Shame, shame, shame on me for being so delinquent in my update blogs. Here’s a quick catch up! I've also included some miscellaneous photos at the bottom!
Right as we got settled in our townhome and Cam started his new job early March, we went into full lockdown here. Though I knew/know that lockdown was a really hard time for a lot of people (and definitely stressful for us too!) I really enjoyed lockdown at its base. We happily whiled away the days working, cooking new things, taking walks, playing charades (didn’t own a deck of cards or any games), and even tried some improv exercises (turns out we’re not that funny). Cameron read a lot, and I knit a lot (knitting project pictures below!). We were in lockdown here in New Zealand for about 7 weeks, and then we quickly returned back to seemingly normal life.
Since then, time has just been zooming by as Cameron and I are having an absolute blast living in Christchurch. On paper, our day-to-day is similar to what we were doing in the states. Cameron goes to work 5 days a week, and can work some pretty long hours. I work from home 5 days a week for the same company I was working for in the states, because they’re absolutely amazing (Hi Tims and Belinda)!
We spend weekends together. So yes, on paper, our life here is very similar. However, when you look at the details, our lives are really enriched and we’re just loving it here.
I typically start my day with a just over 2 mile walk in the park. I say it a lot, but I love the Botanic Garden and Hagley Park. I feel so incredibly lucky to have it right outside our door, it’s luxurious to me. I love the river, the trees, the ducks and swans and the sense of peace it gives me to start my day. I also love the exercise. One big goal of mine this year was to be able to walk everywhere. We’ll occasionally drive to the mall if we need something, but I think we’ve only filled our gas tank (petrol tank) 3 times in the last 4.5 months. So yes, for the most part I walk everywhere, and find that it’s not unusual for me to walk 4 to 6 miles a day between my morning walk, picking up groceries, and running miscellaneous errands. This makes me exceedingly happy.
Every weekend we are finding new things to explore, new places to eat, new things to do. This has slowed down a bit because it’s winter, but even so we’ve been far from bored here!
Some highlights of what we’ve been up to:
1) Our neighbor, who we’ve become fast friends with, teaches musical theater at the local university. We’ve been to two productions they’ve put on. One was called “Mr. Burns a post-electric play”. I thought this was going to be a comedy, but ended up being fairly grim! The story takes place in a post-apocalyptic future, where family and friends have been separated and have no real means of locating each other. Random people tend to form groups, and live temporarily together. In the evening, they gather around a campfire and entertain themselves by recalling episodes of The Simpsons. The acts of the play go further and further into the future, where eventually, The Simpsons have become akin to how we view Shakespear today. The students were great.
The second show we saw was called “It’s Only Life” and this was fully a singing performance comprising of some solos and some ensemble songs, each a small vignette of a character’s life. Very nice, and very cool to see university-aged people doing what they love.
2) We’ve been doing little trips whenever the opportunity presents itself, trying to see as much of New Zealand as we can, and really make the most of our time here. There are 3 really wonderful places very close to Christchurch (I’m sure there are more, this is just what we’ve explored so far). One, I wrote about in a previous blog, is called Akaroa. We actually have plans to go back this coming weekend with our neighbor! We also recently did a trip to Hanmer Springs. This is about 2 hours away from us and actually reminded us a bit of Colorado. It was a small mountain town, with a really nice hot springs. We had a great, relaxing weekend there soaking at the hot springs and doing hikes in Heritage Forest. Absolutely beautiful.
A little video I took while we were hiking in Hanmer. I love all the ferns!
The last of the 3 places we’ve visited around here is Waipara. Waipara is a local wine region. It’s only 45 minutes away. We went just a day or two after we came out of lock down. I really wanted to get out of the city and see some “New Zealand landscape”, so Waipara was an easy excursion for us. We spent a few hours at a winery called Terrace Edge. It was lovely, and we got to chat with the owner quite a bit.
I was also lucky enough to be able to fly to Queenstown to visit my friend Nicole. It was so great catching up with her!
3) Eating, eating and a little more eating. I don’t know if Christchurch has an established reputation for good food. It seems to me that the bigger-named Kiwi chefs tend to be in Auckland or Wellington, but we have had some absolutely amazing meals here. Almost to the point where, I hope it’s not too cheesy to say (pun intended), that they’re more experiences than they are just eating out. Just last weekend, Cameron and I went to a place called Mediterranian Market. We originally discovered them because they rent a little stall in the Riverside Market - an enclosed farmers market, boutique-y shopping hall that’s downtown, and less than half a mile from our house. They carry imported foods, mostly from Italy but some from Spain and Greece. From there, we discovered that they had a larger store just outside of downtown. From there, we found out that the larger maket had a deli and served pizzas. We had been wanting to go for a while, and finally decided to do it on Saturday. We were totally blown away. Phenomenal food. We had a bowl of pasta and a pizza, and both brought me straight back to Italy. Incredible, deep flavors, perfectly cooked. Amazing. As I said, a total experience. If we get to stay, and if Covid allows, we are keeping a running list of where we plan to take anyone who comes to visit us!
