Pukeko says Hi... We had a very busy week. The Sparks Family from Whitehorse came to visit us on their last few days in New Zealand. We feel honoured that they could end their time with us. Cayley, Mira, Tristan and Kate had great games of tag and hide-and-go-seek after dark in around our house. I think the high pitched screams of the girls will announce to the neighbours that we are new to the area. We even discovered that we have glow worms in our very own backyard - thanks to Caroline's and Mike's discovery as they headed off to sleep in their tent out back.
sharon, paul, kate, mira, cayley, tristan, caroline and mike en route to Cawhia... tired of being cooped up in the car?
On a slightly overcast day but at least not as hot as it has been, we all loaded up to Cawhia to introduce the Sparks to the hot pools at low tide.
The beach at Cawhia has iron sand. The iron content is so high, Japanese ships come over and dredge the harbour at Cawhia and take the sand back to produce iron ore. This means the sand is black and very, very hot. Even with sandals on, everyone was suffering as we climbed the dunes to get to the beach. We all had our own strategies to deal with the excruciating pain caused by the sand. Paul ran from grass outcrop to the next, I stopped every-so-often to stand on one foot, the girls just made a mad dash for the ocean and Tristan road his boogie board down the dune at break neck speed. In the end, we all arrived at the beach.
After some extensive exploration, the only hot pools we could find were right beside everyone else's pool. So we moved in and we decided to build big! WE all got too much sun despite 40 spf sunscreen.
As we tried to squish in a much fun with the Sparks as possible, we hit the Hamilton Gardens before they headed north to Auckland to fly to LA and then back to the great White North and we headed north east to the Coromandel. Thanks for all the good fun and I hope you had a great trip at Disney Cayley, Tristan, Caroline and Mike!
We have been very fortunate to have had great experiences so far here in NZ because we have had the opportunity to meet friends of Krista and Ray. This weekend was no exception. Krista and Ray introduced us to their friends Ray and Nyra (the folks with the cows mentioned in a previous blog) and they in turn invited us to their bach (cottage) in Whitianga (Fitianga) to go deep sea fishing. We made the epic ride through the windy roads to their cottage on Thursday and on Friday the men-folk went fishing... it was a production - getting the boat ready and towed down to the ocean then... well lets just say that our boys were green in the gills and we ate lasagna for dinner.
Kate fishing off the boat, Ray Newdick built himself.
Kate fishing off the boat, Ray Newdick built himself.
When the rain kept us from the boogie boarding at Buffalo Beach, Ray and Nyra led us up over another mountain pass to Kuaotunu and Otama Beach - one of the most beautiful beaches even in the pouring rain - Krista braved the elements for the shot. Thank you Krista. We even drove through fields to see the ocean but no boogie boarding here.
We did get SINGLE SCOOP ice-creams at the local ice-cream store! They were enormous! We did witness a fellow that ate the Kuaotunu Killer - a five scoop ice cream cone! He was green too.
Kate's cone was piled so high it fell - on mom. Thanks mom for catching it for me.
Kate's cone was piled so high it fell - on mom. Thanks mom for catching it for me.ttfn now from rainy but very green NZ. s
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