Preparations

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

In two weeks we leave for Christchurch, New Zealand. Except for getting our visa information together, there have been those details that come with leaving your home for 4 ½ months. It appears that Lincoln University has a two bedroom flat for us, furnished, at Sims Hall on the Lincoln campus. What does furnished mean? The international study person at CSU, Kristi, said our cleanliness and theirs is sometimes different, so I suppose that cleaning the apartment may be the first thing I do. One of the previous professors told us about a new grocery store close by that was just finished. That will be nice. When we get there in February, it is like August in this hemisphere. But by the time we leave, it will be like December here. So it is going to be cold. Supposedly New Zealanders don’t build like we do and don’t insulate their buildings, so it is cold in the apartments. It makes me want to take my heated mattress pad and down-comforter. But I figure New Zealand it a great place to get wool blankets. I think we will be fine.

I wonder what it will be like? The driving is going to be strange. We plan to buy a car. I am looking forward to living close to the ocean. I was on the web yesterday looking at hiking trails. I think Jack and I should take a hike every Saturday; try to see as much of the island as we possibly can. There are several national parks from tropical to snowy mountains.

I also plan to look up Jane Rowntree’s three sisters who were left behind when she came to the United States in the 1870’s. She was my great Grandmother Thorley. I will carry with me a book of hers she received from the Papanui schools when she was a girl. She won a first place for sewing. Schools have changed a lot in a hundred and forty years. I am looking forward to discovering an unknown branch of my family.

Onward and upward.

Robynn