Monday 30 December

I’m sitting at Jen’s place with a bird sitting on my shoulder – Ziggy is Grace’s pet and is very cute. He things he’s human J There were lots of sleepers inners this morning! I was up with the alarm and showered before everyone else woke. Peter was supposed to be up early to go jet boating with Alison and Simon but he was still asleep when Alison rang. Jen had a couple of tanning clients early (she didn’t know we were coming, of course, so she didn’t know she shouldn’t take bookings). 

A family conference agreed we would go to the Wairaki Thermal Park, about 20 minutes north. The eighteen of us meant the place was suddenly crowded! At the car park and all the way to the kiosk/coffee shop, there were animals everywhere: chickens with broods of chicks in tow, peacocks, one of whom you would swear was posing for the cameras – what an incredibly beautiful creature! There were llamas, a pig, rabbits and the kids had the most wonderful time with them all. Meantime, Jen, Rich and I went into the kiosk to organise our entry payments and I wanted to order coffees (no coffee so far and it was already11.30!) and we had another one of God’s nice miracles:

Jen and her family were free, being locals; Adult charge is $10 and children $5. We explained to the young man how many we had and he decided to charge us $25 for each of the two families, $5 for me and $10 for Peter, saving us $20! I ordered and paid for our coffees and then I asked Rich to buy me a muffin. We had been chatting to the guy about the purpose of our trip to  Taupo and then he said that as I’d already paid for the entry for everyone and the coffees, he would give me the muffin free! Two minutes later, he said “hang on a minute!” He went to the register and took out a $20 note and gave it to me, saying because I’d spent so much money on the family gathering, he wanted to make the entry cheaper! Go God! What a lovely gift!

It was a really interesting geothermal area and everyone enjoyed the walk immensely. We spent a total of about 2 hours there, much longer than we’d expected. Huka Falls was on the way back, so we pulled in there but then it started absolutely pouring, so those who were out of the car already dashed back; we might get back there tomorrow morning but I doubt it. Lunch was yummy pull-aparts and sandwiches and fruit at Jen’s. About ten people left for Craters of the Moon, again a really interesting geothermal experience; they really loved it.

Final excursion: Spa Park is a natural hot pool about ten minutes up the road. Fourteen of us went in two vans; left the cars in the car park and had to walk about 300 metres to the water. Everyone clambered down over the rocks and found hot spots all over the place, just sitting or lying in the hot bath. I looked after the valuables and got some good pictures. Just when it was time to get out of the water, the rain started and lasted until we got back to the cars. This meant that I was also now wet! Back at the motel it was hot showers for all, then around to the house again while Jen went and bought the takeaway for dinner from the noodle house.

While we were waiting and setting up the meal, Rich, Al and Simon’s pictures got transferred to my phone. Peter had already transferred his pictures back at the room. Our last meal all together was very special; all the adults were at the table and it was wonderful for everyone to be able to just talk; we all realised how blessed we have been to have this time as a family, recorded forever in many hundreds of amazing pictures.

By 11.00pm, back at the motel, most people were in bed. Tomorrow is going to be a quick morning, with the Gilmores needing to be at the airport by 11.00 and we needing to leave for Rotorua by 1.00pm.

Stay tuned for pictures to be added over the next day or so.

Sunday 29 December

We were all up in time to go to Mass at St Patrick’s; while people got ready, I ducked around to Macca’s to get some disgusting breakfast because we needed to have some sort of food. It’s Holy Family Sunday and the scripture readings were particularly beautiful, especially so many of our family there. Ruth and Rich were introduced to Pak ‘N Save and the Warehouse to pick up a few things they needed and to stock our fridges in the motel (each unit has kitchen facilities, so we could do our own breakfast from now on).

Lunch was at Jen’s place; the weather had been cool and rainy, needing warmer clothes than the Aussies had packed but some time after lunch the sun returned. Peter, Rich, Alison and Simon went to Mulligan’s to play poker and the rest of us went for a walk along the lake, then into the park where the kids enjoyed the activities. 

