The first third

I have now realised that a third of the trip is already gone - that went fast! So what have we done? After arriving in Christchurch we basically worked our way down the east coast, and the last two weeks we spent in the Catlins, the south eastern corner. The landscape there was fantastic, dramatic cliffs, beautiful beaches, bushwalks with more water falls than I can remember and penguins, dolphins and loads of sea lions. At quite a few beaches we met more sea lions than other tourists in fact.

Then we moved up again, with a stop a cadbury chocolate factory in Dunedin (where Junia got extra chocolate for wearing cadbury purple - tack Jenny!), and Moeraki for a fish feast out of this world.

Now we are in Mount Cook national park, for a week of hiking. Junia has become very good at catching sleep trains in the ergo baby which makes the hikes even more pleasant. Now it's time for another cup of tea and some more chocolate, with the beautiful view of Mount Cook from our window. Life could be worse...

Sleeping part 2

After one week of the five minute method without any progress we (or I) decided that we were gonna switch to the Crazy Frog (Tracy Hogg)'s Pick Up Put Down method. Instead of letting the baby feel abandoned, scream of her own and get traumatised for life you here pick up the screaming baby, and then put her down immediately when she stops crying. According to the baby whisperer, it takes usually 20 minutes before the baby sleeps the first night, but in extreme cases there might be 150 PUPD cycles.

Right. With Junia I counted to 10 PUPDs, and number 11 only became a PU as she did not stop crying. So also this method went out the window.

Instead we have now developed our own method, the SJ method. It basically consists of Justus singing the only four Dutch children songs he knows, over and over, in a very bored and tired voice. Singing Justus comforts Junia straight away, and sooner or later she gets bored and falls asleep. I personally also find it much easier falling asleep to a Singing Justus than a Screaming Junia, so I must say that I quite like this method.

Things I like about New Zealand

- Public toilets
Free, spotless and never out of paper.
- Cakes and cookies
Totally different league than delicato balls.
- The people
Just so incredibly friendly.
- Public swimmingpools
With a family changing room, complete with changing table and shower.
- The landscape
To quote a dear friend - scenic.
- The parks
Never seen so many botanical gardens before. And there are worse places of feeding Junia than a rose garden.
- Fish & chips
It is jättegood.
- The scones
Who says size doesn't matter?

OEE of a black currant picking machine

OK, OEE for dummies (most likely the mayority of the readers of this blog but certainly NOT Odd and Jason). OEE is a formula that explains for consultants and their customers how efficient machinery is actually used. It is calculated by multiplying rate, quality and availability and the outcome is a percentage. The higher the OEE (100 pct is max) the lower the production costs are and the higher the profit consequently is.

Last Monday, we were invited for a lunch to a (hobby) farmer via a couple that we met at our first wwoofing experience. They were there to support the farmer with harvesting black currants. It had rained for some days and no berries (let's call them that for now) had been picked yet but next day would be D-day. Generous as we are, because we have time available and because we had some deja vu feelings from Orsa, we offered our support. The next day, we would start at 09:30. When we arrived at 11:00 (lets blame the wee worker) no berries had been picked yet. Before we had even started, OEE had decreased by 15 pct due to the 90 minutes downtime. When the machine had finally been started, some maintenance needed to be done as well. The machine was from 1973 so really old. While waiting, I tried to explain the OEE, NVA and waste concept to my fellow pickers. 'oh, you are such a type' was one of the comments. I tried again by telling them that if they would listen to me, they would need 25 pct less pickers next year, but no, the tone for the day was set. It was going to be a long day...

When we finally got started, the farmer was not satisfied with the quality of the berries as the machine was not shaking hard enough to also loosen the top berries. Again some machine adjustments and 4 pickers waiting. The final conclusion to also harvest the top berries was to put the shakers higher, negatively affecting rate (read, less shaking). Pavel and Svata would never had accepted such a solution! It also resulted in more leaves in the baskets, lowering the quality again. Catch-22? Anyway, picking had started and we had lots of fun. Although being doubtful about the quality, the farmer was also enjoying himself. Some more downtime during the day, usually the result of waiting for new boxes (supply chain was hampered by the driver of the tractot being focused more on the dog than on supplying crates) and some more machine adjustements. Lunch was great and coffee delicious.

By the end of the day, we had picked over 1000 kilos of berries. I estimate OEE to be as low as 30 pct though. Just imagine if we would have doubled OEE.... how many berries could we have picked and how many more liters delicious saft the farmer could have made? Satisfaction and happiness were skyhigh though. It felt wonderful to lend a helping hand to a kind farmer and his wife who really appreciated our support. The fine cookies and saft we got was almost as good as the warm smiles and hugs. We will be enjoyong the saft for quite some time but the memory will stay even longer. Kristina, when you are down here in NZ, let me suggest how we pick berries in Orsa this season!

final photos

trying to understand how the app works..

Still don't know how to write comments to each picture, so you have to guess for yourself where Larnach castle is, cathedral caves, slope point (the southernmost point of the south island.)

More photos

Blowing bubbles

Climbing the steepest residental street in the world, Dunedin



Gym exercising
Changing room

Sleeping

A very wise friend told me once "if you google children and sleep, you get more hits than if you google sex." Matsson, I believe you now.

I made the mistake of starting to read "The baby whisperer solves all your problems", and soon realised that I was "accidental parenting" personified.
- I feed Junia to sleep
- She is awake for longer periods than 90 minutes in a row
- She is definately not asleep at 8.30 pm at the latest
- She is sometimes eating more frequently than every 4th hour
- An Eat.Activity.Sleep routine does not exist
- No routine at all exists really
- She does not take a bottle
- She does not sleep in her own bed
etc. etc.

