Keep Left!

Look, their license plate is my initials. Too bad I wasn't born in 73.

I wasn't nervous about learning to drive on the left side of the road, that is until I had to finally do it. It definitely takes concentration and complete silence from the 3 kids in the backseat. I have to keep telling myself, "Keep left! Keep left!" I have managed to drive about Wellington a few times now and I feel a great sense of pride every time I make it to my destination alive and without too much trouble. Driving in Wellington CBD (City Business District) feels a lot like driving in SF. Narrow streets, tall buildings, and traffic. Driving outside of CBD isn't as nerve racking. In the suburbs the streets are wider and there is less traffic. But speaking of traffic; the traffic here is NOTHING like Bay Area traffic. Rarely is there stop and go traffic. Cars are always moving along, not stopped.
The only time you need to stop is for a stop light. We can get anywhere around Wellington within about 20 minutes. Which I think it pretty cool (they say cool here a lot).

All is Well in Wellington... Well Almost

Girls watching our Air New Zealand plane arriving at the gate

We have arrived in Wellington, NZ. We had a nice long flight from LA to Auckland. We flew Air New Zealand. It was a roughly 13 hour flight. As much as I truly have a fear of flying, it was a pretty okay flight. I figured if we were going to crash and die at least we would do it together as a family. Plus, they provided us with plenty of movies to distract us. The flight left at night, so some of us were able to sleep through much of it. Our seats had footrests that even pulled out to make a "bed." It was perfect for someone the size of six year-old Lucy. The rest of us were able to contort our bodies into yoga-like poses to be comfortable every once in awhile.

As we landed in Auckland I had tears of joy in my eyes. Tears for the fact that we had finally arrived and tears because I was also in the middle of a really sweet part of my inflight movie of "Hidden Figures." I was right at the part where the guy proposes to her. I'll have to finish that movie another time. On to Auckland.

We had a very short window at the Auckland airport to get off the plane, go to the bathroom, get our luggage, go through customs, walk 10 minutes to the domestic terminal, recheck our baggage, go through security, and then run to make our flight. As we were in line for security we could hear on the overhead intercom that our flight to Wellington was boarding. We thought there was no way we would make it. Stephen even emailed his company saying we probably wouldn't make the flight. But, false alarm. By a miracle, we made our flight. We were the last onboard, but we made it!

Our flight from Auckland to Wellington was a quick up and down, one hour flight. We couldn't see too much of the North Island as we flew over because of cloud cover. But we did see what I believe is Mt. Taranaki, a huge snow covered volcano. Very impressive. As we landed in Wellington we could feel our first experience of Wellington wind as it shook our plane. This is indeed a windy city and we arrived right in the middle of winter.

Mt. Taranaki from the plane

Even though it is winter here we were warmly greeted at the airport by two men from Stephen's company. They took us to get a rental car, get money from the bank and then drove us to our accommodations. We get to stay in an old victorian home in downtown Wellington. It as been modernized and is quite nice. Each girl gets her own room and we even have two kitchens. We will stay here while we look for a home to rent.

Gandalf also greeted us in the Wellington Airport. Welcome to Middle Earth!   

We ventured on foot into the city to get lunch. Wellington is quite hilly. It feels a lot like SF. We walked down many flights of stairs to get to a cafe. The food was great. I had my very first NZ style meat pie. It did not disappoint. And then we had to walk back up those many flights of stairs back to our house. Stephen counted 188 stairs in all. Maybe we burned off enough calories to cover our lunches. Maybe.

Later in the day Stephen had a driving "lesson" from one of the guys from work. Mostly the guy just had Stephen drive to the office. They drive on the left side of the road. Stephen says it takes some concentration. I haven't attempted any driving yet.

While Stephen was driving, the other guy from work took me and the girls to the supermarket to stock up the house. Happily a NZ supermarket isn't too different from an American one. The only products I couldn't find were pancake mix, turkey lunchmeat, sliced cheese, and any cereal that we are used to. Food prices are a bit more than what I am used to, which I expected. But so far I have been really impressed with the quality of the food. The butter is so creamy. The milk tastes really fresh. The peanut butter is delicious. The easy peel mandarin oranges are much larger than clementines in the states. I think I will feel comfortable with grocery shopping fairly quickly.

Sadly, they have a limited selection of Mexican food and beans aren't cheap.

Yummy large clementines

M&Ms are candy bars here 

Uncle Toby makes Cheerios. Who knew?

I was able to prepare a chicken veggie pasta dish at home. It was nice to have a meal at home after so many days of living in hotels and traveling. It felt really good to be together as a family in our new country. It was a good first day in Wellington. All good except for the fact that I have a toothache. It started last Sunday and we have been on the move traveling until now. I have never experienced a toothache before, but it is pretty bad. I have shots of pain through my jaw and head all the time. Sadly, I will have to find a dentist soon. Definitely not the most enjoyable way to get to know a city.

Mally's first home cooked meal. It looks happy to have her eat it. 

Moving South. Way South!

We are excited to share with you our exciting news. We are moving to New Zealand! Stephen has been offered a job with Weta Digital in Wellington, NZ. He will be doing physics based simulation to create special effects for their movie studio. You have probably seen some of their movies like Lord of the Rings, Avatar, Justice League, Planet of the Apes….

Wellington is the capital city. Here is a charming little video of Wellington. You will notice it’s a lush hilly city on a bay and the ocean much like SF. It even has a trolley. Everything we learn about Wellington and New Zealand gets us VERY excited to get the chance to live there. It has a pristine landscape, a small population (no more Bay Area traffic), amazing cafes, low crime rates, great schools, fabulous beaches in every direction, great hiking in every direction...

