Hope you all had a GREAT Christmas!

We had a luverly time up North.  Visited the Waitangi Treaty Grounds on a VERY wet and windy day, drove along 90 mile beach and on up to the  huge sand dunes near Cape Reinga, climbed one (exhausting) and boogie boarded down it (exhlilerating), stood at the top of NZ at the Cape where the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea crashed together on Christmas Eve,  lay on the beach and surfed on the waves in our kayaks (son and I did, anyway) on Christmas Day and cruised around the Bay Of Islands, meeting some of its dolphin inhabitants on Boxing Day.

Whew - was shattered when we finally returned to Auckland on the 27th!

Here are a few piccies!

Here we are - apres boarding!

We had SUCH FUN!  We came down the dune sooooo fast!  I made too many yahoo noises and promptly paid for it all with sand in my mouth - yuk - made my sarnies very crunchy and interesting though.  The dune was really high and steep - a bit scary when you looked down - but FAB when boarding down - woohoooooo!

Here's Corrie's slide down the dune!  Unfortunately, Kev didn't video Adam or myself due to the fact that we weren't sure how well the video would turn out on the phone (I forgot the camera that day - DUH).  Anyway, as you can see, the phone took great piccies!

Corrie did FABULOUSLY!  Unfortunately, she was a little too far forward on the board which led to the face dunking at the end!  You'll be glad to hear she is fine and was not injured at all during the making of the film.

(See bottom of page for video - sorry it's in wrong place! - Took ages to upload - sigh....)

Here are some splendiferous views of other sand dunes taken on our walk towards the lighthouse at Cape Reinga - beautiful view innit?!

This is the view of the Maori "place of leaping", where the spirits of the dead leap off the headland, climb down the roots of the 800 year old pohutakawa tree and descend downwards into the underworld to make their way Hawaiiki - the Maori traditional homeland.  You can just about see the tree poking out of the smallest pointed rock - near the top, at the right hand side.

Corrie and Will.

Bro Ad and sister Cos!

 With mummy!

Father has joined with a traditional Maori expression.....

Here's our new member to the Tung clan!

A calmer moment - so far from home!

Chilly evening beach photo near our bach.

Pretty hotel near the chippy where we had a scrumptious dinner - yummy!

Some of our new dophin friends at the Bay of Islands.

Sorry - tis very difficult to get piccies of these friendly 3 metre long blighters, they just will not stay still for one!

It was windy on the boat, but SCORCHING when we got off!  Said wind due to whizzing of boat through water and sea breezes.

We also saw some penguins swimming around during our escapades that day!

Well - that's it fer noo!

As you can see, not too many photos really, due to us all having a fabbie time!

Oh - here's a final couple of the famous loos at Kawakawa - 

Action shot of Kev there, making his hasty way in after a long journey from the south!

A rather shaky image of inside the ladies'!

These loos are fab - they were designed by the resident artist (at that time) Frederick Hundertwasser - google his name and Kawakawa and you will see many more photos of these toilets - they are a real pleasure to visit!

Well - that's all for now.

Happy New Year to you all - we will be among the first to reach it!  (Just thought I'd rub that in!).

x Sue

Shakespeare Park

The day before daughter and son-in-law to be arrived, Kev and I visited Shakespeare Park on the outskirts of Auckland (north).  We were currently in a low (weather-wise), so it was a bit blowy, but otherwise quite good for walking (it was very warm out of the wind - t-shirts and sweat, in the wind - fleeces and cool!).

This is just before Shakespeare Park - having a windy picnic underneath the pohutakawa trees - which as you can see are blossoming just in time for Christmas.  They are so pretty and a real sign of the Kiwi Summer.

This is our sandwich eating view!  Luverly eh?!

Aren't the roots on this pohutukawa tree fab!  Great for climbing on.

Upon our arrival and after the ritual 'dash to the loo' that takes place once car has stopped, we saw lots of these fellers and their missuses....

They were quite vocal at times.

We then embarked upon a stiff walk along the beach - watching a couple of windsurfers whizz along at dizzying speeds and four children splashing and swimming in the sea in full school uniform (obviously just completed their school year that day!).

After the beach walk, we took the path through the bush and up the hill.

Above - Hot view from the shady hillside walk.

View from top of the hill - white caps show the windiness of the day - usually very calm here.

We saw these two birdies wandering around at the top of the hill - if you look closely, you will see a sort of antennae feather sticking out from the top of their heads!  Sorry the photo is not too clear.  I thought they were carrying something in their beaks at first until I realised that their beaks were not at the top of their heads of course!  No idea what these birds are called - will try to find out for youse.  We also saw a couple of these at the Waitangi Treaty Ground - so must be reasonably common.

More views on the way down.

Windy and cold view from the bottom of the hill.

That is a very wind blown cabbage tree upon which Kev is resting!

Our walk back towards the car became a very interesting one and fun too!  Here's what happened........

As we were on the flat straight towards the car, a quad bike suddenly came up from behind and drew up next to us.  "Hi - just letting you know that we are driving our sheep through and into the field over there" came the cheery voice of a very friendly young Kiwi man.

"Okay", replied us happy walkers (thinking that we'll keep an eye out and move over when said time comes).

We turned around to see where the sheep may be coming from when we saw this in the very near distance!

 

Ooops - time to move!  We hurriedly moved sideways into the shade of a tree (next to someone's caravan) and watched:

as they got closer (they were actually kicking up lots of dust - not shown on the phot0 though!)

There they go!  Passing us by.  There was a lab being used as a sheep dog - he/she was having a fab time and did an excellent job of rounding up the odd errant sheep deciding to head for the sea etc!

You can see him/her here just in front of the second quad bike (same colour as the sheep! - the dog, I mean).

There they go!