Quite depressing reading actually, as the baby whisperer herself, Tracy Hogg, said that hell would break loose if we wanted to have a normal life later on.

Ok, since setting up a fixed time routine is a bit tricky when travelling, we thought that we (read: Justus) would at least try to teach her to fall asleep on her own, without needing to be attached to my breast for three hours. Said and done, three nights ago I placed myself with the Ipod on the highest volume, eating a bag of crisps just because they sound very loud, two closed doors from the bed room where Justus was sitting next to a Junia who was screaming on top of her lungs for 45 min. Yesterday she cried for half an hour, and also tonight. The funny thing (the only funny thing since the entire thing is rather horrible and I don't know if I am feeling sick because of guilt or all bags of crisps) is that she has now slept better than ever before. About seven hours in a row, then woken up for some food, and then gone back to sleep without any problem. It would be nice if I also could sleep those seven hours instead of listening to the snores of two people and wonder how traumatized the younger of them has become. Googling "the five minute method" was not of great help either since it is recommended from five months of age and some claim that it is against the UN's children convention and that babies exposed to this get traumatized for life.

It would have been easier getting a cat in the first place.

Anyhow, apart from the small questions in life regarding how you best bring up your children, we are having a fantastic time and Junia seems to like it too (unless you ask her after 9pm.) More about that later.

Kiwi fashion

Some of the t-shirts we have seen this far;
"drink 'til she's cute"
"same shirt different day"
"I make great babies"

The only clothes item we have bought however, is an all blacks body suit for Junia. All blacks seems to be the favourite "brand" of about 50 per cent of the male kiwi population. And considering Junia's thighs, she might also be a rugby star one day.

Being brave

Quite frequently, sometimes up to 2 times a day, Anna and I are told hat we are 'brave' to travel with a baby. When we tell them that Junia is only 4 months old, they are even more astonished. To be honest, traveling down by plane was not the easiest thing to do. Neither Anna nor me slept a single minute on the flight to Singapore. Junia only slept a few hours (while we were walking through the isle), seriously affecting her mood in Singapore. Fortunately, we had the luxury of enjoying Asa's hospitality and comfortable apartment. The high temperature and humidity in Singapore did not make it easy for Junia either. When we flew down to NZ, Junia slept most of the time and she kept doing so for quite some time, after we had arrived.

Having slept several nights in comfortable B&Bs with great breakfasts (Anna was so happy!), we have all come into our usual routines again. We go to bed quite early and wake up early as well, following Junia's rhythm. We try to ensure Junia sleeps some time in the morning and afternoon and we succeed with that quite well. If Junia just get enough sleep, we have quite an easy going travel, that is what we have clearly understood!

So being brave traveling with a 4 month old baby? Not really! There are just a few ground principles to adhere to (sufficient sleep and milk on a regular basis being the most eminent ones!) and then it is just like having another great travel companion.

Having breakfast and dinner is often even more easy than in Stockholm. There are always enough people around who want to hold the 'cute baby' so we can enjoy our food. We just need to remember to take Junia with us when we are done. That Junia smells like a 'gamla tant' is a disadvantage we have accepted to live with (you know Anna and her food!).

Traveling with the 3 of us is a whole new dimension and it really feels great. It actually feels complete! We enjoy it a lot and can recommend it to many. There is nothing brave about it. It just requires some 'guts' to have it started.

Now back to the farm again, there is some brick laying to be done and cows to be milked.

earthquake

Thank you all for all comments! We have now switched countries to New Zealand (this flight was piece of cake, only 10 hours.) Lillgrodan actually slept the mayority of the time (unlike her parents who slept nada) and continued to do so more or less all day when we arrived. So last night was a challenge. She didn't cope with the heat in Singapore too well, but is now returning to her old self again, blowing bubbles like ever before, but we are all rather jetlegged and feeling much more hungover than we deserve.

Anyhow, when I was awake 5 o'clock this morning, the bed suddenly begun to shake! It only lasted a few seconds, but I got confirmed that it was a proper earthquake, the after shakes from the big ones in Christchurch last year still continues. Today we went in to Christchurch which was a rather sad sight. The entire center was affected, and a big part is totally closed, and every second house is closed - no one knows for how long. Parts really look like a ghost town. Some stores had re-emerged in containers, but it was still a rather eerie atmosphere. And off course there are warning signs everywhere, as no one knnows when the ground will shake next time, and how the affected houses will react then... We are staying outside of the city, on a farm. Lamb feeding on the schedule tomorrow.

I have not yet figured out how to write descriptions for the photos, but these photos anyhow show Christchurch - the fenced off city centre and an example of one of the 900+ affected buildings you're no longer allowed to enter, the "new" center in containers, and the beautiful countryside close to Akaroa as well as our fantastic b&b there.

Singapore!

Happy new year!
Junias first backpacking trip started with waking her up 4.30 in the morning. No problem at all. The flight was a bit like her birth, about the same length, in the middle of it I just wanted to jump out of the window, and afterwards I thought "Hm, this was not too bad after all. I could do it again." Arriving at Åsa's place with horrisontal beds in Singapore was a little bit like coming to heaven. Junia must think so too as she is now still sleeping (approaching 12 hours with one eating break), making up for the previous 40 hours with constant eating and minimal sleep. The milk factory is about to explode.

Singapore is fantastic! Supermodern, clean, safe, friendly, cool architecture, good food, noone has peed in the elevators and lots to see. We have decided that we will try to reschedule our return flight and stop here for a few days on the way back also, instead of the non-stop kamikazee flight Auckland - home.

Next stop: pedicure with Åsa, and then little India. Life is good...