all part of me getting back up off the ground.

 

And this time, I’m going to remain standing. And then, start running.

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Round the Bays 2012

19/03/2012 Leave a comment

What an absolute crap day.

 

Oh the race itself was great, the company a blast, and being able to cross something off my list highly fantastic!  But I was just not quite in the mood. I woke up grumpy and it stayed with me pretty much all through the day.

 

I went to bed early the night before, but having been awake for far too long by that point I was not able to make up my sleep quota in just 7 hours, so I woke up at 7am on sunday morning, and I was grumpy. Cranky, and a few other words that end in -y and are not pleasant things to be.  But i was awake and there was no way I was going to back out of this now.  I made myself some oatmeal, had a mug of tea, and then our friends arrived for the carpool caravan!

 

We drove with them towards the end of the race track (because you see, you walk the 8.4km and then you have to get back to your car, which is likely at the start of the course.  So really, if you’re unlucky, it’s actually 16.8km walk. but only half of it counts!  But we were smart this year!  We carpooled with some friends and we each parked our cars at one end of the course!  Huzzah!  So after dropping their car off at the finish line, we drove back towards the start of the race and parked ours.

 

And here is where my day started to go bad.  I had to use the bathroom.  I know I probably could have held it a bit longer, but that seemed to be utterly foolish.  So while scouting for a place I finally gave up and went into a petrol station with a line.  I was still standing in line when the race officially started, with cannon blast and everything.  I didn’t actually get to the starting line of the race until about 20 minutes after the race started.  Which was actually not too bad since we were still with a bunch of people at that time.  There were over 70,000 participants in this event.  That’s a lot of humanity.

 

 

So you see, we started in central Aucklan, right along the waterfront.  Walked up past the Port of Auckland, where the Portworker’s Union were standing out with signs about keeping the Port public.  And then all along the walkway that’s just been finished .  Up and around all of the bays. Mission bay, where I’ve spent some time, and others that I haven’t yet.  The views were quite pretty, but I did not bring my camera.  My big cannon just would not have worked well.

 

So, now that you know the route, let’s get back to me and my bad day.  Somehow I started off putting my left foot down wrong. Or at least that’s how it felt.  I tried to adjust my gait over the course of the day, but it just was not working well for me.  My big toe was hurting and I was getting cramps down the outside of my leg, along my knee.  I stopped a few time to try and stretch the offending muscle, but to no real avail.  It was just not a good day.My pace was not consistent as a result and by the last kilometer of the race I was barely moving.  I was running on absolute dregs of the dregs of fumes.  My tiredness from the day/night before plus the exertion of the race seemed to have caught up with me and I was just plain wasted.

 

I made it to the finish line though, and the official times haven’t been posted yet online, but shortly after I crossed the line, they announced it had been 2 hours and 28 minutes since the start.  So a little over 2 hours if we want to be technical and not count my being in line for the toilet.

 

Now there were some fun things along the route.  One radio station was apparently handing out sausages, and another was giving out/selling slushies.  They had packed up by the time we reached their trucks, but we were told that they had been awesome.  Cadbury chocolates had set up a giant water sprinkler at just about the halfway point for people to run under and cool off a bit.  Luckily, or not I guess, the weather was actually overcast and cool so there was no real need for the sprinkler, but it was really cool either way. And there were some folks from the Ice bar company (a new icy pop business) giving out samples of their lemonade icy bar.  Which was really welcome at that point in the race.

 

Overall, the race was good, and had I been in a better mood, less tired, and better prepared mentally I probably would have enjoyed myself even more.  But my mind was just not in it, and my body certainly was not quite ready for it.  Next year, I will be more prepared, and I will conquer it again.

 

had a good time with walking the race with E though, he decided to not run it, but instead hang back with me and our friends and do the course at a leisurely pace.  Which was greatly appreciated.

 

There were some good bits, like the sprinkler and the icy bar, and the army guys and their perfect jogging technique. Oh, and the firetruck that got stuck on the Start banner. And it did feel good to finish the race, walk to the bbq that his work put on and have some post race food.

 

But It was just not my best day, and not my best race.  It’s left a tiny bit of a sour taste in my mouth, but i’ll get over that soon.

 

Soon up!  Crochet projects galore!

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Knotty Knotty

12/03/2012 Leave a comment

I’m a tangled up Puppet…

 

I’ve been humming that song for a few days now, while sitting on my couch, surrounded by my new stash of yarns, while my Finished Projects pile up more and more on a shelf in the bookcase.

