Mira's Camp Blog - Guest Blog by Mira

This is Kate's Playdoh person.... with some help from mom.

Hi all,

This is a blog from Mira today... before I pass the computer over to her... I will tell you that things are cooling off here and we are starting to think about moving on. This week we went to the zoo. Kate's class was supposed to go last month but because they couldn't get enough drivers to drive all the wee ones to the zoo, it was cancelled. Kate was not impressed so we went during the weekend. Great little zoo.

Baby Rhino.

Lunch time.

Kate's fave.

Still Kate's fave...

Cousin Ed.

Paul's favorite... grr.

My favorite. I don't know if you can read the sign but it says, Be careful, I bite.

Kate and Mira with the pigs and yes they bite too.

Ok, now on to Mira. She spent the last three days on Camp with 67 other Year 5 and 6 students and a whole mess of parents and teachers.

Mira:

We went to the Otorohanga Kiwi House. We saw all kinds native birds. The birds in NZ are all dark shades and brown because a long time ago all the lively coloured ones got eaten by flying birds of prey and only the good hiders survived. I saw some Kiwis. They were in captivity. Then we drove to the Ruakuri Reserve and toured the Aranui Cave. It was so cool. We saw stalactites looked like chandeliers.

This is pic of some stalactites.

To tell the difference between a stalagmite and a stalactite is that a stalactite hangs on tight to the roof and a stalagmites might grow up.

Then we went to the Waitomo Caves Discovery Centre. We went through a miniature version of a cave. We had to wiggle through this really skinny opening. My teacher, Mr. Morrison pretended that he was stuck. We passed around crystals and fossils and the teacher spoke to us about cave weta (a huge bug) and glow worms. Very neat experience. Then we went to the Marae ( a Mauri community center) and had a Powhiri. It is a welcoming ceremony. We sung a song. There were two halls in the Marae. One for the boys and one for the girls. There was a kitchen hall. We ate late. It was hard to sleep with everyone talking and snoring.

Here we are at the Waitomo Cave Discovery Centre - Kate, Makayla, Jo and Me.

Day two.

We went to Mangapohue Natural Bridge. It is a canyon with rock dropped on top to form a roof. It was beautiful with the light pouring through.

Mangapohue Natural Bridge.

We went for a hike through a cow pasture and saw these fossilized Oysters. They are 35 million years old and as big a small car.

This one looks like a wave.

Then we were supposed to go to Piri Piri cave but it was too wet and muddy so couldn't. We then went to Marokopa Falls.

Marokopa Falls.

Then we went on a very hectic drive - very very curvy to Kiritehere Beach. We played for 2 hours as the tide went out. Then we walked down the beach to find millions of fossils. Some of rocks, sticks and shells. They were 200 million years old fossils. They encouraged us to wear bare feet on the rocks. Ouch!

This is a pic of our group. I am in the middle in green.

Day 3.

We went to the glow worm cave. It was very glowing experience. Glow worms are little worms that spin sticky lines to catch their pray. They glow to attract the bugs. Then we went to the Woodlyn Park. We saw sheep shearing, a really big 1.? tonne cow, big! We saw dogs herd the sheep. The farmer had strings - he called it broad band, if you pull the strings it would let an animal through. Then we went the the "Shearing Shed". They sheared angora bunnies!!!!!! They attached their legs to a rack and stretched them out. Then shaved them. They said to was to take the wrinkles out. Ouch!
\Me and Makalya at the Shearing Shed.

Here is a pic of me and a big bunny. It takes them 3 months to grow this fur.

This one is my favorite.

Bye Bye for now, Mira.

Friday was a Big Day....

Hi all, Friday, March 5th was a big day for us here in Cambridge, NZ.

First of all - Happy Birthday Mom!

Secondly, our buddy Seth had to pack up his onesies and short sleeves and head for the Great White North at the crack of dawn. Jill was a bit worried about the trip seeing as Seth is now a crawling monster who screams with delight. We have however already heard from Jill and the trip went off without a hitch. Things got a bit ripe when Seth relieved himself as the 'fasten your seatbelt - or we will get snarky' sign went off. But c'est la vie when you are 9 months old. Whitehorse welcomed our friends with a fierce north wind and a few house repairs. We are all happy to hear they made it home but are missing their smiling faces. Thanks for the fun.

Seth and Mira hanging out in the backyard.

The third big event of the day was the Leamington Primary School Swimming Sports night at the local pool. Mira had signed up for three events and by 3:00 she was ready to leave the country - she was so nervous. We gave her the pep talk and then dropped her off. (tough love?)

Paul was volunteered (by me!) to flip sausages. He was very excited about that - 28 degrees and stinking hot. The sausages were very popular and Paul flipped a few. The sausages were served on bread with margarine and fried onions. :}

I was official photographer.

Kate had her events and did really well - she got a certificate for fastest widths in freestyle.

