On Christmas Day in New Zealand this year, Roy will get togther with his grandmother, mother, wife and two daughters. His comment on this rendezvous–“The Meeting of the Brats.” Irene’s comment–” But Zoe isn’t a brat.” No one disputed that statement!!
02 December 2009
Roy reminded Irene to “use the potty”. Irene said, outraged, How can you say “potty” to me? I am a girl who writes poems like, “The poppies sway and flutter/ Waving their lie of happiness/ The graves are littered with flowers of love/ Bravely concealing the tears that were shed./ The larks swoop and dance/ Singing their song of sadness and peace/ In the sky, there flies a pure white dove.” Good, huh?
Roy and I have just returned for a lovely long walk in the rain (I think it’s romantic; Roy DOES NOT) in Shotover Park, an ancient Saxon hunting forest. C.S. Lewis’s house had 8 acres, now part of Shotover. We met a hearty middle-class Brit, all galoshes and good cheer, also walking her dogs. “Lovely day, isn’t it?” She said, “WE MUST BE MAD!” Mad dogs, Englishmen and Mathiases, all happily trudging in the rain.
02 December 2009
Remembering Zoe’s third Christmas, when in a fit of educational madness, I bought her ONLY BOOKS for Christmas. Her comment, ” Why Santa only brought me book presents?” Mad rush to find a Barbie doll on Christmas Day. Her other memorable comment that day, ” Mommy, did you know that if we don’t praise God, the rocks and stones will praise Him? So better we praise God.” (Praise God for books, especially!!)
02 December 2009
Bailey’s Irish Cream Haagen -Dazs Icecream for dessert today. Irene, “Why don’t we have this more often? Can we not afford it?” Roy, ” We can afford to buy it. We just can’t afford to eat it.”
In Dubai Airport on their WiFi. Mobile and laptop charging stations everywhere. Boutiques with the swankiest names. Irene was wide-eyed. We were exhausted. Everything new, gleaming and luxurious, though very crowded. Large numbers of expats are supposedly leaving because of Dubai’s over-due economic crash!!
06 December 2009
Now in Sydney Airport. The Gatwick to Christchurch, NZ flight was 40 hours with two transfers. WHAT were we thinking? Irene stayed awake for 28 hours at a stretch watching in-flight videos! Didn’t think that was possible for a 10 year old. I crashed, soundly, and am actually feeling quite refreshed and alert (I think!!)
06 December 2009
We are now in Christ Church, New Zealand. Lovely, lovely sunny day. Picked up the compact and cute camper van which is going to be home for the next 14 days. The girls are asleep; I’m on the computer. What’s new? We are somewhat jet-lagged, and in the lovely South Island of NEW ZEALAND!! Now to find some food, find a beach, and find some rest!!
We “freedom camped” ie. Camped near a field of sheep in the shadow of the snow-covered southern alps last night. In a ford transit camper van. Off to see a penguin colony in Oemuru now!
aw an adorable herd of just shorn alpacas, raised for their wool, I suppose in Timeru, South Island, New Zealand. HOT here!!
Went to Caroline Bay in Timeru and saw black and White oystercatchers with long orange curved beaks for the first time. Our family is purely happy at the ocean. Saw the cutest miniature Shetland pony pulling a carriage.
Okay, today’s best experience, hands down was visiting the blue penguin colony at Oemaru, Janet Frame’s hometown. They are indigo blue, and White chested,thus protected from aerial and undersea predators. 175 of them!
02 December 2009
I have never seen penguins in the wild before. They quack enthusiastically like noisy ducks, and scamper around in herds.nesting season now so lots of chicks. Shrimp for dinner today–just like a penguin.
08 December 2009
Spent the afternoon on “Shag Point”!! near Palmerston, watching shags (NZ cormorants) and fat, happy seals. Interesting lunch of salmon and kumara cakes, kumara being Maori introduced sweet potatoes, made into interesting chips too. Hillsides are bright with yellow broom, purple lupins, azaleas, rhodode
Woke up at dawn today to a sound much like a radio. But we were camping in a remote spot in the shadow of the snow-covered Southern Alps. Roy said it was a Tui, a bird which mimics any sound it has heard.
Yesterday: the Moeraki Boulders, massive, almost perfect spherical boulders in the ocean. Zoe & Irene precariously jumped fm. boulder to boulder, while we photographed them, laughing. Crayfish for lunch, not as good as I remembered it from our trip to NZ in 1996. Then to Kaitiki Pt, deserted, amazing. Yellow eyed penguins swam ashore at dusk: we got 30 cm. from the chicks, massive brown furry things, like puppies!!