 

I’ve taken up Crochet again, and this time, it feels serious. I’ve learned new stitches, I’m finding it a bit easier to read patterns, and I’ve finished probably as many projects in two weeks time than I think I’ve started in three times as many years.  It’s finally all making sense in my head!  It is seriously quite exciting!

 

So if anybody was wondering just where I have been, and why I have not been posting as much as I was, it’s probably due to the fact that I’m on the couch, West Wing playing in the background (or Mad Men), buried under a pile of wool and acrylic yarn twisting and knotting my way to new and exciting objects.

 

I’ve been working on hats, I’ve finished up a small bowl, I’ve even got a trivet!  two shawls, a scarf, 4 headbands (two with flowers), and an evening bag!  A baby blanket and a baby hat, and an adorable stuffed snake!  I’ve got one more hat underway at the moment, and a new shawl in the making.  And after this, who knows?

 

I am getting good at this!  And I am enjoying it so much!

 

Oh and on top of the crochet, I’ve got a garden underway on my porch! Mainly herbs, but I’m also growing lettuce and spinach as well!  But that is a post for a later time.

 

I have to get back to my crochet! There’s a deadline for the shawl that I’m working on right now! I want it to be done in time for a wedding that’s in 2 weeks! Yikes! So it needs to be finished soon.  So that if I don’t like it, I have enough time to find another pattern!  I’ve done this once already.

 

This is possibly turning into a serious obsession for me.  Which is dangerous!  But oh so much fun!

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MIA

05/03/2012 2 Comments

I know, right? It’s been forever.

 

Well, there really hasn’t been much happening to me.  I’ve been applying for jobs, being rejected from jobs, and doing housework.  I’ve planted a pot garden, though. And I successfully made some pumpernickel bread. 

 

But really, that’s about the extent of my adventures.  I’ve really just been enjoying being home with E, or having dinner with friends.  Life is not all that outrageous or amazing, but it’s been good.  So very good.

 

I suppose I could show you pictures of my garden, or my pumpernickel.  Or maybe even my Crochet projects that I’ve been working on.  But really, at the moment, I’m just so content to just sit out on the porch with a book, watch the wind tip over the laundry, and enjoy the rays of sunshine, I just can’t be bothered to lay all the projects out and take the photos.

 

I think Autumn anywhere is a favorite season for me, but down here?  It’s absolutely stunning!

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Botany 10k Walk

14/02/2012 Leave a comment

Yeah.  You read that right.

 

10k.

 

Just about 6 miles.

 

And I did it. I set myself the goal and I completed it. Smashed it. Demolished and obliterated it.  I looked my goal in the face and I scared it into the atmosphere.

 

After crying, and whimpering and almost quitting, of course.

 

The day started out cloudy and overcast.  When we got to the race venue (which is really just a large mall/shopping center) we could see that a huge amount of rain had already come through earlier, and the sky looked to be promising more.  It was a bit brisk for a summer morning and the air was damp and humid.  So not the best thing to be walking in, but better than clear blue skies and sweltering heat.

 

The race started at 9am on the dot, there were just over 600 people there men, women, and children.  There were folks with their babies in strollers, a gentleman in a wheelchair and a father and his special needs son in a stroller.  And me.  I started off strong, matching my pace with a pair of older ladies and just keeping up.  but they soon passed me, and then more and more people passed me.  But that was alright, I was fine.  I knew that there were still people behind me.  I made it through the first 3k without any problems.

 

It was around the 3.5k mark that things got difficult.  My feet were hurting, my back was aching my knees wanted to give up.  I started to cry. I could not believe what I was doing to myself. What in the world had seeped into my brain to make me think that I had anywhere close to a chance to doing a 10k walk?  I hadn’t even hit the halfway point and I was ready to die.  How could I go around and do it again?  And then, just as I was hitting the absolute bottom of depression, the knowledge in my mind that I just could not do this thing anymore, E was there.  He had found the 4k point of the race and was waiting for me with fresh cold drinks (powerade) and encouragement.  I stopped my crying, picked my head up, and instead of turning into the finish line, I kept on going straight to start the next lap.

 

I was alone.  Completely and utterly alone.  There were no more walkers in front of me that I could see and try to match with them.  And turning around I was completely by myself.  I could see nobody.  It was just me and this course.  And the cones.  And the cars.  And so I turned up my music and I walked. And I walked. And I walked some more.  I cursed and I yelled and I chided myself.  I hated my life and everything that I was doing but I kept on moving.  Had to keep moving.

 

Got to the water station and looked at the kid behind the table, I jokingly told him that I thought I was last.  He confirmed that I was.  He told me to take a break, take a rest, have some water.  But I had to keep going, I had to keep moving.  I couldn’t stop, not even for a brief breath and some water. If I stopped moving then, I would have stopped completely.  And so I moved on.  Full of the knowledge that I was the very last person out of 600+ to be out on the course.  The very last.  Everybody was waiting on me.

