The past 3 days have shown complete disregard of the natural laws of space-time. I’ve had to count and recount the days, because surely I’ve been in New Zealand more than a week, or less than a day…or perhaps I’m actually somewhere in Ireland?
Living life upside-down and across a dateline sure shakes up my noggin.

Since my 4:30a wake-up on Sabbath morning to catch a flight into Palmerston North (“Palmy”), I’ve been to church and met all sorts of friendly Kiwis, forced myself to stay up until 10:00p on a Saturday night (the fight against jet lag is serious), and frozen my summer-ized tuckus. It’s not all that cold, but my body has taken a bit (long johns and layered long-sleeves) to acclimatize to 55 degrees F.

Here are some Kiwi things I’ve learned/done:

• In New Zealand, Rs are slippery things. He’ah, they disappea’ from many wo’ds (like wintah and summah), but occasionally find themselves tacked on to othe’ things, like the name of the friendly woman at church who I can only assume was not named after one of Santa’s reindeer. (Donna / Donner)
  In New Zealand, Rs are the free radicals of the electron/ionic world.
• In New Zealand – where there are more sheep than persons per capita – church includes “shearing time” (it’s just another one of those slippery vowel sounds).
• In New Zealand, Jessica has to work very hard to look interested and not terribly concerned as the Sabbath School superintendent tells a story about his sheep fighting the pullovers. 😳
  Turns out that Kiwi wool isn’t that harsh; the plover bird is just called by a different name here.
• In New Zealand, Jessica often finds herself proud for understanding the local language – but then remembers it is English, and is humbled.
• In New Zealand, Jessica collides with a higher-than-normal percentage of pedestrians as she tries to teach everyone to walk on the right side of the walkway. It is a good thing Jessica is not yet driving in New Zealand.
• In New Zealand, new phrases include sweet as, good on ya, churr, knackered, and yih.
• In New Zealand, new foods tried include: Elderflower cordial, tamarillo fruit, Bundaberg ginger beer, and authentic fish and chips.
  I will be consuming all of these on the regular.

Besides doing all of these things, I’ve been playing with an almost-three-year-old boy in the mud and making eyes at a ten-month-old girl, all while trying to stay out from underfoot as their parents complete the move to their new house bus.

We hit the road today – more updates to come!