The Solstice, The Carnival, The Balls of Ice

The solstices have become key family holidays. As the shortest and longest days of the year, they literally represent turning points towards and away from the sun, Mr. Jolly Old Sol hisself. We celebrated the winter solstice a month ago in fine fashion. Dunedin's central area, the Octagon, fills with light and sound at the Mid-Winter Carnival, featuring a parade of lighted figures, festival food, fireworks, and a band. We brought our Flashflight, a light-up frisbee that is a blast to play with at night, and played frisbee on the grass with other kids and folks while the band, Koile, played nice groovy reggae tunes.

Why celebrate the solstice? Let me count the ways . . . we decided our Victorian home with it's airy ceilings was a bit too airy when we started seeing our breath at the breakfast table. Krikey. We then realized that we needed to buck up and heat the place ($ and resource drain as the heating is electric) to get feeling more comfortable in it. At 46 degrees there aren't so many daylight hours in midwinter. We ran out of firewood and got restocked but the new wood is a bit wet-say no more. Last but not least, balls of ice fell from the sky one day. They spilled out the (now decorative only) bedroom fireplace onto the carpet. Technically then, it hailed inside, making the house less weatherproof than our tent. We love the place, it's "sweet as", but goldarnit, balls of ice was rolling around in the bedroom.

Dunedin is known to some as a kind of darkly beautiful city, which is true in some respects and in others not at all. Light bright and beautiful days occur often enough that I wish I was getting out midday in the winter. Nighttime in the Octagon reveals an almost haunting cathedral on the years shortest day (first pic), but the carnival lights (second pic) and the band (third pic) warmed that place right up, and that's exactly what the winter solstice is all about. We also celebrated by getting ourselves up and out into central Otago where it is higher and drier and spaces are bigger, and that was also food for the soul, as well as a weekend trip to Catlins, where I saw frost on the beach for the first time. In all, we've seen planty of fine frosty mornings and are ready for the return of el Sol.

The (Non-Mythical) Forbidden City

Among the many things we seek in this walkabout is a sense of balance that we can impart to our children. We have begun to feel that our home town increasingly resembles the Forbidden City, Zijin Cheng. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Forbidden_City) in the sense that commoners are not allowed inside: housing is too expensive. Lacking balance, you might say. IF you've lived in our little FC long enough, or have deep enough pockets, you might own the house that you call home. Otherwise, rent or continue knocking at the gate. Because of wise planning in an earlier age, the FC purchased land and created a greenbelt to buffer against encroaching sprawl. Brilliant. Unexpectedly, the resulting shiny disposition combined with limited housing have driven housing prices through the roof. Now commuters drive into the FC to work--lots of traffic. Not brilliant. Many dwellers from an earlier, funkier era have exited, replaced by high tech wizards. Due in part to the influx of wealth we felt ourselves being drawn into a rat race--lots of people in the FC have big shiny things.

So a primary reason for our NZ walkabout is to experience freedom from Boulder's wealth, have-it-allness, and weary acceptance of congestion. Weekend trips to the mountains need to be planned around traffic avoidance, an insanity. We have now discovered a place where there is no significant automobile traffic. Employers prioritize families in a real way, not in a lip-service way. And so far, there seems to be but a single Forbidden City (Queenstown) in this island nation. On the whole, Kiwis take pride in being a more egalitarian society, so that there is less distance between CEO and plumber. We thought it would be nice to live somewhere where, as some local friends who also hail from the Rocky Mountains said so aptly, not everyone feels compelled to remodel their kitchen. And we remind ourselves that nobody lives in Zijin Cheng these days: it is a museum, a mere statement on a bygone past.

The Shorties: Kid Stuff

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Primary among the things we seek in this walkabout is a sense of balance that we can impart to our children. Housing costs in our home town are spiraling into the stratosphere, and kids there are learning to expect a lot: a lot of toys, for example. We felt ourselves getting sucked in. Off balance. We had recently received the gift that is baby Clay Xavier, the X-man, and Mary had not yet returned to work. It was time to get some perspective. Given that we needed perspective on science/work and our lives at home, not to mention the current regime in White House, the time was right: we would pull up stakes and cast off mortgage, telephone and Masa Grill, and seek the renewal outside of the country. A sabbatical, except that I'm not a academic, I'm in industry, which meant walking away from my job. Moving overseas, we knew, would be difficult. We would miss family and friends, and even be forced to leave one of our family members, our aging dog Ayla, home. So after a time of sorting it all out, and that wasn't easy, off we went. _____________________________________________________________
Goofing Off with the Elliots, Cable Bay
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It has been fantastic. We've seen a lot of the South Island and had great times, begun to make friendships, and are right now are experiencing a bit of a rough winter spell. We have seen old friends from Auckland on a great summer holiday, and spent lots of time reading and playing with the kids. Although Estin and I had forged a deep bond immediately 7 years ago, I was more distant from Clay, primarily because of my preoccupation, and that disappointed. Slowly, over the past few months here, Clay and I have regained the lost time as the bond grows daily. That in itself is worth it all. In addition, becoming tenants again would free us of the need to watch over the house, landscape, etc. Without these responsibilities and without the network of friends and relatives we have at home, we would be together as a family more often, and have time to run around on weekends together. At the same time, we have removed the baby and his brother from the regular presence of cousins, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and godparents, which is the hardest part about being here. It's so damn far away!
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One Happy Tramper

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Well, the shorties are thriving. Estin has met some challenges in school and done well with them and it's a particular joy to listen to his reading which has improved immensely this year. All the hours we spend together reading, no chore from my perspective, (more on that another time) have resulted in his requests for more and more. Clay has gone from Mr. Grouchy, waking several times a night to sleeping right through the night, Mr. Smiley, and that has enabled Mary to find a job and set herself up with a caregivers network that allows her work time and a wee bit of free time for exercise and meditation with the Surf Yogi. New Zealand puts a high priority on it's shorties, from the government on down to our employers. There are playgrounds and public toilets and kid-friendly campgrounds everywhere, and lots of activites for kids during school holidays.

When we are 80 years of age, we'll tell the stories, and hear new stories if we are lucky. And I hope we can say that we did right by our kids: we taught ourselves, and therefore them, that there is a way out when you are stuck--"son, have yourself a walkabout and see what's out there. Things might end up looking rosy out there or right back here, either way you get a good look around".

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