After 2.5 years of living out of our carry-on luggage (22lbs suite case + a smaller backpack per person), the amount of STUFF we have in our house is absolutely overwhelming. The house itself is in a pretty run-down shape that cleaning, purging, painting (at some point), ‘moving in’ will take us months. Photo: I … More Post Refresh Journey
It’s the end of an era. The whole family has now left New Zealand. Both the younger kids have made some great friends there, and I’m sure some will last a lifetime. We’ll be hosting many of them in Seattle once the world is back to (new) normal.
Nina and I left New Zealand 32 hours ago. We are still in transit, currently in Amsterdam, waiting on our flight to Denmark. I cried half the time of our first 11-hour flight from Chch to Singapore. We were 2 of a total of 16 passengers on this first leg of our very long journey. … More Leaving New Zealand
As we near the end of our time in Chch, I can’t help but feel deep gratitude for our fortune to spend the last 15 months in such a cute big/small city. This morning, as I was telling my BFF about a great evening I had last night, she said “Your Chch sounds like Gilmore … More Easy to Love Otautahi
Gorgeous day on Mt. Hutt! After almost a full day of skiing, Maki and Pepi switched to snowboarding and both of them did really well. Pepi was not totally new to it so it wasn’t surprising that she did well. However, Maksim has never stepped on a snowboard and after only 2 tries on a … More Second Ski Season in New Zealand
We had a busy Friday of Queen’s Bday weekend. Maksim and I planned a Christchurch Skateparks tour to skate 12 parks in one day. It took us 9 hours but it was a day to remember. We ended the day at our first rugby game, Crusaders (local Chch team) vs. Western Force (from Perth, Australia).
After a few days of rain and bad flooding all around this region (worst in the last 200 years), the sun has come out again. I run on sunshine (as most folks probably do); my batteries get filled with only a brief showing of this shiny source of life. This morning, as I was driving … More I Am Happy and I Know It
This skateboarder has been taking violin lessons with Christchurch School of Music for about 6 months now. He’ll be leaving New Zealand with some cool new skills.
We are getting closer to safely leaving New Zealand. All members of our family currently eligible for covid vaccine are now fully vaccinated. Petra will get her vaccine as soon as she lands back in Seattle and hopefully, Maksim’s eligibility will shortly follow. It will be tough to leave Christchurch after spending the last 14 … More Vaccinated!
Dropped off Petra and her friends at the airport today for yet another Ultimate tournament, this time in Cambridge on the North Island, where they’ll be playing in New Zealand Youth Championships. I was reminded again what a great traveler Petra is, especially after all of our adventures of the past 2+ years. She has … More Ultimate NZ Youth Championships
Refresh Journey 