Christmas Letter 2010

Christmas Letter 2010

Jennifer Haeger & Scott Favre

Christmas carols in the air and a few well-traveled holiday cards rousted me from my thesis-induced coma to find that it is the eve of Christmas Eve and nary a Christmas greeting has been sent out from 58 Greenpark Road, Penrose, Auckland 1061. So here it goes…

This past year began with me back in Michigan visiting friends and family over the holidays and leaving poor Scott to fend for himself back in New Zealand. I traveled back to New Zealand with a much greater appreciation for our friends and family who showed me nothing but warmth and hospitality despite the fact that we abandoned them to live halfway round the world.

The first order on business when I returned was our first tramping (i.e. hiking) trip in the NZ bush in Kaimai Mamaku Forest Park. This was the first time that either of us had done any serious hiking (i.e. overnight hiking necessitating packs filled with clothing and food). This was an excellent experience highlighted by 12 hours of solid up and down hiking on the second day. I honestly thought that I was not going to make it to the hut, and we actually ran out of water, but luckily found a stream to refill with our filter pump. For full details please see our blog postings "Jen and Scott Tramping Trial" and "Kaimai Clarifications" from January 2010.

Next on the agenda was starting my Masters degree in Forensic Science through the University of Auckland at Environmental Science and Research (ESR). This was only made possible due to the generosity of ESR in the form of a Graduate Scholarship. My project entitled “The Transfer and Persistence of Hair during Laundering and Characterization of the Extent of Degradation of DNA” will (God willing and the creek don’t rise) be completed in February 2011.

Having dipped my toe very gently into my Masters project and with Scott working hard at his new New Zealand firm “Right Hemisphere”, we decided it was time for a well-deserved vacation. This time we drove 5 hours south of Auckland to Mt. Taranaki in Egmont National Park for a four day tramp over the Easter holiday weekend. This particular tramp also had a notable day two with me literally telling Scott to leave me and “go get help” as I struggled to remain upright with a net upward movement on some seemingly endless fields of scree on the side of Fanthams Peak (a very small peak on the slopes of Mt. Taranaki). If you are not familiar with scree, it is loose rock. When it is located on the side of a mountain on a steep angle, it means that you are far more likely to go down the mountain than up it despite your attempts to go up it. Fortunately outside help was not required as my husband is beyond awesome and simply scaled the peak alone, then dropped his pack and returned to take my pack and RESCALE the peak with my pack. Amazing! Again, for a full account of our adventures please refer to our blog or ask Scott sometime about the best can of fruit salad in the world.

In the fall, I began thesis lab work in earnest and we discovered the joys of the feijoa, a small guava-like fruit of which we have a baby tree in our yard. I also officially graduated from the University of Auckland with a Postgraduate Diploma in Forensic Science. But more importantly Scott and I took a long weekend over the Queen’s Birthday in June to have a second honeymoon in Christchurch. Not terribly keen on tramping in the wintertime in the South Island, we instead stayed at a hotel and just did some day excursions. These included revisiting the Moeraki Boulders in the daytime and revisiting the Whitestone Cheese Factory and the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Sanctuary in Oamaru. We were again rewarded for persistence and patience at the penguin sanctuary and saw three or four penguins and took more blurry, bigfootesque photos.

July not only brought with it my birthday (a poker and AH party), but also ESR’s mid-year party which was an American cowboy themed event. It was very educational and hilarious to see a New Zealander’s version of this.

August was Scott’s birthday and his second Super Secret Birthday Adventure. This took place at a venue called Adventure Waikato where sheep farm meets adventure park. We began with abseiling (i.e. rappelling) down into an ancient collapsed cave system that is now a valley rich in native flora and fauna. Next was hiking the valley and exploring some caves (one with glowworms). Then we rode a flying fox (i.e. zipline) and finally did some orienteering.

September and October were when the thesis panic began to set in, so I have very little recollection of these months, except for Halloween. On Halloween, Scott and I participated in the Auckland Marathon with Scott running the Quarter Marathon and me running the Half Marathon.

We hosted an American Thanksgiving in November for some of our friends. This was complete with organic turkey, stuffing, Polish kielbasa-like sausage (actually Danish Rookworst and South African Boerewors), and pumpkin pie. We also played a version of Alice’s Restaurant and tried to explain this particular Thanksgiving tradition as best we could.

The beginning of December we finally decided to take advantage of the cheap airfare to Australia from NZ and of my family’s timeshare week swapping option in order to spend a week at a resort near Tomakin, Australia. This is along the east coast of Australia about 4 hours south of Sydney. We flew into Sydney and proceeded to do a lot of driving from there including another 4 hour journey west of Tomakin to Thredbo in order to climb the highest peak in Australia, Mount Kosciuszko. It was springtime in Australia and the mountain still had a little snow on it, so we at least touched snow in December this year!

This brings us full circle to the present. I am a little excited about my first Christmas and New Year’s in NZ and barbequing instead of baking. This will be Scott and my first Christmas on our own together, but we will spend most of Christmas afternoon and evening at our friend’s “Strays and Waifs” Holiday Party. This is specifically an event for those without family in the greater Auckland area who could not make it home for the holidays, and where Scott spent last Christmas.

The plan is to return home to the States in July 2011. I can give no further details.

Now I will leave you with the following:

“May your days be merry and bright!-And may all your Christmases be white.”

“I’ll be home for Christmas.-If only in my dreams.”

Happy Christmas, Seasons Greetings, Happy Hanukah, Merry Winter, Joyous Yule, Happy Holidays, Wondrous Solstice, Happy Kwanzaa

And

A Happy New Year!

With Love,

Jen and Scott