Month: October 2023

                       Well, there you have it.  We are living in a tsunami danger zone.  We live in New Zealand.  They are on top of two continental plates, the Australian plate and the Pacific plate and they are trying to pass each other.  Unfortunately, it results in one plate being pushed down while the other pushes over the top.  (Look up plate tectonics if you want to know more.) As they crash into each other earthquakes occur. Tsunamis are caused by earthquakes.  Generally the quakes occur offshore and then through a change in the floor level of the ocean, there is a rippling dispersal of water that causes the sea level to rise dramatically.  

            New Zealand has started to get serious about tsunamis.  An earthquake off the coast of Japan caused a tsunami that took out the nuclear power plant in Fukushima Japan in 2011.  In 2022, their neighbor Tonga, was nearly wiped out by a tsunami caused by the eruption of an underwater volcano.  So the danger is real.  

            We received a flyer in our mailbox alerting us to an evacuation planning meeting.  Matt is very focused on disasters and by that I mean, he worries about them.  A lot.  Me, well, I just can’t think too hard about it.  But he wanted to go to the meeting.  So, there we sat with our neighbors while scientists tried to bring home the fact that this kind of event can come at any time and with little notice.  And it can kill you.  

            I certainly believe them.  But the advice is to have a go bag and get ready to evacuate at a moment’s notice.  If you feel a strong and long earthquake, go.  The goal is to clear out of the danger zone.  For us, being at sea level, that zone is a good mile out.  It is hard to imagine outrunning a tsunami without sufficient time.  I think it is virtually impossible.  It depends on where the earthquake occurs.  If it is close by, as happened in Tonga, well, forget it.  Imagine if you are on the road walking/running away and the earthquake was close by.  That wave is coming fast.  You can hope is dissipates quickly so you don’t have to travel all that far to get out of its way.  But there is no way to know what is going to happen.  The best you might do is the vertical escape–climb a tree and hope the wave is not as high as the tree.  From stories on the news, that seems to be how most people survive.  

            If the earthquake is far enough away and there is advance warning, you might have a chance to get out.  

            There is only one road in and out of this community.  We are surrounded by farms.  So we spent some part of the meeting looking at potential alternatives, possibly across farm land, possibly along paths leading away from shore.  This is just the planning phase and they government civil disaster reps are going to see what they can do based on input from people who have lived around here much longer than us.  

            This is all so new to us.  We are Atlantic Ocean people.  Tsunamis are not our thing.  Hurricanes, yes.  Giant waves from earthquakes?  Not so much. Well, I guess we need to learn.

            

            

There is a competition here every year called the World of Wearable Art.  We decided to take a night off from unpacking and fussing and get out on the town.

Artists from all over the world create costumes/clothing the idea to see who is the most creative with not just the ideas, but with the artistic work itself.  There are theme categories as well as open and avantgarde.  This year they had a bizarre bra competition. 

            The costumes are modeled like a fashion show with mostly women, some men, parading down a catwalk and around a stage.  We were not allowed to take photos during the show.  We could only take photos of the preshow warm up.  The Atlantic Magazine had an article about it here.  There are photos there.  Here is another.

            We had pretty good seats but it was hard to appreciate the work involved in creating the costumes/art.  You have to be up close to see the fine details.  The photos published by The Atlantic show that.  

I am going to think very hard about whether I can try this. It might be fun and there is no real pain involved so, why not?

How did the Move Go?

  Aaarrrgghhhh!

           

 On August 31, our containers were moved to the house in Te Horo Beach.  We had two containers that were jam packed full.  Think a semi-trailer moving van.  They brought in about ten people to heft the stuff across two stories and eight room.  Our job was to direct traffic, telling them where to take the boxes or furniture.  It took an exhausting and mind numbing six hours.  They unpacked some things for us, like the furniture and art, although I told them to leave the boxes alone.  They placed the furniture and got the rugs down, and that was helpful.  But now we have to work through the boxes and figure out where everything goes.  I am giving it three months.  I just cannot do this eight hours a day. 

            We moved a lot of stuff.  Our plan was this—we move what we can, most of it is furniture we bought at IKEA or from Wayfair.   When we leave New Zealand, we just leave everything but the antique furniture behind.  And honestly, it was the right thing to do.  Why?  Because stuff is expensive here.  I talked this over with the moving supervisor before we were packed up in the U.S. and he basically said, bring everything you can because it will cost a lot of money to replace it.  He was right.  Not only is it expensive, the options are very limited.  

