We Arrived!

October 1, 2006
Christchurch, New Zealand

A big “Hi!” to everyone at Cottage Lane. I am now in the country of New Zealand, near the city of Christchurch. Sorry that it’s taken so long to get this Blog site going, but I’ve had some technical difficulties with the Web site. Anyway, I’ve been thinking of everyone at Cottage Lane, especially my students. I hope you had a TERRIFIC summer, and that your new school year is going well.

It was a long trip from New York to Christchurch. It took six hours to fly from New York to California, where we changed planes. We then spent thirteen hours flying to the North Island. As my students know from their research, New Zealand is divided into two islands. We had to change planes again and flew another one and a half hours to the South Island. When we finally arrived, we knew that the trip had been worth it. We’ve seen many beautiful and interesting sights here in New Zealand. I am looking forward to sharing them with you on this Blog site, so I hope you’ll check in often.


Here is a picture of the house we’re renting. It’s the yellow house with the orange triangle. As you can see it’s up on a cliff, so there’s a zigzag path to walk up from the street to get to it. It’s a little house, but it’s comfortable and it has beautiful views.





Here’s what we see from our balcony in front of the house. Can you see the beach and the beautiful Pacific Ocean? It’s right across the street from us!



Here is a close-up picture. I love being able to take a walk on the beach. I go almost every day.





I would LOVE to hear from you! We can get a discussion going when you click on the “Comments” button, the way you did for Mr. Tanenbaum’s Web site when he was in the Bering Sea. Remember that it won’t appear immediately on the Blog, but if you check back later you’ll see your own comment. Also remember that everyone else can see your comment. The fun part is that you can read what others say. Just like our discussions in class, it’s polite to comment on what another has said before you put in your two cents. For example, “I agree with what Dana said about the airplane flight. I also think….”

Let’s get started. What do YOU want to say?