Snow and Cherry Blossom (NZ 2008)

blossom

I’m really happy to say that spring has finally sprung here in Nelson. At last the night time temperature is above 10o and we can cast off that extra duvet. People are shirking jeans and ugg boots and baring their milk bottle white legs in the glorious sunshine, I even saw a couple of brave souls swimming at the beach today. We’ve had snow drops and daffodils, cherry blossom and bluebells – it reminds me of England!

Spring here is often wet and windy and this one has been no exception. We had a mini-hurricane about a month ago which wiped out large numbers of trees, ripping the up at the roots or snapping the trunks like toothpicks. One crashed down on the main water pipe supplying our part of town so we were without water for a couple of days. Many of the footpaths and mountain bike trails are still blocked but at least firewood is cheap! We’ve also had some torrential downpours causing floods and landslides, blocking roads and the main railway line.

rainbow

Staying on the subject of weather we’ve had excellent snow up in the mountains, the best for years. So once the road re-opened Neil and I finally dragged our sorry arses up to the Rainbow Ski Field and had a snow boarding lesson. It was great fun and we really took to it, even falling over was fun as the snow was beautiful thick powder.

SnMski

Sboard

The following Saturday we took Maya up with a friend Chloe for a day of fun in the snow. Unfortunately the snow had iced up and after a few really painful falls on my arse traded the snowboard in for a pair of skis. After half an hour I was feeling pretty comfortable on them again – it’s funny how some things just come back so quickly. I was going up to the higher slopes on the T-bar and coming down pretty confidently by the end. Maya had a skiing lesson and by the end was happily zipping down the beginners slope and had a couple of goes on the intermediate. It was great to see her build her confidence and really begin to enjoy it! Neil had another go on the snowboard, being a surfer it probably felt more natural to him . . . at least until he pulled something in his groin halfway through the morning and decided it was better if he sat the rest of the day out!

Nboard

I’ve finally found employment after applying for a range of rather bizarre jobs (motel receptionist, barista, swimming instructor, security guard to name but a few!). At the beginning of September I started work at Nelson City Council as an administrator in the HR Department! It is less boring than it sounds, the work is actuallly quite varied, and it’s part time which suites me fine as it allows me to get on with all the other things I was filling my time with before work intervened! It’s a temporary job until the end of November which also fits well as we’re heading over to Melbourne in mid-December to catch up with the Carmody clan for Christmas. Neil’s still plugging away at Placemakers and kind of enjoying it. He’s getting a great deal of satisfaction from teaching piano/keyboards, his 11 year old student is doing really well. He’s progressed from Pink Floyd’s “Wish you were here” to “Bohemian Rhapsody” (his choce of music!) and he is also making up stuff of his own.

On the voluntary side of things – our first refugee family arrived a few weeks ago so I’ve been busy helping them settle in. We have a team of 5 people and each one of us is responsible for helping them with different aspects of their welfare. I’m taking care of health so I have to make sure they get to health checks/vaccinations/dental appointments on time. Luckily the father Henry speaks pretty good English, he was a high school teacher in maths and physics before they left Myanmar. The mother chews tobacco and speaks no English but she’s always pretty smiley! They have a 4 month old baby (born in the refugee camp in Malaysia) and three other kids who are now in school, the kids learn English pretty fast and settle in quickly. It’s most difficult for the mother but there is already a large Chin (their ethnic group) population here in Nelson so they have good community support too.

Tunglut family

I am also helping with a second refugee family who arrived two weeks ago (yes, I probably have taken on too much!). The new family are from the Kayan tribe and have been in a refugee camp in Thailand for 15 years. They are animist but so far they seem to be integrating well into the Burmese community here who are almost exclusively Chin (Christian). It’s interesting and very rewarding working with them.

Well that’s probably enough from me. Sorry it’s been so long between blogs!

See ya!

Suzy and Neil