 

And even that knowledge, and the fact that I knew that I would show up last and everybody would know that I was completely incapable of doing this, did not slow me down. I kept going, kept moving. Singing and dancing and walking and cursing and crying.  I was soon joined by one of the race helpers, those blessed people who get up early to stand along the route of the race and cheer you on in their bright orange vests.  She joined me to ostensibly keep me company, but also to keep an eye on me and make sure I didn’t collapse.  Also, my own personal traffic cop.  Because there were still intersections to get through and cars to avoid.  Let me tell you a personal traffic cop is a handy thing to have when all you can do is concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other.

 

One kilometer to go and there was my E again, waiting with yet another cold drink and more encouragement.  So for the last kilometer of the race I walked with E and this orange-vested race lady.  It was quite something.  And as I got closer to the finish line I was greeted by more race personnel and they all offered congratulations and adulation on my continued effort. I was last.  But I had still made it that far.

 

I turned down the roadway towards the finish line and as soon as I appeared in that area the remaining racers and their friends and family all erupted into cheers and applause.  The MC of the event, a guy from the local radio station, announced to everybody that I was coming down the home stretch.  He announced me by name.  And the applause and congratulations and approval got even louder as I crossed the finish line and the clock stopped.

 

2:00:41

 

I was hurried over to a chair where the race workers took off my bib and put it into the box for the spot prizes and they removed the timing chip from my shoe for me.  I was then allowed to move into the crowd, where even more people offered personal congratulations on completing the race, and they decided to do the spot prizes and the big prize drawings.  Oddly enough, we were joined by some friends.  They had done the 5k run and had no idea that I was even there, but they heard my name over the speakers and were surprised and happy.  The prizes were awarded and then we left to go home.

 

I hurt. My entire body was aching and I could barely form complete sentences. But I had finished my goal, beaten it to the ground.  I had told myself that if I could finish this race in under 2.5 hours, I would be happy.  I blew that expectation out of the water.  And I was still alive and still breathing.

 

The applause from the other participants was the biggest mix of emotions that I have felt in some time. Pride in my accomplishment. Shame in how long it took me. Embarrassment at the attention. Guilt that it took me so long and everybody was waiting for me before the event could move on.  But mostly just relief that it was over. And then pain.

 

It’s two days later and I can say that even though I have blisters on both feet and my ribs ache as though I’ve been dry-heaving for days, I am glad that I did it.  I set myself a goal and I achieved that goal.

 

Now, I rest a bit, get my feet healed, and then back at the training.  I’ve got another big race coming up next month!

 

This one’s only 8.5k though.  Only. Hah!

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Achievement Unlocked: New Visa!

25/01/2012 2 Comments

So last night, I checked my email before going to bed, and there was a nice email from Immigration New Zealand, saying that my status had changed.  So i logged into their website and sure enough, it said “Work Visa January 2013″

WOOT!

It’s only a year long visa, but it’s still a visa.  I can go get permanent work now instead of temp jobs. I can be a contributor to the household instead of a drag on finances.  I get to say in new zealand!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!

I am overjoyed, overexcited, and quite simply thrilled to no end.  I got very little sleep last night, and I’ve got a full day today. I’m going to crash tonight, but right now, I am on top of the world and singing songs.

And doing laundry, dishes, and straightening the lounge.  While guzzling caffeinated tea because I am dragging.

New tomorrow, here I come!

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SOPA

19/01/2012 Leave a comment

Many websites are blacked out today to protest proposed U.S. legislation that threatens internet freedom: the Stop Internet Piracy Act (SOPA) and the Protect IP Act (PIPA). From personal blogs to giants like WordPress and Wikipedia, sites all over the web — including this one — are asking you to help stop this dangerous legislation from being passed.

 

So how do you take action?

 

The best way to do this is to call your Senator, or your Congressman, To call them and to let them know that the Internet should be free.

 

Also, if you can’t do this, go to google’s homepage, there will be a link there to sign a petition.  Sign it, and then call your Senator.

 

Information should be free and easy to access.  SOPA, and it’s Senatorial counterpart PIPA, will not ensure or enshrine either of those truths into our country.  Do your part.

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Curly Wurly

17/01/2012 Leave a comment

Welcome to my world!

 

I’m going to divert a bit here and move on to being a complete and total corporate shill for the moment.

