Episode 32: December 2007
Highlights of the month include:
• Christmas parties/festivities in Midland;
• Travel to Australia via L.A. and Auckland, New Zealand;
• Vacation in Melbourne, Australia (including Christmas and New Year).
The “season to be jolly” began with a series of Christmas parties in Michigan. In the U.S. (or at least where we live) it is customary for people to have house parties to celebrate Christmas. So in that spirit, we enjoyed many of those with my book club, our friends, and work colleagues. We even held a celebration of our own, hosting my department’s Christmas party at our house two days before leaving for our Australia vacation. Although we had vowed not to decorate the house for Christmas, those plans went out the door when we decided to have the party at our house and out came the Christmas tree and decorations to put the house in a more festive spirit. In addition to food and drink, we put on a “white elephant” (similar to a “kris kringle” except that participants can “steal” and swap gifts from other people if they like someone else’s gift better, so the event goes on for quite a while). It was a fun night and worth putting up the Christmas decorations, if only for a couple of days.
We took a weekend trip to the town of Frankenmuth, located about an hour south of Midland, which has a heavy German influence in both its culture and architecture. One of the reasons we made the trip was to visit Bronners, the world’s largest Christmas store. True to its status, the store was enormous. It is difficult to describe – imagine a regular-sized shopping mall absolutely stuffed full of every imaginable Christmas/holiday decoration known and that will give you a rough idea. Of course, being the month of December, the place was a zoo!
After a crazy couple of weeks of Christmas parties and finalizing things in the office (both of us are coming back to new jobs with Dow, but we’ll explain that next month), we packed our bags for a three-week adventure to the southern hemisphere. Leaving the snow and cold behind, our travels first took us to Chicago and then L.A., where we had a six-hour layover before our flight to New Zealand. In that time, we left the airport and went to Venice Beach and enjoyed a nice dinner before heading back to the airport.
After a 13-hour flight, we found ourselves in Auckland, New Zealand. Since this was the first time we had been to New Zealand together, we decided to stay for three days and get over our jet lag before proceeding to Australia. Upon arriving in Auckland, we were committed to not letting jet lag get the better of us. After checking into our hotel, we dropped our bags, showered, and headed out for a little exploring. We walked thru downtown Auckland – stopping for my first taste of fish and chips in a long time – and got to the waterfront, which is lined with boats. Auckland is very proud of its water-based activities, and the city boasts a boat for every four households! We found that the city is not that easy to explore, as it is quite spread out, so we chose to board a hop-on/hop-off tourist bus to see a bit more of the surrounds. Our first stop was a craft market where we looked at the native Maori carvings and eventually bought a relatively large (1.5 feet tall) hand-carved statue. Our next stop was an area called New Market, which is the main, trendy shopping area. Our final stop was the SkyTower – Auckland’s highest structure that offers a viewing platform and wonderful views of the city. After walking around a bit, the effects of our travels were finally getting to us. Weary and tired, we got back to the hotel and collapsed into bed. We managed to get ourselves up just long enough to grab a bite to eat in the hotel restaurant before going back to our room for some much-needed sleep.
The next day, being much more relaxed, we embarked on a planned side trip to the town of Taupo, located three hours south of Auckland. To get there, we rented a car, which Neal drove after getting used to being on the “wrong” side of the road. The drive to Taupo was very pretty, as New Zealand’s countryside is rural, lush and green, and sparsely populated. Though the distance from Auckland to Taupo is quite short (only about 250 kilometers), the journey took us a while since the highways in New Zealand are mostly only one lane in either direction and they pass through towns. Along the way to Taupo, we stopped in the town of Rotorua, a popular tourist attraction due to its heavy Maori influences and its thermal areas. New Zealand is well known for being made up of many inactive (and a few active) volcanoes and, therefore, the country has many natural thermal areas. We visited one of these areas, which has been converted into a mud bath/spa, known as Hell’s Gate. After touring the thermal area and seeing the bubbling water and mud there, we took a dip in the warm mud that they extract from the area every day. The mud supposedly has healing properties and is very good for the skin, as long as you do not mind its overpowering stench of sulphur that infuses your skin and the clothes you wear immediately after the bath (as we found out later on) or the freezing cold shower you are forced to have after exiting the baths to get the mud off…yikes! Truth be told, the mud dip was great and our skin did, indeed, feel great (and smell stinky) afterwards.
