35 weeks

Here is another picture of the growing baby belly! I am nearing the end of 35 weeks now, so just another month to go. Steve is still on the South Island and has our camera, so unfortunately pictures have been lacking for the last few weeks. I am feeling great, and still really enjoying the pregnancy. The baby is very active, but I continue to sleep really well, and have been using some of my vacation days to make the work weeks shorter. I have 6 days of work left over this week and next, and then I'll be finished for the next 6-7 months. Paid maternity leave here in NZ is 14 weeks, so after that we will be using some of our savings, and we will have to see how it goes before deciding exactly when I'll head back to work.

My parents flew in from Vancouver this past week, and we have stuck close to home, keeping busy with sorting through baby things and errands. Dad has accomplished a huge amount around the house and yard already. It is wonderful to have them here and their help is very appreciated. They have done everything from laundry to cooking to garbage, and I'm feeling very spoiled. Once Steve returns, they will likely start to plan some cycling adventures here on the North Island.

My Dad is flying down to meet up with Steve later this week, to help Steve with the long drive back to Wellington. Steve reports that their testing period with the spectrograph is going really well - better than they expected, in fact - and he is very ready to be finished with these long night shifts. He has been at the observatory every night from about 5:30pm - 5:30am, and then sleeps until 2 or 3 in the afternoon. I'm sure he will have some great pictures of Tekapo sunsets and sunrises, so hopefully I can post some of those next week.

First Light

"First light" is what astronomers and opticians call the first time you put light through a finished instrument. In its most genuine form it is light from an actual star, but in many instances it is first simulated in a lab setting. After many months of working long hours, and many weeks of working weekends, Steve was able to put the first light through the spectrograph that he's been designing and building. When I went over to pick him up and get a glimpse of the finished instrument, I walked in and saw a bunch of guys all ooohhing and aahhing over the instrument. Everyone that Steve works with has been very impressed not only with his hard work, but also with the finished product.

Below, Steve is in the work area where he built and tested the spectrograph. The little room to the right is a "clean room" where the actual instrument sits on a special table. The 'clean' factor is key because of all the mirrors and glass surfaces in the instrument that have to stay in pristine condition.

Here is Steve inside the clean room, with the spectrograph. All the parts are placed at specific distances from each other to ensure the light travels at the correct angles.

The final product of the spectrograph is a picture made up of dots and lines that's shown on a computer screen. This is what's called a spectrum, and what the spectrograph does is similar to what happens when white light is split into the rainbow of colours by a prism. A digital camera then takes a picture of the spectrum and sends it to the computer screen. The images are analyzed and from them astronomers can tell all sorts of things about a given star, like whether there are other companion stars nearby, what the star is made of, how fast it is moving, and whether or not it might have planets around it.

So now that the spectrograph is in working condition, Steve will pack it up and drive it to the large observatory on the South Island. Steve and I will share the driving on the way down (it is about 9 hours after the 3hr ferry ride), but he will stay there until mid-April for testing and then drive back on his own. After this stint of testing, there will undoubtedly be adjustments and refinements to be done, as well as analyzing any data they get. It has been a long road, but well worth the effort when, as Steve said over the phone to me today, "it works!"

Home on Howard Rd

We are finally starting to feel a bit more settled into our new home on Howard Rd. We have been here a week now, and although we have both been busy with work, we have started to put things away and are slowly getting settled. Here is a view of the house from a nearby road.

This is a view of the other side of the house, just after losing the evening sun.
The deck is lovely for relaxing, listening to the cicadas and birds, and watching the boats in the harbour. Our view is somewhat limited - what I call an "affordable view" - if you walk even just a few metres up the road, there is a full view of the harbour, and I'm sure property values triple.
A few minutes walk up the road, there is a beautiful view of the Hutt Valley. The buildings in the foreground are all part of an industrial area, and this is near where Steve works.
Here I am, 31 weeks along (7 months), and still feeling really good. A few upcoming dates we are looking forward to, include:

March 29th - we both drive a van down to Lake Tekapo where Steve will set up and begin testing of the instrument he is building. I will fly back to Wellington from Christchurch on April 2 and Steve will stay another two weeks for testing.

April 5th - my parents arrive from Vancouver!

April 15th - Steve returns from Lake Tekapo.

April 22nd - Good Friday, made even better because it is my last day of work!

Flat Point, NZ

For my birthday weekend, we went to Flat Point and rented a little bach for the weekend. It was about 2.5 hours from Wellington, on the coast of the Wairarapa region. The hills are very dry and rugged - good for little but sheep and cattle farming.

