Tomorrow we fly home.  We do not know quite how to feel about it.

Part of me is delighted the end is here.  After all, we have had a LOT of togetherness.  Nerves are a bit frayed.  Each of us has discovered at least one newfound pet peeve within the family.

We are tired of wearing the same outfits and living out of backpacks.  We have unpacked and repacked one too many times.

We have traveled a lot.  We have flown on jet planes, prop planes and helicopters.  We have ridden gondolas, funiculars, subways, trains, mine tracks, taxis, tuk-tuks, bike, scooters, pickup trucks, busses, vans and elephants.   We have floated on kayaks, rafts, junks, ferries, water taxies, bamboo boats, long boats (Laotian style and Thai style) and tour boats.

We will have flown 17 different airlines with at least 26 sets of takeoffs and landings.  We have cleared customs in over a dozen countries.

In short, we have scratched our travel itch until it bled.

Also, we have much we look forward to seeing again.  We are excited to see our friends and colleagues.  We want to see Fenway.  We miss the camp.

And yet . . .

We have also really bonded as a family and a traveling unit.  Little rattles us any more and we feel equipped to address almost any challenge.

We have come to love the variety of each day.  We appreciate the chances to learn about history, about geography and life.  Seeing people who live (happily) on less than $1,000/year is enlightening.   Much of our society suggests to us that we need lots of things to be content, yet we saw evidence that this is not true.  Further, we got a chance to live it – we lived in a sardine can but got along lovingly.

We have most enjoyed coming to understand the kids as well as we have.  We left thinking our children were younger than they truly are.  Sure, they have grown while on this adventure, but we also realize that we were holding onto old impressions of them from the past.  They are borderline adults.  The boys will get their driver’s permit this year. College is close.  We are glad that to see this now.

I also think they have come to understand my relationship with Susie even better.  At least, I hope so.

Our last day has been a great ending.  We walked the city of Christchurch one last time.

This is a new mall made from shipping containers. All the other malls were destroyed.

We went to a museum,

Liam trying to look cool on this cycle

the botanical garden

Wiley found an impromptu hammock

This model, made by an 11 year old, is of the destroyed Christchurch cathedral

and a butterfly exhibit.  The one year earthquake anniversary is next week and the community plans to release 182 Monarch butterflies to commemorate each death.

Before you say anything, please know that a 70 year-old female volunteer placed the butterflies on Susie

Terrill enjoying her new friends

We talked with the parents of Terrill’s dancing pen pal.  They are simply lovely people.  They understood that she wanted to spend her last evening with us and not at another dance class, but they have insisted on coming to the airport at 8AM on Saturday to see us off.

We will be traveling for 30 hours, so I’ll have a break before I post my final blog once we return home.  I hope you have enjoyed our traveling blogs.   I know I have loved sharing!

Steve Sir

We are in Christchurch, the scene of the massive earthquake roughly a year ago.  Some estimate that this event created more monetary damage than any previous earthquake.

We are having some trouble processing the disaster.  To be honest, we have not personally witnessed any true disasters.  My grandmother was an infant during the Galveston flood of 1901, but I did not really understand the stories.  We had a tornado in the Marble Falls area 10-12 years ago, but we did not really see the effects of the tornado.

I have seen some floods and droughts, but nothing like the event that grabbed the world’s attention in Christchurch.  I think the important difference is the fact that the massive earthquake was centered incredibly close to a population center.

Even a year later, the majority of the central city is absolutely closed and all estimates are that it will take years, perhaps a decade to recover.

The beautiful Arts Centre is closed.  The epicurean group of restaurants is closed.  The major museum is closed.  The city is struggling. One resident we spoke with talked wistfully of her backyard birds that disappeared for months after each successive earthquakes. (two major and one minor)  She said the silence, after the typical morning chocophany, was the erriest effect of the quake.

Last night we experienced a 5 plus aftershock.  It occurred at 4 am and we were in our campervan. Susie and I both remember being awakened, but as our campervan has horrible shock absorbers, we attributed it at the time to a child thrashing in her/ his sleep.

