We don't have television so this our substitute. It's violent, but there is no human nudity.
03 March, 2007
Where has time gone?
Well, we are approaching one year in Christchurch. Where did the time go?
We are very excited to have some friends from Seattle arriving in two weeks. Charlie, Jason, Nate, and Tricia will be here for 12 days. Charisa worked with Charlie and Tricia at Corixa way back when. So we've known them for 8 years now. Except for Nate, we only adopted him into the gang when he met Tricia, and subsequently married Tricia, because his boxers were made of the same material as her dress. Now that's a pickup line. A strange and wonderful story. We plan exploring the South Island with them and hopefully driving smoothly enough that Tricia doesn't get sick. Wish me luck with the curvy roads in this country. Great for motorcycling, bad for minivan passengers.
This is out of order but this is a typical Beaver/Cornellison family evening - reading. I put my book down to take the picture.
In February I took another motorcycle trip over a weekend. I took off in the rain on a Friday evening and headed West into the mountains. I actually turned around once to head home because of the wet and cold. Thankfully I just turned back around and kept going, because I was awarded with beautiful weather the whole rest of the weekend. I was eating breakfast at a cafe in Greymouth on Saturday morning when an older man rode up on his sportbike. He came in for coffee and we chatted. I hadn't decided where I was going yet, north or south. He had just come from the north and was heading down to Franz Josef glacier about two hours further south. He invited me to join him and offered for me to stay at his place that night. Sounded good. So off we went and had a great day riding and hanging out. He lives in Westport and is a lawyer there. Sunday morning I left his place and headed home via Lewis Pass, which was a divine motorcycle road, I will be returning there often. For the weekend I clocked 1000km or for you Americans 620 miles. Not the most I've done in three days, but plenty to tire me out.
Kiwi traffic jam.
Just pulling into the town of Franz Josef.
This is an interesting phenomena on the West Coast called Pancake Rocks. It is this little section of the cliffs the rock has formed into very distinct layers, that when it gets eroded way, well looks like pancakes. Geologists have no idea why it does this. Humbling to see things that we humans haven't figured out yet. The West Coast gets much more rain than Canterbury and Christchurch. There is a couple areas that are classified as rain forests. I was very fortunate to get such nice weather.
And we are a pitiful couple. We've gotten a kitten - Ellie. I surprised Charisa with her one evening when she got home from dance class. She was six weeks old and very tiny. Her and Henry have become quite good mates. It's nice because they entertain each other and Henry demands a little less attention from us now.
Not enough traction on the wood floors, so she sits on her rump.
Who says we can't all get along? They even share the blanket. Henry doesn't have much choice.
Camping Kiwi style. A group of friends went camping a few weeks ago. They love going as a big group and pitching there tents in a big group and just hanging out. There is a mass exodus out of the Christchurch are during the Christmas holidays to head North and go camping. It's quite a big tradition. There are several campgroungs on the North tip of the island that people return to every year and have friends they only see once a year at this time. This was at Okains Bay on Banks Peninsula.
A couple weeks ago we went with another group to Lake Tekapo about three hours South an in the mountains. One of the gal's family have a little vacation home down there. So 15 of us packed in there for two nights. The father of Maree came down on Sunday and put their boat in lake and took us our for some waterskiing and tubing. I absolutely adore boating and skiing. It was so gorgeous and warm and fun. I want to go again right now. The photo is at the top of a small mountain above the lake. I think Charisa has mentioned a few times the Kiwis' fondness for nicknames. Well this is Spanky, aka Duncan. We hiked up here to see the really nice observatory there. They the largest mirror telescope in NZ there I believe.
Here is some of the folks at the lake. Staying out of Kiwi sun is lifesaving idea. No ozone makes for a quick sunburn.
Here are some of the folks that are in the home group we have gone to since we came here.
From the left: Peter, Celia, Jared
And some more of them.
