May Musings

We've done a lot of travelling this past month, I think we might have seen about one-quarter of the country on our wanders. Dave's family visited us from Canada and we had some wonderful adventures in the South Island during our 2 week Easter holiday. Here are a few highlights from our travels around the country:

Recognize this mountain from any movies?

Blue skies around the beautiful Lake Hawea:

30 second kayak trip ends in capsizing and 30 minute walk through town with wet pants. Kayaking has been one of Caleb's lifelong dreams - better luck next time.

 Tonnes of windfarms around Windy Welly:

An awesome driftwood hut on Waikane beach:

 Massive seaweed haul by Camille:

Everything at this market stall in Taupo is made of recycled tires:

This if from the town called Bulls.  Most buildings have a sign with a Bulls pun: Police (Const-a-bull), Perfume Store (Scents-a-bull), Garbage Bin (Response-a-bull).  Any guesses what this building could be?

Really missing our red-headed and bald-headed relatives.  Here at Mt Vic overlooking Wellington city:

I love this sign:

For only our most devoted fans - 2 videos by the kids: uncut and unrehearsed:
Driftwood House Tour
Maori Song by Camille - The kids has been learning these at school - not sure if the words are correct or what they mean!

My Life - by Caleb

My friends are Preston, Harry, Javarhn and Isaack. My friend Isaack has two buggies, one has two seats one has one seat.  His dad built them and a monster truck.  We got to ride them at our school fair:

I went to Preston's house, he has a lot of guns and two walkie talkies that me and him can talk through. Javarhn and me like to play scooters sometimes. We have races, that's how you play. Harry likes to play monster trucks with me and Preston. We go into the sand pit and play there. If it is too wet we play at the top field. This all happens at school, except when I go to Preston's house. At Preston's house we played on the iPad and Preston played with the X-Box.

Last week I went on a trip down to the bakery in town. Me and dad's cousins and my mom and my brother went to Te Papa (a museum) but not my dad and my sister, because my sister was sick and dad needed to take care of her.  We saw some different kinds of dresses and a motor cycle and a long long Maori boat. We also saw an old plane. One of the dresses was made out of wood. It was very thorny.

I learned how to use a saw in the basement of our house. And I chop up wood for the fireplace in our house. Its very warm.  We can see a lot from our house. Here we are at the beach near our house last month when it was warmer.  My dad doesn't like the sun.

It is raining a lot here and we had a rugby game in the rain and I really wanted to score a try. 

We had a big tournament with all the teams from our club.  My dad is my coach and he said that this day was one of the best days of his life!

My brother Jonny plays in the nursery group:

After that, we went to a fair. There were lots of stuff that were free at the fair. We ate candies (lollies) and I saw one of my friends at the fair. There was a jumping castle that was free (no money) and there was nobody to say how many people were allowed at once. I jumped into the walls on the jumping castle and my sister did too. After that we had lunch and then me and Jon had a nap. When we woke up we went to a park very near our house on a street called Tuna Terrace. I rode my bike there, my brother went with his bare feet, my sister just brought her shoes. 

When we came back from the park, we played a little rugby game just to teach us what we are allowed to do. Then it was time for dinner. After dinner Camille and Jonny were shouting through a little cardboard tube.

We are very excited to see our family that is in Canada in seven days. They are going to come to New Zealand. We hope you stay safe in Canada when the cold weather comes.

The Orongorongo Track and the Colonial Knob by Camille

Yesterday my family and me went tramping on the Orongorongo track.  Here we are showing off our backpacks in front of the map.

We walked for 3 hours and finally got to our hut called the Haurangi Hut.  Even though it was 3 hours walk my little brother Jonny and I never got tired.  It was aaaamazing! In our hut, you could walk outside on a path and there was a nice smelling toilet that you could use.

In the hut, there was a humongous bed that could fit 10-15 people, there was five card games and Monopoly. My brother Caleb and me played it and our other brother played one of the card games. At night we roasted marshmallows on the fire and made s'mores and ate dried mangoes.  Then we slept in the super bed.  My parents had a hard time sleeping, but in the morning they found leftover instant coffee in the hut and that cheered them up!  I didn't have a good sleep either because I woke up every twenty minutes sweating from the wood stove. For breakfast we made pancakes on the gas stove.  We had a really fun time at the hut and I wish we could go back one day again and finish my monopoly game.

After breakfast, Cyclone Lusi was coming so we had to hurry home. Here we are at the end of our 3 hour hike back, you can see the Rimutaka Mountains in the back:

And eating Tuna and Honey Sandwiches:

Finally when we got to our car we remembered that the cyclone wasn't coming till later so me and my two brothers went to this really tiny river that was only ankle deep we went to the side and got big rocks and made dams. For my little brother, we made a rock circle that he could stand inside and that was his pool.

Finally my parents said that the cyclone was coming so we went home. I miss the hut and my dams, I hope that we can make it bigger when we come back.

The end.

Last weekend we climbed a mountain called the Colonial Knob. By mistake I went on cow path but it ended in a gorse bush beside a cliff.  Here is the view from the top of the mountain looking out to the ocean

 and our city Porirua:

Going to school with a uniform by Camille

Ok. I'll start with the shorts. My shorts are black and you can't see them because they are hidden underneath my tunic. My tunic is a box-pleat with blue and red squares. It has folds in it and has HUGE places for your arms (that's why its a tunic) and huge places for your head to come in and black buttons on the side to adjust it and on the straps you put your arms in. My school hat is sort of light maroon and it says my name inside it and it has three holes in each side but I don't know what that is for. My socks have to be white ankle socks in the summer, and really really dark blue knee socks in the winter. My jersey is maroon with a v-neck that is sown. My shoes have to be black and my shoes are slippers with black velcro around them. That's my uniform. And oops, I forgot to tell you I need to have my smile as part of my uniform too.

I like my uniform, and it is much different than just wearing anything you want in Canada. They are both the same, but a little bit more I like uniform because its nice and pretty and everyone gets to look alike and I sort of like that.

Modern times

We had far too short a time to enjoy the old power poles. Have a look at the new one beside his crooked grandfather!

First hobbit door

Well Hidden!

Our Canadian guest Craig found this one!