We all grabbed our swimmers and went to the AC Baths for a warm swim, where Peter joined us, but unfortunately they’ve made some changes there, removing some of the shelter over the pool. When it started to rain, it was quite cold, with a cold wind blowing when we had to get out. The swim was lovely but the showers, change rooms and facilities were pretty crummy.

The card players had walked home in the pouring rain by the time we got home. Rich shared first prize at poker, only about $90 but better than nothing! Dinner was very late – Glen had been cooking while we were out and we shared a good meal: well done to the chef feeding eighteen of us!!

Saturday 28 December

It was good to be able to go through the transfer desk and straight to the gate lounge. Peter and Naomi were waiting there, so we went up to the Air NZ lounge and had some food. The plane was a little late boarding but we were soon in our seats; Peter sat with us, even though his seat was a few rows back because Naomi and I had a seat free between us. The food on Air NZ is pretty skimpy, even in Works Deluxe, not that I was hungry after all the meals on all the flights.

We picked up the car and Peter drove to Taupo, checked in to the motel and settled into our rooms. While Peter picked up Rich’s family a little while later, Naomi and I were able to get glamorous and then help settle the others in. At 7.30, we all marched around the little half-block to the Merwyn’s, as the motel proprietors wouldn’t allow us to go through the back gate to Jenny’s place. 

Glen knew we were on our way, so the cameras were focused on Jen as we walked in all in a bunch through the French doors. She looked shocked and then burst into tears! 

Alison, Jen’s friend, had made an amazing princess castle cake. 

I knew quite a few people there besides family; the kids had lots of fun dancing and playing with the new air hockey game, a Christmas gift. The party was great fun and we were quite late leaving.

Thursday 26 December

I was up at 6.15am to do the final packing, followed by a good breakfast of steak and eggs. Not that I’m going to be starving over the next couple of days! Overnight produced a fresh dusting of a couple of inches of snow – very clean and pretty again. On the drive to the airport we saw several vehicles which had either come to grief in snowbanks or ditches, or finished up facing the wrong way on the side of the highway because they spun out; on the very icy roads, Steve said some people just take lane changes too quickly, with big deposits of ice on them, and lose control.

Dianne got me to the check-in with the bags and then paid for a porter – a very good idea because he took me through customs and then got rid of the bags. Yay! They’re checked through all the way to Rotorua! The little silver bag is battling on valiantly, despite its being mortally wounded and I will put it out of its misery when I get home (put it out to pasture for someone’s road trips where wheels don't matter).

When you go in, you go through US Customs because the gate lounges are all in US territory! This saves time when you get to a US destination so all I have to do is go to the airline lounge in LA with just my carry-on bag. The only thing I still need to do is to go to Virgin check-in at LA and get my boarding pass for Sydney and Rotorua.

I'm officially in the USA now, and there's the sun, beating down through the windows of the lounge. :) Breathe a sign of relief, Kitchener!

Downstairs at the gate lounges they're all squashed into not enough seating, noisy, crowded. Up here, there are a lot of people but it's not packed and plenty of spare chairs and tables around.

Behind me are sitting a very large man and a very large woman (Spanish) with a couple of teenagers, so you get to share in family squables!

When I checked into the lounge, there wasn't much available besides eggs, cereal and toast, etc. But that was only because they were getting ready to serve lunch. Now I've got a lovely fresh salad and a cup of green tea because I imagine it will be about 2.00pm before lunch is served on the plane.

Okay, so I had checked the board and it said “Delayed” 13.40; my brain said “12.40” (blame it on the snow), so I headed down towards the lounge for a good walk about 15 mins before the original time, only to find that I now had 90 mins still to wait. I did a little more walking around and found four fridge magnets (confession, I’m keeping the inukshuk) and then settled down in the next door gate lounge to wait and read, soon dozing off for a power nap.

After about 30 mins I really wanted something hot and fluffy and brown in colour but not one of those awful things they call “coffee” here. So about 500m down the trail I found something called a “French Vanilla” in a cappuccino machine. It was very hot, very fluffy, very very sweet but don’t ask me what it was! Oh well, it hit the spot and only cost $CA1.65.