Despite the massive reparations, even now, we see churches with spires lying next to churches.

This spire was on top last year

Note this office housed an engineer

The people are pulling together.  We had a wonderful direct experience today.  Our older daughter Terrill has a pen pal (technically facebook pal)  from a dance studio here.  Her dance school in Marble Falls sent all the proceeds of a recital to a ballet school in Christchurch that was devastated during the earthquake.  The girls still refuse to dance on a second floor.  Their original studio was damaged beyond repair and the new studio they found is just one floor, making everyone happier.  Terrill joined her pen pal (Jess Pugh) and her class during a class today.

Terrill and Jess stretching

The entire class was so inviting and lovely.  They made Susie, Terrill and Virginia feel completely at home.  They even gave our crew a ride back to our hostel.  They also invited them to come back tomorrow.

Susie was so moved by their emotional generosity.  They are the ones that had a terrible year, but they acted as if Terrill needed their love and support as much as anyone.

Tomorrow is our last full day.  We plan to walk the city and see the beautiful (the gardens) and the devastation.  It is hard to think that the trip is ending, but I think that Christchurch (and its positive populace) is a great place to finish.

Steve Sir

PS I also want to leave you with this picture.  It is a group of local students in uniform.  I wonder what our campers would say to this apparel.

Looking good! Those are not sea snakes around their necks.

We had an uneventful day.

We have been packing.  We turn in the campervan tomorrow morning, so we need to arrange the chaos of the past 19 days into 10 large bags and 6 backpacks.

This is not that much fun at all.

I do not know exactly what to share that will amuse you, so this will be short.

We will share our favorite example of odd marketing in New Zealand.

Read this carefully

The folks at McGregor’s are proud of their pies, but they might have some of the oddest ways to express this.  Lets look at the ad in detail.  First, they claim to be successful since “Adam was a cowboy”.  I missed this part of Adam’s history, but I will take their word for it.

Second, they extol me to “Wrap my laughing gear around one today”.  I find this both amusing and slightly too familiar.  What I do with my laughing gear remains my business.

Third, we have the coup d’etat: “Baked at Sparrows Fart”.  I am all for being proud of your home.  I also believe that one should make the best of bad situations.  But when you are trying to sell foodstuff, I generally advise avoiding any reference to flatulence, be it avian or not.

That is it for today.  I think we will have more tomorrow.

Steve Sir

With only one day left in the Fiddler (our campervan’s license tag is FDL161, so it is the Fiddler), I feel a compulsion to describe life in a campervan.

The six of us share roughly 135 square feet of living space (that includes the bathroom and kitchen counterspace.  Put differently, we have 20 square feet of floor space when both lower beds are in use.

Looking forward

Looking back

That is not exactly spacious.

But it is better than you might think.  Of course, after that description, it would almost have to be.

We have become a fairly efficient traveling unit.  When we arrive, the kids are generally quick to volunteer for the basic tasks like plugging in the electrical, filling the water and taking out the trash.  If we are in non-camperpark, the kids will search out large rocks to serve as wheel brakes in the event of extreme wind.

As I noted before, in many ways, our brood behaves better in tight quarters than in a roomy home.  My theory is that they (out of necessity) severely constrict their territorial bubbles in the campervan.  At home, they have much wider bubbles that then overlap when they inevitably intersect in the public areas of our home.

But here, we all just embrace this metal straight jacket that is our mobile home.

Here are a series of camper-related observations you might appreciate.

The Seat-check System

I am at a loss to explain how elaborate the “seat-check” system has become.  The seat-check determines who sits where.  You might think that there is not that big of a difference between seats in a campervan.  You, my dear reader, would be dearly wrong.

Lives hang in the balance based on the your seating arrangement.

The seat-check is the process by which each child “calls” his or her desired seat.  There is an elaborate and arcane set of rules that dictate the calling of seats.

