Maketu, Cambridge and Maungatautari

Kate, Mira and Paul at Maungatautari

Hi all, It is time for another quick post.... We have had to say goodbye to our Whitehorse friends, the Sparks until later this month when they hope to pass through Cambridge before heading back to the Great White North. We did get to spent a great few nights at Maketu together. After hours at the beach, the kids spent hours more combing the shoreline for starfish and shells. We elected to stay in a cabin as our tent just wasn't up to the task of standing up against oceanic gale force winds - the cabin, though somewhat rustic, did.

Our cabin (middle one on the cliff) had a spectacular view of the ocean.

We spent one of our days together at Newdick's beach. It is a private beach that asked for a donation in the honor box. But if your honesty wasn't us to snuff, there was a little old lady that jumped out of a hiding place to ensure you correctly counted and dropped your coins in...The beach was beautiful and under populated. It had the nice white sand, big boulders seemingly tossed into the surf and even horses running up the coast.

Mira, Tristan and Cayley boogie boarding at Newdick's beach.
Sunset from Maketu

Cayley and Mira in front of a rock at Newdick's?

Mira, Kate and Cayley walking the beach.

Cayley and Mira - good friends.

We got back to Cambridge for our last week at our B&B lodging before we thankfully move into Ray and Krista's old house. They are moving into Cambridge - closer to school for Lily. We were very happy to be back to familiar surroundings, hot showers and close friends.

In the garden of our B&B, the girls found a young hedgehog. They are kinda cute and very prickly - Kiwi's think of them as a pests - much like we do our squirrels.

Paul, Mira, Kate and I went to Maungatautauri the other day. It is an oasis - a preservation project for saving rare bird species - the kiwi included. It has a 47 km long fence that keeps the area free from all manner of pests - possums, hedgehogs, weasels etc. They only have a few pockets of mice left to get rid of .. amazing really. You have to go through double door security in order to get into the enclosure. There are 30 kiwi birds within the enclosure - we didn't get to see any but we did see a few kaka - native parrots . Neat.

That is all the news for now. We are moving in with Krista, Ray, Lily and Connor on the weekend when we are kicked out of the B&B and will help them move to their place. Did we mention they are saints? It is been great fun having good friend so close. ttfn s