Flicks 'n things

2018 brought a new neffy in NZ, and though I love all the Skype/Face Time/FB Messenger screen time, I'm now trying to figure out how to get back to Aotearoa soon to see him before he gets too big. They grow up so fast!

A year ago, when I saw the then-youngest neffy for the first time (he was 5), I tried to watch Hunt for the Wilderpeople to prepare me for Kiwi humor and television. It was... interesting. Parts of it were funny, parts were over the top, parts of it dragged on. In all, it's a decently heartwarming story of a foster kid who bonds with an old man while they're on the run from a social worker who (hilariously) goes all-out to find them. But it only took a few minutes into it to realize the humor is very... unique.

Upon getting to New Zealand, my bro-in-law told me that Boy was a quintessentially Kiwi funny film, so we watched it. It's a bittersweet story about an impoverished kid whose father gets out of prison and uses him to try and find loot he buried. And it's a comedy.

I think maybe Kiwi humo(u)r is just beyond my funny bone. To be fair, I've only seen a handful of NZ films -- but drama or comedy, they have all had some sort of bittersweet, underlying sad notes to them.

Then the nieces and nephews made me watch Jurassic World because they were horrified I'd never seen a Jurassic film. I really enjoyed it. Not too interested in watching the past films in the franchise, but this one was good as a stand-alone.

My eldest nephew had also recently started reading the Percy Jackson series, so we had to watch the two films. This started a rabbit hole of googling and learning about other young adult series out there that seem way cooler than the ones from my own tween years. I'll admit, the classics nerd in me loved it -- it's basically Harry Potter for the human children of Greek gods rather than wizards and Muggles. Coming-of-age stories can be hit or miss to delve into as an adult, but this one was fairly decent.

Then we got into the movies based on dystopian youth novels. We watched Divergent and then The Maze Runner. Both were interesting enough until I cheated and looked up the plots of the next books/films in the series and was so depressed it made me content to let the stories end where I left them. Divergent seemed more interesting, if done many times before: individuals are divided by roles in society, some learn the insidious secret behind the social order and revolt... The Hunger Games, The Giver, etc, etc, etc.

The Maze Runner had similar undertones but more of a Westworld vibe.

I think the dystopian trilogy fad for tweens and young readers/viewers is only popular because the kids are embarking on their own personal growth, realizing there is a strange, real world out there that they'll have to learn to navigate.  Some of them are good stories. But I think I've read or seen so many, especially lately, that these two in particular seemed really formulaic.

Plus, I'll be 40 this year. I want the happy ending fantasies to distract me from the never-ending news cycle.

My 6yo nephew still believes in Santa Claus.

Kia ora, meri kirihimete

It took a little over 5 years, but I finally visited La Otra Hermana in New Zealand. The youngest neffy is now 5, and I've only ever met him over Skype; they're expecting a fifth baby, and I don't want to make a habit of having nieces or nephews I've never actually hugged.

Mt Ruapehu, Tongariro Alpine Crossing

Over the Kiwi Christmas holidays, the fam made sure I tried the NZ foods -- the traditional and apparently controversial pavlova, Anzac biscuits, fluffies, oka, paua fritters, Tim Tams, and assorted lollies.  The kids all love feijoas, which I've never had and wanted desperately to try, but they were out of season. Feijoa-flavored candies had to suffice.

Mt Ngauruhoe aka Mt Doom from LOTR,
Tongariro

85% of my trip was for seeing the family; I had grand plans for hiking the rest of my time. I had to be a bit flexible, because all the Great Walk huts were booked for all the multi-day hikes I wanted to do. But I managed to head north to the do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing (SO BEAUTIFUL) and west to do a small portion of the Te Araroa trail.

Emerald Pools, Tongariro 

Kapiti Island from portion of the
Te Araroa trail

Marlborough wine country,
South Island - I biked 36 km!!!

I spent New Year's Eve in Wellington! My third NYE outside Seattle, my second outside the States, my first in the southern hemisphere. The national museum of NZ also sated my Great War obsession, with an incredibly detailed and moving exhibit on Gallipoli.

I had planned on hiking around the northwest part of the South Island, but rental car agencies had a 7-day minimum. I didn't want to spend too much time away from the kiddos, so I hopped on a bus, then rented a bike and cycled around Marlborough, New Zealand's most famous wine region. It was a good backup plan, got me on a bike for the longest period of time since fracturing my elbow falling off one 20 years ago, and made me embrace the relaxed Kiwi way of life. Plus, the wine tastings were amazing.

I also managed to get some serious quality time with the two neffies and two nieces. They've grown so much since I last saw them in person! Of course I knew that from talking to them on Skype, but still. I spent time with each of them individually:

Ropes course!
Slightly scary but fun!

• 9-year-old nephew and I went to a ropes course, where he proceeded to go fearlessly across every obstacle. I definitely had to get out of my comfort zone to keep up with him and make sure he was OK; as long as I didn't look down, I was fine.  He wanted to do each one first, except for one zipline where you hang by your arms 50 feet above ground. I had to gulp down my own nervousness and prove to him that it was fun! And doable! And not deadly! When he finally did it, he had such an adrenaline rush that he immediately exclaimed "That was amazing! Let's do the whole course! We can do it, Auntie! We can do anything!" I guess you can, if you conquer your fears.
  
