Auckland, NZ

We are here, arrived on Tuesday, February 26 at 4:55am New Zealand time.  Spent most of yesterday recovering but managed to visit the Auckland Museum, City Center and waterfront.  I only have 15 minutes of FREE internet, so this is all for now.  Hopefully we can find a free WIFI hotspot later today.  Getting ready to pick up van and head south.

Long Haul Travel Day

In the past 3 days, I believe my total sleep count has been less than 12 hours.  The effects of sleep deprivation are evident; hard to concentrate, super tired, forgetful (left laptop in bag, oops, security scan, had to redo, security person not happy, etc), craving fatty, sugary foods, and I really, really want to lie down and sleep on the floor here in the airport terminal (it looks relatively clean). 

As folks can see from the girls' posts earlier today, yesterday was a huge success at Science Olympiad.  Both Mark and I are very proud of their hard work, determination, creativity, and willingness to pull all of this off.  A great big thanks goes out to their Science Olympiad Coach, Ray Crawford, he really is inspirational to the kids. 

Back to our traveling...  It is the long haul day, we started at 5am this morning (again) and are now sitting in the San Francisco airport until we load the flight at 7:30pm PST.  My state of sleep deprivation makes it a little iffy to be grading papers with a clear head, so I may try to nap for a little while first.  I know that pleases my students.  While I have internet access, I have download essays and other assignments to grade over the next couple of days.

Once we board the Air New Zealand flight we have a long evening of flying over the Pacific before landing in Auckland at 5:30am (Tues) (NZ time), which will be 1:00am Monday EST.  Confusing, right?  The last time we flew Air NZ, the food was great, the wine/beer free, and the service was awesome.  I am not expecting the same level of service this time, but anything has to be better than what we experienced in our first flight today, no movie, you have to pay for a pillow ($7) and snacks ($3 and up), at least the orange juice was complementary.  We are all hoping that the Air NZ flight will use the Air New Zealand safety video with the LOTR characters, here is the You Tube link:  http://youtu.be/XCbPFHu3OOc. 

When we arrive in Auckland, our game plan is to check into a motel early, rest, sleep, walk around Auckland, go to bed early that first night and then get up at a normal time on Wednesday to pick up our rental van.  What will we do next?  Our original plan was to drive south, but now Mark is lobbying for 90 mile beach, I think he needs some R&R beach time after the last week of frantic-last -minute-before-you-leave-things-to-do, I think we all do.  So right now, it's undecided, I will keep the blog posted.  Ka kite (Maori for "see you again, see you soon")

Hi from Mckayla

Science Olympiad was amazing yesterday. It's really hard to believe that Fairview got 2nd place overall, AND i got medals in all of my events. I was really freaked out about one of my events (it's called Mission Possible. Basically, it's where you make a Rube Goldburg device. If you don't know what that is, Google it.). Here's what happened: in the morning, we went down to set up our device, and everything was going fine. My team and I went back up to prepare for our other events, and during that time, one of the judges accidentally bumped our table and set off our device. Thankfully, one of the chaperones was there to turn it off, but one of our motors still broke (because it has to be turned off quickly or else it dies.) We didn't find out about this until lunch. Mr. Crawford (the head coach) went out to get a new motor, and the judges gave us some time to present it to them after we got everything fixed. We got SECOND PLACE in that event, even though we had some problems. The other devices were really bad, so I can kinda see how we got that. I also got two other medals for my other events, which adds up to three medals (if you can't count).

Charlotte is weird.  At night, the sky is orange from all the pollution. LITERALLY. The air smells weird, and the water tastes gross. The airport was okay though. It could be a mall if there weren't any planes or baggage stuff.

Here's a random picture of me with a gummy bear

Right now I'm in the San Fransisco airport. It's not much different from the Charlotte airport, except the food is better. And the bathrooms. And the gift shops. Basically everything is better. Even the chairs.

Some quality sleep today would go a long way.

Waiting In An Airport

I woke up at 5 o'clock this morning, for the second day in a row! It's 7:30, and our flight leaves at nine. We got at the Charlotte airport at six. Only thing to do: ugghhhhh... 

