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Published: December 26th 2008
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The Boys at Sheepworld
David, Michael, Harry, Peter, Josh and Taine (and a fake sheep) We set off from sunny Auckland taking SH1 over the Harbour Bridge (fantastic views back to the Sky Tower) and our rendevouz with Jo, David, Harry, Josh and Taine at Sheepworld in Warkworth. Jo had warned that the roads north of Auckland deteriorated and she was right - but they still were better than Cumbria's!
Fantastic to see everyone - but the weather was not tremendously kind! Jo and the boys got out of the car and had to put on jumpers - possibly rain coats would have been better! The van seemed to get suddenly a lot smaller as we sat down to lunch for 9!!
Sheepworld is a little farm park, mainly around the sheep (surprising?) but also had eels (which the boys fed with lumps of meat), alpacas, guinea pigs and various types of poultry roaming around. The boys also found a large field with a donut slope (strange rubber ring which the children sat in and slid down the slope) and an adventure playground. The sheep show (when we made it - the boys were very keen to carry on donuting) was quite good with a sheep being sheared and an exhibition of dogs herding
sheep. The finale was lamb feeding.
We then followed Jo back to her house near Whangarei about an hour and a half further on. It's a good job we were following her as I'm not sure we'd have found it on our own - the houses here don't seem to have numbers, just distances along the road. The weather seemed to have got worse and worse the further north we went - I'm sure we were heading for the Equator and therefore should be getting warmer?
The boys all got on very well together - although 6 of them seem to make a horrendous amount of noise!! The dog and her puppies didn't seem to be to phased by it all!
Next day was Christmas Eve and the weather hadn't cheered up very much at all. Andy had left for work at his usual time (4.30 am!) and when we got up we decided that it wasn't beach weather so Jo and I ought to go and buy food. So we set off for Christmas Eve shopping in Whangarei with Taine - leaving Garry alone with 5 children!!! Hopefully he would keep them occupied with guitar lessons?
A Donut Anyone?
Boys on donut - Peter fell off and skinned his instep on the matting, it's taken the rest of the holiday to get him walking without complaining... In the afternoon it stopped raining, so once Andy had come home from work (having suffered a Hangi - a traditional Maori meal) we went to Whangarei Falls - which were spectacular given the recent rain. Then on to the Town Basin which is where all the yachts moor - and a shop that did the best Hot Chocolate I have ever tasted (yummy). The boys liked the playground (but they always like their playgrounds!).
After tea Jo set about peeling vegetables for an army - but then 10 is a serious number of mouths! We also decided that we would cook the chickens to save work the next day - unfortunately we didn't realise that they should be taken out of their roasting bags while they were still hot (but that was something to be found out and dealt with the next day!)
After we got the boys to bed we had to drag all the presents out of the van and wrap them - Jo had also bought them lots of bits presents so they weren't going to feel to let down by their present piles! We got to bed just after midnight wondering how
Lamb feeding
All the boys got in on the act much sleep we were likely to get!
Christmas Day morning all the boys were awake by 5.15 but were contained until 6.30 - then they ripped into the presents like dervishes! by 7.00am it was all over and there were just piles of wrapping paper and presents! Garry was comandeered to set up the Wii while Andy cooked breakfast and Jo and I cleared up the rubble.
The weather looked like it might get out really nice so we decided that we would try and go to the beach later. Andy got out the quad bikes to keep the boys occupied - Michael and Peter had an absolute whale of a time. Michael got quite good and even ended up doing a jump in the garden. Brave Sir Peter also got into it and was tearing round the paddock next door like a mad thing!
The weather didn't really get out very hot so about 2.30pm just before lunch we broke out the Bucks Fizz - at which point the sun came out and we could eat on the decking. Instead of an English traditional plum pudding Jo made the Kiwi Christmas pudding - Strawberry and Kiwi
Guitar Lessons
Andy asked Garry if he could help David with the guitar - don't know that he got it all finished but the first part of the Highway to Hell riff can be heard! (fruit) Pavlova, much lighter in the sun! We sat on the decking until the sun went down and the temperature dropped - at which point I realised that I should have been wearing sun tan lotion!!
Boxing Day dawned with blue skys, light winds and the promise that the weather would be perfect for the beach. We all set off to Patau North beach which was about 20kms from Whangarei on some lovely windy roads past lots of Putakowha trees (Kiwi Christmas Trees). Here we were due to meet up with Jo's friends Gretchen and John who had offered to give the boys some surfing lessons. The beach was gorgeous with white sand and nice small waves (don't want anything too big when you are learning how to stand on a small bit of wood in the water!). It was an awesome day - except for the small amount of sunburn suffered by Jo and I, despite the suntan lotion! - with all the boys doing brilliantly on the surfboard. I on the other hand couldn't balance on the board, even lying down!!! It was still really great fun.
There was a bit of excitement when a shark
was spotted off the beach - but we decided that it would only be a small one which would probably just nibble our toes (Peter was less happy and refused to go back in the water - even though where we were was so shallow it would have to be minnow size to swim!!)
We went on to Tutakaka for tea at the harbour - pizzas went down well with everyone. While we were waiting we saw a Stingray swimming through the harbour - awesome! The boys then spent the whole time leaning over the rail trying to spot more!
On the way back Jo and I trawled Whangarei to take back and then find a new Wii console after the one opened yesterday gave up the ghost after an hour!!! We did it - so Garry has a new job for tonight!!
Tomorrow we're off to Paihia. Hopefully will find somewhere soon to add photos - Jo only has dial up and it can't cope with the photos, but it did allow me to catch up on the text.
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