            I did not bring all of our bookshelves and or smaller cabinets figuring I could buy them here.  Wrong.  There are two main furniture stores and no IKEA or Wayfair or Overstock or any other option you can think of that saves you money.  The furniture is generally manufactured here, which is great until you look at the prices.  I left behind our overstuffed recliners.  A standard recliner here runs around $2200 NZD, or around $1300.  Books shelves can cost upwards of $1500 NZD, sometimes more.  Even antique dressers can run into the hundreds of dollars depending on the wood.  You might find less expensive items, but you get what you pay for.  

            Electronics are just crazy expensive.  I could not bring my small appliances because of the difference in electrical outlets and power.  Wow, they have been expensive to replace.  I paid nearly $400 for a food processor, and it is not even a very good one.  But I brought the rest of my kitchen.  I brought it all—cookbooks, pots, pans, dishes, you name it.  It was worth it to have my tools with me.  

            The things we brought that we now realize we do not need?  For one, winter clothes.  They do not have four seasons here.  My snow boots and down parkas were not required (unless we go to the South Island where they have winter).  Also, any kind of more formal clothes—for Matt things like suits and ties are completely unnecessary.  I have no need for fancy dresses.  But alas, we brought all of these things.  I am now packing up boxes with clothes we will never use and storing them away.  

       What about the cats?  How did they take the move?  

            While our stuff was moved into the house on August 31, we decided we needed to get some bit of order in it before we brought the cats.  Cats do not like change and so far they took a plane ride from Maryland to a stop over at a boarding place in L.A. for quarantine, then another plane to another quarantine facility in New Zealand then to the house in Wellington.  Now we are moving them again.  I was worried most about Boo.  She is 17 and has been a trooper but still, it is hard.  She spent most of her time on Wellington in a little kitty tent.  She never seemed quite comfortable.  

            So on September 2, we made the final move out of Wellington with the rest of our stuff and two cats on board.  

            JoJo is a howler.  He will cry and cry and cry when he is in a car.  I had to listen to him for the whole hour.  Boo is usually quiet but he got her going and she started crying, albeit not continuously, until we arrived.  

            I let them out in the main bedroom and closed the door.  Our furniture was in the room as were boxes full of our stuff.  Boo seemed downright overjoyed.  She sniffed everything and trotted from the bed to the dresser to my slippers.  She seemed to say, “Yes, yes, this is our house!  This is our stuff!”  I have never seen a cat so visibly happy.  She jumped on the bed with the energy of a kitten.  She rubbed on everything.  This is mine.  This is mine.  This is mine.  She has been trotting around, tail up, ever since.  She just knew this was home.  (I can relate.  I feel so much better when I am around my stuff.)

            JoJo, on the other hand, has been completely freaked out by it all.  He just cannot take the constant opening of boxes, tearing of tape and paper, and the noise, noise, noise! He is very curious, but the sensations and the exploration just seem to overwhelm him so that I often find him tucked into a corner or hiding under a piece of furniture. He seems lost as if he does not know what to do with himself.  I keep reassuring him that we will get the boxes emptied soon.  

           How has it been going since?

            It has been six weeks , we have been unpacking boxes, arranging things, sorting and storing and just generally trying to get settled.  It is exhausting.  I am so over this but we are still not done.  Matt is working and there is only so much time in the day for me. Unpacking and putting things away grows old quick.  We figured it would take a long time but boy, this is getting ridiculous.  I do not want to be looking at unpacked boxes six months from now.  Honestly, I’ve got nowhere to put them.  There is no storage here.  We are creating it.  

            We have to deal lots of broken stuff. I have been working on the insurance claim.  We are also trying to deal with getting services in order.  Nothing seems easy here.  

The cats have adjusted fairly well. We are still opening boxes and moving things around and JoJo hates that part. But there are plenty of places for him to sleep and get into trouble so He is good. Boo does not like that it is cold so we find her sleeping under the heaters a lot.

So what about the house?

We have a lemon tree. I love being able to pick lemons.

The yard is really quite wonderful. Whoever lived here before did a lot. There are lavender bushes that are a good six feet high. I have never seen lavender grow like this.

We have a great view of the ocean and sunsets.

