End of term ... at last!

Finished school yesterday for a much needed 2 week break. I was limping into the last week when there was a serious accident at school. The tech block blew up on Monday blew up putting the teacher and 6 pupils in hospital. 2 of the pupils were so badly injured that they were airlfted to Auckland from Whangarei. Fortunately no-one was killed, and they are all on the mend. The teacher involved came back to school on Friday to a round of applause in the staff room.

You can see a news report with video here http://xtramsn.co.nz/news/0,,11964-4288539,00.html

We were given some post disaster stress counselling on Friday and heard various members of staff reliving their various experiences of the event. That was very moving especially to hear the eyewitness account of a support worker who weighs about twice as much as me and to hear that he was thrown over a large table by the force of the blast.

So we are trying to have an uneventful weekend. Last weekend the main event was going netting on 90 Mile beach with Raewyn and Matthew. Who needs a gym when you can pull a net through the surf and catch a meal of flatfish at the same time. On our way home we pulled a car out of the sand minutes before it was swallowed by the waves. We went back and had tuatuas, flatties and chips. Watched a really crap video "White Chicks", can't reccommend it.

This weekend the two older ones are at the marae doing Kapa Haka. This has not been too successful recently as Eric has come home on Saturday. So this time we have been mean and abandoned them for the whole day. I will go and help with the breakfast tomorrow at 6 am and take them back when it finishes at 10 ish.

Making the most of our reduced child count we took paddy to town this am and had a look in the estate agents. Prices have rocketed here in the last year and our 3 acre dream is in danger of slipping out of reach. It is still a lot cheaper here than in Uk but getting more expensive as the world looks for a bargain. One estate agent told us that Ozzies buy up rental property in Kaitaia without even visiting and rent it out as an investment. We are going to look at a place on Monday.

In the arvo paddy and I went to check out Awanui Wharf, which is only about 10 km from us and I had been tipped off that there was a spoonbill colony. And there was - 119 of them roosting out the high tide in a Macrocarpa right next to the wharf. Beautiful birds ! There was also fishing there - 2 women with a car load of kids caught several trevally. I broke the rod in 2, Patrick lost a jandal (what a catastrophe!) and I caught nothing. But it was a fantastic view, sun strong but a nice breeze to keep cool. Not too busy and not deserted. Not bad for a Saturday afternoon.