10 December 2009
Kaitiki Point, east South Island, is a penguin, seal and sealion sanctuary. Dozens of seals, basking on the rocks, fooling around with each other, barking and fighting in their mammalian quest for friendship, love and dominance. They were perfectly camouflagued, like rocks with snouts, Irene said. it was amazing to stand still, and watch seals and penguin chicks pretending to be rocks, become seals and penguins again.They looked like rocks with whiskers!!
Seals and penguins are amazing comical in their lolling, lolloping walk. One could become passionate after conservation after seeing, as we did, penguins stand, fierce, motionless and defenceless, “defending” their fat chicks. We also saw a lovely iridescent blue penguin, so defenceless in its burrow: a hole not far from the trail.
Spent the afternoon on “Shag Point”!! near Palmerston, watching shags (NZ cormorants) and fat, happy seals. Interesting lunch of salmon and kumara cakes, kumara being Maori introduced sweet potatoes, made into interesting chips too. Hillsides are bright with yellow broom, purple lupins, azaleas, rhodode
ndron and camellias. Very pretty! The seals hid in rocky coves, like something out of an English children’s story!
10 December 2009
Grocery shopping in a foreign country is one of our family’s down-market pleasures. Here aisles of muesli, of every conceivable description, but no granola, my standard breakfast. Had to make do with “toasted muesli” which I hope is the same thing. Lots of leechi, pawpaw, longans, coconuts, mangoes, and other tropical fruits. Eateries very cosmopolitan here, Singaporean, Malaysian, Cambodian-even more so than Oxford
10 December 2009
In Dunedin now, settled by Scots, who gave it the Gaelic name of Edinburgh (Town of Eden). Christ Church, where we arrived, was settled by students of Christ Church College, Oxford trying to found an Utopian Anglican community (it’s oddly Oxford-like!) . Oemaru is amusing–incredibly grandiose, Victorian and pseudo-English. English genes are obviously sturdy–imagine, 5 nations largely populated by English migrants!
10 December 2009
Spent the morning shopping in Dunedin–though we only infrequently shop as a leisure activity. Irene sighed with pleasure–I love this life, going from shop to shop. They were given money & sent off and zoe was mistaken for irenes mum, both were delighted!
11 December
Campervan camping on tairoa head on the otago peninsula. Saw my First Royal albatross ever–several of them actually. Majestic, magical, mystical creatures, with a wingspan of 9 feet. Amazing to watch them glide on the wings of the wind.
11 December 2009
Okay, last day on the coast, headed to the Southern Alps now. It was VERY windy& we saw several albatrosses, and sealions up close, and many yellow-eyed penguins and chicks in a tour of a penguin reserve.
12 December
The rare yellow-eyed penguins stoically stood guard over their downy, puppy-like chicks in the penguin colony we’ve just visited. The strongest force in the world is LOVE, whether in the human or animal kingdoms! On to fiordland national park now.
12 December
On our way to Milford Sound in Fiordland National Park. Bought an Nz wooly fleece in preparation. Adorable and tiny lambs frisking everywhere. Lamb dirt-cheap here. 40 million lambs& 4.5 million people!
13 December
Walked around Te Anau on the Kepler Track. Unique flora–palms, conifers, cypress and eucalyptus all on a single trail. Magical and mysterious. Saw some pretty endangered birds in a sanctuary. Have asked for peacocks and an aviary for a birthday present–more or less seriously!! Warm sunny day
14 December 2009
We went on a wildlife Cruise on Milford Sound today. AMAZING. tiny little crested penguins, new born seals, whole pods of dolphins leaping and gamboling out of the water. Absolutely spectacular vistas. Earlier this morning, we went on a hike to the Chasm, mind-blowing views into sheer gorges.
16 December 2009
We spent yesterday in an alpine wonderland, driving to Milford Sound. Hikes to Mirror Lakes,perfectly reflecting the snowy Alps, & through fields of yellow, purple andd blue Lupins. I have never seen so many lupins growing wild before, mind-blowing! Cheeky and friendly kea, parrots, in parking lots. Interesting, well-marked hikes thorugh temperate rain-forests of palm, beech, conifers, epiphytes & tree ferns (punga)
16 December 2009
Camped near a sheep farm. Woke to barking. Two lovely sheep dogs, collie dogs like our Jake, were herding sheep, surrounding them, barking, tails wagging. Never seen sheep dogs in action before. Roy said I was as proud of them as if they were mine. The shepherdess drove a tractor, and the shepherd, a young lithe Kiwi,picked up a straying sheep and effortlessly chucked it over the fence. 21st century pastoral!
t’s spring and lambing season in the mountains of NZ. Adorable tiny lambs, and even more adorable tiny deer in the many deer farms we’ve passed. It’s just-spring, so the leaves have a lovely, tender green freshness. We walked by Lake Manapouri yesterday, surrounded by snowy mountains, and are on our way to Mt. Aspiring National Park in the Southern Alps.
