Christmas Down Under

Even though it is summer here in New Zealand, it is December just as it is in New York. Yesterday was December 25th, Christmas Day. The celebration of Christmas is definitely a part of New Zealand culture. All of the schools and businesses are closed for the holiday. Christians and non-Christians alike celebrate the day by joining with friends and family, eating a meal together, and exchanging presents. Many who celebrate Christmas as the birth of Jesus attend church.

The days before Christmas, the shops are decorated and people are out shopping for presents. Children are visiting Santa in the mall, telling him what they want for Christmas.The young fellow in this picture is trying to be very brave, but he looks rather scared, don't you think? Notice that people are wearing short-sleeved shirts because it's summertime.

We noticed a couple of big differences between Christmas in the northern hemisphere and Christmas here in the southern hemisphere (sometimes called "Down Under"). The most noticeable is that very few houses were decorated with lights. In the northern hemisphere, where the days are short in December, people turn on their Christmas lights at about 5:00 when it's getting dark. Many people are still out and around at that time of evening, so they can enjoy them as they drive home from work or the shops. Sometimes older people start to feel depressed (sad about life) when the days are so short and the nights are so long. Festive lights help cheer them up. In the southern hemisphere, however, the days are long and the nights are short in December. It doesn't get dark here until after 10:00pm. This is very late to start turning decorative lights on because most people are already home for the night. Hardly anyone would ever see them!

The second big difference is that very few people buy a live Christmas tree for their home. I saw only a few for sale, and that was at a gas station. They had very long pine needles and very droopy branches, so they looked different from the Christmas trees purchased in New York. Most people decorate their home without a tree, or buy an artificial(fake)Christmas tree to decorate.

Here are some photos I took on Christmas Day when we went for a walk by the seaside. As you can see, some people spent the day on the beach, although this year it was rather cool on December 25th.

Some people had their Christmas lunch at the park, and spent the day playing together.

How did I spend Christmas Day? My husband and I picked up our favorite present at the airport that morning - our son, Winston! He is a college student at Columbia University, in New York City, so he could not move out here for the year. He now has three weeks vacation from school so he flew out right away. We were so happy to see him!!!

Here is a photo of Winston on our walk. (Those of you in my class will remember him from the time he came to photograph you for our magazine article.) He is standing in front of a Pohutukawa tree. There are many in bloom all over town. Since it blooms in December, and the flowers are bright red, it is often called the New Zealand Christmas Tree.

From my family to yours, we wish you the very happiest of holidays, Christmas, Hanukkah, Eid, or Kwanzaa, and the very best year ever in 2007. I would love to hear about your family traditions for the season. Just click comments below.

Ms. Christie-Blick

Summer Vacation

Schools are out for summer vacation! The kids are all very excited. The teachers are exhausted. Everyone is looking forward to sleeping in, going to the beach, traveling, and enjoying the long summer days.

Kids playing in the sand left the face you see in the photo. I'm very lucky to be living right across the street from the beach. During the spring, there weren't many people on our beach. Now there are lots of families swimming in the Pacific Ocean and playing in the sand.

Can you see the sun dial in this photo? It is across the street from my house. A sun dial is what people from long ago used to tell time before they invented clocks. The piece of metal sticking up casts a shadow on the face of the table when the sun shines on it. There are Roman Numerals around the table top. The shadow will fall on the number to show the time. In other words, the shadow will be on the II when it is 2:00. It will be on the IV when it is 4:00. (The beach is behind the sand dunes, on the other side of the grass.)

There are lots of activities going on at the beach. Sometimes we see people paragliding onto the beach. They have a rectangular parachute, like the one you see in the photo. They jump off the high cliffs behind our house and then catch the upward wind currents coming off the ocean. These currents of wind keep them up so they can go back and forth along the shore. When they are ready to come down, they steer themselves over the sand for a soft landing. The guy in this photo started off from the beach instead of a cliff. He has a motor attached to the chair hanging from his parachute. He still needs the wind to take him up, but he has more control than those without a motor.

There are lots of surfers at the beach, as well as people wind surfing. A windsurfer is surf board with a sail attached to it. It looks like a sailboat sail. The person windsurfing stands on the board, with feet strapped on, and holds onto a handle on the sail to steer it. This way, he can catch the wind and glide across the water. He's very fast.

Another popular beach sport is kite surfing. This uses a surf board and a rectangular parachute. The kite surfer stands on the surf board, with her feet strapped on, and holds the strings of her parachute. She holds the strings so the parachute catches the wind and pulls her and her board across the water. She goes even faster than the windsurfer! If she raises the parachute upward, the wind pulls the parachute up and it lifts her and her board clear out of the water where she can spin 360s in the air before landing in the ocean again! You need very strong arms and legs to do this sport!

Kayaking is yet another popular activity at our beach. Can you see the kayakers in this photo? You may need to click on it to enlarge the picture. Then click the back button to return to this page. The kayakers paddle out and then ride the waves in toward shore. Fun!

We are all on holiday for the next month and a half. Schools will re-open on February 9, 2007. February is the beginning of the school year, so all of the kids will move up a grade, just as you do is September. Does that seem strange to you? Have you ever wondered why your new school year begins in September, rather than at the beginning of the calendar year in January?