Leaving Rotorua behind, we finally got to Taupo, which is a small town (boasting only one set of traffic lights) set along Lake Taupo, the largest freshwater lake in the southern hemisphere. Our accommodation was actually in a home situated in the hills overlooking the lake and town. The hotel owners were a couple from – of all places – Texas. They had given up the corporate rat race and started up their own bed and breakfast in Taupo. After checking in, we had a very nice dinner in Taupo before turning in for the night. The next day, after a made-to-order breakfast, we went back into Taupo to see the town and shop a bit (Neal even got a haircut there). As we walked among the shops, I spotted a café/jewelry store where customers can make their own jewelry. Jewelry-making has become an interest of mine recently, and I loved the idea of making something for myself, my sisters, and my mom. So, Neal and I spent the morning in that shop making several necklaces which, if I must admit, turned out quite nicely. After that, it was time to bid Taupo farewell and make the drive back to Auckland. The drive to Auckland was fairly uneventful except for one thing: we realized that Auckland has, quite possibly, the worst traffic in the world the size of the city. The city has roughly 1 million people and is quite spread out and yet we got stuck in the most horrific traffic imaginable – it took us 45 minutes to get through five kilometers! We might understand something like this happening in a much larger city but not in Auckland.
That night, we met up with Ken, a friend of ours who also works for Dow and lives in Midland. Ken is originally from New Zealand and was coincidentally in Auckland at the same time to visit his family for the holidays. Ken picked us up from our hotel and took us to the suburbs where his brother and partner live. After introductions over a glass of wine, we had a nice dinner at a nearby Indian restaurant, after which Ken dropped us back off at the hotel. The next day, Ken came by again, this time to play tour guide as he took us around some of his favorite places in Auckland. He drove us to the top of Mt. Eden, an extinct volcano from which we got some spectacular views of the city and ocean. After that, he drove us along the coast to a waterfront village where we had a nice lunch. Going far beyond the call of duty, Ken even drove us to the airport in time for our flight to Australia!
Having had a relaxing three days in New Zealand, we arrived in Australia ready to celebrate the holidays. We arrived in Melbourne after a four-hour flight from Auckland and were picked up my by sisters, Carol and Candace (Candy), and my dad who was also coincidentally in Australia for the holiday season with Julie. After welcoming each other, we split off from dad and drove to my mom’s new house in Hillside, a far-north suburb of Melbourne. Mom was so happy to see us and was very proud to show us the new house. It is a beautiful home, much larger than we had imagined, and we were surprised by how “at home” mom already felt in her new place. That night, we had a house full of people, including my sisters, Uncle Sam, Auntie Mary, my cousin, Elvin, his wife and daughter, and my good friend, Andrea. While everyone was there, we got them to help us put up the Christmas tree and decorations.
The next day, Carol had organized a family adventure with us, Candy, my dad and Julie. Carol refused to reveal the adventure to us, but she did say that we needed to wear tennis shoes and jeans. Finally, a few hours before we left, Carol told us that the adventure would be horseback riding on the beach! We crammed into two cars and drove near a town called Angelsea, which is located along the ocean and about two hours west of Melbourne. The weather was quite mild for the time of year – in fact, temperatures were very chilly for the first five days we were there – and the clouds were gloomy-looking, but we were assured that it was dry along the coast. Upon arriving at the horse farm, we donned helmets and boots for protection and then were introduced to our horses. I got a shorter horse named “Chuckie” and Neal got one of the more mature horses named “Bam Bam.” Our journey took us through the forests along the coast, up a hill where we could view the ocean, and then finally down to the beach. The trip was fantastic, except that as we approached the beach, the clouds opened up and the rain began. We arrived at the beach and trotted along the water’s edge. The instructors gave some riders the chance to put their horses into a more aggressive gallop. While Neal and I chose to skip this step, Carol and Julie went for it. From a distance we watched them dash ahead in the rain and then, frighteningly, we saw Carol fall off her horse! Our group finally caught up with the others to find Carol catching her breath on the beach and struggling to get to her feet. She was clearly in pain – not hard to see why when you consider that wet sand is much harder than dry sand. Trooper that she is, Carol got back up and mounted her horse again, though she was not in good shape. Adding to our situation, the rain had not let up and was actually falling harder! We were completely soaked to the bone by this point and, unfortunately for us, we still had a 1.5-hour journey back to the farm! We managed to make the trip back to the farm safely, at which time the rain stopped (of course it did!). Once we were off our horses, we started changing out of our wet clothes and into every dry piece of clothing that we could muster. Although the rain damped the event, we still had a lot of fun and enjoyed the spectacular views of the outback and coast. And, on the good side, the rain was a welcome sight to the area as Melbourne has been suffering through a four-year drought!
