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From the stuff.co.nz:

"This is no ordinary storm. It's one of the largest and deepest lows we've seen for some years," MetService spokesman Brian Kreft said.

"By the time this system reaches northern New Zealand on Saturday, it is likely to have significant destructive potential."

http://www.stuff.co.nz/4629994a11.html

It's definitely been the biggest storm we've seen in our brief stay here, the wind hasn't stopped howling for three days!

As we hit the three-month anniversary of our life here in Wellington, I'm happy to report I can back up without feeling like I have to look over my right shoulder, signal my intent to turn instead of turning on my windshield wipers and ride in the slow (left-hand) lane on the highway without too much anxiety. These are all relatively recent developments.

For our first two months here, I got into the passenger's seat every time I went to drive the car. Embarrassing yes, but it was a good reminder that I needed to be alert and not just drive on auto-pilot. Situationally, I still do it though: after filling up at the gas station and whenever I have passengers other than my family in the car (embarrassing for me, and probably alarming for those passengers.)

I also had difficulty trusting what I was seeing in the rear-view mirror or over my left-hand shoulder: instead I had to look over my right-hand shoulder and crank all the way around. Not great for city driving by any stretch, but that was exactly what we were thrown into. Our residence hotel was smack in the middle of downtown Wellington, with the craziest parking in the world (a one-way, glass-railing cantilevered ramp 6 stories above the ground).

After years of predicting I would meet my doom because of my wife's "directional ambiguity" (credit here to 4kiwiwannabes for the phrase) I've developed the same problem here. In order to drive on the "wrong" side I've had to mentally mirror everything, so for some reason at times I still think of the easy left-hand turn (not having to cross traffic) as a "right". I'm sure she is relishing my confusion while appreciating the horror I've felt in the past.

Parking lots and gas stations are where I am most likely to revert to driving on the old side of the road: there's a lot to juggle with one-way directions and looking for spots, and for some reason it feels more familiar than other driving situations. Again it's good that I get in the wrong side first, to remind me of what I'm doing.

On the bright side, I've gone from being really frustrated and annoyed at the "right of way" rule (turning right from the left-hand lane, across traffic when a car from the other direction is turning the same way) to appreciating the beauty of it. The phrase makes more sense here, to me at least. I've also learned to appreciate the complexities of the roundabout, which make doubling back after a missed turn almost effortless. The city and suburbs are lousy with them, so we get a lot of practice.

Which is all really just to say we're ready for company to arrive, so we can take you for a spin!

Apparently we should have postponed our Martha's Vineyard trip until this summer:

'The island where "Jaws" was filmed had a real-life shark scare Thursday, when an unconfirmed sighting of a great white forced the closure of two beaches.'

http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/07/11/jaws.sighting.ap/index.html

They weren't kidding! This evening's forecast:

Northwesterlies may reach severe gale at times in exposed places between 8pm Friday and 6am Saturday with gusts to 140 kilometre/h about some hill tops in Wellington and 120 kilometre/h in some other exposed places.

That's 87mph, and right about now (almost 10pm on Friday) it sounds like it's going to blow all the doors and windows at the back of our house open! We just finished watching our weekly dose of television, the Australian variety show Rove, after having our fellow ex-patriots over at 4kiwiwannabes over for pizza night. (Apparently there was a pajama party prior to the pizza, but I missed that part!)

Happy Friday everyone, and enjoy those summer days for us! Almost there, almost there, almost there..

Sunday morning we took a drive over to Kilbirnie to have a look at the kids' bikes at the bike store there. It hasn't really been bike-riding weather (in fact it snowed and hailed here on Saturday) but some other parents had the same idea as us so there was a small crowd of youngsters trying out bicycles and scooters (and crying when it was time to go home). We decided the selection at (you guessed it, Joanna) Moore Wilson was better and more affordable so we didn't take a bike home with us that day.

The girls have been developing some cabin-fever thanks to their ear infections and the weather, so Sophie wasn't happy to hear we were heading home after our shopping trip (not buying a bike probably had something to do with it too). We decided to take a drive out along the coast to have a look at the surf, as it's very dramatic when big storms blow in. We headed out Onepu to Lyall Bay and then took a right towards Island Bay.

Sophie was grumpy at first ("I'm NOT going to look at the waves, I'm JUST going to look at the floor!") but it wasn't long before she was exclaiming as if we were watching fireworks. The waves were enormous and beautiful, and crashed spectacularly on the rocks. As we drove around the corner into Princess Bay, we decided to stop the car and just watch the action. I got out of the car, climbed up on the rocks and took some pictures of the snow-caps on the South Island, then stayed with Josie (she fell asleep before we left Kilbirnie) while Brandie & Sophie got out and explored.

Afterwards we went home for lunch, then played some games and read books with Josie while Sophie napped. When Sophie got up we jumped on the trampoline and played in the little house, then made pizza for dinner. Even despite being on the tail-end of all our colds it was really a nice day for everyone.

from The New Zealand Herald:

Rug Up, Winter's Got More Shivers Ahead

"Black ice, strong winds and surface flooding made driving in the Wellington region treacherous, and the MetService said almost 100mm of rain fell in the hills east of the city."

Last Saturday we packed a picnic lunch and drove to nearby Haitaitai Park and hiked up to the Mt. Victoria Lookout. The day started out fairly overcast but then cleared off to beautiful blue skies. The park was amazing, basically a forest full of Grandfather Trees (for anyone who remembers the huge old tree in the woods behind our house on Howard Hill).

We were all tired by the end but Sophie & I still tried to find the area where 'The Road' scene (where the hobbits hide under a tree root from the Black Rider) was filmed. Sophie stuck it out to the end but Josie fell asleep before we got back to the car.

Apologies for the upload lag, we used up our monthly internet allowance at the beginning of the week and were limping along at dialup rate until today!

..and welcome baby Roan! Details are brief so far but from what we know she was born early yesterday afternoon and everyone is well.

Way to go, New Parents of Experience!

Yesterday we celebrated Sophie's successful week of staying in her bed all night (and getting over her latest bout with croup) by going to the Wellington Zoo. It's less than 10 minutes drive from our house, and in a beautiful setting on top of the hill overlooking the city. The weather cooperated in a big way, and we met our friends Nadine & Scott for a very nice 2 hour stroll around the zoo.

Click on the lion to see the rest of the pics!

You may have noticed we've been sprucing up The Ranch a bit: along with the new pics, colors and side-bar content we've made some under-the-hood changes (with help from our friend Ingar) that make running the site a little easier.

While we're at it, if you have any requests or suggestions for further improvements please feel free to send them along: it's been fun to learn how to do and become a convenient way of sharing stories with all our long-distance family and friends, as well as a journal of sorts on our experiences here.

If there's anything we can do to make your visits better, just drop us a comment and we'll do our best to amend it!