We're Still Alive Down Here! -Camille

Apologies for the delay in posts (only about 4 years) but I'm pleased to say we are doing great down here, missing everyone but still loving it! I really wanted to start this blog again after reading the old posts, so here I am! I started high school just under 2 months ago (high school starts in Grade 8 here) and have made lots of new friends and like it lot. The boy's school Corinna goes to Grade 7 so both the boys currently go to the same school. Their school is in Cannons Creek, close to dad's school (The boy's changed school's early/mid last year, ask my Dad Dave for more information if you want) Here's what the boys think of their school.

Jonny
Our school's cool! And that's all I got to say so later OUS!

Caleb
Unavailable for comment

Right at this moment, Mum (or Mom) just drove into the drive way, Jon and I just finished the mango smoothie I made, I'm at the table in my uniform and the boys and Dad are watching this documentary thing. Earlier today I had my parent teacher interview with Mum, and then later I went with the boys to their rugby sign up. Next up are some photos of my family that I've taken on my camera (shout out to Paps for the camera) Enjoy!

Also, one of my new found passions (new as in last year) is dancing. I have a lesson every Tuesday and I think I've really found something I love. i wear a black leotard and a long flowy purple skirt. Anyways, I hope you've enjoyed this post and please comment if you'd like more. Goodbye from the Sutherland's!

Above the Tree Line: Suffering and Serenity

This Easter Holiday we went camping and tramping.  Tramping is something we have discovered in New Zealand - you pack your food and clothes, walk for a few hours and arrive at a hut in the wilderness which usually has beds, water and a wood stove.  Here is the journey through the kids eyes:

Caleb: We went tramping and it took us 10 minutes to get to the Triplex Hut. That was the first one.

Before dinner we decided to walk the Swamp Track that was close to our hut. It had many signs to help us learn about New Zealand ecosystems. Here are some of the things I learned. 

1. The birds need the forest for shelter and food. The forest needs the birds for pollination, seed spreading and to keep insect populations in balance. 
2. The tallest tree in New Zealand is called the Kahikatea. It is dying out because farmers the swamps are getting drained for farmland. 
3. I learned the names of three native birds. They are Fantail, Shining Cuckoo and Bellbird

Then it took us two hours and thirty minutes to get to the Sunrise Hut. There were 27 beds! It was very big and had a fireplace. We really needed the fireplace because it was so cold.

The Sunrise Hut

There we had lunch and dinner and we stayed a night. After that night we ran down the hill to our car and drove home. 

 Inside The Sunrise Hut

Jon: It was a good journey. One day when were leaving my foot got hurting and I couldn't walk. I had to go to the dentist but I got down to the Triplex hut with just my bare feet.  And then Camile and Caleb and Mommy goed on the swamp track. We were going to call her phone but dad said I"ll call you again but we didn't so we went that way and Camille and Caleb and mommy got there. 

Dad is warming up my bare feet

Camille:  We started really fresh and fast but coming up to the top we got quite tired. 

Camille in the snow going up the mountain.

It actually was quite a relief getting at the top and there was a spectacular view. 

We stood there for five minutes before we actually went into the hut. When we got there, there were four other people there but they were just packing up. The hut had 20 bunks and it had a fire and lots of chairs and a table. Since there was no one there, we got to chose any bunk we wanted. There was triple bunks and we chose the top bunks right beside the huge window. We could see the stars a night and the sunrise in the morning from where we were sleeping.

The next day we had breakfast and then started packing up. When we were finished packing up we started down. On the way down we were so much faster because of the downhill. When at last we got down there we had lunch and there were bees that very much annoyed mom trying to eat our lunch. Then we got in the car and drove home.

Middle Income, Middle Aged, Middle Earth

 The Homestead

The ceiling above my head was painted by Hemi, Jude and Ben. Paul sacrificed his own lungs as he used heat and a chisel to scrape tar from the wood floor in the dining space while an argument raged about whether the planks were Tawa, Matai or a mixture of both. Carl bashed out the wall, ripped out the concrete hearth and put in new drywall for Hans to plaster. Gordon made sure the roof wasn't going to collapse during the operation. Martin showed up early to tear out carpet and staples and Ariadne wasn't far behind. Bridget ripped the wall paper in the kitchen. Bill and Steve painted the ceilings in the other half of the place. There were two Johns one who sanded and polished the floor, the other who lent us his sander so we could sand everything else. Jodi welcomed us with brownies.  Esmee took care of the kids and made lasagna. Jeff took care of the kids and the moving lorry, which really belonged to Stacey's church. Angus sawed out the kitchen cupboard to make room for a rubbish bin and patched our walls. Mary and Wendy unpacked everything and Jacob helped them to assemble the beds. Helen washed the windows! I haven't mentioned all the people or all the things that have been done but you get the idea.

We own land. A piece of paper says that this 1000 square metres and our names are linked.  We are excited for that link to last a while and hope that off the paper record other names feel invested in this place as well. They already have. We don't know how long, but we are "stuck in" as they say here.

We bought a property that promises to be quite a project. Its original owner put steel I beams under the floor, poured an ocean of concrete out back and built a huge workshop in his garage. Porirua used to have its own wallpaper factory and its castoffs are layered deep on the walls. Kiwi insulation. The place is solid, but both retro and tattered. Fixing it up will take up time and money over the next while but what we've done so far has had a great impact. Its a learning curve, and cause for a constant risk reward analysis. For the kids however its a giant playground and a place to discover and reshape at the same time.

