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Published: February 22nd 2009
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Avery's Birthday Party
S'mores! See, Michele, we put the marshmellows to good use! January 2009 - Avery's Birthday, Mimi's Visit, Moeraki, Gregg's Birthday, and in early February Stewart Island
Wow, just when we thought our lives would slow down and we would get settled into our new house, summer and relaxing...
First, Avery's birthday, Jan 20 included 10 boys, a movie, water activies at our house on our homemade waterslide and the new trampoline, 5 boys overnight with S'mores and movies...
Jan 24 was spent doing the very Kiwi summer thing of lake boating, skiing, knee boarding and hanging out at Lake Opahi.
On Jan 25 we drove to Christchurch for one last birthday outing for Avery - the QEII pool and indoor water park. Then off to the airport to collect Mimi. Jan 26 we took Mimi to our favorite stretch of the coast to see the Moeraki Boulders, have another great excuse to eat at Fluers Place, to visit the Penguin Colony in Oamaru. On Tues and Wed of this week, Mimi and Sydney took the bus to Dunedin and the Otago Peninsula.
Jan 30 was Gregg's big day. We took him to lunch at another of our favorite lunchtime hangouts, The Shearer's Quarters. After lunch and
A Summer Day at the Lake
Onboard the Dovestone's Boat a walk around the animal farm, we headed to a swimming hole for a quick dip (boys only) and jump off a tree. Friday night was a big rugby match in Timaru that had sold out early. I bought tickets well before Christmas knowing that this would be a great way to spend Gregg's birthday night and to show Mimi some Kiwi culture! It was a really awesome game between the Crusaders and the Highlanders, two regionally local teams with several players from the All Blacks team. The entire team stayed around for over an hour signing autographs - what a thrill for Avery. He was so excited to slap hands with Richie McCaw! Later that evening we had our friends, the Dovestones and the Ellis' over for birthday cake. We left on Saturday for the Twizel Salmon and Wine Festival, not so great, but had an awesome swim in another favorite swim hole that Gregg and Graham had been to earlier in the month. The rope swing was amazing. Along the way we stopped at Lake Tekapo and lunch at the Mount John Observatory.
We spent the night in a house in Twizel rented from a local doctor, but
Knee Boarding
All three kids tried something new! prepared dinner at the campground on Lake Ruataniwha where the Dovestones were keeping their caravan (known as a trailing to us). This is where the National Rowing Championships are held.
On Sunday we joined a group from Peel Forest Outdoor Pursuits Center, where Syd had gone to camp earlier in the month, and took in some rafting on the Lake Pukaki River. The damns are opened only twice a year allowing for great rafting waters. It was a beautiful summer day and perfect for this adventure. We had to rush a bit to get Mimi back to Twizel to catch a bus to Queenstown, Milford, and Doubtful Sound where she would spend the next week and meet us later on Stewart Island.
On Feb 3 the kids went back to school for the start of a new year. Three kids, three new schools, three new uniforms. Sydney began her Year 13 at Craighead Diocesan School. This is a private girls school with high academic standards and only a few kilometers from our house. Graham began his high school career at Timaru Boys' High School. You can imagine what fun this is for him to be going to a big,
new high school campus a year and a half earlier than his friends in Virginia. And Avery, he got off to a bit of a rocky start at Highfield, where both he and Graham attended last year, and after several teacher conferences in the first week and lots of anxiety, we all decided a fresh start for him at a new school would be best. So now Avery attends Gleniti School - which is actually where most of my friends send their kids to school and again is just a few kilometers up the road. All three kids are getting a taste of biking and scootering (that would be Avery on his push scooter) to school.
Feb 6 was Waitangi Day, a National Holiday and a long weekend. We left Thurs. night to get a start on the driving to Stewart Island, the Catlins and Invercargill. The ferries only go to Stewart Island a few times a day and our booking was for 5pm on Friday. This gave us an entire day to explore Southland and the Catlins. Did a walk at Surat Bay and saw several massive sea lions. Had a quick stop in Invercargill and ate lunch
at the southern most McDonalds. The ferry ride over was smooth which pleased me, Avery and Graham. We learned a new trick...place an ear plug in one ear on your less dominate side and this will help with motion sickness!
We stayed in a great house on Friday called the Letterbox. It was an A-frame and the boys spent the evening feeding all the birds peanuts (which we were told were safe to feed them). We ordered gourmet pizza to take back to the house and while we were waiting, Sydney and Avery took a swim. It was a rainy evening, but warm. After dinner at around 8:15, Gregg, Avery, Graham and I went for a walk to find Kiwis that supposedly only come out at night. We hiked for 2 hours and never saw or heard one - boo hoo. Had a great time exploring some of the back roads of the island. On Sat the boys bought fishing lures and attempted to catch something. Mimi arrived at noon and we moved our things to the Kaka Cottages for the second night. At 2:30 we took a water taxi over to Ulva Island for more Kiwi hunting. It was
a beautiful sunny, but cool day...and still no Kiwis...but we managed to see lots of other birds including Weke chicks. That evening we bought oysters, blue cod and heaps of other bits and pieces to munch on and had quite a feed!
Gregg, Graham and Syd went back out in search of Kiwis... Graham wasn't feeling well, so he went to bed and Mimi and I caught up.
Our ferry left at 8am on Sunday - ugh. It was a long ride home with several stops. The first stop was to Curio Bay to see the petrified forest while it was still low tide. We just made it and watched the tide come in very quickly, in fact, so quickly that we all got our shoes wet. We also stopped at a very curious shop/museam/gallery filled with homemade memorablia. It was a facsinating place. Had an outside dinner in Dunedin. It was a hot day - overcast and they say it was from the fires in Australia coming over the Tasman Sea!
All and all an awesome weekend...no Kiwis were spotted, but we will have 9 more months in New Zealand to help Avery find his Kiwi.
More next
Crusaders vs. Highlanders
Rugby on Gregg's birthday! week on the rest of Mimi's visit. She and Gregg spent 6 days on the West Coast touring. And we are off to hike the Milford Trek this week so another blog on tramping forthcoming! Stay tuned!
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Uncle Stevie
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Rope Swing
I want to try that out!!! Looks like fun.