Anniversary Day

THEN

We arrived in NZ on 31st August 1997. Adrian had been here just on two months ahead of us and in that time had bought a house and a car and been very lonely and miserable. The flight from SA to Perth/Sydney was not too bad as the boys slept most of the way. In Sydney they woke and the flight to Wellington was a bit more difficult. We only had two seats between us and they gave me “baby slop” for Colin who was 20 months old. We landed around midnight and were met by a wonderful couple who helped me with the boys and the luggage and stayed with me whilst Adrian got the car. Even at that time of night I could feel the freedom – I wasn’t at all scared. We drove home to Whitby to our new house and all tried to go sleep. The next day, Adrian took us into Wellington to look around. I was struck by the beauty of the city.

We slowly settled into life in NZ, discovering new things all the time. I was very sad to start with and cried every day, but soon found myself crying less and less. We met people, generally other South Africans and slowly settled into life in our new country. We almost had to learn a new language when we cam here as there were many expressions that were foreign to us. We also had to discover new foodstuffs and favourite brands.

Ross started at Mana Montessori and in no time I was chairperson of the committee and building new premises. Then Mom and Dad arrived and within six weeks were found a house for them. Whitby was hard to live in as not many people were very friendly. We joined South Africans in Wellington and soon enough I was the chairperson there.

Ross started school at Adventure School and Colin went to Adventure Kindy after a not very pleasant year at Montessori. Both of them loved their new schools. In the meantime, Adrian left the BNZ and started working at NBNZ. The next thing I found myself working there too as a PA to Adrian’s senior manager.


We slowly realised that we were outgrowing our house and started looking around. By a stroke of luck, we managed to buy a lovely house in Tawa in a private deal through someone I had met at NBNZ. Colin started school at Greenacres and Ross went to Year 2. By the end of Year 2 we realised that Colin was not succeeding through a series of useless teachers and moved him to Redwood School.

The Adrian left NBNZ and went to Westpac which was a thoroughly bad move. After three years of job hunting, he moved to DataMail. In the meantime, I was made redundant from NBNZ and at the same time was appointed a part-time teacher at Tawa College. Ross moved on from Greenacres to Tawa Intermediate as did Colin. Mom and Dad moved to a house closer to us.

We became New Zealand citizens as soon as we could (in 2000) and happily swore allegiance to the Queen and all her heirs etc etc. We also know the national anthem better than many others. We have seen much of New Zealand – most of the South Island and the North Island more than half way up – in fact more than most New Zealanders. We have also travelled overseas to Australia, South Africa, Singapore, America and Fiji. In fact, I almost feel that I’m nearly home when we get onto an AirNZ plane.

Adrian is a Lions member and has been to a number of conventions; in fact, this year he is a Cabinet member. I discovered Scrapbooking and made many friends through it.

The last ten years have treated us well and in the words of a Circle Journal I took part in – we took a gamble coming halfway round the world, leaving everything and everyone we knew behind to a country we had only seen few photos of …and won! This country is safe and secure and an ideal place in which our children can grow up. We live in a pleasant suburb that has walkways and our house is within easy walking distance to the schools and the train station. There is an excellent train service into the City . We have a lovely house which we are slowly repainting. It may not be the tidiest house in the world but it’s comfortable and spacious and suits our needs. We have five bedrooms, two of which are downstairs which are ideal for guests or for when our sons are a little older. The family room has a beautiful view down the valley to the sea and we have a beautiful view across the rest of Tawa. Are we glad we came? Without a doubt

NOW

Lunar Eclipse

Last night (Tuesday) was a total lunar eclipse visible in New Zealand and parts of Australia. I said I would wake the boys to see it when it started happening. The weather forecast was for cloud but they didn't mention the biting southerly! I went outside just after 9pm and started taking some photos and then got the tripod out.These photos were taken over the course of the night up until 10pm

9.45pm and you can just see the Earth's shadow coming over.

Lots of cloud around hence the bit of haze

Ten minutes later

10pm

The moon got darker and darker as the night went on ....and the wind got colder and colder! The boys went to bed just after 10pm and we weren't much later

Come out, come out whoever you are!

I see so many visitors from all sorts of interesting places - Oxford, Winnipeg, Hunua, Hamilton, Napier, Pretoria, Karlsruhe, Maketu are just a few I can remember. Come and tell me who you are :-)

Today ....

I am the mother of a teenager! Yes, my first born turned thirteen and it's scary being the mother of a teenager. We left South Africa a week after his third birthday so he has spent nearly 80% of his life here. Adriam and I celebrated with lunch at the pub today! Tonight it is blue cod and wedges for dinner and Saturday we have a party - Laser Force and then back here for pizza and cake


Thanks for all the wishes for our wedding anniversary.

