Thanksgiving in New Zealand

Although it was not too easy, we managed to pull off a rough semblance of a Thanksgiving dinner in a country that does not celebrate the holiday. We used an organic, free-range chicken rather than a turkey. The side dished were sweet potato casserole, cornbread dressing, and pink salad. Here are pictures.

We have a fetus!

Little Kiwi is now a fetus! His/her little arms and legs are now moving around, there are eyelids and ears and formed heart! He/she has almost doubled in size since last week--now over an inch long! :)

Takapu, the Australasian Gannet

It was a beautiful day in West Auckland today and we decided to go visit the Gannet Colony at Muriwai Beach, about 40 minutes north of Auckland. Someone told us that the chicks should be hatching, but it is obviously too early for that, as we observed much nest-building behavior but no chicks.

Gannets are beautiful birds to watch in flight, but dirty, stinky and noisy close up. Nevertheless, the beauty of the scenery, the drive, the fresh strawberries we bought on the way back, and the company of my beautiful pregnant wife made for a pleasant afternoon.

Click HERE for pictures.

We stopped by the shops in Henderson on the way back to look for Christmas presents and for a body pillow for Mindy. We happened into a shop called BabyCity (do babies really need their own city?). I am still recovering from the sticker shock. It is my firm belief that babies require far less than the typical first parents buy or receive in gifts. I hope I am right, because what we say was ridiculously expensive. Strollers, car seats, and other "essentials" averaged about NZ$450.00. I am thinking we will be buying second-hand with a smile after seeing that.

Little Kiwi update :)

Baby Kiwi should be weighing around 0.04 ounces or 1 gram and around 0.64 inches or 1.6 cm in length. I've read that's about the same as a raspberry :)

Baby Things

I appreciate the fact that everyone wants to shop for baby and Mindy (so far no one has mentioned shopping for me), but I think with us being down here, shipping will be prohibitive to sending too many boxes. Plus, it seems like the money for shipping could be better spent by either the gifter or the giftee.

With that being said, I wanted to post some of the things that we will be wanting just in case you are particularly excited about one of these and want to "give" them by sending money:

1. The first is a baby hammock that we want to use as a baby bed for the first few months.


2. The next one is a baby sling (carrier) that is very popular here in NZ -- we bought one of these for Staci a couple of months ago.

Pictures of Flowers

Here are some pictures I took last week:

http://picasaweb.google.com/boots4walking/FloraAroundTheHouse

Up the Duff!

In Kiwi Speak, we are up the duff.

Same Song, Different Verse

I am surprised at my lack of enthusiasm over the Democrats' coup d'etat this week. Having been a life long Democrat and having basically fled the nation because it was being taken down the shitter by Shrub, the Bush family cronies (i.e., Dick Cheney, Jim Baker, and now Robert Gates), the Republicans, the Un-Christian, Christian Conservatives, and all that blindly support them without taking the time to rub two neurons together, I guess I thought there would be some sense of satisfaction.

But alas, I guess the more things change, the more they stay the same. I have come to realize that the Republicans and the Democrats are so closely aligned that they are basically reading from the same script. It only seems that they are fighting over opposing positions, because that is what they want us to think. If we (the public) believe that the major parties are radically different and span the range of democratic political theory, then we are caught in an either-or position. So whereas, there will be victories and defeats for the parties, the same power structure will remain in place and the same political thinking will dominate no matter the party in charge -- that includes a big, active, expensive centralized government.

It is like two sides of the same coin. We are kept flipping the coin without asking whether the coin has any value.

My friend Andy pointed out to me one time that neither party is doing right by the US Constitution, which is absolutely true. Read our country's founding document(s). You will soon realize that what is happening is anything but what was intended. I have become a HUGE fan of the US Constitution, while living in this socialist monarchy they call New Zealand.

New Zealand has no Constitution. The claim the Treaty of Waitangi as their founding document, which I (mis)understand to be an agreement between the natives and the British invaders. While New Zealand seems committed to keeping its "deal" with the natives (and spends a damn lot of money doing so), the Treaty is not much of founding document for a democratic nation. That is one of the reasons that the Government and public opinion swings wildly here. There is no elected head of state (the Prime Minister is nominated and selected within parliament by the members of parliament), the parties are not particularly cohesive, the currency is unstable, and decisions are seemingly made on whim. Don't get me wrong, I think NZ has some things to teach the world, but democratic government theory and practice is not one of them.

All this is to say that I can see clearly now from down here how radical and miraculous our Founding Fathers and founding documents are. Now, back to the point. Why aren't we governing our country from those documents? And, why have we been sold the idea that we have to chose A or B, neither of which jibes with those documents? Well, I don't have the answer, but I imagine that money and power are at the bottom of it.

Thanks to my friend Andy, I have been looking at the Constitution Party. While there are some ideas that are just damn hard for this professed liberal Democrat to swallow, I think that they at least have a basis for some of their principles. I think the principles of the Constitution (as embodied in the people) have made this country great. Perhaps a "back to the basics" style of federal government is needed to bring to restore us to greatness. [Note: I am not one of those that think the US was better in the '50's when there were white fences, apple pies, etc. I just think that the Lady has lost some luster -- especially since I am constantly being told that it would be better if I claimed to be Canadian.]

Check out the Constitution Party with an open mind. Consider how radical their ideas seem from what we are used to. Ask why that is and whether it should be so. While I agree that the Constitution is a living and breathing document, I can tell you from my Constitutional Law studies that many of the "penumbras" that have been read into the Constitution since Griswold v. Connecticut have not been related by any detectable degree of consanguinity or affinity to the Document itself. Something to ponder?

Fairy Falls

It was a beautiful sunny day here in NZ. So, after a walk to the Village for breakfast at the Hardware (and a nap to digest), we loaded up for a hike at Fairy Falls. We live adjacent to the Waitakere Ranges Regional Park, which is a huge native area with an intricate system of trails.

The hike was rated "moderate," but seemed strenuous to me at times. Unlike many of the trails we have been on in the States, the trails here are rugged, requiring sturdy footwear and a sense of adventure. I guess, that is because there is no fear of litigation here.

We took two trails to get to the falls then back to the car. Mindy wants you to know that we had to cross several streams along the way and both inescapably ended up with wet feet.

"Fairy Falls" is actually a series of several falls, each with a ten to twenty feet drop. Here are some pictures:

http://picasaweb.google.com/boots4walking