A couple of weeks ago now on the 25th of April, after finishing up our travels and saying goodbye to visitors, we celebrated another New Zealand Holiday- Anzac Day. This holiday is shared with Australia and commemorates both countries’ armed forces. ANZAC stands for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. ANZAC day was born out of Australia and New Zealand’s involvement in World War I, specifically the sacrifice of soldiers in the battle of Gallipoli. April 25th, 1915 is the day when 20,000 Australia and New Zealand soldiers landed in Gallipoli (a peninsula in Turkey), joining allied forces in the fight against Germany and the Ottoman empire. They were hoping to defeat Turkey and gain control of the area as a means to assist Russia. Tragically, the campaign was not successful despite grueling trench warfare for 8 months, resulting in the death of 11,400 of the 20,000 Australia and NZ soldiers. Thus, Anzac Day was born shortly after and continues to this day. The poppy flower is the symbol for Anzac Day and apparently for people around the world to remember those who died in service. Even the 6 year old that I tutor in reading, was able to tell me the reason behind it. Poppies were one of the first plants to grow on the battlefields of WWI in Belgium (Flanders fields) and a Canadian medical officer wrote a poem (“In Flanders Fields”) about it in 1915 while grieving a friend who died in battle. I don’t always connect to poems, but it is a beautiful poem (see picture below). I can now appreciate the meaning behind the poppy. 

Danny and I were curious what ANZAC day celebrations look like so when we heard about a local parade and morning service, we decided to join the celebration. Most commonly it seems ANZAC day is celebrated with a service at dawn but lucky for us our community also had one at 9am. This seemed reasonable although not reasonable enough for the kids who were keen to sleep in and stay at home after all the travelling. So Danny and I made it a date. We got there just as the parade was gathering. The parade consisted of a man with traditional Scottish attire playing bagpipes at the front, followed by flag bearers (Australia and NZ flags, I didn’t realize till then how similar the two are), next a few men in military uniform and then a few scout and school groups. They walked down the main street of Beachlands (the town neighboring ours) towards their destination, the Beachlands primary school. The small crowd of maybe 50-75 people, including Danny and I, filed in behind them and all walked the 1/4 mile or so to the school. This parade did not have candy and there weren’t really spectators as we were all walking together. The mood, helped by the bagpipes, was solemn. As I walked, I thought about my Italian Grandfather on my Dad’s side who fought in WW2 for Italy. Although I had never heard of ANZAC before coming here, I felt connected to the moment. There was for me a sense of unified remembrance of the sacrifice in war and a gratefulness for peace and freedom. The parade ended at the school where we all entered the auditorium and heard from a few speakers. There was a reading from the bible, “Love each other…” John 15:12, a hymn, prayer, and lastly the singing of both countries’ national anthems. Interestingly, the New Zealand National Anthem has two parts, the first sung in Te Reo (Maori language) and then the second in English. Although we didn’t partake, at the end they offered tea and “ANZAC biscuits”- a type of oatmeal cookie that is a staple for Australians and New Zealanders. Although not showy, it was a touching experience of NZ culture.

Well enough history for now! If you’ve gotten this far in the post you may be more curious about the SkyJump. This experience had captured our awe since our first trip to downtown Auckland, when we watched people from the observation deck falling through the air in front of us. Our home is a 40 min ferry ride away from downtown Auckland, but you can see the Sky Tower from our balcony. In Queenstown, adventure capital of the world, the kids were enticed to do similar type jumps along with the AJ Hackett motto “Live more. Fear less.” Okay I lied, bear with me for more history.

AJ Hackett is the Kiwi who invented and commercialized the bungee jump-starting New Zealand’s identity as a place for adventure. After multiple sentinel jumps garnering international attention, including a jump off the Eifel Tower, AJ Hackett opened the first commercial year-round bungee site in Queenstown on November 12, 1988. This site, at the Kawarau bridge, continues to this day and enables 1,000 thrill seekers a day to live more and fear less. Queenstown only has enough residents for one high school and in true Kiwi style, students celebrate their graduation by jumping for free. There are multiple bungee and bungee like experiences run by AJ Hackett in New Zealand, including the Auckland SkyJump. We were supportive of Charles and Audrey wanting to do this jump. I particularly appreciated the lack of bungee recoil that makes me think TBI and its height is impressive- 253 meters high vs Kawarau bridge which is a mere 43 meters. I was fortunate and crazy enough to do the Canyon Swing in Queenstown 20 years ago. I haven’t forgotten that jump; the memory still satisfies any remaining thrill-seeking tendencies. I was okay sitting this one out. Danny did a bungee jump himself in Switzerland many years ago and was keen to join.

Here is what they had to say about the experience (in the order they jumped):

Danny- “Scariest part was shuffling up to edge and looking over. But the actual jump was not too bad. It was exciting, fun. I was a bit nervous but what a rush, it flew by! No pun intended. Ha Ha.”

Charles (13yo)- “They made you hold on to both sides (beforehand). Even though you know you are strapped in you don’t feel like you are. That was scary. Also when you get close to the ground you feel like you don’t stop till the last second. I kept thinking about how I would be able to tell my friends I jumped off the tallest building in New Zealand.”

Audrey (11yo)- “It was very exhilarating. For a moment you are just hanging there. For moments I felt like I couldn’t breath. I had to force myself to inhale and exhale. I was just going so fast. I kept telling myself this is going to be fun but then i was like oh shoot! It was fun!”

I really enjoyed watching them; it was thrilling enough for me.

Last weekend, we felt the separation from home as we realized how difficult it is to even watch the KY Derby on TV from New Zealand. Typically back in Louisville, without cable tv, we are able to finagle a viewing by registering for a free trial to an app. But even that wasn’t working here. So Charles and I spent a good chunk of the morning figuring out the cheapest and easiest way which led us to register for a VPN (I’m feeling rather techy) that allowed us to use an app to watch it. Luckily we were in time to see the race which took place at 10:57 am here. A couple of local friends joined us last minute and we all tried hard to follow our hat picked horses in an exciting two minutes- what a close race! Apparently, there is a horse racing track in Auckland. I know because a few months ago we happened to find ourselves in an unfamiliar part of Auckland (picking up an item from Facebook marketplace). Driving around we incidentally came across Kentucky St. I was so excited, I made everyone get out for a picture. And right next to this street I saw racetrack. Makes total sense right?

Today I wasn’t planning on it, but I got up close and personal with the New Zealand healthcare system. I may have to write about the experience in a future post. But I will spill the beans now and tell you that Maria broke her collarbone. She fell from the school playground equipment. She is handling it well so far. Interestingly, I broke my collarbone around the same age. Like mother, like daughter.