A “Try Dive” May 23, 2008

This week we went over to Blair’s best friend’s, Hamish’s, house for dinner.

Hamish (Hay-mish) and Blair work and play together— they are especially fond of looking up 80’s rock ballads on YouTube and, of course, duck shooting. We went over on a Monday evening, with Hamish fresh back from a weekend out fishing on his boat. He entertained us with a great meal and drinks. Blair was especially pleased…. (Can you figure out who Heidi and I think he looks like?)

We had to get up early the next morning, so we left Hamish to finish of the bottle of wine- but not before he had asked if we wanted to go for a “try dive” on Wednesday. His girlfriend Tory is a dive instructor and would be back later that week if we wanted to go for a FREE SCUBA dive- where they gear you up and teach you the basics in a swimming pool.

I wasn’t going to turn down a free SCUBA lesson so Heidi and I said we were in!

Wednesday after school, we headed into Napier to meet her at the dive shop. We loaded up our gear

and I got fit for a wetsuit. They said I could take it off and then get into again once we got the pool- but I decided that I wasn’t going to get in and out any more than I had to!

and then headed over to the public swimming pool. Heidi and I were lucky in that no one else had signed up for the dive that night (which is open to the public to try for free, also!) and we had Tory all to ourselves. The pool, however, we didn’t. There was swim practice going on in the lanes besides us, so I can only imagine what they thought as we waddled into the swimming area and I goofed around taking photos getting pumped up.

I was having a great time, hamming it up for pictures….

 until it came time to actually start the whole underwater breathing thing!

Heidi had no qualms and just plunged her head in the water! When I hesitated, Tory said she’d hold my hand, and I didn’t refuse! We went through a series of exercises, building up to independent swimming. First, you just stand in the water and put your face in to practice breathing, then you practice breathing with your eyes closed (as many people who panic take their masks off, or they think if they can’t see that they can’t breathe, etc…). After that, you go down on your knees underwater and practice breathing completely submerged. Tory held my hand for that one, too….

But once I got the hang of it, I was addicted! Tory got out and took some pictures of us and we got to “have a play.”

This is me completely submerged, looking up from the bottom of the pool!

It was funny swimming with the swim teams lapping back and forth in the next lane as even though we have a ridiculous amount of gear, I somehow felt so invisible slinking along the bottom. I had to resist the urge to like go up and pinch their bottoms!

We left exhausted and starving and I slept great that night! Tory said that after 3 pool sessions, book work and 3 open water sessions you’re considered certified for life! It’s something I’d consider looking into once I’m home and having the financial resources as I know it can be expensive. If only my mother still had all her gear from her old SCUBA diving days!

Shopping on Sunday March 31, 2008

After our indulgent Saturday, we had some errands to do on Sunday- and that included shopping. Heidi was nice enough to take me to the farmer’s market as I had showed interest in attending. It runs in the local show grounds from 8:30-12:30 every Sunday. I really wanted to go since it also reminded of me when Mike and I went to the local University District farmer’s market back home. We got there at about 11:30 on what was another beautiful day! We made our way around the show grounds, with all the tents set up in a big circle.

There were plenty of new things to taste and try— apricot gin spread, for example, if I’d so chosen. The local dairy also had a tent there, which is another place on my list. Heidi says they sell a cheese that is some how made with ash of the volcanoes near by– you know, in the somewhat harder casings outside a creamy cheese? I don’t know what it’ called, but it’s dark because of the ash. Maybe I’ll get more information once I actually go there. They also had olive oils, wines, meat from local farmers and of course veggies.

There are lots of things that are familiar and others not so much.

I’m sure Heidi will be tired of me asking what things are, and their names as I’m always pestering her. She is also helpful in pointing things out or telling me tid bits, that would be ‘good for the blog!’ When I go back and write a blog about our day, I’m always asking random questions, too. (like, “Heidi, was it the male kiwis or female kiwis that grow taller?” or “Heidi, what was the name of that vegetable again?”) By the way, the things above are asian aubergines (or asian eggplants)-and yes, I did just stop typing to ask her. A lot of the things here are in fact similar, they just go by a different name.

The show grounds are actually beautiful and have a river flowing through. We came across a family trying to catch eels in the river. The young kids were very cute, with their accents and cardboard boxes that they thought they could scoop the eels up with.

You should be able to see the eel, as well. It’s kind of wrapped in an arch around the stick.

After buying some fresh veggies for the week we headed off to do the rest of our grocery shopping, and what I thought would be a routine experience was, of course, something new!

At the grocery store, I found a wall filled with the scanners like that we would normally have at our check out.

I immediately thought of Mike again… who is instantly more engaged by anything technological and I could clearly picture him running up and down the aisles scanning everything in sight. In fact, you have a membership card that you scan first and then whatever you put in your cart gets scanned as you go along. That way, when you arrive at the end, they only have to scan the scanner (I think. Bare with me.) and up come your total and out prints an itemized list. Also, there are random checks at the end to make sure people are actually scanning everything they’re taking, obviously to keep people honest. In that case they’ll rescan everything in your cart. If you get stopped for a check and something is off, then they will start scanning you more frequently to keep tabs- and obviously you pay the one with everything scanned. If you match up your totals over and over again, then your checks get farther apart.

Heidi’s scanning our bananas, which you weigh first and then a sticker prints out with the price. It was a blast.

After shopping we came home for a lazy Sunday and I got to have an hour and half video phone call with my mom using my laptops. It was great to talk and catch up…. but kind of just made me miss her and everyone more.

Tomorrow will hopefully be better- we are having parent interviews (think conferences) after school which should be interesting, and I’m going to go to the post office to pick up a package from Mike! I also read on Saamanta’s blog that she made me card… although it kind of feels like cheating to find out that way, but anything is nice to get.

Off for dinner soon… tarahiki, which is a local fish. and yummy!

Cheers!

Orchard home March 23, 2008

Today is my first full day as a Kiwi resident, so I took the time to explore my new surroundings. I’m living with another teacher from the school I work at and her boyfriend. The two of them rent a house on tons of orchard lands, so I went out exploring. It’s so beautiful! They grow kiwis, pears and apples. The pears have already been picked and the kiwis will need to be soon as well as the apples. The landlord takes care of all the maintenance, so we just have access to all the fruit but no responsibility! Perfect!

The kiwi orchard was my favorite, only because of the canopy the vines created. I thought it was mysterious and magical in a certain way!

Apparently, the male kiwi plants grow slightly taller so that when it’s time for pollination it’s easier for bees they to then pollinate the females. And also since the females are the only ones that product the fruit, their growing lower helps the pickers, since there’s no point in the males taking up the lower canopy and blocking the pickers from the kiwi fruit.

They also grow pink ladys here which are my favorite apple! $2 lb at the store now for free in my back yard. Tempting enough to eat right off the tree!

But DON’T!

The white marks are from the chemical sprays so they need a good washing first. Still, some how I think I’ll manage.

 

We also found a neighboring corn field where the corn was ready to be harvested. Heidi says that you can tell when they’re ready by when the cornsilk has turned dark. So we did them a favor and picked some corn. I’m going to be an awesome farmer yet!

Check out the many more pics by clicking on the right, and hopefully Flickr and I will have worked out our kinks by then. However, in order to see the pictures in the correct order you will have to go to the “Orchard Home” set.