The Ends of the Earth

This year marks the 70th Anniversary from when the US Marines landed in New Zealand during WWII to defend the Pacific. With the recent "thawing" of US-NZ bilateral relations, this was a good year to bring a large contingent of the US Marine Corps to NZ to commemorate this occasion. Let's just hope history does not repeat itself. The last time the Marines came, they impregnated the Kiwi ladies, and got into bar fights with the Kiwi men. But most of these Marines today are all part of the marching band. So...they should be harmless...as are all band geeks. Nevertheless, a group called "Concerned Citizens" were set to protest. It was hard to see from where we were, but I think there may have been 6 protestors present. Relative to NZ's total population, this actually was a high percentage! We got to see the ceremony with the Prime Minister and the US Ambassador...from our living room...literally. Here are some good reading links:
Marine Band playing Paekakariki
US Embassy Wellington News
US Ambassador Blog
Concerned Citizens Protest

And here are some photos and videos from the night.

Friday morning started abruptly at 4:45 with the fire alarm going off in our 6th floor apartment. I was fairly confident it wasn't a drill (dead of winter and in the middle of the night). Charlie was upset (it was LOUD) and I grabbed Liam out of his crib but was so foggy-minded I couldn't figure out how to get my coat while holding him. I was trying to make Charlie feel better, but really wanted to cry with him. Really it's my worst nightmare to be in a fire or earthquake with the boys (actually alone - thankfully Jason was there) in our apartment. Thankfully Jason is my disaster-experienced husband and he grabbed Liam while I got my coat and then stuffed a bunch of other warm things is his arms while we ran for the stairs.

You can see our apartment above the restaurant

Our apartment is actually pretty flash, and there are a lot of fancy and "important" people (politicians, CEOs, former Chief Justice-types). That being said, everyone was huddled outside in their pajamas and bathrobes, it was pretty funny actually. I think everyone thought it was a fire drill, until we saw thick black smoke billowing from the Backbencher restaurant below our apartment. There is one guy in our apartment that I sort of ran over his toes with my stroller when he thought I wasn't a resident, but just came off-the-streets and tried to sneak into the building. It was an awkward encounter, and I sort of want to apologize for it, but anyway I heard him shout: "it's going to blow!" as he ran across the street. It freaked me out and we all ran across the street to watch the emergency vehicles respond. We counted between SIX and EIGHT fire trucks - complete with hoses, ladders, lots of firemen - a 3-year old's dream really. All weekend Charlie has begged us to play "Backbencher Fire" with his firetruck, that before this week he didn't even care existed.

We live literally right across the street from the Beehive, the New Zealand Parliament building (equivalent to our Capitol Building). Security guards invited us into the lobby of the Beehive, and after 10-15 minutes of cold winds we were thankful to accept the offer. The Education Minister of Parliament, Hekia Parata, is a resident in our apartment and has been in the news A LOT this week for an extremely unpopular plan to increase classroom sizes in order to close a budget shortfall. On Tuesday or Wednesday she backtracked on the policy and there were calls from the opposition party for her to step down. Anyway - the poor woman really needed some positive media coverage this week. It was funny to see her spring to action in the emergency. In the Beehive, she came over to Liam and Charlie and talked to them. Liam was huddled in our blanket on Jason's lap. He later waddled over to her, with his saggy diaper and touched her leg and "shared a piece of his mind" with her. At 6am or so we were able to return to the apartment and she ushered us back from the Beehive to the Kate Shepard apartments. She lingered in the street outside of the apartment and asked if we enjoyed our visit to the Beehive. I couldn't help but think she was waiting for the media to roll in and take some pictures of her helping during the fire. Unfortunately I didn't see any media, but here is one of many articles from the day. We laughed because the only "young babies" were Liam and Charlie.

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Embattled education minister Hekia Parata helped evacuate an apartment block beside a Wellington political landmark overnight.

Ms Parata was among residents ordered to leave the Kate Sheppard apartments on Molesworth St when a fire broke out in the kitchen of neighbouring pub the Backbencher about 4.45am.

The fire cause major damage in the kitchen and to the bar where there are several famous Spitting Image-style puppets of politicians past and present.

The puppets of United Future leader Peter Dunne and Maori Party co-leader Pita Sharples were badly damaged.

Firefighters were alerted by alarms in neighbouring apartments, and Ms Parata was among dozens of inhabitants from all 10 floors of the apartments told to get out.

She helped security guards give people shelter inside the main foyer at Parliament.

"We arranged for them to go into the Beehive so they could be warm,'' she told Radio New Zealand. "The security guards were absolutely marvellous getting blankets and things for the young babies.''

The drama came the night after Ms Parata was forced to announce a Government backdown on plans to increase class sizes after a huge backlash from parents and teachers.

Molesworth St has been reopened.

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Anyway - lots of excitement but thankfully no one was hurt and the apartments weren't touched. The Backbencher restaurant's kitchen was destroyed and a lot of the famous political puppets were badly damaged. They are expecting to open up in 2 months or so. Selfishly I am sad, because that's where my best friends work. I joked that in my first few weeks in Wellington, my best friends were the really nice baristas that work at the coffee shop at the Backbencher. I'm starting a book club with one of them (ie we read similar books and discuss them for 4-5 minutes while they prepare my coffee). I probably won't see them until October now when we return from the US!