Kelly Tarleton's Underwater Adventure

Sunday 11th February
Today we bought a SuperPass for each of us - tickets to 4 main attractions in Auckland: Kelly Tarleton's Underwater Adventure, Sky Tower, Rainbow's End Theme Park and a trip to Rangitoto Island (Auckland's youngest volcano at 600 years old). We have 4 weeks to visit each of the attractions sotoday we decided to start with the Underwater Adventure.
We arrived just in time to watch the stingrays being fed. Pretty cool! We saw the oldest stingray called Phoebe feeding from the hand of the man who was in the tank with them. He said they have no teeth so can't bite him but from time to time they did try and swallow his hand. Joe has been a bit spooked about going in the sea since he saw a stingray at Sandy Bay but hopefully after today and listening to all the information about the stingrays he'll be more at ease in the shallows. As part of the deal we also went on the snowcat ride which took us round the penguin enclosure which was very impressive. There's also a travelator which takes you round a perspex tunnel in the main fish tank. Millie had to stand on a box to see properly but we all managed to spot the turtles, sharks, lion fish and the eels.

After Kelly Tarleton's we went off to Mission Bay for a picnic lunch, playing rugby on the grass, throwing a frisbee around, having a paddle in the sea and a general chilled Sunday afternoon. Millie is on Mission Bay beach with Rangitoto volcanic island in the background.

First Day of School

Wednesday 7th February
Joe and Millie were both extremely excited and a little bit nervous about starting school. Joe in particular looked like his stomach was in his shoes as we left him at 8.45am.
However when Louise arrived at 2.45pm to pick them up they both came bounding out of class telling about their day and how many new friends they had made.

Every child has to take a packed lunch to school as Mt Carmel does not have a school kitchen. They don't even have a dining room. At lunch time all the children have to take their lunch and sit under the sail shades or under the verandas of their classrooms. There are water fountains everywhere in the playground and the children take it in turns to play on the adventure playground equipment. Joe spends most lunchtimes playing touch rugby, although even he says sometimes it's too hot to play and so they just roll down the hill or sit in the shade chatting.

By Friday Joe was in the cricket team and Millie had been invited to a friend's house to play. AS expected the children settled into school and all its routines very easily.

Waitangi Weekend - Matapouri

Saturday-Monday 3rd-5th February
This weekend we were invited up to Matapori, near Whangerai (pronounced Fongeri?!) by Paul and Leah to go camping on their plot of land where they are planning to build their holiday home/executive retreat. The camping was primitive and yet tinged with luxury. No running water; the toilet facilities were a "long drop" - a little hut over a very deep hole, but it did come with a toilet seat. The luxury was the power supply which ran the fridge freezer, the kettle and the electric fry pan! There was a sink and kitchen units in the middle of the field and perfectly placed so the view when washing up was stunning. Sadly we forgot our camera for the weekend - so no photos.
Saturday afternoon we went down to Sandy beach where there was a surf competition. Joe was a little startled by the stingray he saw in the shallows but still managed to jump his share of waves.
In the evenings we went over to some friends of Paul and Leah - Sandi and Vernon with their two children Jayde and Liam. They were extremely hospitable and not only laid on a bbq for us all but invited us to use their hot-tub and their shower!

Jes' First Day at Work

Thursday 1st February

Bit of an odd day today - Jes leaving the house to travel by bus to the Central Business District in Auckland. This left the rest of us with a few chores to do before next week, namely we had to go and spend huge amounts of money on the children's school uniforms and lunch boxes, drinks bottles etc.

Even Joe was excited as we went to the School Uniform Shop in Remuera to kit them out in everything. The list of uniform from school sounds pretty strict - particularly about footwear. Millie was obviiously thrilled to be trying on clothes even if they were school pinafores etc and surprisingly Joe was quite co-operative about trying on his shorts, polo shirts etc too. He wasn't that keen on the sandals but was persuaded when we told him every child at school would be wearing them so he wouldn't feel left out.

When we got back to the house both of them were eager to try on the gear for a fashion show and photos. It's all going scarily smoothly!

