A Lego Christmas Sandwich

Our annual Christmas time away from Timaru stretched out over six weeks and took us over 18,000 miles (AKA: 30,000 km), three countries, and three seasons (summer to winter to summer again). Perhaps it makes sense to break it down into chapters.

Prologue

The flight plan had us leaving Timaru on a Friday and laying over in Auckland for a day We looked forward to catching up after too long with our good friend Dr. O'Connell (Florry, if you're nasty), who recently relocated to continue his (interminable) medical training. Always a fun time, we visited the Lego Christmas tree in Aotea Square after brunching at the weekend French Market.

Chocolates from the French Market

 Chapter I- The Cook Islands

T
Aroa Beach on Rarotonga

Why and (for most Americans) where? The Cook Islands comprise 15 Polynesian islands just to the west of French Polynesia. Since 1965 it has been a self-governing country in free association with New Zealand. What does that mean? Even after visiting, I am not sure. They share a currency with NZ (but have a few unique coins).

To quote Wikipedia, "New Zealand retains primary responsibility for external affairs, with consultation with the Cook Islands government. Cook Islands nationals are citizens of New Zealand and can receive New Zealand government services, but the reverse is not true; New Zealand citizens are not Cook Islands nationals". Because of the close connections with NZ, and because so many Kiwis vacation there, we have been interested in visiting for a few years, but airfare is not cheap and finding the right time was problematic. When I discovered that we could go to LAX via the Cook Islands for a minimal extra fee, why not? And because we crossed the International Date Line on December 10th, we were able to celebrate our 39th wedding anniversary for 48 hours!
On deplaning in Rarotonga, the main island, I saw the message scroll warning about Ebola and Zika viruses and I knew we were not in Kansas anymore. Although we did not contract either, and the mosquitoes were not bad, I would have thought as a doctor I would have heard a little more about this. Also, none of the ATM's on Rarotonga worked during our stay and the credit card system was also out at times.
Rarotonga is in many ways a typical small volcanic Polynesian island, verdant and lush with sunny sandy beaches and a surrounding atoll. Public buses skirt the 20-mile circumference of the island in a pleasant 50 minutes. There is nothing particularly distinguishing about Raro and it isn't particularly cheap for the tourist, but we enjoyed the off-the-beaten path relaxed nature of it. This was not a surprise, and soon we slowed down to have a relaxing break between work in NZ and returning to the US.
It happened to be off-season, and a bit on the rainy side, but as a result we were pleased to be upgraded to a beach-side room at the Rarotongan Beach Resort.

A Tiki greeter from resort, decked out for the holidays

I chose this place in part because it boasted five restaurants, but three were closed for the season. C'est la vie! I put my time to good use by re-reading Moby Dick for the first time since Mrs. Crabill's  Dixon High School junior year English class. I remember it as a highlight of my HS experience, and wasn't sure what I would find on a revisit. It was well worth it, although in my youth I don't remember appreciating the humor or the homo-eroticism. Check it out and you will see, like Chapter 95: The Cassock, which is about making an overcoat out of a whale's penis. The biology was suspect (whales are not fish, and Melville thought sperm whales were the largest in nature), but that's not really the reason to read it.

One day we ventured inland from an abandoned Sheraton complex (you can read the details here) up to a small waterfall and past a line of explorers on quad bikes (a popular outing).

As the official Raro map lists it: "Sheraton Hotel (derelict)"

Papua (aka: Wigmore's) waterfall

Line of Quad bikes

On distinctive feature on the circumnavigation was the ubiquitous presence of what appear to be small family cemeteries.

Our resort was on the southwest side of the island, and the very popular Muri Beach is on the southeast side facing a lagoon with picturesque motus (islets).

Muri Beach

The snorkeling was good, and Fayne survived being bitten by a fish, apparently another of the potential dangers of the place. (See this helpful guide I found post-visit entitled "Things To Be Careful of In the Cook Islands"). Fortunately we did not have to careful at this nice little French bistro near the airport, where our waitress was a recent Timaru ex-pat.

Chapter II- Phoenix the First

After a week, an overnight flight took us on from Polynesia to Phoenix via LAX. We had to negotiate the busy and delayed winter holiday air traffic, but made it safe and sound in time for granddaughter Kimarra's seventh birthday. Her brother Isaiah was more than glad to help her extinguish the candles on her cake.

The birthday girl looked so grown up and excited about a trip with Mommy and Grandma to the American Girl Doll store as a special birthday treat.

Not to be left out, her brother also had fun there....

and at the Apple Store!

It was a whirlwind part one of the visit, but there was more to come.