 

I love Lush.  If you have not had the joy of going into a Lush store, you should.  All of their products come from natural sources, and a good deal of them are Vegan as well.  And they smell heavenly and do exactly what they say they will do.

 

My journey into the world of Lushness started a few months ago, when I picked up a container of Herbalism, their face wash/scrub with tea tree oil and other things that are good for reducing redness and blemishes.  My skin has never been quite so pretty as it is now.  Then, I discovered the solid shampoo.  The solid shampoos are round discs of, well, shampoo.  you run them over your wet hair in three swipes, Right, center, left, and then lather and rinse.  There are many different scents and they all do different things.  For example, Karma Komba is a generic shampoo that smells of the most amazing perfume that they have in the store, Karma.  Seanik is blue and has chunks of kelp visible in it, which helps for the softening of your hair.  Godiva is yellow and smells of sweet jasmine, and has chunks of conditioner right in the bar!  So it really is insanely convenient!  Soak & Float is their anti-dandruff solid shampoo, I just bought this one the other day and I haven’t tried it out yet.

 

Then, we moved into the soaps and the body washes and the perfumes and everything is just fantastic.  The face mask that I have in the fridge for helping to combat blemishes, the body lotion that smells like heaven. The foot lotion that smells like chocolate and has a hint of capsaicin in it to help your feet get warm.   The Buffy body bar.

 

Oh the body bar.  It is a solid block of shea butter and cocoa butter and oh my god heaven with little bits of ground rice and almonds and aduki beans for exfoliation.  You get your skin wet and ready, then stand out of the water and rub this all over your body, you can feel your skin exfoliating under the touch, but also the butters are just soaking their way into your body.  Rinse of the exfoliants and then step out of the shower, pat yourself dry and be prepared for skin so soft and smooth that you won’t want to stop touching yourself.  I am serious.  Luxuriant in the most classic sense.

 

But, above and beyond all of these things, above and beyond even the most astounding body butter that I have ever felt, is this shampoo Curly Wurly.  It comes in one of Lush’s black pots, and it looks a bit like a strawberry margarita with small flakes of coconut inside.  It smells like coconut definitely, with a hint of vanilla.  But it is seriously the best thing in the world.  I have never been happier with my curly hair than I was when I first washed my hair with this shampoo.  I don’t even need conditioner with it, the coconut takes care of that.  My hair is soft, smooth, shiny, and nearly tangle free.  My curls are beautiful and easy to manage. I have been leaving my hair down more and more since I discovered this shampoo, and I have not regretted it once.  Only five minutes to brush my hair before bedtime.  Five minutes!  That is insanity itself!

 

I have never, in my life, been more head over heels in love with cosmetics and body stuff like I am with Lush.  If you haven’t been to a store near you, then you should go!  Or, you can order online!  Self-confidence is at the root of all beginnings for a better life.  And their products have made my self-confidence all that much easier to enjoy!

 

Ok, I’m going to go back to playing with my hair now.

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Stamper

16/01/2012 Leave a comment

When I was little, maybe nine or ten or so, the US Postal Service started a program all about having pen-pals.  They even had a mascot!  It was a bald eagle, of course, and this bald eagle’s name was Stamper. I think the idea was to get young kids more involved in the wider world around them.  And hopefully help them build long lasting relationships with people from foreign nations.  Yes, this was before the Internet was a big deal, or even a little deal.  Follow along here.

 

So my father got me all signed up and involved in this Stamper program.  And while I’ve spent some time today looking for it online, it must have been called something else because I can’t seem to find it.  Anyway, I got hooked up with another little girl my age in France.  Which was fantastic, because I knew a little French at that time.  I think we wrote about four letters all told back and forth on this really neat stationary, and then they got put into the air mail envelopes with stamps and away they went!

 

Of course about four letters is the most that could hold my interest, and apparently the same for my pen pal.  After four letters we just stopped writing and that was that.  Which brings me to my larger point.

 

I am a horrible pen pal.  Just horrible.  And I’m not just talking about letters to foreign lands or anything, I’m talking about emails and birthday cards, christmas greetings and thank you notes.  Oh, my grandmother tried to pound the importance of thank you notes into my head but I just could not do it.  Which of course always got me into trouble with her, but I figured if I had seen the person and said thank you to their face, why did I need to send them a card?

 

Little girl logic.

 

But now that I’m getting into being a proper adult, or so they tell me, I am finding it necessary to write such things. Christmas cards and Thank you notes.  And I’m finding it so very difficult.  Especially the timing! Trying to get pieces of mail out into the system in enough time so that a New Years card will arrive at least in the first part of January and not March (I failed on that one this year)!  Sending an email is just so much easier, but a lot less personal.  So now, I’m having to teach myself politeness all over again.