Waitangi

Wednesday 31st January
This morning we opted to visit Waitangi Treaty Grounds. This is where the Treaty was originally signed between Queen Victoria's government and the Maori chiefs on 6th February 1840. The history behind it is extremely interesting and the wording of the treaty is thought-provoking.

Our first stop was to watch a Maori Cultural Performance which involved a group of Maori people singing songs, telling stories, perform the haka and the women in the group performed a dance with poi - flax balls that they swing around their heads with great skill as they don't hit themselves in the head, hit the wall or each other with them. No mean feat!

We wandered around the Treaty House and read all about the work leading up to the treaty and the efforts to celebrate 100 years anniversary of the signing.

Also at the Treaty Grounds is a Maori 'waka' which is a 35 metre long ceremonial canoe. It needs a minimum of 76 people to paddle the canoe and it was massive! Joe and Millie both had their photos taken with Barnaby Bear aka Floppy Bear for the purposes of the "Where in the World" Geography project back at St Urban's!! As we wandered out of the canoe house we saw a group of people paddling their own waka onto the beach just in front of the canoe house. They had an instructor/guide who was teaching them to paddle in the traditional manner. Millie was very intrigued as he was dressed only in a very small loin cloth. From where she was standing she could see his bottom in all it's glory!

Next we visited the Maori meeting house or 'Te Whare Runanga'. The carvings in the meeting house depict Kupe the Explorer. This was designed by a colleciton of Maori tribes. Ususally the carvings in each metting house are specific to the tribe but this one was designed as a way to celebrate the 100 years anniversary.

Bay of Islands - Hole in the Rock

Monday & Tuesday 29th & 30th January 2007

After a quiet weekend in Auckland we thought we had best get in another trip before Jes starts work on 1st February. We opted for a long drive up to Bay of Islands. We stayed in Bay Cabinz in Paihia in a fabulous and compact little cabin. After unpacking we went in search of the beach - not too hard to find and spent a lovely afternoon relaxing with the other 6 people there. As we said before, Kiwi beaches have a different sort of "busy" to UK beaches. This one was busy with only a handful od people there. Millie and Joe spent time in the water, on the beach, in the playground. They were in their element.

We took the advice of Belinda, owner of our accommodation, and took the Kings Cruise out the next morning to the Hole in the Rock and a search for dolphins along the way.

The ferry left about 9.30am and we boarded with many other tourists. On the voyageto the Hole in the Rock the captain spotted a pod of maybe 20 dolphins. They were extremely playful and were not camera shy at all. They were swimming next to the boat, in front of the boat, in the wake of the boat... It was a wonderful experience. After about 20 minutes the captain moved the boat on but then another boat just ahead of us had sighted a family of Bryde's whales, so we headed in that direction. That was just amazing. They were not as playful as the dolphins but they did surface enough times for everyone to get a good look.

The scenery on the voyage was superb - again! Clean beaches, clear water, virtually no people. Idyllic.

The Hoel in the Rock is basically a large rock inthe middle of the bay with a hole right through it. The hole was so big the captain managed to manouvere the ferry through the hole. As we can out of the hole the captain pointed out the Profile of a Princess.

Check out the photo and see if you can see it!

Cathedral Cove

Friday 26th January 2007

Left Cook's Beach cabin about 10am but still had lots to do in Coromandel.

Decided to go in search of Cathedral Cove. It involves a 45 minute walk along the cliff top to a cove that adjoins another cove by way of a large - very large hole. Check out the photos - very impressive. We hung around there for a an hour or so pretending the few drops of rain that were falling were not happening. Jes and Joe went exploring the small cove and found a natural fresh water shower. Jes took advantage of this, had a shower and managed to clean off the salt water and sand. Both Joe and Millie refused to go in claiming it was too cold so before we set back on our walk Jes thought he'd give Millie's bikini a quick rinse in the sea. He went with two pieces and came back with only one. The sea had taken Millie's bottoms!! Fortunately no tears just giggles.

Because we had such a great time there the previous day we decided to venture back to Hot Water beach before we began the journey back to Auckland. Sadly the weather wasn't as kind to us and we cut short our visit before low tide so we weren't able to build another spa pool. Did manage to get a good amount of wave jumping in though.