The Ostrom Family Adventures

I wish I could send a smell over the inter-webs. The birds here never stop, so they are still singing like a tropical paradise, but the flowers that are blooming everywhere, especially citrus fruit flowers and cherry blossoms and now Pōhutukawa trees (the NZ Christmas tree), Wow! Just Wow! I have been working a ton but my favorite thing is to ride to or from work at night in the dark quiet streets just smelling all these incredible trees, bushes and flowers. Whether they release more scent at night, or my other senses are quieter, the smell is intoxicating and brings soooo much joy!

It’s been so fun to have Tommy and April in country and we have seen them regularly which is just great for our hearts! April’s excitement about the Pōhutukawa blossoming and its signaling of the Christmas season has inspired us as well. It’s definitely a shift to think about the Thanksgiving and Christmas Seasons as the sun is getting warmer and the days longer.

We flew out of the Hamilton Airport on Friday afternoon to Wellington for the weekend to meet up with Tommy and April for a Ziggy Alberts concert. T&A introduced our family to Ziggy’s Australian folk, morning coffee on the beach vibes a few years ago. Last year, Lori and Tristan saw him in Nashville, we saw him in Seattle and the next night Tommy and April saw him perform in Vancouver BC during his 2024 tour.

It’s crazy, this world, one of the friends we made through Leif’s Sunrise Beach School, happened to be Ziggy’s cousin and when we went to see him perform with her, we were blessed to hang out with them after the show. He’s delightful! I mentioned that my brother and his fiancé would be at his show in Vancouver the next night and they were huge fans and he said, “have them wait after the show, I want to meet them!” So they did!

So, this weekend I mentioned our story to the guy running the swag table and he shared it with Ziggy who was like, “heck yeah, let’s hang after the show!” So we did! 🥰. He and Tommy and April talked about trying to meet up in Australia and do some surfing at some point, somewhere in the world. He listened super generously to Leif talking about his transition from a tiny Christian private school in the states to a large public school in NZ and shared how he had done something similar going into a huge school from being homeschooled. It was an awesome night!

We spent the next day exploring the South of Wellington, staying in Island Bay. We walked along the beach with some proper morning shenanigans, and found our way to the Beach house for a delicious breakfast.

We then met up with Tall Tom, April and Big Tom at Te Papa museum for exploring and lunch. Big Tom is 11 and the super cool oldest child of April’s friends Shauni and Ohad, who used to live in the little beach cabin where T&A are staying currently. They live down in Wellington now and are some of the kindest and most fun people ever. (April’s friends are all like this, it’s pretty neat). Leif and Big Tom had a blast once they got over their initial shyness.

We had a nice lunch on the waterfront followed by obilgatory gelato and then went to the Botanical Gardens and played before heading to Shauni and Ohad, Big Tom, and Little Noam’s house for an epic BBq and hang out time with some of their friends. There was chicken skewers, eggplant, lamb, roasted cauliflower, steak, and then Ohad brought out the Arak, which was new for Mason and I, delicious and strong! 🙂 It was a night of laughter and stories and shared food with new wonderful friends. (We were having too much fun to get a photo).

Sunday morning we got up and had a quick bagel breakfast and went out to the Taputeranga Snorkel trail, stepping into the Island Bay Marine education center first. Tiny, but mighty, this little center is such a cool way to orient yourself to the marine reserve. We were all trying out some new gear, long fins, and masks. I’m still getting used to my 5mm Wettie, and decided against wearing weights this time because it was so shallow, but wished I had them a few times. We still need to get Mason a wetsuit. He was a chilly champ and hung in there with us for a while though. (He does not share my affinity for cold water.)

The fish and sea-scape was amazing though!

We had a nice lunch at the Beach house again and hiked out to the Red Rocks. (Trust us, there are some red ones 😉

We had a beautiful quick flight home and then I went to work that night!