In with the New (Zealand)

We are finally back in New Zealand, the country that so charmed us five years ago that we ended up moving to Australia on the strength of it. I (Jakob) have a foggy enough memory that those three months have faded into an idyllic haze of extremely green grass, fjordy hikes, carrot cake and sheep named Flo. 

Now we have three weeks to get reacquainted with the Northern half of the Southern island. Today was day 1, and already the island is weaving its mellow spell around us. Last night our motel gave us free beer and juice and we got wood-fired pizza from a sheet-metal container storefront in the rain. By 7am we were walking to Wellington Airport past a barren beach that looked like the one in A Series of Unfortunate Events. There was no security of any sort for our flight to Nelson, and I sat beside the talkative co-founder of the Brazilian Vegetarian Society. We joyfully reunited with Ali Mac, who I've now been friends with for ~60% of my life, and hiked out to a peninsula with lovely mountain views and poor rocks for skipping. A dozen teenagers were splashing around a floating dock, despite sharing the lake with centenarian eels that are taller than me. They even migrate to Tonga to lay their eggs! (The eels, not the teenagers)

I'm starting to remember why I liked New Zealand so much. It's just easy to be happy and have fun here. It's not larger-than-life or astonishing, but it's quirky and pleasant, and has a ton of character. The 28-child, water-only school here has a massive, crumbling wooden playground that looks like it's for the Marines, plus the most dangerous trampoline I've ever seen, a heavily fenced pool (which teenagers had penetrated and were splashing in), a tennis-cum-basketball court, a vegetable garden with ripe strawberries, and thousands of sandflies. Or consider our pit stop on the way to St Arnaud; I hit the brakes when a sign for fresh berries appeared, and we pulled into a weird farmstead whose barn was entirely covered in vinyl LP discs. The door had a bad homemade painting of (I think) Prince. The owners sold us plump homegrown blackberries and raspberries whose memory still makes my mouth water badly, although we passed on the random clothes, board books, and knickknacks they were also selling. 

For the next few days we will bum around St Arnaud, Westport, Hokitika and Arthur's Pass. The forecast is pretty gray but I'm excited anyway. 

The view from Mt Robert 

The girls all made magic wands. Probably because we are well into Book 6 of Narnia

Sophia and Tova made it a few hundred feet from the top, then threw themselves down in exhaustion. 

We went for an exquisite swim that elated Tamar