Paula - the "Penguins" is Maya Road chipboard painted with MM Buttermilk paint

Fifteen years ago

at 11.30am in the morning, we said, "I do" to each other. Now we have two boys and live half-way round the world. So we celebrated by all four of us going out to breakfast this morning. We had fun although the cafe was a bit on the "juvenile" side: we asked for Buck's Fizz, no, said the waiter we don't have any of that. Adrian explained it was just orange juice and bubbly. "But then I'll have to charge you for two glasses of orange juice and two glasses bubbly", said the waiter. What?? Does he not know it's HALF a glass of each? We considered ordering one of each and mixing it ourselves but decided against it - so they lost the sale.

Anyway, I got a lovely funky pink "Stamp" watch and Adrian got a weather station

Scrapping on Saturday!

We had a great day again on Saturday - 17 ladies which is more than we've ever had before. KiwiScraps was full as there were three groups making wedding invitations and two parties so it was rather noisy too. But when 5pm came it was just us and it was bliss! Oh and then we had a short surprise visit from the fire brigade - shhhhh! Anyway, I got three l/os done and another two started. Here they are:

Dunedin - and I don't like this l/o

Hanmer Springs - love these colours

Penguins - at Oamaru and I love the chipboard and how it turned out

Both Dunedin and Penguins I have entered at SBO in their Chipboard Challenge

TA - WOW - WA

The boys' school production is on this week - titled TA - WOW - WA very loosely set around their own World Of Wearable Arts with some baddies and others thrown in for good measure. I tought that the story line was very thin and some of the lines and actions a bit risque but the kids are having fun!

Ross is the head of a chinese dragon and

Colin is a wind dancer.

Unfortunately flash cameras were banned so I didn't get very good photos - we will, however, be able to buy a DVD of the show for $20!

Final CJ entry

My final CJ entry in the circle with some ladies in the US and Canada. The title was "What a Gamble" and I used our decision to come to NZ as my topic. I will parcel it up today and on Monday or Tuesday it will wing its way north-east. I have full size photos that I will be doing a similar l/o for me

Thanks for the comments everyone - on 31st August it's our 10 year anniversary here. My l/o will be along those lines. When I arrived here with a 3 year old and a 20 month old (I flew all by myself as Adrian was already here) it was to the news that Diana died.

Another challenge

but this time it's late! It was for the Kiwi Jack Me challenge a few weeks ago (see post further down). I did get it done, but only finished the journalling last night - anyway, it's done now

ScrapPink

This is an international scrapping weekend in aid of Breast cancer. Here in NZ, there are many crops happening over the weekend of 28th - 30th September all co-ordinated by KiwiScraps. Our group, Paper, Scissors, Crop will also be taking part - leave a comment or email me if you would like to join us.

Then of course we will be having our usual monthly crops on 18th August; 20th October and our Christmas Crop on 24th November

Scrapping Challenges

It's fun to take part in a scrapping challenge but you have to remember to enter on time! Here's my entry for N0 8 Wired - the NZ Dares blog. Called "15 Minute Cleanup" whilst not strictly an every day occurence it's certainly an every cleaning day occurence! I set the timer and the boys and I clean for 15 minutes then we stop and play, surf the net etc for 15 minutes and so on until we've finished. It works really well for the boys

PS Penny - it's just something I made up one day to get my boys to help without it being too onerous and now it's stayed around. Sometimess they say we'll do 20 minutes or 30 minutes depending on how they're feeling - but it works well

PPS Thanks Trina for picking my name out for a prize

Making Memories Foam Stamps

I had a set of the Christmas ones and sold them on TradeMe - now I've realised all the wonderful things I can do with them and want them back! Anyone got a set to sell me, please?


Now Angela - if I tell then no one will ever want to sell their stamps to me :-) I thought about a Versamark stamp pad to make a background for one

I have found someone on TM who will sell me a brand new set - at full price of course!

Scrapping yesterday

We had such a great day yesterday at our monthly crop! We had Bingo (won by Marie) and Scrap Points (won by Yvonne) and I set a challenge for everyone - the current Kiwi Jack Me up! The following are photos I took of l/os done on the day and we had a lucky draw which was won by Suzanne. Two photos were very blurred so hopefull I can get them later and uplaod them here. I didn't finish mine but hopefully I can do it later today and then upload it here

Suzanne

Marie

Jacquie

Linda

Julie

Yvonne
In the afternoon, Bronwyn did a 12x12 clock class with us which was fantastic - great idea for Christmas presents - mine is at the top left and I will give it to my parents for Christmas. If it looks as theough there's something wrong with the clock - it's just a temporary clock - there weren't enough for me so I'll attach mine later

In all a fantastic day out!