Just watch this video of their national anthem and you too will be convinced you need to come to visit or to live.

We are planning on going for 2 years and then reevaluating and deciding if we want to stay longer. Sadly, it is very far away from family, so we plan on coming to the US for Christmas breaks and staying a few weeks. Since that will be summer break for our kids. 

We are very excited for this chance to grow and explore a new area. This will be an adventure and we feel very confident that it’s a good decision for our family. We hope you will come and visit us. It’s only a very, very, very long flight away ;)

Great Places to Take your Kids in SF Bay Area

I have loved discovering many of the great places to take my kids within the SF Bay Area. Although the Bay Area is congested and expensive there are still many wonderful and inexpensive places to enjoy. Over the years I have complied a list on Google Docs. Here is the link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N7piOmRbCdSVUohOwCscNBBKFH3CEf-lxTJAoCsTjWw/edit?usp=sharing

Here are some pics and links of some of our favorite places:

The USS Hornet- My kids and husband loved taking a tour of this retired aircraft carrier.  You can get free passes with your library card account. http://discover.aclibrary.org/

Sutter’s Fort State Historic Park - This historic fort makes you feel like you are walking back in time. It captures the pioneer spirit of families arriving in wagon trains at the dawn of the California Gold Rush. A fascinating place to visit for history field trips, kids and adults! Adults- $5, Youth $3 (Ages 6-17), Children 5 and Under Free.

Ardenwood Historic Park- It’s one of my favorite places around. We can spend all day there. They have a small train ride, a victorian mansion to tour, gardens to walk, farm animals to feed, old-fashion games to play. Pack a lunch and have picnic in the gazebo. It’s a very laid back and easy place to visit with kids

Wente Boy Scout Camp is fabulous with canoeing, horseback riding, archery... A few times a year they host a family camp weekend, where families like ours (without any Boy Scouts) can come and have fun together as a family.  

Cull Canyon, In Castro Valley is a really fun place to take kids swimming in the summer. It’s a man-made outdoor swimming lake with sandy beaches. The water is clean and even chlorinated. We spent all day here. I’ll make sure to take my kids every summer.

The tide pools at Fitzgerald Marine Reserve just north of Half Moon Bay in Moss Beach. It’s ideal to time your trip to low tide. Here is a tide calendar: http://www.protides.com/california/2193/

Golden Gate Park is beautiful, inexpensive, and easy with kids. You could spend all day just roaming all the different sights within the park. And parking is free and easy to find, unlike everywhere else in SF.

Within Golden Gate Park I recommend the Koret Children’s Quarter, the Strybing Arboretum, and seeing the Dutch Windmills on the beach. Within the Park there is also the California Academy of the Sciences. It’s a bit pricey. You can get free passes with your library cards, http://discover.aclibrary.org/, I have heard you could spend the whole day there. http://www.calacademy.org/

The Santa Cruz Boardwalk, It was built in 1907. It’s filled with amusement rides and games. We go in the summer on $1 days. All the rides, hotdogs and drinks are only a $1. It’s usually on Mon. and Tues. evenings.

Seymour Marine Center- It’s a small marine center. Very hands on. I like it a lot better than the Monterey Aquarium. You see many of the same sea creatures, but without the crowds and high prices. You can even pet a shark! You can get free tickets with your library card through, discover.aclibrary.org/

My favorite beach in Santa Cruz is Natural Bridges State Beach. It’s just north of Santa Cruz. It’s a beautiful beach with a great rock formation. There is also a nature center nearby.

Playing Catch-Up

Sadly, I have not blogged about our life for about 5 years. The last time I posted we were living in an apartment in Belmont, CA. Well, I better try to play catch-up... Since that time we bought a home in Fremont, CA and have done a lot of fixin' up on that home. We have loved living in Fremont. We have a wonderful church community. The girls go to great schools with lovely friends and enriching programs. And I have the best bunch of women who I run with regularly.

In the past 5 years Stephen has had 2 different jobs. He was working for PDI/DreamWorks. He loved that job, the industry and his co-workers. Unfortunately, in January 2015 they closed their Bay Area office and we were given the option to relocate to their So. California office. We considered that and went house hunting down there. But, we didn't feel ready to move from the Bay Area. Stephen started job hunting and was offered a job with Apple, Inc. the very day we were going to put our home on the market to move to Southern California. So, luckily we got to stay.

Although, I haven't kept this blog totally up-to-date, I have kept my scrapbooking updated. You can see links to our scrapbooks from the past 5 years.

https://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/interests/blank-canvas-9884897?vk=ymWDidOAWC

https://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/interests/life-is-beautiful-11147981?vk=mK4wXkUjgU

https://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/interests/ward-family-scrapbook-2015-13317172?vk=mK4wXkUjgU

https://www.mixbook.com/photo-books/interests/everyday-bright-floral-16225992?vk=mK4wXkUjgU

Merry Christmas to All!

Wow, it's been a looooooooong time since we posted anything here. Well, maybe I will be better at posting more next year.  Love, the Wards

Their First Batch

I have heard of other mothers letting their kids make cookies all by themselves and I just couldn't get my mind passed all of the potential mistakes, messes, fighting, and danger to let myself allow it. But, I finally did. I let them make cookies all by themselves. They did a good job. Only one temper tantrum (by me). I then decided to leave the room and let them handle things themselves. Success! Yummy cookies and happy girls! After Mally tried her first cookie she said with a proud smile, "they even taste like real cookies." Good job girls. Here's to many more batches.