As we walked across from the airbridge to the plane, there was a blast of freezing air, reminding me it’s still snowing outside. Now I’m sitting on the plane waiting for the final cattle class contingent to board and then we’re off to LA. Yay! If any flight was going to be late, this is the one where I have a big leeway, so it’s not a problem. Reading the local paper, there’s a lot of press on the ice storm effects; 300,000 lost power Sunday morning but there are still many thousands who are waiting for reconnection. Most power breaks were caused when trees broke in the winds and ice storm and crashed on power lines, already heavily laden with ice. Getting them to heated centres is crucial and they’ve been going door to door seeking out people who are still in the cold.

We finally started on our taxi run at 2.10; our ETA is now 16:34 in LA and my connecting flight leaves at 21.50, so plenty of time to get to where I need to and rest, eat, blog, etc. Runways appear not to have ice on them in the centre, but the sides are icy and then between runways everything is snowy. I watched the plane taxying behind us and it had a huge cloud of snow billowing behind the engines. I know the snow is lovely and fluffy and powdery now but after continuing snowfalls it will pack down and become hard.

Very pleasant flight. 

A good meal; fresh salad with beef, mash and vegies and a nice glass of red. I had a sleep for about an hour afterwards and woke with 2 hours to go to our destination. At 2.20pm we flew over Denver, Colorado, where one of our previous house sitter couples lives; not long after that the captain told us the Grand Canyon was below the left side of the plane. I could see some of it over the guy sitting at the window – even from this high up it’s huge! Believe it or not more food came out – chippies and a Lindt 70% dark chocolate bar; not half an hour later we got a little tub of delicious tangy fruit ice cream and a very large cookie (which I didn’t eat). The chips and chocolate are for LA between flights.

We landed at 4.00pm; I had to find the Virgin Australia terminal and check in and then find the other terminal where the gates are. It was good to be out stretching my legs, although my carry-on bag is quite heavy. Security was pretty busy with about 50 people before me but for LA that’s not really too bad. However, with no bags to check in, it was all quite easy.

There are a lot of young girls around, all college age, I’d say and I found out they’re cheerleaders who are going to London for a big game on New Year’s Day.

I got to a food hall and discovered that there’s free wifi here, so I won’t bother paying $US27 to go to the Air France lounge. I sat in the food hall for about an hour and then went for a walk to find the gate lounge and to inspect all the food places. I ended up back at the food hall after about half an hour, still not having found tea or fruit. A gentleman pointed me to a Starbucks along a different alley to where I’d been. I happened to have some old $US with me, so I bought an enormous cup of tea and a fresh banana for $4.47: at an airport, that’s amazingly cheap! So at 7.00pm I sat near Starbucks, plugged in to power and connected to wifi; the tea lasted me till I went for my walk to the gate lounge, plus a little of the chocolate. Right outside the window where I was sitting was a British Airways A380: one big puppy! I spent some time working on the photo book from our July trip.

We backed out right on time at 9.50pm; by now I was a little weary, having been up since 6.15am Kitchener time, 3 hours ahead of LA. Less than half an hour out there was already quite a bumpy stretch. I sat with a lady who is Canadian but has lived in Australia for about 20 years. Thankfully, she didn’t keep talking after we took off. After dinner, I settled down for sleep but didn’t sleep as steadily as I did on the way over. It was a good flight and I felt okay when we landed. I probably spent about 7 hours in and out of sleep.

Still Wednesday 25 December

About 3.15 we left for Niagra Falls. I’ve seen the falls in summer but winter is a whole new level of spectacular. Last time was August and it was 108. This afternoon it was -5 when we got out of the car. It wasn’t crowded but there were quite a few Asian tourists there who didn’t seem to mind getting drenched by the spray. That’s quite dangerous on a day like today because if your clothes get wet and it’s -5, there’s a real danger of hypothermia. Because it’s Christmas Day, very little is open in the way of warm changing areas. We stayed away from the spray.

The fence is already coated in thick, thick ice, even at this early stage in winter.

These are the Canadian Horseshoe Falls.

By 5.00pm it was dark enough to get a good view of the lights before we headed home. They're not really Christmas for the most part, more "holiday" theme.