There is nowhere near enough storage or space so we are turning the garage into what would be a basement in a U.S. house. I am putting together a gym, a crafting area, a gardening area and a tool area. I’d say we are getting close to settled.

Finally a place to call home.  What does this have to do with Arnold Schwarzenegger?  Matt and I recently watched the Netflix series about Arnold Schwarzenegger.  I really found him inspiring!  The guy needs to be a self-help guru.  (Turns out he just put out a self-help book.  I am prescient.)

            His outlook is ridiculously positive.  He contends that he gets a vision in his head, and he just pursues it until he achieves what he wants to achieve.  He is lucky as hell no doubt.  People take to him because of his positivity and good nature, and he had a lot of help from a lot of people over the years.  He took advantage of every opportunity.  But he is also determined and seemingly unfazed if he has a setback.  He just works harder and keeps his eye on the ball.  Another lesson– he never second guessed his decisions.  He figured out what he needed to do, and he did what he had to do to succeed.  

            He wanted to be a body builder.  Check.  He thought he belonged in America.  Check.  Having won just about every body building prize several times over he decided hey, I want to be a movie star. Not “I want to act.”  I want to be a star.  He set out to do it and he did it.  What is next?  I’m going to be Governor of California.  Seriously, Arnold?  Yes, and he did it.  He wasn’t a bad governor.  He just exudes a can-do spirit that is infectious.  

            He kept quoting his Dad who, when Arnold was young, instructed him to be useful.  Arnold said you can find meaning in life by being useful.  When I was growing up, my Dad used to say, “If you don’t have anything to do, find something to do.”  It is the same principle.  Don’t just sit around.  Make yourself useful.  And it works. 

            So, what does Arnold have to do with our finally locating and moving to a rental property at the beach in New Zealand?  Like Arnold, I have always envisioned myself living in New Zealand.  I have also always envisioned myself living at the beach.  The sound of the ocean just makes me happy.  Many people think that I can’t sit still.  Not true.  I can go to the beach, sit in a chair, and watch the waves for hours.  I’ll take a book and never read it.  The ocean just speaks to me.  

            But unfortunately, my life was directed to an entirely different place, and I lived with longing.  Here is where Arnold comes in.  Without knowing it, I followed his advice.  I created a vision.  Upon retirement, I would figure out a way to live at the beach.  I just kept saying it.  I am going to live at the beach when I retire.   I was going to figure it out because I wanted to watch the ocean, breath in salt air, and listen to the heartbeat of water.  So my mantra has been: I am going to live at the beach before I die.  And ocean front if possible.  It would be nice to just walk the beach every day.  But I really wanted to be able to see the waves from my house.  

            Most people would say, Marsha, that’s easy.  Just move to Florida with everyone else.  No, that was not the answer.  Put simply, forget the politics, it is the “everyone else” that is the problem.  There are just way too many people in Florida or in most seaside towns.  Too many people means having to put up with them.  Having lived in the city for 40 years, I am done with putting up with people.  My goal was a different kind of beach.  One not populated with too many people making too much noise.  

            These beaches do exist.  You just have to find them.  There is one in North Carolina we like.  And there is one in New Zealand.  Te Horo Beach, about an hour’s drive north of Wellington.  To get to Te Horo Beach you have to drive back roads through farmland populated with sheep, dairy cows, and horses.  It is just a sleepy little place with houses.  There are no restaurants or cafes or a boardwalk or anything really.  Just the ocean and houses.  If we need something, there are larger towns in both directions or, if need be, we can drive into the city.  It is an easy, beautiful drive through green hills dotted with sheep.  

            The house has a wide-open view to the ocean from the deck.  We are facing due west and we get to see the sunset every day.  There is a small park in front of our house which provides beach access.  On most days, the biggest activity is when people drive up, park, and go for a walk.  Some folks bring their horses and go for a ride on the beach.  It really does not get better than this.  

            Arnold was right.  Have a vision and pursue it.  For us, it took moving across the world but, by golly, I am living at the beach with a fine view.  I can hear the waves crashing.  I can see the sky–all of it.  The stars thrive out here.  The Milky Way shines.  

            We fretted about the distance.  It is considered rural.  RD 1.  And Matt still has to commute to Wellington.  But the house, though not quite big enough, is situated exactly as we wanted.  Once we get settled and the internet is up and running, Matt will be commuting to Wellington three days a week.  Right now, he is going every day and it sucks.  I thank him every day for letting me live out my vision.