Christchurch

November 19, 2010

I gave my mom a phone call today.  I hadn’t called her since I left Honolulu.  I decided to bite the bullet and use my cell phone to see if I could call the US.  It worked!  It actually worked!  How wonderful to hear her voice!  How wonderful to hear the sounds of home!  My mom sounded more tired and less upbeat at first than she normally does.  I had a feeling last night when I went to bed that perhaps she might be a bit worried about me.  

When I came to New Zealand I was able to go online quite a bit and keep in touch with my family and friends.  Since I came to Christchurch I have been quite busy with my friends here.  They’ve showed me about their hometown and taken me to the beach twice.  We’ve had wonderful times together.  But that meant that I was leaving everyone at home a bit in the dark about things.  I thought I had been pretty clear that I was going to Christchurch to be with my friends, but I should have been clearer!

I might explain a bit who my Christchurch friends are.  Two winters ago I went to live and work in Colorado at Beaver Creek, a large upscale resort.  I lived in employee housing and my roommates were randomly assigned to me.  Rachel came to live in one of the rooms of our apartment and she is from Christchurch, New Zealand.  Her boyfriend Richard was also along with her, but he didn’t have a housing voucher so he had no place to live.  Us girls worked it out that it would be okay if he stayed with Rachel.  This is how I came to meet two Kiwis from the south island.  

After enjoying a talk with my mom, Rachel, Richard, and I headed out to Taylor’s Mistake.  This is Rachel and Richard’s favorite beach.  It was lovely and the drive out their also reminds me of a picture on my dream board* of a red convertible driving a curvy road with cliffs on one side and the ocean on the other.  There is a big palm tree in the photo too.  It would have been perfect if only Richard drove a red convertible rather than a black Subaru!

The sun and surf was fabulous and I know Rachel and Richard really enjoyed it as they will be spending their summer in North America so they will be in winter.  We watched people try to surf and Richard bemoaned not bringing his surfboard.  He’s encouraging me to try surfing and I just might!  

Later I got some errands done and then Rachel’s cousins Sky, Hope, and Judge, came over to play games.  Rachel made some delicious pizza and made me my first gin and tonic.  We played New Zealand Trivial Pursuit and had some laughs.  I love being surrounded by a family even if it is not my own.  No, I don’t understand all their little inside jokes or their family quirks, but it’s just comforting to be around people who love one another.

As far as the job in Fox Glacier goes I’ve got about half of my trip reworked so I will show up on time.  The other half I will work on tomorrow morning when I wake up!  

*Some of you may not know what my dream board is so I will explain it here.  Around 2008 my mom encouraged me to make a collage filled with things that I wanted to do with my life.  Well I kind of started it, but then I went out to Colorado and didn’t finish it.  Then around the New Year of 2010 I finally sat down and finished it.  Basically it is a large collage filled with the dreams I have in my life.  I’ve described some of the images in these blog posts, but there are also things like a woman reading a book, a map of Europe, and picnickers at a mountain.