Anyway, in Science Olympiad yesterday we WON! That is awesome! I have a little bit of gold somewhere. Anyway Mr.Crawford went home with TWO trophies (Well, not really him, but the team, but he's the coach, soooooo...) and the spirit award is really light. It's a different story for the other one, the SECOND PLACE ONE! That one is really heavy.

Anyway, the hunk of gold that I got was in Reach For The Stars. Can you say 'nerd'? The test was actually really easy too. And I am so proud of my little minions, Laura and Ashley, who are on our JV team. They got a hunk of gold too! The only bad thing is is that I got it with my sister...   

Real friends launch rockets together, and blow the competition away.

Derp.

Alexis and Short Stack getting silver.

OMG! We're going to state!

Eighth Grade Olympians, we're absolutely crazy.

Shiny

Singleton Twisted Sisters.

Dead Frogs. 2012-2013 Science Olympiad Team.

 And now, after all of that excitement, I'm sitting in an airport looking at airplanes, waiting to fly to San Fransisco. This is going to be a fun day. 

I already miss all of my friends (You know who you are) and especially my bestest friend of all. As for school, not so much.Just kidding, just kidding!

See ya, 

(Science Olympiad Winner) Skyler

No, I'm not nervous, whada saying?

Okay so... I've packed, my camera's charging, I've completed my Sci Oly notes as much as possible, my iPods playing music, my carry on bag is packed, and about a dozen other different thing I have done. Now I need to remember where everything is... 

New Zealand's really pretty, or at least from the pics I've seen... which is lots of sheep. Like, lots of sheep. Baaaa. 

So, apparently we have to be at the Charlotte airport at 5:30 AM Sunday morning. I'm getting up at 5:00 am tomorrow, so two days in a row? It's not happening. Plus, our flight leaves at nine, so no pressure, right? I can't really remember my last international flight. No, wait, I take that back. I remember thinking that the plane was going to crash into the Atlantic  because Titanic Boy kept talking about plane crashes and the Titanic (duh) and watching Hoodwinked like six times. And Opa going through the metal detector eight times. And Opa, Mckayla, Sami, and me posing beside the Einstein picture in the Zurich airport.
It was a pretty good day. 

I'm not going to be seeing my friends for a month, so I'm SUPER sad. I'm going to miss them so much! Seriously, I'm going to be stuck with my sister. 

Tomorrow is Science Olympiad, and we are going to kick some behind! So that means now I have to go take a shower and study and try to get some sleep. 

See you on the flip side!!!!
Skyler
     

Pack, Study, Build, Clean, breathe...

Friday, February 22, 2013
It's our last full day at home before we depart.  If it doesn't get done today, it will just have to wait.  In addition to packing and cleaning, the girls are in their last preparations for Science Olympiad.  The regional competition is tomorrow at UNCA.  They are real troopers for continuing with their school work, putting in extra hours studying and building for Science Olympiad and trying to pack for a month long trip!

Here is a link in our local paper about the Fairview Science Olympiad team:
Fairview Science Olympiad team - The Sylva Herald: School News

After the competition on Saturday, we drive to Charlotte, spend the night and then depart for New Zealand.

Fairview Science Olympiad Team 2012

Mckayla showing Eagle Team Spirit at the 2012 Science Olympiad competition

Skyler and Alexis with their successful bottle rockets at Science Olympiad 2012

Practice Pack, check

Thursday, February 21, 2013
Last night Mckayla and I did a trial run of packing her duffle bag. 

Everything on the right needs to go into the turquoise duffle bag on the left.  With some creative organizing, below is the final product.

 And there was still room to spare.

The weight was 23.5 pounds, we have room to pack more STUFF!  Probably everything that doesn't fit in my duffle!

T minus 4 days and counting...

Wednesday, February 20, 2013
In 4 more days, we will be heading out.  It's hard to believe that we will be leaving winter and arriving in summer next week.  Yesterday's surprise snow and then bone chilling arctic winds at the ski area last night make me sad to leave winter, yes, really, I enjoy cold weather.  We haven't had enough cold weather in the past couple of years.  It's hard to believe that this is the 20th anniversary of the Great Blizzard of 1993!