From a big picture perspective it is an immense decision we've made by committing to staying longer in a place so far from our families, friends and familiarity. In the day to day though, things are making sense. We've invested in a place that intrigues and challenges us and in people that welcome our presence. Its constantly amazing to examine the social fabric of this land, and of our neighbourhood and to test its threads.

Here are a few images of what has been going on with us.

 Living room, while the walls were being ripped out and insulated.

Kitchen

  

Kitchen cabinet, we ended up painting over the 6+ previous paint layers!

5 solid days scraping tar, my lungs will never be the same.

 Ripping off the painting tape:

Living room. inhabitable.

Kitchen/dining

Lots of grass in the backyard for exercising with our antique mowers.

August Adventures

Hello everyone, apologies for the long delay in posting.  We are still alive here at the bottom of the world! We are now in the second half of winter, with temperatures around 8-10 degrees in the day and slowly climbing.  We usually get a couple days of wind and rain and then a gorgeous day of sun and calm.

Earlier in July, Amy's parents visited and we traveled North to where the weather is warmer.

Jonny surfing in the Tasman Sea:

Te Matua Ngahere - widest tree in New Zealand (diameter = 5.2m) - around 2000 years old:

The kids fly-fished for some rainbow trout with the help of the masters.

From the top of Mt Aubrey

We are now back at school, learning lots of tunes at school:

Camille has been busy with excessive rainbow loom creations - these rubber bands really took off here this year.  She has also been busy with some awesome Fimo:

Caleb is more into  large scale construction.  After cheering on the Spurs to the NBA Championship, he declared he wanted to be Tim Duncan and constructed this basketball net with a broken bucket.

Following in the footsteps of his Canadian forbearers I suppose:

Caleb's Mid Winter dream

"Mom and dad, you wont believe the dream I had. It was really funny and cool. Me and my brother, it wasn't Jon because this was a different family, were born at the same time but we weren't twins. When we were six in that city when you were six you were allowed to go on your own by your own self and find out things, and so one night when we were sleeping there were transformers on a different planet. Optimus Prime reached out to get us and we were not sleeping so we asked him what he was going to do to us and he said 'I am going to change your life!'. He gave us a medicine and put us into a deep sleep. He cut off our arms and legs and gave us a robotic gun and sword that could turn into arms to and two huge metal legs so we could run. When we woke up we were back in our beds and we were like 'Oh cool'. We went out of our house before our parents woke up. We had breakfast and we jumped onto the table and bounced on it, and there was a board game from last nigh on it and it got smashed all over the place. And we went down the road singing a song. We went to have some fun and the first thing that we did is we trapped on guy in jail and then we went to school. It was dress up day so we were very lucky but our class was not! A bad guy jumped in when we first got into the school. Our arms were very strong and we grabbed the bad guy's head and flopped him all around the school and we were like 'This guy is a piece of paper!' The other kids were wondering where we got the metal arms and legs from and me and my brother were worried that they wanted to reveal our big secret that we didn't want to tell them. "

Winter Wonderland

Welcome to Winter in New Zealand.  Today is the Winter Solstice, shortest day of the year in the Southern Hemisphere.  Temperatures here in Titahi Bay are 10-15 Celsius in the day and 3-10 at night.  A few weeks ago I may have spotted some frost:

But as you can see by the rolling green hills, winter here is pretty weak :) 

 This is our alternative to toboganning:

Winter is the time for planting seeds for the coming spring.  There have been a few community plantings in our local park of native grasses... 

And trees...

Rugby is a winter sport, which means there can be quite a bit of dew and mist sometimes.  Since it gets dark so early the kids practice under the park lights.  Here is Dave's collection of future legends.  

Instead of the super furnaces we have in Canada, here we use a large variety of methods to stay warm inside, including:

- fireplaces

- electric heaters

- oil heaters

- fan heaters

- electric blankets

- wool blankets

- flannel sheets

- duvets

- bed socks

- hot water bottles

- wheat bags (heat in microwave, put in your pockets or bed)

- many layers of clothing, especially wool jumpers

- air circulation systems in the ceiling

- one piece pyjamas for adults and children (onesies)

- lined curtains

Pages and pages of store flyers are dedicated to things you can buy to stay warm.  The more money you spend, the warmer you will be! We all think winter is pretty awesome right now, but it might get colder so I better not brag too much.

In other news, I found out through this book that Bamiyan, Afghanistan is the "Friendly City" (sort of like twin city) to Porirua

If only we could get a Bamiyan Kabob Restaurant here, right Thorncliffites?

May Musings

We've done a lot of travelling this past month, I think we might have seen about one-quarter of the country on our wanders. Dave's family visited us from Canada and we had some wonderful adventures in the South Island during our 2 week Easter holiday. Here are a few highlights from our travels around the country:

Recognize this mountain from any movies?

Blue skies around the beautiful Lake Hawea:

30 second kayak trip ends in capsizing and 30 minute walk through town with wet pants. Kayaking has been one of Caleb's lifelong dreams - better luck next time.

 Tonnes of windfarms around Windy Welly:

An awesome driftwood hut on Waikane beach:

 Massive seaweed haul by Camille:

Everything at this market stall in Taupo is made of recycled tires:

This if from the town called Bulls.  Most buildings have a sign with a Bulls pun: Police (Const-a-bull), Perfume Store (Scents-a-bull), Garbage Bin (Response-a-bull).  Any guesses what this building could be?

Really missing our red-headed and bald-headed relatives.  Here at Mt Vic overlooking Wellington city:

I love this sign:

For only our most devoted fans - 2 videos by the kids: uncut and unrehearsed:
Driftwood House Tour
Maori Song by Camille - The kids has been learning these at school - not sure if the words are correct or what they mean!