Easter Sunday

The children were all up ridiculously early to check to see if the Easter Bunny had been. And surprisingly enough he had. There was chocolate everywhere!

The children were given 10 minutes to consume as much chocolate as they wanted and then time for church.

Chocolate and then Church. What a way to start the day!

In the afternoon it was decided to go down to the reserve to burn off a few chocolate calories and have a few hard-boiled egg and spoon races. Both adults and children took part in the races and sad to say the level of fair play in evidence was quite limited. There was not one race marred with one controvesy or antoher, but we all had heaps of fun. They were so much fun they may have to become part of the Easter tradition!

Tick Follows Tock

Maunday Thursday and we have visitors again. Sharon, Mike Frankie & Sonny decided that they would arrive a day early to stay with us. The last holiday park they had planned to stay at turned out to be a little bit of a dump. So Sharon rang late Thursday afternoon to ask if they could come a day early. Needless to say we had left the housework to the last minute but we managed to rush home, do a bit of frantic cleaning, tidying and food shopping we were then able to open the doors to Meadowbank Backpackers Hostel with confidence.

The weather was considerably better than it had been when they arrived - bright sunshine rather than heavy rain - and we decided that on Good Friday we would away to Piha beach to take advantage of the late summer sun, picnic and surfing. (Over here Easter is seen as the official end to the summer, so any sunny days after that are seen as a bonus!)

The day at Piha was very successful. We had a picnic on the beach with sandwiches containing the obligatory sprinkling of black volcanic sand. The children had a great time building sand boats and sand castles, sand surfing, pretending to be pirates, paddling and for Joe & Millie some surfing too. Jes and Mike were not to be outdone by the children and after some posturing, borrowed the children's boogie boards and spent the next hour trying to catch the perfect wave! Highly entertaining for all the spectators. The men definitely need to work on their technique.

Sonny didn't really enjoy himself as much as the rest but then it transpired that he was a very poorly bunny and had to seek hospital treatment over the whole of the Easter weekend, so much so that flights to HK had to be delayed until he was well enough to travel! Fortunately he did get better in time for them to fly to HK on Easter Monday evening.

End of Term 1

Wow - that went fast!

One term over and done. I think it can be safely said that the children had a great term. They made loads of friends, worked hard and played hard. they even have the callouses on their hands to prove that last bit! Nearly every day after school they play in the school adventure playground for about an hour - climbing walls, slides, and loads of monkey bars. It's the monkey bars that have given them and nearly every other child at school callouses galore on their hands.

During the last week of term the senior students in Mt Carmel (the juniors) were asked to decorate an egg with winners being given Easter eggs as prizes. Joe, not surprisingly, chose to decorate his as Jonathan Falefasa Umaga better known as Tana Omaga an All Black. I'm sure you can spot the similarities!

All it took was one boiled egg, two black balloons, some kitchen roll, some white paper and some super glue & there you have Tana Umaga!! Blue Peter eat your heart out!

The Cricket Tournament

Today was the day Joe has been looking forward to for weeks. This was the 11 a-side cricket tournament held at Dilworth School in Remuera. There were schools from all over the Eastern Suburbs but to make it more manageable each school would only play 2 matches with an hour each innings.

Joe was playing for Mt Carmel A team and was very proud of the fact. His team played Meadowbank Primary (a very local derby) and Dilworth School.

Mt Carmel A won the first match and lost the second match.

Joe played extremely well but is still learning of the importance of good sportsmanship - let's just leave it at that!

Daddy's Taking Us to the Zoo Tomorrow!

We can stay all day!
Today we went off to the Auckland Zoo. Joe and Millie were excited at the prospect of seeing a real-live kiwi bird and a crocodile! Guess who wanted to see which!
Neither were disappointed although both the kiwi and the alligators were pretty shy and they weren't available for a photo shoot.We had taken a picnic so we did manage to stay most of the day. One of the highlights definitely had to be one of the lionesses playing with a large blue plastic barrel. She picked it up and carried it to the pool where she dropped it in. Because it was relatively big and had several puncture marks in it sank quickly but kept bobbing on the surface. This was obviously what she wanted. She spent the next 5 minutes playing with it and making it bob about even more before she decided to drag it out of the water completely. She actually looked like she was enjoying her playtime.

