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Blogging for LGBT families day: A typical morning
“Mommy time!!” I am jolted awake as a 47 lb missile hurls at our bed, all legs and arms. I smile and roll over, closing my eyes. Because, although I am a parent with a pair of X chromosomes and...
View ArticleOff to New Zealand!
In three hours, we leave our home for a new adventure: four months in New Zealand, with our base on the South Island. I have been checking items off our our extensive to do list for the past three days...
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44 Hours En Route
Denver to LA, LA to Brisbane, Australia, and Brisbane to Dunedin, New Zealand. Whew! My first sketch of the trip, of Denver International, as viewed from our gate in Terminal A:We had nearly a full day...
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Who Knew?
Fran bounded like Tigger onto the bed this morning as Jeremy and I snuggled, still bleary-eyed and jet lagged. "Let's get going already! I've been up for hours! There's a visitor center we can walk...
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A School Miracle?
What if, as a kid, you didn't have to go to elementary school? What would you gain? What would you miss? What if it was in another country?As many of you know, immigration told us to get a "visitor"...
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Five Stages
From three bathrooms to one. Walking anywhere involves steps- lots of steps. Hauling firewood. Driving on the left side. No friends. So much adjustment.When I was a Fulbright scholar in Israel, we had...
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Letting Beauty Do The Work
Turns out, all I needed was a few days in nature. While Fran has her ocean, my heart responds to forest (or as they say here "far-est"). And what incredible forests they have! As one student said to...
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The "Best Day"
Fran with stuffed albatross at the Otago MuseumHow can it be that every day we are doing so much, and yet it feels like we are hardly making a dent in the list of things we want to do?Yesterday Jeremy...
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First Impressions of Kiwis
In response to a request from a reader, what follows is my top five observations about New Zealanders (called Kiwis). Given that we haven't been here even a month yet, these are really just first...
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Waterfalls, Bikes and Olympians
After careful consideration of the weather this week, we decided to take advantage of a sunny forecast and drove 3.5 hrs to the resort town of Wanaka. It's the local’s alternative to Queenstown, but it...
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Puzzling over differences
As an American now temporarily living in New Zealand, I have been marveling over the adjustments we have made, and the experience of culture shock generally.Jeremy fears for his life in a trompe l'oeil...
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The Catlins and Waterfalls
Last week was an overnight in the southernmost part of the country, an area called The Catlins. By this point, we had made the guidebook “NZ Frenzy” (pronounced En-Zed Frenzy, by the way) our bible and...
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Magical Moeraki
So far, I have been showing you photos taken by phone- mostly my outdated one and occasionally Fran’s newer one. But for the truly incredible sights, you deserve the good camera. But I don’t just use...
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Adventure Capital of the World
The drive up to The Remarkables was pretty harrowing, with little to no shoulder and VERY long drops.Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of the world. "Bungy" (Americans spell it Bungee)...
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Observations in Kiwi-land: the good, the bad and the wonderfully weird
After living here for two months, these are my observations as an American of New Zealand and New Zealanders. It is an update/addition to my "first impressions" post. Different things strike me as time...
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Sounds that are Fiords
We had the great fortune to do two incredible cruises: Milford Sound and Doubtful Sound. The former we did with my mother, Ellen, who visited for two weeks and has only recently returned to Cincinnati....
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The North of the South
In our desperate attempt to squeeze the rest of the south island into our third month here, we took a week to drive first to Mt. Cook and then up the West Coast to the famous Abel Tasman National...
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Close Encounters of the Bird Kind
In conclusion, I hope you liked my essay about what I have learned about birds in New Zealand. New Zealand has changed my perspective on birds forever. I LOVE BIRDS NOW!model of New Zealand giant...
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Which way to The Shire?
I don't normally post blogs on a single destination, but this movie set for scenes from The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings (LOTR) was among my top priorities for this trip (see a film clip here from LOTR...
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"What I Learned About Māori Culture in New Zealand"
This is Jeremy's second blog post, another homeschool assignment, this time about the Māori. This is based primarily on our recent visit to the North Island, where the Māori settled more densely than...
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How living in New Zealand has changed us
When our American family decided to spend four months in New Zealand for my sabbatical, the objectives were for me to get some writing done, make some connections, and otherwise have a wonderful...
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Living in New Zealand as a Two-Mom, American Family
In celebration of #LGBTQFamiliesDay, I thought I'd share our experience as a two-mom family during our recent four-month stay in New Zealand. We received many questions both from people there and...
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Re-entry Shock
Giant snake we saw on our bike ride when we got back to Denver- We aren't in New Zealand anymore!With my toenails painted the color of paua shells, I stand looking at my phone, nearly brought to tears...
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