Around Town in Taupo

Hello, Tom here.  So, we are winding things down here in Taupo, heading home on Wednesday morning!  I thought some folks might be interested in seeing a little bit of our town and maybe getting more of a sense of what it is like to live in Taupo and in New Zealand in general.  I've put together a collection of pictures that depict a walk downtown from our house and back again on a nice sunny day just a few weeks ago.  Evelyn had the car, I had the boys home as we were on school holidays, and we had some errands to run in town, so we decided to walk.

Just to make this tour of Taupo even more fun, we've created a new game called "Find Aidan and Jasper."  It is easy to play.  You just have to find Aidan and Jasper.

We'll start with this photo of the front of our house.  That's our deck.  It is winter, so there aren't many flowers out.  Can you find Aidan and Jasper?

This is our street.  That's Tauhara rising up above our neighbor's house.  Can you find Aidan and Jasper?

Here is the next street near our house, Kurupae.  You can see how far back from the street the sidewalks are.  They call that grassy part the "verge."  Can you find Aidan and Jasper?

More of Kurupae headed toward town.  Can you find Aidan and Jasper?

Now we are on Mere.  Many of the streets near us have Maori names.  The mere is the club traditionally used both in warfare and as a ceremonial symbol of chiefdom.  Trash pick-up happens on the side of the street using those yellow bags.  Can you find Aidan and Jasper?

We've turned onto Rifle Range Road.  There is a particularly large verge on this road.  No boys in this photo.

Now we are in Zest Cafe, my favorite cafe in Taupo.  The boys are easy to spot in this photo.

Aidan got this egg thing.  He didn't like it.  I ate most of it.

Jasper got a tasty friand.  He was pretty happy.

Here are the boys trying to choose something new for Aidan to eat.  Counter food is big in New Zealand cafes.  They serve espresso drinks, like the flat whites I order, and good breakfasts (called breaky) and tasty counter food or cabinet food.  Counter food sounds like something unpleasant or pre-packaged, but that's not what it means here.  I had a blue cheese and mushroom picnic pie today for lunch at Zest and it was yum.  On top of the cabinet you can see the friands and almond croissants and caramel slices (a slice is like a brownie) under little wire domes.  They use the domes because they often have the windows open in New Zealand and the domes keep the flies off.  George runs Zest - the coffee is never bad.  I'm going for my last flat white at Zest tomorrow morning.

There is Zest.  I go to that vegetable shop with some regularity, though it is not my favorite vege shop.  (Yes, they usually write "vege" for vegetable and they pronounce it "veggie."  There is a cutesy word for almost everything.  For instance, they say, "yum," as in "those kumara chips are yum."  They also say, "stink," as in, "Your ute broke down?  Ah, stink."  Actually, there are a million words that Kiwis say that we don't, or use in a way that we don't.  Sometimes it is a British usage, sometimes they share the usage with Australia, and sometimes they've got something uniquely New Zealand.  And sometimes they make fun of my accent, but most of the time they think it makes me sound smart.  Imagine that - an American accent sounding smart to people in another country!)

For some reason, the French Cafe in town (owned and operated by real French people!  The bread is so good!) has a playset on their grounds.  Aidan and Jasper are way to big for it, but they play on it anyway.

Here is the downtown.  It is a small downtown, maybe eight blocks.  Free parking on both sides of the street.  That's Tauhara again in the background.

This is one of the busiest streets in Taupo.  That's the lake at the end of the street.  See how they drive on the left?  That's a bad idea, but they make the most of it.

This is the SuperLoo.  They do say "loo," but more often say, "toilet."  To American ears, that word sounds needlessly specific, but I guess it makes more sense than claiming you are "going to the bathroom," as if you are just popping off for a bath.  The public toilets in New Zealand are almost always clean and free.  The SuperLoo costs money, but it is Super because you can also shower there.  Sounds pretty Super.  Can you find Aidan and Jasper?

Here is the library.  Aidan and Jasper were pretty happy we stopped here.  Taupo is a small town, but the library is pretty good.  More British authors than American, in general, but a good children's section.

Here is the intersection across from the library.  This is our one set of traffic lights!  There are plenty of roundabouts in town, but this is the only set of lights.  They take forever to change.  Stink.  That's a tourist bus stopped on the side of the road.  Taupo sees tons of tourists from all over and there is a steady stream of them even in winter, though much diminished.  Many of the tourists come from China.

Here is a photo of the Cossie.  File under: cute name for everything.  The Cosmopolitan Clubs are a network of what used to be men's clubs.  The Great Lake Big Band plays here occasionally.  I did a gig here with them a few months ago.

My least favorite store.  This is like the Target of New Zealand, but terrible.  It is horrible.  I feel scarred every time we shop here.  You know how it is when you are waiting in line a long time and then they open up a new register and take the five people who have just joined the line and been waiting about seven seconds?  And you decide to stay in your line because now you are second in line and if you move to the new line you'll be sixth?  And then the woman in front of you gets in an argument about the advertised price vs. the register's price?  And you notice that if you'd switched lines and been sixth you would have been in your car ten minutes faster?  That's how I feel every time I set foot in The Warehouse.