Also twenty years ago, Mark and I traveled to New Zealand in September and stayed until early November.  We experienced many types of weather from late winter to late spring and everything in between.  One morning leaving Fox Glacier, it was 20 degrees, sunny and I had on every stitch of clothing I brought with me (we were cycle touring, all clothes in one small stuff sack).  Within the week, we were climbing a pass outside of Wanaka with the temperatures nosing into the 70's. 

What will we find this time?  We are preparing for late summer but will bring layers for everything else.  Mark says we only need board shorts and t-shirts, but he is also the guy who tells his daughters to only pack 1 pair of underwear and a Swiss Army Knife.  I believe we will bring a little more than that.

The first practice packing session is tonight.  I plan to take photos to document the experience.

Preparing for the Milford Trek in NZ by backpacking on the Appalachian Trail in September.  As you can see, the girls had more than their underwear and a Swiss Army Knife!

Hullo! This is really weird, or at least from this chika's perspective. I mean really, how do bloggers like talk (or blog) all day long? To quote my favorite Doc: "You two! We're at the end of the Universe. Right at the edge of knowledge itself. And you're busy blogging!"

To tell the truth, I have absolutely no idea what we are doing in New Zealand. Really, I'm traveling around the world and to another hemisphere (Woohoo!) and the only things that I know we are doing is: 

a) visiting Hobbition. I'm a geek, it's the truth. If I run into Martin Freeman (aka Bilbo or John Watson, depends if you can stand Steven Moffat) I want to ask him how Benedict Cumberbatch (aka Sherlock)  is doing. Wouldn't that be cool!?

2) going on some super long hike. Like ten miles a day. Please, pity me. I know, worlds smallest violin. I should get over it. But boy am I going to hurt. And it's going through an avalanche zone. Great, just great. 

I am freaking out though. In five very short days I am going to be in my last Science Olympiad competition as a middle schooler. All I can think about is what I have to do to get everything done. What I need to study, how I need to get notes ready... blah de blah de blah... so really, I haven't thought about New Zealand. Though I'm sure as soon as we get in the car to drive to Charlotte from the Sci Oly regionals I'll be jumping off the walls. And then I'll be on a plane for, like, twenty hours. See, I try not to think about it. 

So I just go with the flow. Very laid back and mellow. I'm like a Hobbit. I have hairy feet, have seven meals a day (speaking of food, what do New Zealanders (?) eat! Will I starve?!), and don't like adventure. Oh, who are we kidding, I'm all of those things, except I love a good adventure. 

Six days... I WANT A TIME MACHINE!!!!!!     

Skyler   

Monday, February 18, 2013
T minus 6 days and counting.  It's hard to believe that we have less than a week before we board an airplane for a long flight across the Pacific to New Zealand.  Where has the time gone?

The "To Do" list is getting shorter, if only I would stop adding items to it.  Before we leave on Sunday, here is a quick run down of what has to happen first:
1. Girls have 4 more days of school, plus Science Olympiad extra practices, homework, pick up assignments from teachers for the trip, and Skyler starts track practice. Oh, and there is the regional Science Olympiad competition at UNCA on Saturday.
2. Mark has meetings, conference calls, a gazillion emails to answers, and probably tons of other work that ED's typically do before leaving the country.
3. Me?  There isn't enough room here to give my entire list, so here is the abbreviated version:
    Prep for classes this week, grade assignments, read emails, work on fall scheduling, put everything in order to be gone for a month.

My biggest task this week is to "practice pack", that means, put everything in a duffle bag and make sure it ways less than 50 pounds. 

The actual New Zealand planning is going smoothly.  We have a hotel room booked in Auckland for when we arrive,  so we can sleep off some jet lag.  Our van will be ready to transport pass the thousands of furry sheep on green hills.  We will be able to receive and send text messages on Mark's phone (but they are .50 a text, so make it a meaningful one if you text us).  And we have a semi-plan once we leave Auckland; head south for about 2 hours to visit Hobbiton.  Yes, where hobbits live.  Supposedly the tour includes free beer and soda at the end.  I wonder if they serve "2nd breakfast"?  That is one of our favorite meals in this family.

Six more days...

A Hobbit House from Hobbiton in New Zealand.