At the end of the visit Millie was very excited to the visit the gift shop. It gave her an opportunity to use her EFTPOS card for the first time. With it and with birthday money from Auntie Avril, Millie bought this little chap. As with every soft toy to enter our house we had to think of a name. Millie finally settled on "Auckland".

The future is EFTPOS

One of Millie's friends from school, Olivia, told us that she had an EFTPOS card and her own bank account. Both Joe & Millie thought this was amazing - not the bank account bit but owning your own EFTPOS card!
After quite extensive research and a few blind alleys we found a bank that would allow the children to open their own bank account and also supply the desired card.
Joe & Millie are now proud owners of their own cards!
In NZ EFTPOS is everywhere and there seems to be no minimum spend either. This makes it perfect for the children to go and spend their pocket money in the local dairy (corner shop) and get an ice-cream or lollies (sweets).

On the one hand this does take a lot of pressure off Mum & Dad because they don't have to dip into their own pockets for such treats quite so often but it now means that Mum & Dad have to remember to pay the pocket money on a regular basis. Fortunately we can do a transfer over the Internet so we don't even have to have the right change!

The Camper Van

Wednesday 14th March
Today our visitors went to pick up their camper van. Joe and Millie are very envious of their trip and spending all those nights sleeping on the top bunk. Frankie was also very excited to be continuing his road trip. They finally set off after a lunch at Mission Bay and a big shop at New World supermarket. They had to make a detour via Rutherford Terrace on the way out which was timed well as they were able to say adieu to Joe and Millie after they had returned from school.

Our First Visitors

Monday 12th March
Today at 5.45AM Sharon, Mike, Frankie and Sonny arrived in New Zealand. Jes went to pick them up from the airport and bring them back here. Joe and Millie were very excited to have our first guests and had even drawn some posters in celebration. Sadly they also brought the torrential rain with them. The weather had been threatening to change for the past few days but the day they arrived the rain and gales came and stayed for the duration of their stay in Auckland. Despite the weather we decided to visit Waiheke Island. We caught a bus to Britomart, lunch at a Mexican restaurant and then a ferry to Waiheke. Fortunately the rain held off until we were on the bus when it pelted it down. When we got off the bus the sun came out and stayed out until we were on the ferry when again it poured down. Our afternoon on Waiheke was really good. We wandered up to the town avoiding some raindrops. We managed to find a little cafe for a coffee with a beautiful view over one of the beautiful beaches. We spent a couple of hours playing on the beach. That evening Sharon and Mike, with some help from Jes, began planning their Kiwi trip. A few beers were quaffed while the boys sat at the very 1980's bar in our lounge area. It's only one step up from Jack and Vera's bar and has to be seen to be believed!

Rainbow's End

As part of our Auckland Super Pass we had tickets to visit Kelly Tarleton's Antarctic Underwater Adventure, Rangitoto Island, Sky Tower and Rainbow's End.
Rainbow's End is Auckland's equivalent to Alton Towers.

However if you go expecting Alton Towers you would be very disappointed. It was good fun with short queues everywhere. Millie and Joe were EXTREMELY brave and went on the sorts of rides they had previously refused to go on.
Joe volunteered to go on the Corkscrew ride but wanted to come off after the first circuit. Louise was relieved to have an excuse to get off the ride as well.

Millie was the bravest of the day and went on as many of the rides as she was allowed. She and Jes went on Fear Fall - the one where the ride takes you vertically up and then drops suddenly to earth. Jes came off looking white and shaking, Millie came off asking to go on again.

Thanks mainly to Jes, Millie and Louise got volunteered to go on stage with the in-house magician. Millie was levitated and Louise got involved in a very dodgy card trick. The only up-side was that Millie was given loads of chocolate bars as a thank you for helping with the trick!

The Kite Festival

Children's Day in Auckland

Someone had decided that since there is Mother's Day and Father's Day there should also be a Children's Day and today was that day. (Just listen to those people saying "Everyday is a Children's Day!")

There were countless activities going on around Auckland to celebrate but we chose to go up to Bastion Point, the hill above Mission Bay in search of the Kite Festival.