Now we are walking home.  That's Tauhara again.  It is sort of the patron mountain of Taupo.

And here we are walking down our street back to our house.  That's the lake just visible at the end of the street.  Our house isn't the one on the left that looks cool, but it is just beyond it and looks almost as cool.  It has a better view of the lake and blocks the view from the cool house.  Take that, cool house!

That's the end of the tour.  I hope that gives you a better sense of Taupo than just using Google Streetview.  (Streetview is weirdly comprehensive in New Zealand.  Even little tiny streets are on it.)  If you enjoyed this tour, be sure to attend my one-hour lecture, "A Year In New Zealand," to be scheduled soon at the Cranford Public Library.  At the conclusion of the lecture, you'll be given the answer key to the Find Aidan and Jasper game.

Choral Conference in Hastings

As you might guess from the title of our post, Tom was invited to speak at the national choral conference, run by the New Zealand Choral Federation. As the conference was taking place near Napier, a beautiful area not too far away from Taupo, we decided to make a family trip of it. The conference was actually fun for all of us. The boys did sit through (and sing some) of a large all-conference rehearsal of the Durufle Requiem and we all heard lots of choral music. Of course, Tom attended the conference every day and the boys and I took some breaks.

We revisited the Aquarium in Napier, one of our favorite spots nearby. We said hello to our penguin friends (see previous post about our penguin petting experience.) I forgot to bring our camera.

We also visited the movie theater in a nearby town which was very fun. We saw How to Tame your Dragon 2. Here are some pre-movie photos.

Meanwhile, Tom was in classrooms like this one, leading discussion about various issues having to do with conducting, rehearsing, and programming. We did attend one talk.

The boys initially were quite interested.

You can guess what happened over time.

Still, we had no doubts about our favorite conference presenter. We flashed out letters during his talk to give him an extra burst of confidence. I'm sure he appreciated that thoughtful gesture.

Aidan was pleasantly surprised to see that the choral venue was well prepared for his visit. They had overlooked a small detail on his crest, but he was willing to forgive the small oversight.

They really were pretty much always so well behaved.

Here we are, waiting for Tom to address the whole conference. He is making some notes.

Here he is, speaking. He was great!

Meanwhile, we had some engagements of our own, back at the motel. Can you find the boys here?

They are not allowed to do this at home - please do not share these photos with the Amici Motel in the Napier area.

Back at the conference again, Aidan was so pleased to find all the details present on the wooden carving of his crest in the auditorium.

One last moment relaxing on stage before we leave the conference. 

The conference was small and informal, which allowed the boys and me to come and go as we pleased and even participate, as you can see above. It was really fun to see Tom in this context. We all felt very lucky to be able to share in the experience.

A Weekend in Taranaki and New Plymouth

Howdy, Tom here.  It is winter in New Zealand and we've had a bit of snow on the mountains.  Here is what they look like now on a clear day from our house.  That's Ruapehu on the left and Ngauruhoe on the right.  Tongariro is covered in clouds off to the right edge.  The dark mountain in front of Ruapehu is Pihanga and Evelyn's clinic sits at the foot of it.

We took a little weekend trip to a place called New Plymouth in the Taranaki region.  This area is cool because it is dominated by a huge volcano called Taranaki.  The west coast of the North Island has been eroded by the Tasman Sea into a long straight coastline except for one giant bump that was created by the repeated eruptions along the fault under Taranaki.  See here. We hadn't been to Taranaki before, so we decided to make a visit before our time in New Zealand came to an end.

Some days are pretty cold this time of year and our first evening in Taranaki was chilly, but we went out for a walk anyway from our hotel to the oceanfront.  Here we are in New Plymouth, the only town of any size in Taranaki.  It has a population of 53,000, so it isn't large, but that's more than twice the size of Taupo, so it is a big town for New Zealand.

Here is Aidan keeping warm, ambling along the coastal walkway.

Here I am, watching the waves crash against the stones piled along the wharf's edge.

Jasper, enjoying a moment of contemplation.

Aidan, looking like he is posing for the cover of his first album.  Isn't this a perfectly composed shot?  The ocean on the left with the line of the waves drawing focus up to his face, the structural balance provided by the weird giant red thing arching over him on the right.  What is that thing?  Is it broken?

It is called the Wind Wand.  It is a sculpture designed by an eminent NZ sculptor named Len Lye.  You can see some of his sculptures at the Whitney in NYC.  He was known for kinetic sculptures and much of his work is held in a museum in New Plymouth.  The Wind Wand is a giant version of one of his pieces.  Here is a shot Aidan took from the base:

The sun was setting, so we headed back to the hotel.  Here is a last shot on the walkway overlooking the ocean.

The next day we drove up to Taranaki itself.  I wish we'd stopped to take some photos of the mountain as we approached it, because it was a beautifully clear day and the views from the road were awe-inspiring.  Unfortunately, we only have a few photos of the mountain that we took before clouds swept in and covered it, which is typical weather here.

