Making a sand-pool at Hot Water Beach 

Under the arch at Cathedral Cove 

Home for our little holiday 

Eric and paddy at Te Puru school 

On board the model railway 

Geologists at work 

A new generation discovers the joys of Monopoly. You can tell who is winning from the smiles... the tears came later. 

Chantelle sniffing a shrub of lemon scented geranium at the holiday park 

Chantelle and shady boys with the 1200 year old 30 foot girth Square Kauri tree 

Fishing Saturday afternoon Awanui wharf, autumn is here, note the cloud. 

Paddy at Awanui wharf, before he lost his Jandal. The white dots in the tree to the right of his head are 119 spoonbills. 

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.

Stuart plays for the Pirates. Good at the social part -less active on the field. 

Patrick plays his first match for Kaitaia Pirates. All goes well and he scores several goals, 2 of which were allowed, until he is sent off for hitting a boy who tripped him up. 

Reef heron (mid right) at Shipwreck Bay. The gentle curve of 90 mile beach is in the background. 

Looking North to the Pacific Ocean out of Matai Bay. Scuba divers in mid picture. 

Chantelle heading out to sea at Matai bay 

Looking North to the Pacific Ocean out of Matai Bay. Scuba divers in mid picture. 

It may be small, but I caught it (and then put it back - after it ripped open my finger with a very sharp ventral fin) 

Yes! He was actually reading. This picture is not posed. 

Easter Weekend

At last we get chance to catch our colective breaths after what seems like a very long term. There are 3 weeks to go to the proper end of term, but having 5 days off in a row will give us the rest we need to make it to the end.

We did our Good Friday bit yesterday. I always find it a very dull, depressing day, something to do with being in a very serious church service at 3pm. Our man had turned all the benches round so that it was like choir stalls. The boys went under protest and with extreme bribery. There were not much more than a dozen children in the church amongst maybe 100 adults.

Today the boys were awake and fighting at 8am! We went off to Matai Bay which is North East of here at the end of the Karikari peninsular. It is a well known beauty spot that I have not visited before, though Chantelle went with her school a while back. It was busy (for round here) with maybe 30 cars and 100 people by the time we left. Still the beach was big enough for us all. People were snorkelling, kayaking and going off scuba diving. We swam and did a bit of fishing. I caught a little fish, see pic. Only a tiddler and it went back in. Still it was the first one I have caught over here using our own gear. Chantelle of course hooked a bigger fish on her first cast, still not big enough to eat; sadly her feat has not been captured on camera because Patrick had run off across some dodgy rocks and needed us to escort him. I also learnt that it is not a good idea to leave your tupperware box of bait on the lowlying rocks where a wave will carry it out to sea.

Maybe there will be another Easter update; possible subjects will be: how the compost heap was made, Chocolate eating by Eric, Stuart and Patrick.

Linda and Denis at Cape Reinga 

Our first visitors

Well it's been a little under ten weeks and we have recieved our first visitors. They were Linda and Denis from Lancaster. I (Chantelle) have worked with Linda on and off( break for boys birth) since Feb 1996.
They are currently on a 7 weeks tour of the world. South Africa, Perth, then sydney, here, on to Fiji for 2 weeks ,back to Brisbane then lastly on to Hongkong. Enjoy. Good luck to both for the rest of their trip!!
As you can see the weather here in NZ is still super, a bit cloudier and cooler in the morning, but still lovely during the day.

Birthday weekend

It is Monday morning as I blearily write this.

The main event this weekend was my birthday, conveniently on a Saturday. We celebrated in lots of ways. Lancashire Hot Pot made by Chan and Mandy at the social club on Friday. Lie in Saturday, then went and got a new bike in town. Rode it back home, good to be back in the saddle again.

We went fishing at Ahipara on Saturday afternoon. Not a very serious attempt as the wind was wrong, it was mid afternoon and the tide was going out. It was still nice to be casting into the surf. The last time I fished with our own stuff, was at Silecroft beach in Cumbria.

In the evening we managed to go out without the kids! To the Beachcomber in Kaitaia. It was full but quiet, we both had a seafood platter, fantastic scallops, squid and fish. Good wine too!