• You must be within view of the vehicle and within hearing distance of another rider who is not a parent.  In this case, you can “dibs” the seat of choice.
• It must be within 20 minutes of travel time.
• If you are in a seat you like, you can “seat-check” to reserve it.

There are also “iPad checks”.

As you might imagine, this process does not ever get old.

Oh wait, I am wrong.  It absolutely gets old.  Really, really old.

The Vehicle is Taller than you Think

I am not sure I want to go into extreme detail here, but I can tell you that one several occasions I have driven the Fiddler under “close cover”.   By that, I mean that I seem to be endeavoring to remove all the paint from the top of this fine ride. Trees and street signs have done their best to aid us in this endeavor.

In fact, as I think about this, I might leave this topic where it lies.  Let me simply say that I am delighted that the top of the van has not been pulled off this vehicle.

Super Smells

I struggle with how to share this with you, but I feel a need to share all aspects of our trip with you.  This includes flowers, adventures, history and culture.

But it must also include some harder facts.

The van smells.

We have teenagers in here.  Teenagers are ultra-ripe.  They are like old cheese.

Susie thinks this is a squashed salamander, but we can't be sure.

We have had some spills.  Here is a list of fluids that have found the floor here:

• Sesame oil.  We wanted to sauté green beans in the sesame oil.   Apparently, one of our children failed to seal the bottle.  It leaked.  A lot- the bottle was empty when we discovered it.
• Olive oil.  Same thing, different oil.
• Beer.  Bought for a marinade, dropped on the floor.  Makes parts of the floor smell like the basement of a fraternity house.
• Garlic.  We dropped some on the floor.  It adds an Italian flair to the floor.
• Red pasta sauce.  A little tomato, garlic, parsley and love.
• Miscellaneous seafood.  We have been enjoying mussels, cockles, and fish.  So has the floor.

I suspect that we have become numb to the smell.  I can think of no other explanation other than that.  I think we could survive mustard gas.

Steve Sir

On the bright side, we are able to park in great places

We have only 3 more nights in the campervan and only 5 days remaining in our grand adventure.

And I feel somewhat low of wit or insight.  Here is the resulting update.

I can tell you that we stayed near a beach last night and watched part of Lord of the Rings (since we have seen so much of the scenery lately). I can also report that we walked within 2 feet of a very tall (and extremely mellow) penguin that understood that we were no threat to him.

Virginia with a new friend

We are checking each other out

Last night, Susie and I celebrated our wedding anniversary 5 months late. Our efforts to celebrate in Europe consistently met with failure. Either we could not get into a particular restaurant or we were not comfortable with the place where the children were staying enough to leave them. Last night, it all worked out. We came to a quite famous fresh fish restaurant called Fleurs run by an eccentric restaurateur who was delightful to meet. The kids? They got to eat whatever they wanted in the campervan that was parked in the lot next to the restaurant.

Preparing to enter the restaurant for the anniversary meal - who will bicker and make us feel normal?

The meal was exquisite, but I think we enjoyed being adults and meeting Fleur just as much. We swapped stories about children. We talked about giving children independence. She agreed. In fact, we realize that she was on the opposite extreme of supervision from most Americans (and way beyond us as well). She talked about leaving here boys to fend for themselves for entire days from a young age. Her reward? “One day I came home and they had tattooed each other.”

I have no story that is a match for that.

After we ate, but before we left, we recreated a picture we took 3 years ago.

Stairs to nowhere

I think it is fair to tell you that the kids hate recreating photos.  Here is Liam sharing his enthusiasm.

Hooray! Can we take another posed shot?

This morning, we went to the unique Moeraki Boulders. These huge stones (roughly 4-6 feet in diameter) form almost perfect spheres and perch starkly atop an otherwise smooth sandy beach. It looks like the gods were playing a game of marbles and simply left their toys on the beach.

Here are shots from that visit.

The boulders

Family photo with reflection

Terrill trying a new look with seaweed

Steve Sir