From the right: Chris, Mark, Mark, Tom
So far I have met four other Marks here. Three of us hang out regularly which is interesting when of our wives is trying to get our attention.
We are very excited to have some friends from Seattle arriving in two weeks. Charlie, Jason, Nate, and Tricia will be here for 12 days. Charisa worked with Charlie and Tricia at Corixa way back when. So we've known them for 8 years now. Except for Nate, we only adopted him into the gang when he met Tricia, and subsequently married Tricia, because his boxers were made of the same material as her dress. Now that's a pickup line. A strange and wonderful story. We plan exploring the South Island with them and hopefully driving smoothly enough that Tricia doesn't get sick. Wish me luck with the curvy roads in this country. Great for motorcycling, bad for minivan passengers.
This is out of order but this is a typical Beaver/Cornellison family evening - reading. I put my book down to take the picture.
In February I took another motorcycle trip over a weekend. I took off in the rain on a Friday evening and headed West into the mountains. I actually turned around once to head home because of the wet and cold. Thankfully I just turned back around and kept going, because I was awarded with beautiful weather the whole rest of the weekend. I was eating breakfast at a cafe in Greymouth on Saturday morning when an older man rode up on his sportbike. He came in for coffee and we chatted. I hadn't decided where I was going yet, north or south. He had just come from the north and was heading down to Franz Josef glacier about two hours further south. He invited me to join him and offered for me to stay at his place that night. Sounded good. So off we went and had a great day riding and hanging out. He lives in Westport and is a lawyer there. Sunday morning I left his place and headed home via Lewis Pass, which was a divine motorcycle road, I will be returning there often. For the weekend I clocked 1000km or for you Americans 620 miles. Not the most I've done in three days, but plenty to tire me out.
Kiwi traffic jam.
Just pulling into the town of Franz Josef.
This is an interesting phenomena on the West Coast called Pancake Rocks. It is this little section of the cliffs the rock has formed into very distinct layers, that when it gets eroded way, well looks like pancakes. Geologists have no idea why it does this. Humbling to see things that we humans haven't figured out yet. The West Coast gets much more rain than Canterbury and Christchurch. There is a couple areas that are classified as rain forests. I was very fortunate to get such nice weather.
And we are a pitiful couple. We've gotten a kitten - Ellie. I surprised Charisa with her one evening when she got home from dance class. She was six weeks old and very tiny. Her and Henry have become quite good mates. It's nice because they entertain each other and Henry demands a little less attention from us now.
Not enough traction on the wood floors, so she sits on her rump.
Who says we can't all get along? They even share the blanket. Henry doesn't have much choice.
Camping Kiwi style. A group of friends went camping a few weeks ago. They love going as a big group and pitching there tents in a big group and just hanging out. There is a mass exodus out of the Christchurch are during the Christmas holidays to head North and go camping. It's quite a big tradition. There are several campgroungs on the North tip of the island that people return to every year and have friends they only see once a year at this time. This was at Okains Bay on Banks Peninsula.
A couple weeks ago we went with another group to Lake Tekapo about three hours South an in the mountains. One of the gal's family have a little vacation home down there. So 15 of us packed in there for two nights. The father of Maree came down on Sunday and put their boat in lake and took us our for some waterskiing and tubing. I absolutely adore boating and skiing. It was so gorgeous and warm and fun. I want to go again right now. The photo is at the top of a small mountain above the lake. I think Charisa has mentioned a few times the Kiwis' fondness for nicknames. Well this is Spanky, aka Duncan. We hiked up here to see the really nice observatory there. They the largest mirror telescope in NZ there I believe.
Here is some of the folks at the lake. Staying out of Kiwi sun is lifesaving idea. No ozone makes for a quick sunburn.
Here are some of the folks that are in the home group we have gone to since we came here.
From the left: Peter, Celia, Jared
And some more of them.
From the right: Chris, Mark, Mark, Tom
So far I have met four other Marks here. Three of us hang out regularly which is interesting when of our wives is trying to get our attention.
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