Adventure time!

Now that we've unpacked all our boxes, hung all our artwork up, shelved all our books, and taken apart our crates, we're starting to get out and about a little more. Last Saturday, we went on our first family hike in New Zealand! Based on suggestions from a friend, we decided to do the Pukemokemoke bush hike, not just because it's a fun name to say but also because it's only a 20 minute drive away from our house and a 6.4 km / 4 mile hike round-trip. It was a beautiful day for it, not too hot or cold, mostly sunny. It was a lot of fun to get out and see some of the beautiful forests on the north island. The hike went up to the top of a hill, where they had built a viewing platform. The views of the mountains around were amazing! Ralph had a great time (mostly) in his new hiking backpack. He liked being high up and pointing at things excitedly.

The forest here is so different from Oregon...lots and lots of tree ferns, big trees that are new to both of us, many of which have vines growing all over them, lots of fun, exotic-sounding bird calls, and amazing new smells! Since it's spring-time here, everything is also very green, as you can tell from the pictures.

On the trail!

The view from the top; this panorama can't capture the 360 hills and mountains around Hamilton

Lots of stairs to climb to get to the top...

A glimpse of the lush forest we hiked through

For our next adventure, we went out to the coast yesterday! It's about 45 - 60 minutes from where we are in Hamilton to the west coast of NZ; the closest beach town is Raglan. It's not the best beach for swimming, as the waves tend to be pretty big and there are apparently lots of rip tides. Because of the big waves, however, it's best known for its surfing. The east coast of NZ is closer to 90 - 120 minutes away but has nicer beaches for swimming. We decided to go to Raglan, as it's closer, and it's not really warm enough yet for swimming in the ocean anyway. Several people have told us that we should visit Bridal Veil Falls, which is close to Raglan, so we stopped by there on our way. It was a beautiful drive out there, past lots of big, rolling green hills with sheep and cows and the occasional wild turkey flock (!!). Bridal Veil Falls was amazing, it was especially full from all the rain we've had recently! It's a pretty short walk to get to the falls, and then there were stairs (262!) that we took down to the bottom. Not only were the falls amazing, but there were even feral goats, a mom and baby, next to the falls that were quite fun to watch. Ralph thought the waterfall was the coolest thing he'd ever seen :-)

The waterfall from the top

The waterfall from the bottom

The placid creek before it goes over the waterfall, running very full right now!

The momma and baby goat at the waterfall

We then drove on to the beach near Raglan; the beaches on the east coast of NZ are mostly black sand from the volcanic activity in the area, which was quite striking. We enjoyed spending the rest of the afternoon on the beach; Ralph thought the ocean was a bit too cold for his liking, so he mostly sat in the sand and gleefully threw clumps of wet sand into a nearby pool of water. The waves weren't great for surfing, so there weren't a lot of surfers to watch, but the paragliders and hang-gliders were out in full force, which was fun to watch. We enjoyed dinner at a restaurant on the wharf (seafood chowder soup and buttermilk fried chicken!) before driving home. 

Tamara and Ralph on the beach

Ralph playing with one of his favorite toys, his car, while watching the sunset after dinner on the wharf

In addition to our adventures, we're settling into a new routine here. We've enjoyed being in other peoples home for meals and had our first dinner guests over last Thursday. Tamara has enjoyed catching up with some other mums and their kids during the day time with Ralph and I went to a fortnightly bible study last Wednesday. On Friday we had a potluck gathering with the other postdocs from my work and their families. Ralph was the only child and charmed them all :) Thank you for all of your comments and prayers for us - it's going to take a while before NZ feels like home, but we're thankful for the friends that we've made already and the lovely church community that God has placed us into. 

-Stephen