Scrapping on Saturday!

It's our monthly crop at KiwiScraps on Saturday and we are having a bit of a special day. Firstly there will be a 12x12 clock class and this is such a lovely piece of art. I'm going to make mine as a Christmas present for my parents.

Then we will play some games (with prizes), have spme prize draws and a challenge! This is what I've told everyone: There is a challenge that will be ongoing all day and for this you will need a photo of someone or something (dog, cat) It could be done using a photo of more than one person too. There will be one small prize draw for everyone who takes part in this. If you want more clues as to what you’ll be doing I will accept bribes! This should be fun!

If you live anywhere near Wellington and you'd like to join us, please let me know

We're home!

On Wednesady evening the swell was really high on Ocean Beach so off we went to look at the blowhole on Moturiki Island - it's actually not an island but with the force of the waves it certainly was! We had to time our run across to miss the waves - unfortunately we mis-timed it and all got wet feet. The water was splashing really high - right where the boys had been walking a few days earlier. The sea had even come up to their log tunnel and flattened it. It was so wonderful to see again the power of the sea.


We decided to pack up on Thursday morning and head home ...and we woke to beautiful sunshine! Just our luck. We decided to leave anyway and spend time at Waikite pools. On the way out of Tauranga we thought that we'd pop in and see Whakatane - just a short detour! On the road there is a fruit and vegetable shop that also sells South African goods. We don't often indulge ourselves but on this trip we did - Cream Soda, Jelly Tots and NikNaks for the boys, Tex and Fritos for Adrian and Tab and Inside Story for me. Stopped briefly in Whakatane to look at White Island (I'm still really sorry I wasn't able to go there - another time) and then headed for Rotorua. We got to Waikite at around 4pm and were so pleased to get into the warm water. By 5.30pm we were starving as we hadn't had lunch - out we got, got dressed and ate in the cafe there. We decided that we had to get back into the water before we went - but it was sooo cold putting our cold, wet swimming things back on! We finally left around 7.30pm and headed for Taupo and the Acupulco Motel where we spent the night. This morning we went tickey-touring around Taupo - to Craters of the Moon and Huka Falls. This photo below is at Craters of the Moon and that is all geothermal steam escaping from fumaroles in the ground
Above is Huka Falls - Ross took the photo of me. We haven't been since 2002 so it was fun to see it all again. Coming through Taupo the mountains looked wonderful in the bright sunshine and "floating" behind the Lake. Maybe we could stay at the Chateau for the night because soccer was cancelled? "Yay!!" shouted the boys but there was no space for us - oh we were very disappointed. We stopped at Julie for a coffee and then headed down the Desert Road and found lots of snow and of course we were close to my Mountain too! We turned off at the Tukino skifield road and headed quite a way in to find lots of fresh snow. After a long play, we headed off to possibly find somewhere to stay at Ohakune but none of it was the Chateau. After trying to find something to eat and being very unsuccessful, we decided to head home and stop at Taihape at the Gumboot Manor for a very late meal (we do make a habit of that!). We also stopped at Tangiwai and there was still lots of evidence that a lahar went through there in March.


We got home safely at 8pm and we are all pleased to be home again

One bad thing happend to us - on the way back from Hamilton on Tuesday, as we went under a pedestrian bridge at Tauranga a stone hit the windscreen and made a nasty hole and crack. We had to go to Novus to have it repaired and they thought that we should actually replace the windscreen! However, they repaired it and it looks fine now; we'll have to wait and see

Some photos

The first creatures we saw at Hamilton Zoo were these beautiful salmon crested cockatoos - the keeper was about to feed them and gave the boys a peanut each to put through the bars to draw the birds away from the gate so she could get in

This is at the tiger enclosure - the TV screen is a closed circuit TV on top of the roof that is able to see into the enclosure so that people can track the tiger and zoom in

At the rhino enclosure and hopefully you can see the baby at the back

There is a wonderful VERY LARGE free fly aviary where we saw a number of very fat and healthy kereru (NZ wood pigeon) amongst other NZ native birds

In Hamiton Gardens at the Indian garden

At the contempory American garden - designed to look like a large swimming pool with a house at the back

This is the Persian garden - the four quarter gardens will look like a live Persian carpet in the summertime. It was such a pity that there was not much flowering when we were there - an excuse to go back in the future!

Probably my favourite - the Italian Renaissance garden - beautiful fountains and ponds all over

And finally the view from the top of the Kaimai rnages looking out over Matamata. Before the Waikato changed direction 18 million (I think) years ago, this is where it flowed. There are also a number of very extinct volcano cones here - not that you can see much in the gloomy weather!

