and then into memories

Nanna Jo passed last night, on Christmas Eve. I already miss her. She left a fleet of girls (3 daughters, 8 grand-daughters, and 1 great-grand-daughters) and her husband, my grandfather.

Love

To begin I would like to wish all of our family and friends and very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. We miss you all very much and love you dearly.

Congratulations to Frances (Eric’s momma) and Fred who are getting married this week on the 27th. We wish you the best and look forward to seeing the video. :)

I think that both of us are starting to feel a slight pain of homesickness for the first time since arriving. Not only are we missing Eric’s mom’s wedding, but I called my grandparents house this morning to find out that my Nanna Jo is extremely ill. Although she was unable to speak, I was able to tell her how much I love her and miss her. I feel very grateful to have had that moment with her. I have always felt close to my grandparents and they have been a very positive influence on my life. I feel sad that I am unable to tell her in person how much I care for her.

We should all remember how precious and fragile life is and we should cherish every moment of our time here on Earth. Let’s all work toward making this planet a better place for everyone. Let’s be conscious of our impact on the planet and aware of how our actions impact others alive today and future generations.

Let’s love.



Nanna Jo and I - taken May 2006

Waitakere Dam

We drove down the road to Waitakere Dam, one of the many sights in the ranges, and also the source of our drinking water. The water in Waitakere is given the highest ranking in New Zealand, shared only by Hamilton.

wild west

Ok, we've been really slacking on the blog lately. Part of it is because we both work primarily on computers, and so when we're not working on something we just want to go outside - but really there's no excuse. I really want to keep up with everyone and it feels almost criminal to keep these sights to ourselves.

Last week we bought a car and have been able to explore the wonderfully wild west where we live a lot more. We go out to Bethells Beach regularly in the evenings (it's sunny till about 8:30-9pm now), which is about a 20-30min drive of adrenaline-pumping blind curves with no shoulder, but absolutely beautiful scenery.

Sunday we went to Fairy Falls in the Waitakere Ranges (which we live right on the edge of - so you'll probably see a lot of them). It was about a 10 min beautiful drive from the house, and a 30 minute trek downhill to the bottom of the falls (and all uphill all the way back - no need for a stairmaster here). This is just a very short walk, of which there are MANY as the ranges are HUGE.

Here are some pics from the falls (CLICK them to view larger!):


















This is a view from a hole in the trees while walking the path, looking back toward the city. (You can see Rangitoto Island here, as you can in MANY of our pics from all around the Auckland Area. This is one of the things I love about Auckland, just the incredible perspective and scale.)





















Here are some pics from the drive out to Bethells from our house, and Bethells itself. I'd feel priveleged to have seen this beach once in my life, but the fact that we live here and can go on a whim at any time is incredible.





















For those of you who will hopefully visit, this is just a tiny slice of the area right around where we live. There is so much more to see that is so close, and so very free once you're here.