That night, we celebrated Christmas early with dad and Julie at Carol’s house. Carol was still in a lot of pain from her fall – the bruises were beginning to show and she had some really nasty ones on her legs, hips, and back – so we all banded together to put dinner on. We got spoiled with some wonderful gifts and had a great early Christmas celebration.
The next day, we went shopping with mom and look for some new accessories for her house. Mom had mentioned that she wanted some new furniture and so we agreed to help her find new items for her bedroom and living room. It was a fruitful trip, as we found a new bedroom set for her and got her thinking about an attractive sofa that we saw. After a morning of shopping, we drove back to Carol’s house to say goodbye to dad and Julie, who were both traveling to Brisbane to spend Christmas and the remainder of their vacation with Julie’s family. On our way back to mom’s, Neal and I decided to take on a project for mom. In addition to furniture, mom had mentioned that she wanted to do something with the walls of her house as they were all bland and white. So, we picked up some paint on our way to mom’s house so that we could transform the walls. Over the next couple of days, Neal painted two feature walls in mom’s house, which added a nice bit of color and warmth to the house.
Over the next several days, we spent our time with my family and friends. We had a large gathering of all my high school friends at my friend, Andrea’s, house and another friend, Lesley, was kind enough to host a dinner party at her house where we also caught up with Tracey, Pat, and Glenn. We spent a day with my friend, Melissa, and her husband, Paul, and got to meet their gorgeous new baby, Noah, who was born in June.
We celebrated Christmas in my family’s tradition by starting the party on Christmas Eve and celebrating the start of Christmas (rather than the day of). This year, the Christmas party was at mom’s new house, so we helped her get everything organized. There were about 30 adults and kids at the party, and we had a great time catching up and sharing presents. Santa (Carol dressed up) even made an appearance! After everyone had left, Candy, Carol, mom, and us exchanged gifts. This year, everyone went out of their way to give gifts and there were far too many of them – once again we really got spoiled!
In addition to all the gifts, Santa got us a couple of adventures to take while in Melbourne. One was a massage at the Crown Towers, a large casino/hotel in downtown Melbourne, and the other was a sea kayak adventure along Melbourne’s Yarra River, which winds through downtown. For the sea kayaking, we joined our tour guide along one of Melbourne’s harbors where we put our kayaks in the water, went through some safety tips, and then got in. The tour was terrific and took us through some areas that even I had not seen. Neal and I were in a two-person kayak, but there was still a fair bit of work for us to do! The trip was about three hours long and took us around two of Melbourne’s harbors and then up the Yarra River and into downtown Melbourne. It was a fantastic experience. As we returned to our starting point, we saw my sisters waiting for us. They had come by to pick us up and take us out to dinner. We all headed into downtown to the Crown Towers area and had dinner at Koko, a fantastic Japanese restaurant there.
The next big event of the trip was New Year’s Eve. This year, Carol was holding a party at her house, titled “Aloha 2008.” The weather was certainly helping Carol’s theme – after starting our journey with cold weather, the Melbourne heat had arrived and the temperature on New Year’s Eve was over 40 degrees Celsius (roughly 110 degrees Fahrenheit)! We decorated Carol’s house with pictures of Hawaii, set up an outdoor bar on her patio, and had a karaoke area in one corner powered by one of Carol’s Christmas gifts: a PlayStation game console and a collection of Sing Star karaoke games. The party was another good one, with plenty of drinks, food, and singing. We welcomed in the New Year with a lot of noise and finally wound things down around 3am.
We ended the year on a high note and had a lot of great adventures to reflect on. Here’s to an action-packed 2008. Happy New Year!
