Hallelujah!!!!

I've been trying to get onto this for the past few days and have finally made it! Whew- lost my password and then changed it, got in a pickle and finally sorted it out today - wipes frustrated sweat off brow!

Anyway - I'm here - at last!

I'm now smack bang in the middle of my Easter hols and the pressures of work are never too far away - been laminating for England (or New Zealand!) today as well as preparing readings for my uni course. I've also got reports to write by week 4 of term 2 and an essay to be into uni by week 6 --- waaah..... why do I do these stupid things? Answer - because I'm mad - must be.....

Well - whinging over. I still have been doing some lovely things too as the photos will show.

Over the Easter Bank Hols, we did little day trups out. Our first little excursion was to the Duder Reserve for a lovely lovely walk with these amazing views:



We came upon the above view after about 10 mins gradual uphill walk - just stunning!


Isn't the twinkling sunlight on the water just wonderful?



Just 25 mins drive from our current abode.


We walked past lots of sheep and trod in lots of sheep plops!





That's Waiheke Island in the distance - still haven't got there yet - but have high aspirations!



Speaks for itself really doesn't it? Twas a really warm day and copious amounts of water were drunk as we walked along discussing our life and future in NZ!

The nixt day (after a delicious breakfast barby) we visited Hunua Falls - this time about 40 mins from home:





Here's Mrs Blobby in her hat - ooh beg yer pardon - it's me!

After this photo was taken, I proceded to walk through the shallow water (in my wonderful non slip crocs) to the banks on the other side. We then made our way through the bush and upwards to a lovely viewing point of the falls.







Such a peaceful, tranquil area and quite busy for a NZ Bank holiday - as you can see.....!

After this lovely stop, we then proceded on to visit one of the dams in the area - the Wairoa Dam. This is the dam wall!



Flora and fauna (felt like we were walking through Jurassic Park at times!):




Views of the waters of the dam - it's quite low at the moment - even though we've had some very heavy rain recently (in particular one Thursday night when, upon arriving at uni, I walked 10 metres across the car park in my raincoat and proceeded to get such a soaked skirt that I had to literally ring it out in the ladies loo. I then had to sit absolutely soaked for 2 1/2 hours of lectures and intelligent discussion (lol). Great fun!)

More views:




Hubby in the distance:


Looking down at our car in the distance - it's the blue one furthest away!:


More water:


Interesting info for your perusal (or not, as the case may be.....):


A pretty diagram............


A giant plughole:


Well - after this visit, we realised we still had lots of time on our hands that day (a whole afternoon left still), so we decided to make our way to Miranda and its hot water pools - luckily we had our togs (for those of you who have forgotten, togs are Kiwispeak for swimming cossies), just in case we fancied a dip in the sea - but the call of the pools was more enticing - so off we went!

Of course, this did involve a very important pit stop where we stopped for much needed ice-cream, cakes and coffee! Very nutritious indeed! I had a little bit of rum and raisin icecream, followed by an apricot slice accompanied by a delicous latte. Kev had one scoop of mango ice-cream and one scoop of lemon and lime icecream - precariously balanced atop of his tiny cone! He ate a yummy apple slice and also drank a latte.

We spent a heavenly couple of hours lolling about and swimming in the hot pools that afternoon. The water smelt ever so slightly sulphurous and really made my skin feel good!

For those of you who would like to know more about this lovely place - here's the website with photos - we obviously didn't take any due to wetness and the damage it causes to non waterproof cameras:

http://www.mirandahotsprings.co.nz/

Our drive back was stunning - we took the scenic route - what else! - and watched the sun going down as we drove......







The hills you can see in the distance are part of the Coromandel Range and the water between them and me is known as the Firth of Thames.

Well - what a luvverly dayy.....

And to cap it all off, upon arriving home, son had prepared for us a fantabulistic tea of shepherd's pie accompanied by ciabatta bread deliciously warm from the oven!

Well - it's done nowt but rain for the past 3 days - heavy showers really I suppose - one minute sunny, the next absolutely chucking it down! Therefore, I have mostly shopped, watched dvd's, caught up with girly friends and done some work (yuk! - work I mean!).

Talking of work - this year I have a boy in my class (let him be known as X) whom I find quite lovely, yet also very challenging and exasperating! Basically, he's Samoan, very big, has little English and after a hard working morning, has had enough by the afternoons, and boy do I know it!

Considering he has a light grasp of the English language, he talks to me non-stop (of not what we're working on - classic avoidance technique) both in class and out of it! I often stay in my room to mark books during lunch and if he finds out, X barges in confronting me with such delightful questions such as:

"Mrs T - does your son like school?"
"Are you married?"
"Do you love your son/husband?"
"I'm brown"
"You're white"
"What language do they speak in England?"

etc etc etc and on and on and on....

Don't get me wrong - he's lovely - but gosh he tires me out! I've never known a child to talk so much!

However, I am happy to say that he is improving and can read lots of words now and not just the two that he came into my classroom with!

Well - I will hop off for now!

Cheers Andrea for your help - not sure if I dare do anything else to my blog now as it's taken me this long just to get back onto it after losing my password! I love looking at the sites you are connected to and will hopefully do more crafty type things as and when I get the chance - probably in about 10 years time!

Bye alllllll...

x Sue