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He 's an avid skateboarder and scuba diver , and now Anna does some skateboarding too and is a qualified diver . After five days ( and rather more bottles of wine ) we were joined by another friend who had gallantly offered to help Ian sail Beulah back while Pam returned on the " Quick Cat . It was a bit of a shock ; in fact Ian arrived back early one morning from a three-week North American trip to learn that she was moving out at lunchtime . The Medal itself is huge and useless - - what do you do with a 3-inch gong that does not even have provision for a chain to hang by ? Talking of the volcano - - although Ruapehu is only a couple of hours drive from us and can be seen from the top of Hamilton 's tallest building ( a mere seven stories ) , life was not in the least affected by the eruptions except that the airport was sometimes closed at night because of drifting , incredibly gritty , volcanic ash in the upper atmosphere . " For a farewell gift we ordered matching t-shirts : Marie 's inscribed I sailed Beulah and Jim 's I survived Beulah . Near the end of the year we heard that Anna had landed a big promotion in the firm that she has worked in for years ( Just Jeans , a youthful clothing store ) . You see Hutterites selling vegetables in Lethbridge 's Saturday market , the males wearing open-necked white shirts and black trousers with braces ( suspenders to North Americans ) , the females wearing long flower-patterned dresses in dark colours with polka-dot headscarves and staunchly sensible black or brown shoes . We love America , and have some good American friends , but we do wish they could persuade more of their compatriots to vote for the other side . She does n't like it when the boat tips over too much , so is secretly relieved when Alex 's second hat blows off and master mariner Ian takes us about to rescue it . Her friend Christine from Vancouver visited us for a month in 2003 , and Nikki took her on a trip round the lower North Island like the one Pam arranged for Ian 's relatives . As a total newcomer to this job Pam often found it overwhelming , but everyone survived and now she can look back on it as what is euphemistically called " a worthwhile personal growth experience . Zane Grey , the famous American author and sportsman , kept a fishing camp on the island in the 1920s and 1930s from which he established big game fishing in New Zealand . After seeing almost every film released this year , her favourites are American Beauty and Magnolia . " Nikki will never forget that of all the wonderful and exciting things they did together , for John the highlight was - - squirrels ! She has a steady boyfriend who is finishing his computer science degree at Waikato and works part-time for a small firm that does digital library consulting work centred around the Greenstone software that Ian 's group has developed ( though Ian has little to do with the firm , and nothing to do with John 's job ) . This is quite restful by comparison with the school , because the shop is often very quiet - - though she does a good job of selling when visitors to Hamilton drop in . While Dan was working Anna took Pam on the ferry to Manly and then on a nice bush walk back towards Sydney , where they came across some ancient aboriginal rock drawings . Movies : Wallace and Gromit on a Google outing ( young Americans sadly miss much of the British humour ) and The Prizewinner of Defiance Ohio ( with our friends , who knew the principal character ) . We've waited impatiently for ten o'clock when we could decently open the first beer of the morning , sipped Chardonnay on a calm afternoon , and warmed ourself with a tot of rum on chilly evenings . Incredibly , the system is that when one " special needs " child leaves , all the teacher aides have to apply for the remaining jobs .