No surprises if I say that the weather was unpredictable. A constant threat of a shower but sunshine in between. It didn't stop us spending a great morning up on the hill looking at the big kites and flying the two very modest kites that we bought there.
Joe saw it as a competition to see how high he could get his kite-shaped kite and Millie just liked the idea of flying a pink jellyfish kite in the sky.

Relaxing at home

Well from this point on it all seems to get rather routine.
Up at 7.30am, breakfast, making sandwiches, school run, clock watching til 2.45pm, kids playing on school playground for an hour (most days), walk or drive home, homework, tea and bed. We could almost be in England. Well almost except for the fish and chips on the beach at Mission Bay every Friday evening after we've picked up Jes from work.
Weekends seem to get eaten up with bar-be-ques and trips to surf beaches.
This picture illustrates how Joe spends a great portion of his time!!

Rangitoto Island

Saturday 24th February
Rangitoto Island is the islnad we can see from our house. We can't see the sea but we can see the volcanic island.

At 600 years old it is the youngest of Aucklands 49 volcanoes. To get there we had to catch a 30 minute ferry from downtown Auckland. there are only a few ferries a day so we had to plan our trip carefully. It took about an hour to walk up to the top, 15 mintues admiring the view and eating our picnic and then 55 minutes on the way down. This left about 10 mintues spare before the next ferry arrived to take us back to the mainland.

The views form the island are superb. We were able to orientate ourselves by looking at the Sky Tower and our local beaches.

Millie's Birthday Party

Thursday 22nd February

Millie was quite upset not to have a proper birthday party for her friends so today we organsied a little party for her and four girls from school. Olivia, Lara, Talia and Danielle came for a birthday tea.

We all walked home from school - 20 mintues - singing and dancing all the way. balloons and streamers were already up and waiting for the party to begin. Millie and Joe both thought this was brilliant.

The girls were very quick to get changed and to begin the dancing which didn't stop for at least 75 mintues!! Most of it was to High School Musical or Pop Party 3 but they all thought it was hilarious. Joe didn't mind too much being the only boy but he didn't get to read his book as he hoped.

Piha Beach

Saturday 17th February
today we ventured off the the Western Coast of New Zealand. it's about 1 hour plus from Auckland and has the reputation for black sand and great surf. Today was the day to give the boogie boards a good testing.
We packed up the chilly bin with the obligatory picnic, put the boogie boards, rugby ball and frisbee in the car and off we set. After several wrong turns we arrived to find the most spectacular views of Piha beach.

There was a bit of a breeze blowing so the black sand got into our sandwiches but the sun was shining brightly and the black sand was too hot to stand on.

The beach was incredibly long and when we arrived relatively quiet. We decided to position ourselves near the surf life guards so we wouldn't have far to walk to go for a surf.

Both Joe and Millie had a great time tackling the waves and when they were ready for a rest we sat back and watched the guys on the long boards.

We all slept well that night but due to the black sand and the breeze blowing we are still picking the sand out of our places several weeks later!!

Millie's 7th Birthday

Monday 12th February

Millie woke extra early today to open all her presents, cards and parcels from family and friends back in England. THANK YOU to everyone who sent her a little something. She was thrilled with everything. So after a few rousing rounds of Happy Birthday off they went to school.

The weather today wasn't as good as we hoped. Ever since we knew we were coming to NZ we had promised Millie we would go to the beach for her birthday, but the weather was a bit cooler and overcast today so we had to change plans. We all got dressed up - Millie in her new dress from Auntie Fiona and off we went to Auckland City to pick up Jes and go to the Sky Tower for a birthday meal. Sky Tower is the huge tower in central Auckland that can be seen from virtually everywhere in greater Auckland.

We managed to find an Eat as Much as You Can buffet in one of the many restaurants in the tower. They had chicken wings, chips, and battered fish on the menu so Joe was in his element. After pigging out there we went off to explore the Sky Tower itself. The lifts up to the top have glass walls and glass floors - very scary. Up at the observation deck there are glass panels in the floor as well, so you can see down as well as out. There is a 360 degree view of Auckland and the tower is 300m high so there is a fabulous view of the whole area. We were able to guess where we live because from our bedroom window we can see Rangitoto Island and the Sky Tower.