This is the bach where we stayed - an old farmhouse that has been re-done. It was up a little hillside so there was a view of the ocean.

We enjoyed my birthday breakfast of pancakes and fresh nectarines while sitting on the sunny balcony.

That afternoon, we headed for a walk in the hills and stopped to say hello to these beach-side horses.

The hills behind the bach are still a working farm for sheep and cattle, and we had permission from the owners to walk through them.

Steve stopped to examine the electrical boxes on the fence...

We stopped at the highest point to eat our lunch and take in the views.

The way back took us along the beach, where we saw lots of interesting rock formations.

This part of the beach is likely where Flat Point gets its name... a large flat section of beach - apparently good for dirtbikes.

It was a wonderful, relaxing birthday weekend with gorgeous weather. I am 29 weeks along now, and very thankful to be feeling so good. We start our weekly prenatal classes this week, and we will be meeting with the midwife every two weeks.

Our other news this past week is that we will have to move to a new house. The day after my last blog post about our wonderful location, we got a letter in the mail telling us that the owners of this house are moving back in and we need to leave. So, we spent a few days hunting and fortunately found a new place quickly. We will move to 66 Howard Rd, Eastbourne, NZ 5013 on March 4th.

Mawson Tracks

One of the reasons we love our current house and location is because we are right next to forested hills with a network of walking tracks. Within minutes we can be walking in the bush, surrounded by beautiful trees and singing birds. There are lots of tracks to choose from - short ones that only take 1/2 an hour, to longer ones that are a few hours. This past weekend was hot and humid, and the shade of the forest was a perfect escape. It was also a good opportunity to get some more pictures of my ever-growing belly!

February and 6 months along

One of the guys that Steve works with went fishing last week and caught 8 Snapper, and gave one to us! We put butter and garlic on the top and baked it whole - it was really delicious. Fishing is really popular here - at the nearby Hutt River, there are almost always people standing on the bridge with fishing poles, and on every wharf there are groups of people casting poles. I think a lot of people also have boats to head out into deeper waters too.

Here is a picture of me last week, at 26 weeks along. I'm still feeling really good, and except for not sleeping well after my night shifts, I really can't complain. The baby moves a lot and seems to react a bit more to noises around me. For example, at work, I've noticed that if I'm standing right next to a screaming baby, my baby will often give some really big kicks.

Wainuiomata Views

Every month, when the moon is rising late or in new moon phase, Steve watches the weather and evening sky very closely to see if it will be clear for observing. If it looks like it might be a clear night sky, he packs up the car with all his observing gear - telescope, folding chair, table, books, and a thermos of tea - and sets out. He has found a site to set up about 25 minutes away from our house, near the town of Wainuiomata. It is in a valley and the mountains block most of the light pollution from Wellington. The part of the sky with the least light pollution is to the south, which is the richest part of the sky for finding nebulas, the southern milky way, and countless fuzzy galaxies. He sets up at the end of a long dirt laneway, owned by a man named Nigel. When Nigel first met Steve, parked at the side of the road near his laneway, he quickly told Steve the combination to the locked gate so that Steve could drive right in and set up. Steve has shown him a few of the more impressive night sky objects, and Nigel is always interested to have a peek. A couple weeks ago, we decided to walk up the long laneway to take in the view from the other side of the valley.

Most of the hillsides have been or are still used for logging, so we followed a logging road and ate our lunch at the top.

This little bird was posing for us, against the beautiful steep mountainsides to the southeast.

One of Steve's latest projects was to make a wheelbarrow for moving his telescope base. Usually we both lift it together to take it to the car, but he often has to unload it by himself, and it weighs about 50lbs. So he made arms and wheels that attach to the box base and he can wheel it around. He also made that little ramp to help with the stairs in/out of the house and getting into/out of the car; the whole system works very well.

Last but not least, here is a more recent picture of me and my growing belly at 23 weeks. I've started wearing a few more maternity clothes, and I'm thankful that I can wear uniforms to work each day. I continue to feel really good and enjoy this time a lot. I've taken up swimming and have been going to one of the outdoor pools a few times a week to do lengths. The outdoor pools close at the end of summer (mid-March) so then I guess I might have to make do with an indoor pool, but I love being outside while exercising.

Steve is in a really busy phase of his PhD project right now - finishing off designing parts, getting them made, assembling the spectrograph, and testing it in the lab. This all needs to be completed before April when he will be taking the instrument to the Mt John Observatory on the South Island. They have two weeks booked on the large telescope down there to do some "real star" tests with the spectrograph. Hopefully the baby does not come while he is away!