Here is one from the visitor centre parking lot with some foregrounded picturesque parking signs.

You can see why this mountain played the role of Mount Fuji in the Tom Cruise movie The Last Samurai.

In the visitor centre, Aidan managed to save an endangered kiwi.  We were proud, so I took his picture.

Here is another shot of the mountain.  You can see the clouds already coming in.

Jasper, respectfully acknowledging the mountain's superior size.

We decided to take a short hike on the side of the mountain.  The mountain is climbable, but only by experienced mountaineers.  It isn't terribly tall (though it looks it as it is so solitary and steep), but it is extremely dangerous and claims the lives of hikers with alarming regularity.  Just last October, a couple froze to death on the side of the mountain, and they were experienced.  Our hike was about an hour long and just wound around the side near the visitor centre.

The start of the hike was a well-defined path:

The boys were excited to find some snow along the side of the trail.

Here I am, trying to keep warm.  It is strange to be cold in what looks like a tropical rain forest.  The mountain is off to the right, already mostly covered in clouds.

Evelyn and Jasper, wandering into the snow in search of snowball material:

Aidan found a piece of ice that he adopted and decided to try to carry along with him for the duration of the hike.  Here he is cuddling it:

A mother, a boy, and his ice:

The path ducked left and entered what the visitor centre called the "goblin forest."  This sounds made up or Middle Earth-y, but it is actually a unique montane terrain made up of kamahi trees that have grown on the remains of other trees knocked down by the last big eruption of Taranaki in 1650. Moss hangs from the branches and ferns cover the floor.  I tried to capture the spooky atmosphere of the forest in a couple of photos:

We did encounter one goblin:

Here the path crossed a dry stream bed:

One last photo back along the path:

Believe it or not, this is the same shot as the earlier mountain shot.  Behind that cloud is Taranaki.  The main Maori legend about Taranaki tells of how he competed with Tongariro for the love of Pihanga, but Tongariro bested him and sent him west.  He carved the Whanganui River as he moved out west and came to rest in his present location, wreathed in clouds caused by his never-ending tears.  Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe are the children of Tongariro and Pihanga.

We headed back down into New Plymouth.  It is a really cool little town and we could have spent much more time there.  We ate lunch in a busy cafe and Jasper played with the sugar packets while we waited for food.

Aidan and I acted out a short scene from a play we are writing called "Mr. Angry and Underbite McSquinty on the Titanic."

We decided to rent some bikes and see the coastal walkway from two wheels.  Jasper did great on his little rented bicycle:

Here is Aidan chilling out in front of harakeke plants growing along the many streams that reach the ocean here.

We biked as far as the Te Rewa Rewa bridge, a new bridge connecting New Plymouth with Bell Block along the coastal walkway.  The north side of the bridge is the site of an old Maori pa, or fortification, and was the site of an important battle during the Musket Wars.  As such, it is considered tapu, or sacred, and contains a burial ground, called a rewa rewa.  The bridge was built with the permission of the local subtribe (hapu), Ngati Tawhirikura, so long as the bridge didn't do damage to the site of the pa.  The chosen design was cleverly constructed to rest lightly on the land.  It is also a really cool looking bridge.  Here is Aidan standing on it and me biking across:

Resting among the harakeke.

Aidan biking across the bridge.  If there weren't any clouds there, Taranaki would be framed by the bridge.

We stopped at a beach on the way back.  Jasper found a stick:

Aidan enjoyed the rocks:

See that tiny bit of bright white at the top of the clouds?  That's the tip of Taranaki.

There is the bridge:

Another shot showing the very tip of the peak of Taranaki.

At the end of the day, we visited a very tall rock just west of New Plymouth called Paritutu Rock.  It is a volcanic remnant and referred to as a "lava plug."  It is very steep, but there is a walking track up the side of it, so we decided to see if we could reach the top.  It sits right over the ocean and promised nice views.

The track was actually a set of very steep stairs.  About three-quarters of the way up, the stairs were replaced with bare rock and a long chain for pulling yourself up.  Evelyn and Jasper made the wise decision to wait at the top of the stairs.  Aidan and I pulled ourselves to the top.

The views were nice, though there is so much development in that area that most of the land is covered in buildings.  Here is a picture out toward Taranaki, still covered in clouds.

Here is Aidan on the peak with the ocean behind him.  It was pretty scary, but at least there was a fence.

This is a cool photo that shows you how small New Zealand really is.  That mountain in the photo is Ruapehu.  So, we are on the west coast of the North Island and we can see very clearly the mountain that stands in the center of the island.  I've been on the east coast in Napier and I could see that same mountain from there.

Going up was scary, but going down was terrifying.  Here is a photo of the track.  To the left is a sheer drop.  This photo was taken at a very steep angle down.

Jasper was sad to miss out on the final leg of the climb, so I took him a little ways up.  Here he is standing at the top of the first bit of the chain-assisted walk.

It was a great trip, too short.  I'll finish with one last photo taken a week later.  We went skiing on the south slope of Ruapehu at a place called Turoa.  From there, we could see Taranaki!