The Kids have Landed...

The family arrived this week safe and sound with 13 bags totalling 400 pounds!  First job was to hit the beach in Titahi Bay.  Here they are trying to trap the water in their castle:

Here is the wee fellow waiting for the tide to come in:

And here is our daughter hard at work with the seaweed.  She is trying to build a wall of seaweed to protect her castle:

 They have also been enjoying running wild in the backyard with the chicken, jumping on the trampoline and climbing the hills around Wellington.  Here, they are trying to make a treehouse with sticks, rocks and leaves they found behind the house.  Unfortunately, the tools are also made of wood!

In my wanders around Wellington I found this amazing community garden built on a 45 degree hill - they use old carpets to keep the soil in place along the pathways.

 And the sign on the backdoor of the ramshackle house behind the garden:

 A final view of Titahi Bay:

 So far, the kids love New Zealand and Titahi Bay.  When our daughter arrived at the airport she took off at top speed through the entrance and exclaimed: "we have escaped the disappearing farmland of Ontario, Canada!"  When the middle boy saw the trees around the airport he said: "look at the wilderness!  the green is killing it in NZ!" Our wee fellow just keeps telling everyone: we are in New Zeawand!

There's a Chook in my Section - Week 1

I have now been in our new house in Titahi Bay, Wellington for one week.  On my first morning here I woke to a loud cock-a-doodle-doo.  I rushed out to the section (NZ word for 'backyard') and found this chook/chicken:

Then yesterday I found these in the mint garden:

The previous owner told me that her name is Martha.  She spends most of her day running and digging around the backyard looking for things (worms perhaps?) and then sleeps in the mint at night.

Surprisingly, my life this week has been similar to Martha's!  I have been busy running here and there finding things (furniture, kitchenware, food).  I have been so blessed by many helpful friends who have shown me around the city and taught me how to drive on the left hand side.  With much trepidation, I have purchased a car.  This week I drove our new station wagon to 'Pak n Save' (the NZ equivalent equivalent of Costco) and filled it up with groceries.  Welcome to the suburbs - I guess the car free experiment is over (sorry Dave).  This is our house in the background.

If you stand on our front porch you can look out over Titahi Bay:

Titahi Bay is a community of about 7000 people, about 30 minutes drive from downtown Wellington.  It has a beautiful beach where people swim, surf, boat and in my case: eat snacks (before begin driven off by hungry seagulls):

I have met many lovely neighbours, friends and strangers here in New Zealand.  But the people I want to see the most is my family - they will be arriving on Thursday!