You can see the dust clearly here - plus what looks like someone's clothes as they frantically ran out of the way of the galloping sheep!

Almost there....

All peacefully ensconced in their new home as though nothing had ever happened just a few moments before!

What a lovely day we had.  Stopped on the way back for a coffee and cake and made our happy way home!

Ooh - just for my spider phobic friends - forgot to say earlier - this is who I saw upon my morning visit to the shower:

Big eh?!

When I put it under a glass to chuck outside, it was so big that one of its legs was stuck outside the glass' rim!  Had to jiggle it around to fit it all in!  It also JUMPED once I'd fitted it securely inside!  Made me jump too when it did that!  However, all's well that ends well - I opened the front door and chucked it out into the garden.

Tara!

x Sue

Hi all!

Well - since we got the boat, the wind has been way too strong to take her out - sigh....

Just as well really, cos we've got lots done around the house.  Have chucked son out of his room to the spare room for 3 weeks whilst daughter and fiance occupy it.  We all prepared that today.  I also went rather mad and decided to wash all the windows inside and out - shattered now with an aching neck!

This morning we sorted out our IRRV and are now residents in NZ indefinitely!  The next step in 3 years time is citizenship if we want it.  With residency, we have the same rights and NZ citizens, it's just that with citizenship, we can freely travel to and live and work in Oz if we wanted to.  Not really bothered about that at the mo though!

It was very windy and 27 degrees today!  No wonder I was shattered after all that window washing - must've drunk a gallon of aloe vera juice after (lovely drink).

Guess what?!  Yesterday, a hump back whale and her baby were spotted near Waiheke Island!  (Not far from us at all).  They were en route to the Antarctic.  Apparently, they put on a really great show for onlookers - jumping out of the water and waving their tails etc.

This is what the lucky spectators would have seen!  Imagine if I saw the shadow of that under me boat on the fish finder!  Adults are usually 12 to 16 metres long!  The screen would just go black I guess!

Orca were spotted in this area about a month ago too!

David Beckham has been here with his US team, playing soccer against some unknown Auckland team.  He jumped off the Harbour Bridge twice - one dry jump and the other wet - where he hit the water in other words!

There he goes!

And here I go!

TTFN.

x Sue

Our new baby!

Hey all - well here it is!  Our new boat - isn't she fab?!

Helooo - sorry you can't see me!  Just as well really!

As you can see - her name is Phantasea!

We went out on a little test drive today and had lots of fun - Kev lost his hat and a passing boat picked it up for us with a stick (sorry don't know the correct terminology for said stick).

We could see lots of fush swumming below us on the fush finder little TV thingummy.  It was cooool.

Well - see yas later.

x Sue

Hiya!

Here I am again.

A few photos for you....

Here is son at Big Boys Toys (a couple of weeks ago now) with a couple of Tui Girls (popular beer in NZ).  Note the message on his t-shirt - lol!

Behind him is the Tui Tent, where our boys spent most of the afternoon, whilst us girlies explored what was on offer elsewhere.

We had a great day and got lots of free samples of stuff from alcohol to food to skin cream to well ....lots of things!  (Heaps).

We watched the NZ Army go through their stuff......

saw the strong men upending this wheel from one end of the area to the other (I valiantly cheered him on)...

tried on Crocs (very fetching colour methinks)...

met police dogs (friend's daughter is standing here - she immediately sat down next to the dog when the police man ordered the dog to "sit" - lol  ........

and painted Kev's nails red when he fell asleep on the floor after a yummy barbecue!

We took turns to do it and were laughing so much, we were crying (the kind of smothered snotty  laughter you HAVE to do in order not to wake a person up).

All in all - a really fun day!

Now- let me see......

Well - NZ has a new Prime Minister.  No more Helen Clarke - it's now John Key.  We have moved from a Labour govt towards a more Conservative one now (in comparison to the UK parties).  We shall see what we shall see....

The weather is hotting up - I am getting very brown from standing on the school field every day and now have very fetching panda eyes - big white circles round me eyes from the sunglasses I wear and a bronzed face - luverly!

Strawberries are in season and are lusciously delicious.  Avocados are too - yum!  I have it in sarnies and love it on toast with tomato, red onion and chicken - mmmmm!

I have been to see the live show Phantom and it was BRILLIANT!  I've actually seen it twice now - went with friend and her family (due to husband and son not being quite so keen as me) and then saw it again with work as part of our magical mystery tour!  Starlight Express and My Fair Lady are coming soon!

Have got tickets to see Billy Conolly in March - really looking forward to that - watched his last tour of NZ before we came out here and a couple of times since.  Really enjoyed it.

Ooooh and guess what!?  We are going up north for Christmas (boogie boarding, kayaking, sledging down sand dunes, snorkelling, bbqs etc etc) and SWUMMING WITH DOLPHINS!!!!  I'm so excited - it's a Chrissy pressie to all of us!  Woohoooo!  Hope I don't get scared - it should be sooooo cooool!

We have been looking at boats and will probably buy an aluminium one (tinny) as they are lighter, use less fuel and are harder to break in comparison to the fibreglass ones!  We will all have to go on the Coastguard Dayskipper course too before being let loose on the high seas!  (Actually the rules are quite lax here - you can just go straight out onto the water with no training whatsoever, but we would rather have at least some knowledge before we embark upon our seafaring adventures).  

It will be very cool to go fushing and to visit all the little islands dotted about!

If the weather is good - will probably go out on our kayaks tomorrow - will have to try somewhere different now - not just Bucklands Beach anymore - must be more adventurous - may go to Eastern Beach next time lol!

Our physallis plant is producing well - just picked a bunch today - yummy.

All in all - a very exciting summer lies ahead and I am soooo ready to jump in with both feet!

Will post more photos soon!

x Sue