 Chapter III- Christmas at the Cabin

Flying from Phoenix to Oakland, David N. picked us up at the airport for a brief pit stop, then up to Fort Bragg for three days to begin to address our home business affairs and prepare for Christmas. For the first time in many years I decided to spend the holiday with my sisters and the family cabin in the Sierras we have had since 1966 or so. Hailing from upstate New York, snow is something Fayne has spent her adult life avoiding if possible. We were in luck as it snowed the day before we came and the road was open all the way up but we still could enjoy the beauty of the freshly fallen snow.

The wee cabin rented for us by my sister.

As always, we ate very well, and I got to introduce the family to the Anglo-Kiwi tradition of Christmas Crackers.

A degree of puzzlement ensued

Everyone looking regal in our paper crowns in front of a bûche de Noël

David Nishikawa came up and took several of the photos in this blog, and also brought up a slack rope. Never one to pass up a challenge, Athena did her best Cirque du Soleil  imitation.

It was a very festive and warm time thanks to everyone, and long overdue.
From the cabin it was back to the Bay Area to catch up with other old friends. You know who you are.

Juice and Dan after breakfast in Berkeley

Chapter IV- Phoenix the Second

On New Years Day we drove south from Richmond CA back to Phoenix. We needed to make it there in time for Kimarra's dance performance before the Suns vs. Heat NBA game on the third. The excitement was palpable (over the dancing, not the game).



Can you pick her out?

The acorn did not fall far from the oak!

Continuing my whirlwind pace, I flew Phoenix-San Diego to spend a day with my youthful 91 year old father and his wife Ruth. Meals were eaten, gin rummy was played, planes were delayed.

The happy couple and photobomber enjoying French cuisine at Chez Loma, Coronado, CA 

Back to Phoenix for Isaiah's 4th birthday, with cake, computer games in bed with Grandma, and Legos. A bit of an editorial comment about Legos: They started as simple building blocks, but have morphed into these complex arrays of tiny pieces with instructions that IKEA would be proud of. No four-year-old could assemble these, and unless you cement these together they inescapably fall apart when played with. I'm just sayin'.

Some sort of Ninjago Lego® prison, painstakingly assembled by Papou

The road out of Phoenix passes by my brother Charles' place in Rancho Mirage, CA. Unfortunately, he has been quite sick for quite a while now, and the day of my visit he was back in the hospital. I did spend then afternoon with my sister-in-law Pam, some of it sitting on the lawn outside Desert Regional Medical Center in Palm Springs. The mood was lightened a bit by a visit from this local roadrunner (Beep! Beep!) looking for a handout.

With a heavy heart, I continued west to Carlsbad, CA to meet up again with the Heards at LEGOLAND, Isaiah's birthday treat. Although I was initially in no mood for festivities and the weather was a bit gloomy, the visit was a most memorable and enjoyable one because the kids are the perfect age to love the park.

We stayed in the LEGOLAND Hotel

Like Las Vegas or EPCOT in Disney World, you have the illusion you don't really need to go far from home as the world is brought to you, LEGO-style. This picture sums it up.

Clockwise from upper left: Eiffel Tower, US Capitol, Sydney Opera House, a dragon, NYC Skyline,
the Death Star, and Taj Mahal

BTW, NinjaGo® (which they pronounce with accent on the JA) seems to have spawned this generation's Power Rangers-like program. Who knew? Watch for the LEGO NinjaGo Movie, coming soon the theaters near you!

Isaiah with Kai- Master of Fire®

Chapter V- Home and Home

After completing the second Arizona leg, we headed back (finally) to northern California and home, with a stop by to in Watsonville to see how old dear friend H M Nestler is recuperating from recent arm surgery. So far, so good.

Back in Fort Bragg, I was able to keep alive the yearly tradition of taking the old office gang out for Holiday Season dinner at The Restaurant (which may be closed next time I return).

My one birthday request was a little extra time in Fort Bragg, so I asked the sisters to come up for the weekend, and I was delighted they all did.

Margaret and dogs

I was able to treat myself and our stately Fort Bragg home to a festive birthday dinner party with family, old friends and neighbors, and Fayne's shoes.

Photos courtesy of DHN

A special persimmon pudding from Mary Powell via Athena

It was back to the Bay Area for a couple of nights, just enough time to check in with some Kiwi friends in the area at the time. Fayne's "boss" at the Aigantighe Art Gallery in Timaru has a kid sister Anna studying at UC Berkeley, so we tracked her down and went out for some real Mexican food (rarer than pollos dientes  in NZ)

Anna, F, and me chowing down on Picante's  guacamole

It was time to get back to work so I could relax a bit.

Sunrise January 21, 2017 Auckland International Airport

Postscript: Niece Xania at the Women's March January 21, 2017

PPS: Dawn Hofberg, a PA from Mendocino Coast Clinics was enjoying an Australasian sojourn and stopped in for a three-night visit. Here is the photographic proof. I hope to have more US visitors in the coming year (Margaret and Cory are due in two weeks, and Xania in July!)

Dawn the day she left, in our kitchen