Mira won all of her events (so much for nerves!) and earned her house 300 points. Mira participated in the 25 metre back crawl, 50 m freestyle (front crawl) and 50m breast stroke. Then she was asked to anchor the 4 by 50 relay. She did amazingly well.

Mira and Kate are in the same houses (school spirit teams - yellow house) and yellow won! The proud parents are sure our girls' wins made the difference.

Kate sizes up her competition.

Look carefully and you will see Kate's black and blue knee - result of a being run over by a friend on a bike. OUCH!

Excited Dad takes a break from flipping sausages.

On your marks...

Mira is sitting in there somewhere.

Post race.

Proud winner.

Mira is on her mark for the 25 m backstroke.

Kate got to swim for 2 hours while Mira raced. Slightly waterlogged.

View of the pools. We are very fortunate to have been here this year as the pools are being taken out and replaced with a 25 m indoor pool. I am so glad to have been outside, having spent up to 10 hours a week at this pool reading/swimming and I am so glad not to have been stuck inside. I am sure it will be great for Cambridge but I am on my 'sun' year after all.

Did I mention that Mira was nervous?

Mira sizes up her competition.....

On your mark...

Kate gets pulled out of the water at 8pm.

Some pictures of the playground at Mira and Kate's school on a Sunday morning.

Kate.

Kate gets help.

Whoo hoo.

Mira and Kate dressed for school - at the Kids Discovery room in the Museum in Hamilton. It was Children's Day here in NZ so lots of events for kids to be had.

Kate helping me with dinner. She is cutting the ends off the beans. A math moment to learn about measurements: a bit, a third, a half...

Have a great week. Cheers, sharon.

Get Some Kiwi in Ya!

So this is what Paul does now to keep himself busy....?

HI all, What I lack in interesting information and new adventures I have made up for in photos.. I have lots on this blog.

Our time with Seth and Jill is quickly drawing to a close. Jill is preparing, physically and mentally for the long flight home. Seth is a much busier fella after three weeks with the MacCoubrey Mason Clan. He is now very mobile and vocal - or at leasts likes to practice his perfected crawl and his vocal cords now. He does get lots of attention when he does so... Jill and Seth leave on Friday morning and arrive in Whitehorse Friday afternoon - The miracle of the international date line.

We did a road trip to Rotorua - the thermally active area near here - that place that "stinks like stink" says Kate. Really it smells like rotten eggs. It was a safer alternative to the beach, which was under a Tsunami watch.

We toured the local museum - Seth bailed.

Mira on the viewing platform of the museum, formally a victorian bath house.

Kate in front of ...? statues, art,

The croquet grounds, beside the Boules playing area, in front of the lawn bowling by the Rotorua Museum, formerly the Bath House.

Mira and Kate.

Kate copying the Maori Art.

On Saturday, we went to the Hamilton Wine and Food Festival. It was great fun. The kids saw a production of the Beauty and the Beast with a Kiwi twist. It had an ugly sister who was played by a man. Kate said that she looked like a man, had a beard like a man, was a big as a man and talked like a man but wore a dress and had grapefruits under her dress. You can't pull one over on her!

We got to taste some great wine. The jazz was nice on the ears as well. The weather was fabulous with not a cloud in the sky. It was however very hot so we joined the other Kiwi kids in the fountain pool in the American Gardens. When in Rome... Kate took it a step farther and well, security kicked us out. Not until we got cooled off though.

Kate enjoying a dip in the fountain.

Seth cooling off.

Peek!

Mira on the art?

Kids got to pet an Alpaca at the Gardens.

Kate met the Queen of Hearts.

Seth all tired out.

Another highlight of this week... Seth got his first haircut compliments of his mom.

Before

After: très cute.

So we don't have much adventure to report here in NZ. I do manage to drag myself out for run most days.

When I do, I get a chance to see some of the New Zealand 'wildlife'. On one run, I heroically saved a young hedgehog from a certain death on the road. They may be cute but they really aren't very bright. I coaxed him away from the pavement toward a pasture. He walked very slowly towards the pasture and walked straight into the fence post. He hit it with his nose and stopped and looked up as if asking "now who put that there?" before continuing on his way.

Another time, I saw a wee shetland pony being taken out for a stroll along the roadside. They are quite comical, almost embarrassing in this country full of thoroughbred horses everywhere one looks.

This past week, Paul and I went out for a run together. Part way through the run, I used the time honored tradition of 'stopping for a stretch' as an excuse to stop for a rest - the man was killing me. I used the fence to support my stretch (read: hold me up!) when.. well now is a good time to watch the video below.

http://www.getsomekiwiinya.co.nz/vote/view_video.aspx?id=10

I did indeed get zapped! Later when I told Mira, she looked at me with concern and asked if Papa was worried when I did it? Ya, he was worried but only about peeing his pants - he was doubled over in laughter. So goes our adventures. Got some Kiwi in ya?

We enjoyed watching the Gold Medal game over with Ray and Connor. That was so thrilling to see the win in overtime and even the Kiwis on the sports shows got caught up in the excitement. Ya Canada!

Cheers mates, sharon