Rockin' Rollin' Graduates

Alright! Alright! I’m sorry I’ve been slacking in blogland, but that is because the real world has been so hectic! The school year is winding down for the kids, we had full control in the class, and on top of that turns out we have to figure out how to survive in the ‘real’ world- we graduate THIS WEEKED! What?! How did that happen? All that hard work and now it’s onto bigger and better things where hopefully we can stop paying other people and start getting paid!

Nevertheless, I am truly sorry for neglecting all of you!

We’ll start with last weekend when we went to the National Aquarium of New Zealand. We were very impressed! It is decently sized and it provided a wealth of information about the native species of the islands- turns out most animals aren’t native! The most exciting part was getting to see real live kiwi birds! Patience certainly paid off for us. As you do in museums, aquariums and the like, we started traveling in an adopted group of people meandering at a similar pace. After a few minutes of watching the two hardly visible kiwi birds run back and forth across the back wall, our acquaintances made their way out of the dark room to see the little penguins.

Live kiwi bird 

 Chris and I stayed behind, happy to admire them from afar. As if it could see us (which it couldn’t because of the one way glass), one of the moderately sized fowls waddled right up to us! I snapped pictures like crazy hoping that some iphoto editing would be able to bring out the little creature in its dim habitat.  (You see, they are trying to fool them into thinking its nighttime so they will be active.) It was marvelous!! Then, we moved onto the ‘little penguins’ - that’s actually what they are called because they really are the littlest! After the penguins, we made it just in time for the feeding of the animals in the aquatic archway. A humorous diver put on quite the show for us as he fed the stingrays from his own mouth, took a phone call, and hand fed the sharks. The show was a great way to finish off a fascinating visit.

Stuffed kiwi bird

 

Little Penguin! 

Later in the week, my CT’s delightful parents took us for a ride around town in their 1925 Fiat. After the ride, we enjoyed a delicious meal and relaxing visit. What a treat!

The past couple weeks at school we have been sending home books, writing final reports, and practicing relentlessly for our end-of-year Christmas program. (I wake up with Pukeko in a Ponga tree, the Kiwi 12 Days of Christmas, already stuck in my head!) Full control has been a liberating experience. It provided us the highly anticipated opportunity to single-handedly run the class. We are both ready for teacherdom! It was full-on (a Kiwi expression for ‘intense’) and we had little spare time, but it was a great way to see how piloting a classroom really works. 

To conclude our full control, the weekend rolled in with a 5.8 earthquake at 7:30AM Saturday morning. I must say that I was a little disappointed with my first quake at school where I experienced it, but didn’t feel a thing. So as startling as it was to be shaken awake, I’m pretty pleased that I actually felt an earthquake! The doors banging woke me and everything gradually started to rumble. I shot straight up and sent a forceful hand Chris’ way- “CHRIS! I think it’s an earthquake!” It lasted for about 30 seconds with subsequent smaller shakes to follow for the next few minutes. It wasn’t scary, but more of a totally new and unique experience. I’ve lived my whole life only hearing about such occurrences and now it was real. Needless to say, I was wide-awake and ready to go for the day! I spent the rest of the day being very productive compiling and packaging Christmas packages.

Sunday was spent relaxing on the beach and mulling around town. We were so entrenched in the day we even got lost on our way home to dinner- luckily we came across a dairy (convince store) and acquired sustenance… creamy, caramely, frozeny sustenance! In our aimless travels, we came across Bluff Hill lookout and subsequently the most stunning view of the bay! Eventually we found our way home.

So maybe we're lost... 

Now, as I mentioned, in less than a week we will be college graduates. This means we are thinking about… the future! Funny thing is, “the whole world is open” to us. I’m pretty sure my oh-so-knowledgeable mum said that some time ago and suddenly I believe it. I am going to be a teacher for a long, long time, but right now, what am I? I know that I am blessed with a voracious wanderlust and the perfect partner to venture the globe with me. Perhaps the best thing to do now is to travel. New Zealand has been the first stop on this trip, where next?! Plans change and this one may too. My desire for career stability (and a need for a dog) may lure us back to the states for the beginning of the next school year or we may work and volunteer our way across the seven seas. We plan to establish the next steps while we spend 3 weeks over the holiday in Wellington. As of now, we will head to the south island for a few weeks then perhaps to Australia. We’ll keep you posted!

Until next time!!! 

Exoskeleton of a recently molted cicada