 

Of course, for me, I’m going to type up the thank you note and slide it into a card.  Because what’s the point of writing a thank you note when the receiving person won’t be able to read it?  Yes, my handwriting really is that bad.  Also, if the note is going to be more than just “thanks for the thing”, but it’s going to have more information in it, there is only so much room on a card, and I just can’t see the point in sending two cards, that’s just wasteful!

 

So I’m trying to become a better communicator, and there are lots of problems that I have with that.  But those particular neuroses will have to wait for another day.  It’s absolutely gorgeous outside and I think I might go enjoy the weather and read on the porch.

 

After putting on sunscreen, of course.  Can’t afford to turn into a lobster now!

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I Can Almost Reach….

14/01/2012 Leave a comment

The sky.

 

One of the first things that I fell in love with down here in New Zealand, other than E, was the sky.  It’s one of those visceral feelings that you get when you first get off the plane and look up, especially on a mostly clear but still fluffy cloudy day.  There is just so much sky up there.  And the color of the sky is so amazingly crisp.  And the clouds are so very close.  So very close.  At times it really does feel like you can reach up and touch them.

 

Now true, there are trees everywhere, and the land itself is so very green it could probably give Ireland a run for the money.  There are mountains and valleys, and parklands as far as you can see, with old stately trees reaching to the sun, their trunks thin and twisty.  But you look at them, even with the moss growing on the branches, and the multitude of wildlife and birds that you’re not used to and once again your eyes are drawn up and up and up to the sky.

 

It goes on for seemingly ever.  particularly if you’re standing at the top of a hill.  You can see everything on a clear day.  Sure, there are trees and hills and houses all around you, and the occasional tall office building, but all around that, there is sky.  And on some days, the color of the sky is unreal, unimaginable. You sit and you look at it and somewhere in the back of your internet filled mind you think to yourself, “This has to be photoshopped”.  But it’s not!  The sky really is that brilliant azure blue that you only usually see in children’s drawings and tourism guides.  And the clouds.

 

The white fluffy cumulus clouds that we learned about in high school.  The ones that mean fair weather, but could turn to storm clouds as well.  They are huge.  Fluffy and white and they go on forever.  They feel so very low, but they are still the same clouds that you know are not the lowest point (nimbus clouds hover lower if I remember correctly.  And of course Fog).  But they are just so very close.  And so very dramatic.

 

That’s right, fluffy bunny clouds are dramatic.  The way the light hits them, the way the curvature of the moisture has formed.  There is always a new way for the light to play against the clouds, and it does.  The air is cleaner down here, and the sky brighter, and the clouds more impressive.

 

I was driving over the Harbor Bridge the other day, well ok I was riding on the bus, and I looked out my window over the harbor and towards the city.  The skyline for downtown Auckland still causes me to catch my breath at times.  Something about it is just so very breathtakingly beautiful.  I don’t know if it’s just the SkyTower, or if it’s because the city practically rises up straight from the water, or because of the magnificent vast stretches of sky behind it.  Or if it’s some combination of the above.  But there it is again, the sky.  Any direction you look, it goes on forever.  I’ve heard people make these comments about Montana or Wyoming, but having never been there, I can’t make my own judgements there.

 

I can tell you that on a sunny spring or early summer day, when the weather is just right and the clouds oh so perfectly fluffy white and the sky is that cerulean blue that is considered to be almost perfect, on those days, it really does feel like nothing else in the world could compare to this place at that time.

 

Of course then the storm clouds move in and it begins raining buckets on your head, but that is going to happen anyway because we live on an island.

 

But rain! What about the rain?  Yes, we should talk about the rainclouds, the way they sweep in across the land and how if you know what direction you are facing, you can watch the storm systems moving towards you.  You can see the clouds forming and building and racing across the atmosphere, and even on a cloudy day where everything is overcast, there is still drama in the sky. The clouds build in layers upon themselves, and there are still shapes and forms amongst them.  And every now and then you get a spot in the clouds where the sun has broken through and there is glorious light cast upon everything.  And you can see the storm above your head and to your east, but to the west, there is sunny skies, and that beautiful blue sky.  Even as the clouds are racing overhead and you can feel the rain seeping into your skin, you know, there are sunny days still to come.

 

So while I love this county, and I do love this country, and I love the trees and the wildlife and the  people.  But the one thing that never fails to amaze me is the sky.  Photos don’t do it the true justice, since they only capture that moment.  To truly appreciate the New Zealand sky, you have to live it, watch it, be drenched by it, and then be dried by it.

 

One more thing that I love about New Zealand.

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