• 5-year-old neffy and I took a 45-minute train ride -- his first time ever on a train! He was very excited. He got to order and pay for our tickets, and once on board he kept wanting to switch our seats every few minutes.
  
• The 7- and 8-year-old nieces both wanted to do our nails, get frozen yogurt, and go shopping at the mall, and they wanted to do it together. I probably could have handled them one at a time, but two small girls could run very quickly down the mall hallways, talk at the same time to distract me, and gang up on me to convince me to buy them new nail polish colors, a toy, and a hot beverage. It was exhausting, but fun. 

I really did not want to leave -- both because there's so much more to explore of New Zealand, and because it broke my heart to leave the kids.

Already planning my next trip, hopefully in 2-3 years!

Society, where none intrudes

I've discovered a new mystery series that helps me escape the existentially terrifying year that is 2017: a whole series with a female detective park ranger, with each book taking place in a different National Park!

The heroine is a kind of tomboy loner, which is probably why I like the series. And after last year's centennial celebration of the National Park Service, it's piqued my interest in visiting more parks, especially since I've had an America the Beautiful pass for the past 2 years.

Speaking of National Parks, we made it to Glacier! Unfortunately we didn't have time to do more than a few short 2-hour hikes, but based on the small taste I got this summer before the wildfires decimated chunks of the park, I need to go back to do some actual hiking.

Two things I was not expecting about Glacier:

1) IT'S DROP-DEAD GORGEOUS EVERYWHERE You can seriously just take pictures at pullouts along the highways, and it looks like you've hiked in the backcountry to a secret, serene spot.  

2) THERE ARE BEARS! Googling "bears Glacier Montana" before leaving was both a mistake and very educational. PSA: you can rent bear spray in the park! It helped calm my paranoia about unexpectedly encountering a grizzly or black bear on the trail... especially on the one hike I did alone, at 5am, on one of the more isolated trails, while my friends were all 40 miles away lining up to run a half-marathon. (The half-marathon had armed guys in ATVs on bear patrol.) 

Before I saw the sign about bears 

being spotted on the trail.

I didn't see anybody (or bears) on that eeeeearly morning trail for at least 2 hours, but I did see a handwritten sign saying bears had been on the trail the day before.

I did, however, see a bull moose! By then there were a few other people on the trail. The moose, with his huge gore-tastic antlers, stopped all foot traffic for about 20 minutes on the trail while he moseyed around finding his breakfast. 

Mt Baker: So close, yet so far!

Speaking of glaciers, it's been almost two months since our Mt Baker summit attempt. Our group had three chances to summit: it was stormy and rainy on the first two, which meant the last day on the mountain would be loooong. No one made it to the summit, though some made it to the crater rim; our party had several injuries or health issues. I think we are all glad we attempted the summit, though.

The mountains are calling, and I must go... where, next?

New Zealand, actually, to visit La Otra Hermana, the nieces and nephew I haven't seen in 5 years except on Skype, and the nephew I've only ever met over the computer. They're all too young to go on the Great Walks or multi-day tramps I want to try, but I'm researching kid-friendly short hikes.

A friend recently reminded me of the Japanese term "forest bathing," and the more I think about it, the more I like the idea.

I could use some more forest bathing.

Counter rucking

We had to memorize "Invictus" back in seventh grade, and it's a fairly easy poem to keep in one's memory. So when the movie about South Africa's victory over New Zealand in the 2005 Rugby World Cup came out about a year ago, my curiosity was piqued. (My rugby-playing Kiwi bro-in-law also rushed out to see it.)

Since New Zealand won it this year - and I had some free time over Christmas break - I finally watched it. I do tend to like movies about sports teams: in the end, they're about working out differences and cooperating, which is why they also make such great parallel stories about nation-shaping and identity-forging.

But I'll admit, I was a little disappointed with Invictus. I wanted to love it, because the set-up was so great: a Nobel Peace Prize-wining man who spent 27 years in prison becomes president of a country struggling with racial strife and poverty and all the other legacies of apartheid, and an almost-all-white rugby team comes from behind to unite their divided country and win the World Cup. It's a great story. But for some reason, I found the characters to be pretty one-dimensional: Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela was always the wise Madiba and only seemed like an ordinary human in a few scenes, when his estrangement from his family is mentioned. Similarly, Matt Damon as the national rugby captain seems to just shuffle along - there's never any insight into his words or actions.

To me, the most compelling characters weren't the rugby team or the history-making President; the motley crew that made up Mandela's security detail were actually the most fascinating. Rugby was irrelevant to their transition from old guard to integrated unit, from pre-apartheid suspicions of each other to trusting each other as a cohort protecting the President. That was the story I was looking for in this movie, with rugby as the metaphor. Turns out, it didn't really need rugby to tell it.