Yesterday was back to work with a vengeance, loads of new lessons to write this week, keeping me busy. The boys alternately messed the place up, ran round screaming and occasionally did more constructive things like riding their bikes. c got the bottom room ready for the arrival of her first guests from UK, due on Tuesday.

We went for a swim at Diggers in the afternoon and caught up with Ruth and Stephan.

Need to get teeth clean now and get into school early to use the copier.

For the gardeners out there, this is our little plot. Planted these beans shortly after arriving on Jan 10th, and we have been eating them for a few weeks. Tomatoes and lettuce on the left and watermelons in the back bed. 

Kapa haka children perform at Te Paatu marae. Stuart and Eric are at the back on the left picking up the moves. 

Marae live-in

Well we were going to have a quiet weekend, to catch our breaths and to help keep going through the 10 week long term. Yes, all our uk readers, the terms here are a bit of an endurance test. 4 terms of about 10 weeks separated by a 2 week break each apart from the summer holiday which is nearly 2 months.

Anyway we got a letter on Thursday announcing the first live-in for the kapa-haka group. The boys were up for it and so trotted off to Te Paatu Marae for 6pm on Friday. What another culture shock! 80 odd children being sorted out by one teacher, sleeping for 2 nights on mattresses in the hall. Plenty of parents popped in to help out with catering, and the children all wanted to be there. kapa-haka is a maori dance and song form, a version of which the All Blacks do before their games. There are lots of versions and types, some of the singing being so sweet it brought a tear to my eye. Other songs were shouted with lots of bulging eyes and foot stomping. Good anger therapy!

Eric and Stuart stuck out the whole do, stopping for 2 nights. Nice and quiet back at home with just Paddy and C and I. We did a stint of cleaning yesterday and helped clean up today, more than ome parents and less than others who stayed the whole time.

The school group is very popular and by all accounts quite successful. They won the Northland finals last June and then went down to Rotorua (aka Rotovegas!) for the national finals.

We were a bit concerned that the boys would be totally done in, but they have had a rest and seem fine!

In the news here: Local news a Belgian couple's car gave up the ghost (it cost them $1200 in Auckland) - that was the Northland Age front page story. NZ Herald: a drugdealer in Auckland was sentenced yesterday, his gang was making $37,000 a week.

Have a good week folks!

Here is a small collection of our shipping. 

Stuart's prize winning Tracey island made from recycled goods!!!!!. He was chuffed with his winning $6, which included the prize for the junior with the most points. He gracously shared this ( well a $1) with Paddy ,who came in an honarble 3rd, (as 3rd got no prize) 

Another clear day at Diggers Valley. A wonderful evening was had , which included a BBQ, G&T, a swim in the water hole, and a visit to the glow worms- not necessarly in that order. Our thanks to our hosts Stepen and Ruth. (and spice). And as you can see our tent has also made the journey. 

Wow! What a week.

Wow, what ha busy week.
First off Tuesday, at long last the shipping arrived. So it was Christmas for everyone. It was a joy to eat of proper plates ,drink from proper mugs and use proper cutlery. Everything is in one piece- TV, computer , bikes, glasses,DVD etc. WELL DONE ATLAS REMOVALS OF MORCAMBE. The only down side was the dissapearance of the entire box of fishing equipment. Well, the rods and reels arrived ok, but there was a fishing box full of tackle, some which were gifts from Great grandad to Eric, and some untried stuff from Arran. I has spent a whole day cleaning and sifting out old stuff. We can only assume that the lot has been disposed of by MAF.

On a lighter note the weather has remained great , so lots of out door activites and swimming.

Kaitaia A&P show was on as well this weekend. It's a popular local event held on the show ground ,just as you enter the town. Stuart and Paddy decided to enter which various versions of Tracy island. And to our delight Stuart won in catogory for recycled things ,and Paddy came in 3rd. We are proud!!!!!!.
Then on Saturday late afternoon, after sorting out the last of the boxes, we took our tent off to Diggers valley and enjoyed a night there.