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Wednesday 25 December

Merry Christmas to us! (It takes much longer to arrive in the Northern Hemisphere!) Jesus is born! ... and outside it’s gone up to -14º (with wind chill -19º) after a low of -17º.

We went to a Reformed church for their Christmas Day service – lovely carols; a very full church, maybe 1500 people? Watching the snow falling gently outside ... it was a church full of Dutch people.

We had presents when we got home: a stocking each for Steve, Dianne, Graham and me. Graham got a Dutch chocolate letter and the cutest snowman stuffed toy; I got a Dutch chocolate letter and another snowman toy. Graham and I got a Canadian calendar as well, which has been our tradition for both families over the years. This one is special, with Inuit Eskimo art.

We’re off to Niagara Falls this afternoon to see the lights and the falls in winter.

Tuesday 24 December

Dinner was delightful last night. Gerard and Alison have a beautiful home in New Hamburg, about 20 minutes away. They’ve only been married eighteen months; Alison is a nurse educator with a masters in nursing and Gerard is a software designer for worldwide nuclear imaging technology. We had a fun night discussing their gaming interests and some fun banter about Apple (Steve) versus Microsoft (Gerard). We were home by about 9.15, so it wasn’t a late night.

Overnight we had another snow dusting, so all the crystals on the trees are coated with snow. It’s light and powdery, so it blows off in fluffy tufts as the wind comes through. And we had blue skies this morning, bringing colour to a winter wonderland.

Everyone carries a snow brush in their car. This fresh snow looks like it's solid but you just brush it away and it flies off. It's a different story with ice though.

A walk at the arena this morning, followed by McCafe; Steve’s friend, George, delivered his milk at Maccas and then had a coffee with us; he’s Dutch too. On the way to New Hamburg last night, we dropped in briefly and met his wife and four beautiful kids.

The afternoon was spent getting the house prepared for tonight; then quickly into our posh dressy stuff to go to church. We drove about 20 minutes to Elmira, a Mennonite town. The church wasn’t Mennonite, although there were some of them there; Dianne described it as an Evangelical church. Probably the service was much like the old Festival of Lessons and Carols that was more common in years gone past. There were readings from Isaiah and then the Christmas Story, done in bits with carols in between.

When we sang Away in A Manger, all the kids were invited to sit around the still empty manger; one nine-year-old carried her little seven-week-old sister and of course, having a baby on the sanctuary at Christmas is just delightful. There was a salvation message and invitation at the end, so it was a really lovely Christmas Eve celebration.

We headed straight home to wait for Dianne’s brother and sister and their partners: Jim and Carol, Mary-Jane and Jan (he is Dutch). This was to have been at Carol and Jim’s home but they only got their power back on after two and a half days of blackout, so the location was changed to Steve and Diannes place here; that’s not difficult because everyone contributes food, so the dinner is portable.

Jim and Carol have a big generator; many people out on farms and even in the towns have generators, some smaller than others, because when you get storms that take down trees, blackouts are widespread. Toronto still has thousands of homes without power; in the sort of temperatures we’re having right now, that can be fatal if you can’t get to warmth. Tonight the temperature is back down to minus 16º.

We had a casual dinner, just on our laps in the lounge room; the family has a system of picking one name each for the person for whom they’ll buy a present (like secret Santa but it’s not secret). The gift opening was done one at a time – such delightfully thoughtful gifts, some hand made. Embarrassingly, I got one too. They’re all such fun sports and we had a hilarious night.

After they left and I got into to bed to check on emails (which hadn’t been possible since early in the day), it was really lovely to be able to Skype Rich and Ruth and the kids in Queensland. It was 11.15pm here and 3.15pm there. They were just about to have their dessert, with all the Stewart family. It was so lovely to be able to see them all and I can’t wait till we can celebrate a belated Christmas when we’re almost all together. It’s been a very strange Christmas Eve, I miss Graham very much and I miss all my family, but I’m blessed to be able to give Dianne and Steve a kind of connection with Graham at this time, and I’m totally blessed and humbled by their hospitality and generosity.

Well, it’s off to sleep for me: almost midnight and I don’t want to be awake when Santa arrives!