Fall at Hagley Park

We have been enjoying a change of seasons here on the southern island. Hagley park in Christchurch is one of our favorite places to walk and enjoy the fall foliage!

The boys gather leaves in a pile and jump in.

The trees in the park are huge, with some of them being over 100 years old. The tree trunks are the width of a VW Bug car. Very cool!

The evening are crisp and we have taken out the winter blankets and fleece jackets. With the heaters on, we can keep the house at 20 C, with outside temps at night falling to 9 C some nights.

Ben is on vacation for two weeks for school holidays, but Zack and Mike are on regular school/ work schedule.  So, Ben and I have been swimming at Jellie Park pool and Gordon Condon pool. Good way to start the morning.

ANZAC Day

Next Thursday is a holiday! People sell red poppies to wear on your shirt. A Memorial Day of sorts.



ANZAC day is a Memorial Day for soldiers that fought in WW 1, so they have parades and memorial services.

All these Kiwi holidays...hard to keep track of!

Update: so we sold red poppies to pin to your shirt last Sat in front of Harvey Norman department store. My kids drove the middle aged ladies selling sausage nearby insane! Oh well, my loud American kids were too "annoying" , so we were asked to leave by the sausage sizzling gals after 30 mins. The sky was raining a solid downpour, so it was good timing.

Then, on Anzac Day, we marched with the scouts in the Papanui parade, which was fun. Here is a pic of us in our scouting uniforms for the ANZAC parade.

Autumn in Christchurch

A very warm Easter weekend this autumn, so we decided to take a walk through Hagley Park's botanical gardens.

Zack has also taken an interest in gathering feathers for a nature collection.

Our favorite redwood tree!

My family loves this redwood tree because it is huge and easy to climb on.

There are some deciduous trees at the park, so we made a leaf pile and the boys jumped in for fun.

Can you spot the two paradise shellducks next to the silver metal structure at the park's pond?

 

The warm fall means there are a ton of flowers still in full bloom, which is neat.

Sushi share

American ways and Kiwi ways sometimes clash. This became evident this week with a preschool egg hunt and a sushi share incident.









Mike went to Free Food and Fun Event at work late and saw that everyone had eaten and he saw that there was a huge pile of sushi left. Sweet! So he picks up and eats 8 pieces. On choking down on his 7th piece, a coworker whispers, "We each had only 1 piece." To which Mike is puzzled...


In America, it is recommended you share, but also there is a winner takes all policy for leftovers. In NZ, there is a huge emphasis on everything being exactly equal.

Another example,: the egg hunt at both the Boy Scouts and at the Montessori had exact limits on how many eggs you could gather ( 6 multivolred and 1 foil marshmallow egg) and 2 eggs each at Montessori. Why must it be equal? In America, there are winners and losers. That is part of what makes it fun. The competition.

This is just a cultural difference. I still vote that having 8 pieces of sushi leftovers or 36 eggs in an egg hunt just shows you are being smart and winning. Ha ha! Competitive aggressive American greed, some Kiwis would argue. But, as we all know, "Life isn't fair."

Kiwi Passover

Who celebrates Passover in Christchurch? A veritable United Nations of people!

At our table, we had a student from Virginia, a student from South Africa, a Kiwi originally from Amsterdam, and a local Sister nun from Interfaith group.

We also met people from England and Israel. Very cool!

I met a Bostonian Jew ( Framingham) who gave us the name of the best cafe for lox and bagels in town.

The Seder was at a Vineyard restaurant and the kids enjoyed matzah ball soup and playing with the other kids on the swingset, since it was 25 C outside.

Fall Egg Hunt

The leaves change, and it is cooler on the South Island now. Fall time is very pretty, and the garden city of Christchurch still has many flowers blooming.

A great time for an...Egg hunt? Sure! Easter is 1 week away.

We filled 400 American plastic eggs ( made in China) with cheap Lollies from the warehouse store and 3.5 kg of Choc, hard candy, and taffy later, all the eggs were loaded with treats and ready to go.

Kiwis are terrible with RSVPing to a party. I only had heard from 8 people, but 20 people showed up with their kids to the egg hunt.

Kiwis also were excited to have an egg hunt, since normally they hide 12 Choc marshmallow eggs in their backyard and call it an egg hunt.
One of the mums commented, " In America, you do everything bigger." Ha ha! So true!
We held the hunt at the MacIntosh Park two blocks from my house, and the kids loved it. Another party success!

Got time for a Quickie?

Love the NZ signs!

Here are two for the day:

And an inspirational one on the back of a bus.