Bay of Islands Oct 2013

We had our very first "real" holiday this week.  We decided to go up to the bay of islands and tour around for a couple of days (so only a two night holiday).  We had a few car sick children on the way up...but thankfully it was only one way and our trip back down was peaceful...we have a portable DVD player (which is 4 or 5 years old now) and it has proven to be very valuable for long car journeys!!

So after driving for 3 and a half hours we checked in to our Motel, had lunch and went up to the Waitangi Treaty grounds.  Here the Treaty of Waitangi was signed on Feb 6th 1840.

Very hyper children after a long car ride!

Waiting for our tour to begin at Waitangi

Poor Owen was still feeling unwell... :(

The very looong waka (canoe) built for a special occasion (centennial or something like that)  Waka's are not normally this long as it would be hard to maneuver up rivers.  Made out of three Kauri trees.

 On day 2 of our holiday we decided to go over to Russell or Kororareka (Maori for sweet penguin)

So first a ferry trip over....

Waiting to board the ferry

On the ferry

the bay

Mr Smith

Looking back at Paihia

Daddy and Amelia went up front to get a better view and then the Captain let Amelia steer for a wee bit

Keith!!

The oldest church in New Zealand (Russell)

The cushions were covered with handmade tapestry...which varied from flowers, ships, birds etc!

In the front of the church

Russell beach.  It happened to be a very windy day.

Cannon, cannon ball and two boys

Amelia and an amazing tree!!

See what I mean?  Oh and behind is the old customs house in Russell

Back in Paihia we found this.  It mentions that the first mission ship "Herald" was first launched here.

 And on our last day (3) we went to see a few mission houses...Te Waimate was first.  It was the first inland mission.  Unfortunately we didn't check when it was opened...oops!

Te Waimate

Amelia in aviators

Te Waimate church and cemetery

 Next stop was Kerikeri

Having lunch in Kerikeri

Looking towards Kerikeri mission house and stone store

Stone store built 1832-1836 absolutely gorgeous building!  We also toured the mission house behind it.

And then we drove back home...and welcomed Auckland traffic!  It could've been worse though.

Although it was busy holidaying with the children, I still really enjoyed learning more about NZ's history.  

And now back to routine...sort of!  Next week is Gisborne communion, and Amelia starts swimming lessons all being well exciting for her. :)  All right off I go, I really need to get the house tidied up for tomorrow!

I forgot!

Because not everybody has Facebook...I thought I should let you all know that we have been approved visa's for another 2 years!  And hopefully after one year we can apply for permanent residence!  Very exciting!

School holidays

I'm not really good at keeping a blog anymore am I?  I'm guessing it's because I have four children and all of them are very active (which they should be right?).  Sometimes I look at them and say "Wow I only have four children!",and other times I look at them while they are running and screaming at the top of their lungs and I say, "Ahhh I have four children!"  I love them. :)

 

 Amelia has been wanting this lovely baby cot for awhile and since Aunt Jackie & fam gave her some money for her birthday we decided to put it towards this.  It was fun putting it together.  I'm afraid I have lots of Kuiper blood in me so yes lots of building ideas spring in my head, and when a small project comes up like this it is exciting. 

 I gave the camera to Aaron so he could try out his photography skills... he did pretty good I think.

 And the finishing touches from Amelia.

 Here is Amelia on her bike again.

 Aaron

 My girl being a girl and picking random flowers from the yard.

 Owen and a funny look.

 Mr. Keith

We are on school holidays right now and enjoying it very much! Nothing else is really happening at the moment but no news is usually good news as they say. :)

Monday's doings

Monday is Jett's day off so we went to the Museum.  They had an exhibition on Moana -my ocean and the children are always keen on seeing things there anyways!  So, here is Owen...

And Keith.

 And Amelia and Owen.

 And Bridget a model of a real life great white shark.  The kids thought this was pretty neat. Not at all scary.

 Daddy giving the fake penguin a tickle.

 After the museum we went to the North Shore.  Long Bay has a lovely adventure park, and they have expanded it since we were there last year with John and Naomi.  The kids of course REALLY enjoyed this part.

 And of course the next bit was just as exciting...the beach!

 Looking out.

 Hahaha, I look thrilled.  It was very hard keeping track of two boys who wanted to run straight in the water!!

 As you can see!

 They thoroughly soaked their pants but they had such fun I couldn't hold them back!

 Splash splash!

 Our only daughter.

 And look what Aaron found!

 I thought he was joking at first, but nope it was a real life starfish!

 We tried taking our own portrait and agreed this one looked nice.

And of course this is supposed to be winter here in NZ!  And instead we've been enjoying spring temps and gorgeous sunny days.  Soo nice! :)  

We've been stressed (or maybe it is just me) over our visa's because they were returned...we have to get medicals for another two of our children so hopefully Monday we can send it all back to them....such stressful times! 

Randomness again

It has been another busy week here.  Schooling the kids...and uhm, not much else.  There has been a couple of nice days this week and we took advantage of the sunny weather.  

Owen really took to Amelia's helmet and to her bike, and to her pillow she got...uh yeah. :)

 

He also has a dirty mouth here...but who is checking? :)

These are my kefir grains which are starting to multiply...ahh!  I make it instead of buying lots of buttermilk for a certain person in our family.  ;)  I want to find a good recipe for blueberry kefir... that would be yum.

Here is Amelia doing a science experiment.  Actually it was another birthday present she kindly received from a friend.  They really make you "dress up" for this.

 She found it fun, and Aaron found it interesting too.

 Owen enjoying a wee ride on Amy's bike.  He has to be pushed around because his legs aren't quite long enough to reach the pedals.

And here is my 1 yr old going on 3 or 4...*sigh* he just has to be doing what the older ones are doing!

My son giving me a goofy grin finally!  Very hard to get him to smile at the camera lately.

 Whereas this guy has the opposite problem... :D  And yes that is my pointed nose.  I inherited from my mother lol!

Right, and the last thing I should say is we submitted our visa's this week...so hopefully within a couple of weeks we'll hear back to see whether we can stay or ...  

Right, I'm done my hokey pokey ice cream (think vanilla ice cream with the crunchie bar in it minus the chocolate...very yum) on to other things. :)

Amelia's birthday

Well it was a tiring communion season with having sick children (and me recovering from a cold) but I still wanted to do something for Amelia's birthday.  So I invited a couple of her friends, whipped out a cake (have no idea how that happened) and had lunch ready for them all today.  Here she is being spoiled with so many gifts! Thank you to her friends!  She felt very special!

Aaron, Diana, Amelia, Aaron, and Chelsea

And here she is opening the strange little gift from Daddy and Mommy....a empty box with a note in it??  The note said that Amelia could find her present in the back shed but since it was raining, Daddy kindly got it out for her to see...she is a very happy girl. :)

 The present! :)

Amelia wanted a Ladybug cake so I made one for her...it turned out quite cute I thought.  This was my first time using fondant instead of traditional buttercream icing. I really like fondant. :)  Sorry it is on the side, I really don't know how that happened (and no it isn't because I forgot to turn it clockwise).

 

Anyways, I'm exhausted!  I'm off to get some peppermint tea... :)