New Zealand, month #2

We are closing in on 2 months since we moved to New Zealand.  Here are some photos of the last month which includes a 10 day trip we took all around the South Island in our van.  Most of these nights we camped out in the vast array of 'holiday parks' that offer tent/campervan sites along with a kitchen and showers.  These are a great and cheap option, especially if you are doing extended camping with small children.  The kids survived the trip and Kiwi the Campervan held up with only 1 flat tire and a bit of overheating.  

Wanaka

ibid

Fox Glacier

Franz-Josef Glacier

Thanksgiving meal: green-lipped mussels we harvested ourselves in Golden Bay

Takaka beach

in Golden Bay

Trail run from Aramoana near our house.

Moeraki boulders

sisters.

Aramoana

hike in to Fox Glacier.

Ada at Franz Josef glacier

ibid.

pancake rocks.

evening beach walk, I forget where.

good pals on the Taeiri Gorge Railway.

my new set of wheels! definitely wants to go faster than my skill set allows.

The Old Ghost Road mountain bike ride.

Parapara.

Old Ghost Road. This section of trail was pretty sketchy.

ibid.

Takaka. 

Start of our overnight backpacking trip, first of its kind for little Junie.

Looking out to Arthur's Peak.

Staying at Whariwarangi Hut. We hiked in from Wainui Bay on the Abel Tasman track. 

Abel Tasman

Hike out, Abel Tasman

a LEWIS! on Lewis Tops. 

Moereki Boulders

Speaking our minds.  This pic was from soon after we arrived in Dunedin.

Sunrise in St. Leonards, from where we are living.

Mealtime.

Yellow-eyed penguin, Green-eyed girl.

New Zealand Month #1

It has been about 1 month since we up and moved to Dunedin, New Zealand having just had a baby, sold our house, and left our jobs.  Exercises like this are useful for a whole range of reasons, existential and otherwise.  Change forces shifts in perspective.  These can lead to insight but can be uncomfortable as well.  It is also a reminder of time's subjective elasticity:  this period of weeks would ordinarily have passed quickly with our former routine but with all of the changes and associated intensity it feels like it has been ages.  Here are some photos to give a sense of the first parts of our adventure.

En Route, first stop SLC Airport.

En route.

Dunedin Railway Station

View from our first (and current) place we're renting.

Ada's school playground at St. Leonards right down the road from our house.

View from our living room.

St. Clair beach.

St. Clair Beach

Sea lion at Allen's beach

Taiaroa Head, end of the Otago Peninsula

Wakari Hospital, where I work.

On my bike commute to and from work.

The girls, visiting me at my office for lunch!

Long Beach

Heading off to the Kelvin Hastie Memorial Bike Race.  Looked much less bright-eyed and bushy-tailed when I arrived home later that night.

Violin lessons!

The Howard family visits and we head to Sandfly beach for the afternoon.

Looking for the famous invisible glow worms with the Howards.

En route to a long weekend in Queenstown.

Queenstown.

Evening stroll along Lake Wakatipu.

Ben Loman Peak

ibid.

Kawarao gorge and bridge, site of world's first bungee jump.

camper-vanning in Arrowtown.

Looking for gold

Bungee jumping at Kawarao Bridge.  I'm convinced that decision making at moments like this allows one to inspect some deep truths about the notion of free will.  Close examination of the precise moment of choice and volition shows it to be very difficult to identify or localize.  Even here, there is a sense of automation, of action without an actor, of experience and phenomena without a Cartesian seat or localized place of the self where it all comes together. When the decision - say, to jump- is so focused and (at least experientially) consequential, it highlights certain elements that are normally obscured in day to day decision making and choice but are nonetheless present.