CLICK HERE to see who else is enjoying summer fun on the beach!

Mairehau School

Mairehau School was a delight to visit. The teachers and the children were very welcoming. I liked this mural they painted on the side of one of their buildings. It was very colorful and cheerful. I visited many different classrooms in this school, so I was able to see what the youngest children were doing, as well as some of the oldest.

This school, like the others I visited, had lots of room outside for the children to play. See how big their grass area is? They also have a fitness area, similar to those of the other schools, and playground equipment as well. You'll notice in the picture of the kids outside, that shoes are optional. This is true inside the classroom as well.

Not only did the kids walk around in their classroom barefoot on a warm day, but some of the teachers did as well! What do you think? Good idea?

You can also see the children eating lunch. It is not common to have a dining hall at school. This school is typical in that the children eat their lunch outside. If the weather is bad then they eat in their classroom.

In class, they listen to the lesson sitting on the rug near the teacher. Then they go to their desks and practice what they've just learned. As you can see, the classrooms are colorful and welcoming. The schools in New Zealand do not have art teachers, so the homeroom teacher teaches art to their students. You can see some of their paintings in this photo. They also don't have music teachers, so the homeroom teacher plays a song on a CD and they all sing along together.

The homeroom teacher also teaches PE to the students. There are no teachers who teach just PE. Relay races are very popular for PE. In this picture, you can see the teacher explaining the throwing exercise the students are about to do.

There are also no school nurses. If a child isn't feeling well, there is a room in the school for him to lie down for a bit. If this doesn't help, then the school secretary calls his parent to pick him up and take him home. If the child needs medication during the day, it is given to her by the school secretary. If there's anything complicated about it, then the child's parent would need to come and give it to the child.

Have you been noticing the color of the uniforms at the three different schools I've visited? Each school has a different color.

While I was at Mairehau School, the children were practicing for a school DVD they were making. On performance day, Skoolstars Production Company came to the school and filmed and recorded the songs and dances from each class. They put them altogether onto a DVD with special background effects. They had a special "Night at the Movies" where parents and kids got to view the entire DVD on a large movie screen. Those who wanted to buy it could then have a copy to take home. I bought a copy and I think it's super! It would be fun to do something like this at Cottage Lane.

What special school activities have you done that were a good idea? Why were they worthwhile?

Summer!

Today is the official first day of summer in New Zealand! It is definitely warmer now than it was when I first arrived. Many days get up to a very pleasant, but cool, 18 degrees celcius. (It's a good thing I reviewed the metric system last year. It's used throughout New Zealand. More on that later.) So I still need a sweater when I go out because the wind is cold, but the sun is warm.

As you can see in the picture above, there are mountains not too far away from us. It would take us two hours to drive there. They are called the Southern Alps. They are so tall that even though it's summer they are getting fresh snow on their peaks. When it gets warmer, we'll drive over there and "suss them out," as the Kiwis say. When you "suss out" something you check it out.

The hills and valleys near our home are still very green. The little lambs are much bigger now. They have grown so much in just a month! Every weekend we go tramping over the hills or along the coast. In New Zealand, it's easy to find a pretty place to go for a walk. (Did you use your context clues to figure out that Kiwis use the term "tramping" for our term "hiking"?)

The sun rises at about 5:30 in the morning now, and doesn't set until about 9:00 in the evening. What time is sunrise and sunset now in New York? Here is a picture I took from my living room window. You can see the sun rising over the ocean. Can you see the big boulder? It's called Cave Rock because there is a cave inside it. The water and sand wore a hole right through it. Now that's a good example of erosion! It's neat inside.

School is still in session. In this picture you see one of the 6-year-olds drawing a picture of each one of her family members. Good job, don't you think?! Her family is from the island of Samoa, but now they live here in New Zealand. You'll notice that she has left her hat on , although she's pushed it off her head. All students are required to wear hats during recess during this 4th term at school, because the sun is getting so intense. It helps protect the face against skin cancer. Because of the holes in the atmosphere around Antarctica, and because there is little pollution in the air, the sun rays are even more intense here than in New York during the summer.

This is a picture of Margaret's house. She is one of my Kiwi friends. As you can see, in December her garden is in full bloom, and the trees and grass are very green. The day I took this picture, I was picking her up to drive to a potluck luncheon with some of our other friends. One woman from our group lives on a farm and raises miniature horses. She invited us all over for the afternoon.

Here is a picture of some of us looking at her horses. Margaret is the woman wearing pink in the front of this picture. Aren't the horses cute?!? Just look at their little legs! It's hard to believe that they are fully grown. A child could ride a horse this size, but a grown-up would be too heavy for it.

Here is a picture of a horse from The Royal New Zealand Show for comparison. You can see that the miniature horses are less than half the size of a standard horse. Wouldn't you like to have one for a pet?

As we move into summer, I know that you are moving into winter. Is it getting cold there yet? The kids here are envious that you get snow during the winter, and that sometimes you have a day off from school for a snow day. They think that would be great!