4) Sometimes, Cameron goes out for dinner or drinks with his colleagues after work. This week, we’ve been invited to his boss’ house for dinner so I’m looking forward to that. On Tuesday, we’re planning to go to a Trivia night at a local pub with two of our neighbors. Last Thursday, I spontaneously attended a meeting of the Christchurch Wine Club, which is an all-ladies group that meets once a month at various restaurants around Christchurch. It’s not so much focused on the wine, and more focused on making connections which was really nice. The age group was about 25-55 and I met some really nice people!
We’re really looking forward to summer. We hope there are plays and live music in the park again. We’re also looking forward to outdoor movies, food and wine festivals, farmers markets, and of course, plenty of walks and hikes. Though it would have been cool to settle in Napier (I’ll never stop loving the Napier beachfront), I can’t imagine us being happier anywhere else in New Zealand than we are here.
On to knitting! I completed 3 garments during lockdown. Here are some photos!
This is a cardigan that I started prior to lockdown. I had bought the pattern from Etsy, but was finding that the sleeves were turning out absolutely massive with the way the pattern was written. I do think that was the intended style, but it wasn't really translating in the specific yarn I was using. I put this down for a long time, and finally picked it up again during lockdown, committing myself to figuring out the decreases I could do to make the sleeves turn out the way I liked them. This is not a typical color I would wear but I literally bought the last balls in the store, so it was this or nothing! I'm kind of glad for it, because I actually think it's a really nice color for Fall, and matches my Hogwarts house colors (Hufflepuff!)
This is the Sunday Sweater by PetiteKnit and is what I consider to be my biggest knitting accomplishment to date. It wasn't a difficult pattern (though doing that neck was tricky and took a lot of concentration!), but I am just so happy with the way it turned out. Consequently, I've worn this more than any other thing I've ever made.
This is the Holiday Sweater by PetiteKnit. I don't have a picture of it finished. To be honest, I haven't yet decided if I should unravel the whole thing and start again. It turned out alright, but if you can sort of see, it gathers strangely at the neckline and it's really bothering me. This neckline was also interesting to do.
The stitches along the neckline were picked up and knit. Then, as you can see in the photo, I gradually decreased stitches, and then increased them back up again. This part was folded down in half, and then sewn in place, the final product as you can see in the above picture. I'm sure this isn't an uncommon way of doing necklines, but it was my first time and I thought it was interesting!
If you ever have questions about knitting, please don't hesitate to ask! Knitting is the one topic I could probably talk about the most, that no one (as of yet) really wants to listen to.
And now! Onto the miscellaneous photo gallery!
Outside of the Arts Center in Christchurch there's a little book stand that sells used books for $5 NZD. We walked past one day and noticed the proprietor was also selling paper bags full of Peaches from her tree at home for $5. We bought a bag (at least 2KG), and she told us her favorite way to prepare them - brushing them with butter and maple syrup and baking them. We went home that night and tried baked peaches with some ice cream. Oh. Wow. Absolutely delicious. She had mentioned that peaches freeze well, so Cam went back the next weekend to buy some more. Unfortunately, this was the day or two before lockdown went into effect so she hadn't brought any with her that day, thinking that there wouldn't be very many people out shopping. However, she told Cameron that after she locked up for the day, she would go home, get some peaches and leave them for him behind her bookstand. He offered to pay, but she insisted that she had more than she could eat and they would be going bad anyway if we didn't take them. So, Cam went back early evening to find this bag behind her stall. I can't tell you how deeply touched we were. In addition to her being so sweet as to make a special trip to drop off peaches for us, the quantity was enormous. She had also included other things she has growing at her home - fresh walnuts (honestly the best walnuts I've ever tasted), apples and dried sultanas. Since everything has reopened again, we've gone back to thank her. It was such a nice (and delicious) act of kindness.
Cam and I love oyster mushrooms (something we picked up from our time living in Korea), but they can only be found at Farmer's Markets and they're expensive. Something like $20 for 300 grams. I found this mushroom farm online and had it shipped from the North Island. They grew so fast. Yum!
This is Feijoa, an awesome fruit! People usually eat the middle with a spoon and leave the skin because the skin is tart - so naturally, I eat the whole thing. I love sour. The fruit's flavor is this combination of guava, pineapple, and strawberry. So unique!
Ice cream can be found in four flavor packs here. Here's my favorite - it's vanilla, after-dinner mint (different than the state's mint chocolate chip), some sort of coffee flavor, andddddd my newly acquired taste that Cameron cannot understand, Rum Raisin! It's amazing.
I really like birds. I managed to get a shot of a Fantail right outside our house. They are so cool. They eat mostly flying insects, so they hop around in the trees, rattling the branches to scare out insects (in our tree, it's moths), and then they swoop down and munch them! Can you tell why they're called Fantails? :)
A clever real estate sign we saw for a plot of land on Park Terrace - one of the streets across from Hagley Park.
A shot from a walk on Sumner Beach. Only 15 minutes from Christchurch!
Thanks for reading. Miss and love you all <3