We are going to head off tomorrow - we'll go to the Waikite pools and spend the afternoon in the warm water there before heading to Taupo for the night. Then in the morning we'll go home. Julie if you're reading this we'll probably pop-in on our way home

Three day catch up

Yes it was sunny on Sunday even though it was cold. That didn’t however, stop Colin getting into the sea – that child does not feel the cold at all. We spent the morning on the beach and the boys dug a big tunnel in the sand under a large log while Adrian and I sat reading …and I took lots of photos. We then came home to a late lunch of anti-pasto things and a glass of wine followed by coffee and chocolate! The boys all watched a movie and I sat down at Pilot Bay watching a large log ship leave, yachts and other assorted recreational boats sailing around. Adrian and I went for a long walk together and now it’s getting dark, some wine is in order!

We went to Hamilton early-ish on Monday morning and arrived at the control tower at the airport for our midday rendevouz to see what happens there. The boys got bored quite quickly but were very good none-the-less. Then we headed to Hamilton Zoo - what a lovely zoo! We spent all afternoon there and left as it was getting dark. We booked in at the Novotel and then picked up some chinese take-aways to have at the home of our friend Vaughan (another SA-can who has been here just a few months less than us). We had a lovely evening there and then had dessert in town before heading for bed.

After breakfast at the hotel, Adrian and I had a quick walk along the Waikato river front - quick because it was so cold in Hamilton this morning! Our next stop was Hamilton Gardens and again we just loved them! Five theme gardens which in summer must be stunning. At the same time we found anothe geocache. The boys then headed back to the river to find another geocache after dropping me at my friend Vicky's house. Her young Kaya is just too cute!! And I do so fel for tiny Arlo and his colic. We had a lovely chat and then it was time to head back to Tauranga. It is freezing cold here today and we're thinking of going home early - possibly on Thursday and stopping at our favourite Waikite hot pools, overnight in Taupo and then home on Friday

I'll post some photos from our Hamilton trip from Starbucks sometime

Saturday ... Geocaching day!

Not a good day again but at least it didn't rain. Colin slept very late and then we went back to Moturiki Island at high tide to see if we could see the water splashing up through the blow hole - still the waves were not strong enough.

Then we went back down to a park to find a geocache which was fun and easy.

After a quick lunch, we had a yummy icecream at Copenhagen (and we weren't the only ones eating icecream on a cold day either) we went out to Fraser Cove to find anothe geocache and pick up a travel bug which we'll take back to Wellington.



This one was a bit harder to find but Adrian found it in the end. On our way back to the car, a little fantail was flitting around our feet as we walked. I managed to get some photos but some of them were blurry. Hmmm, might just have to print those out for the challenge across at SBO!

The shopping centre at Fraser Cove was pleasant too. Now we're back at Starbucks and all online again!


I think we may head out to Whakatane tomorrow and Hamilton on Monday and stay there overnight. Thanks everyone for your lovley comments - I am so pleased that someone reads all of this!

Frozen Friday

Well, not quite, but it is very wet and miserable.


On Wednesday we headed north to KatiKati to find the museum. It was a rather interesting museum where there was a guided tour by the owners who have lived in KatiKati all their lives. We then played fun mini-golf and had a lovely roast lunch in the cafe alongside. Thanks Raewyn!

After the museum tour was over, the lady told me that my boys have a vast general knowledge. This reminds me that the lovely Raewyn commented that we have such fun holidays. That we are immigrants is the reason that we are trying to show our children as much of as our adopted country as we can. All we have yet to do is north of Tauranga. In the ten years we've been here I think we have done really well to see as much of New Zealand as we have.



Thursday the boys played down at Pilot Bay for a bit before we headed into Tauranga town to walk around the shops. I found a s/b shop called Bookem which seemed to have some nice stuff in it - it was just a pity that they weren't too friendly in there! Then I went along to Wendy's scrapping group which was great fun! I met Kerry (Nik's sister) and Wendy's mum and sister. I also saw a scrappy bag in real life and I am sooo impressed! These are really well made and very functional - I can't wait to get mine now! I even completed four l/os! Very easy and follow my standard school photo and pocket for reports format.


Today is wet and miserable and we are cooped up with wet washing! Actually we have taken some of it to the laundromat to get dry and are all sitting in Starbucks again. Our family of four, each with a latop, is getting lots of looks from the oter customers! We did walk out to Motoriki Island this morning but the waves weren't high enoughto be blowing through the blow hole

And still the rain is pouring down! Not sure what we'll do over the weekend, but I do hope that the rain stops soon! I hope you're keeping warm and scrapping. By the way, I finally found some dukkah at the Bin Inn in Maunganui road!