November is a good month for us. My first project in New Zealand went live, and nearly without glitches. I took the whole family down to Christchurch for the cut over period, that is, 3 days before the go-live weekend.
Mom decided to fly in for 3 weeks. So, I booked her tickets to Christchurch and all of us bunked into the Studio apartment. It was a very nice arrangement God made for us because with Kellie still in her first trimester, mom presence helped a lot in terms of keeping each other company and helping out with Ethan.
Christchurch was, well, typical Christchurch. Beautiful and serene but highly unpredictable weather. You just can't decide on what to wear on any given day. The sun might be brightly shining in the morning, but before you know it, you will be screaming for your winter jacket... or it might be the other way around.
With me off to work every weekday, Mom, Kellie and Ethan finally exhausted all their excitement in the city. Botanic garden, tourist spots... well, by the beginning of the second week, they just said "Drop us at the mall". Hhahaaaha... they spent a lot of their time catching up on some Chinese Soap opera.
The Antartic center is a real let down. In mom's word, "we pay so much to see a few penguins in aquarium and go to a big fridge to get our @$$ frozen...". But she was happy as when we were in souvenir shop, the cashier asked if Ethan was her son. And when she said she's the grandma, the cashier started to examine mom's face by touching it and having some close up because she suspects mom has her face lifted before. Suddenly, she said that she might come back to the center just for shopping... hmm...
Weekend proves to be wonderful... we drove to Akaroa, a beautiful French Village. The drive there was like to Cameron and Ethan threw up in the car. After cleaning him up, we stopped by a cafe to enjoy 'the most scenic spot of Akaroa' and sipped coffees. Highlight of the day was the dolphin watching cruise and i was in the water with them. During suiting up the wet suit, I asked for the booties and hand gloves but the lady told me it's not needed for the warm waters... summer = warm waters... that makes sense but as soon as I jumped into the water, my lung was screaming for air because i was gasping in the very very cold water. My hands were numbed and I had to keep them above the water to have any feel of it... ya, right... warm waters... Nevertheless, having dolphins swimming and circling me was really quite a humble experience.
The following weekend, we went to Hammer Springs and jump into the nice hot spa... Learning from our previous experience, we alternate between the cold and hot water so that our body doesn't just fall asleep after the session.
When it was time to go back to Auckland, all of us were glad. Once back in Auckland where home is, everything else seem so familiar and mom spent another week with us before flying off. I even had the opportunity to challenge mom on her religion belief system and prayerfully, God used that session to plant a seed into her heart. It truly is a good month...
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