17 December 2009
Watched some heart-stopping bungee jumps over rapids–people bouncing upside down over a river. Crazy! Bought cherries from orchards and are now camping in Mount Cook National park in the shadow of NZ’s highest mountain
18 December 2009
Used to the strong Kiwi accents now, & whispering “What’s s/he saying?” less to Roy who lived here for 10 years. The Kiwis we’ve met so far have been friendly, charming, cheerful & good-natured (easy to be, in such a lovely country!). An alpine walk today among tiny stunted shrubs, almost like moss & large white buttercups. White & yellow attracts pollinators here , while bright colours attract them in th
Used to the strong Kiwi accents now, & whispering “What’s s/he saying?” less to Roy who lived here for 10 years. The Kiwis we’ve met so far have been friendly, charming, cheerful & good-natured (easy to be, in such a lovely country!). An alpine walk today among tiny stunted shrubs, almost like moss & large white buttercups. White & yellow attracts pollinators here , while bright colours attract them in th
e real Alps.
19 December 2009
3 hikes today in mt cook national park–one very rain-foresty, green, lush and ferny; another to views of glaciers and icebergs floating on a lake. Had enough of nature now–en route to Christ church
19 December
After 15 days of nature, Irene and I went on strike. We want interesting architecture, books,magazines,the Internet, poetry, art galleries, and Thai & indian food. On our way to Christ church for some of the above.
19 December 2009
In Auckland now, en route to Gisborne in the North Island, where Roy’s mother and grandmother, eccentrically live. It is meant to be the first place where the sun rises. We however will be back home in time to bring the New Year in.
20 December 2009
Spent hours this week walking beaches around Gisborne. Each wave brings in precious & gorgeous shells, pebbles, creatures, & deposits them wet and glittering on the sand. The sea, like the Lord “giveth, and giveth and giveth again.” His mercies are new every morning. Praying for a year of new friendships, new ideas, new creativity, new insights, new kindness, new spiritual growth. “Behold, I make all things new.”
27 December 2009
Spent this week in Gisborne, NZ, with Roy’s mum and 97 year old grandmum. The highlight for Zoe was swimming with Moko, a tame and affectionate 3 year old dolphin, who loves people, and frequents Gisborne Beach. Zoe and Roy swam right up to him, and Zoe reached out and touched his fin. A tame dolphin!! Lovely!
27 December 2009
Irene in the ocean on our last night in NZ. “I am the laughing philosopher. I have realized that most things don’t really matter.” A huge wave burst over her, getting into her hair, eyes and nose. The laughing philospher now said wryly, “Waves matter!”
27 December 2009
In Christchurch Airport. Gisborne, NZ to London is pretty much the longest possible flight, over 40 hours, and full of transfers. We stop at Wellington, North Island, Christ Church, South Island, Sydney, AU, Bangkok, Dubai and Gatwick. Phew. Enjoying it so far, but really looking forward to HOME!!
28 December 2009
n Sydney. Bought the gorgeous sweater with the aboriginal design which I successfully resisted the last time round. Oh well! Watched Julie and Julia on the flight here. LOVED it so far. Redemption by a passion. The sublimer the passion, the deeper the redemption, but most passions add bliss to life. And everywhere I go, on screeens, I see–people checking FACEBOOK!!
28 December 2009
At Gatwick airport –53 hours after we left Roy’s mum’s house. Another two hours until we are at ours! Phew! Not the sort of journey to be undertaken lightly!
29 December
Home, sweet home! Jet-lagged since I watched films all night–Julie and Julia, an inspirational tribute to the power of passion & following your bliss; and The Devil Wears Prada, snappy, snarky, with Streep in a snooty role. The familiar Faustian story of corruption by ambition turns to an improbable redemption. Streep again in the tragic, but somewhat tedious, slow-moving A Cry in the Dark. And also Prince Caspian.
30 December 2009
Ten year old Irene kissing Jake, our Collie dog on the nose. “You know, Mum, I think that by the time I get to kissing age, I will be really good at it!”
31 December 2009
Read my new memoir: Rosaries, Reading, Secrets: A Catholic Childhood in India (US) or UK.
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My book of essays: Wandering Between Two Worlds (US) or UK
