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church this morning

then this afternoon everyone had homework / school preparation except Anni and me

so we went down to a market then in search of graffiti. 

it was a good opportunity to do some street photography for me

and we ended out little tour by going up Mount Eden (an old volcano) to look at Auckland from above

you can’t get a decent picture of the mouth of the old volcano hole, but you can get an idea of the size by looking at the people around the top of the rim

we were up and out of the house at nine this morning for a walk round Wenderholm regional park

Anni went up a tree and i saw a hat on a sign

and of course there’s the views from the look out

but the big question of the day was whether we saw a dolphin / shark when we looked out to sea.   Kezia and i thought it was.  Esther and Jane weren’t so sure.

the problem was i’d not brought my big camera (with big zoom lens), so this is what the sea looked like (above)

but closer inspection of my photos suggest there’s a strong possibility it was a dolphin snacking on sting rays in the shallows

you decide!

anyway, we decided to take the trick route rather than cutting across the top which was good fun

this afternoon the  girls went shopping in Browns Bay to pick up esther’s glasses (but  the shop was shut) while Anni had a sporting thing at school

i stayed at home and longlisted some photos as i might apply for my Associate award with the NZ Photo Society later in the month if i can get myself organised.

i need to get a dozen photos which all fit nicely together in to a panel of images.  We’ll have to see how i feel about it when i’ve narrowed down my longlist

this evening we watched various british TV including the Great British Sewing Bee and Hotel Inspector

pearl likes to lie with her face on the cool floor in summer

while we were watching TV kezia made some cakes

which everyone ate before going to bed!

today was very windy.  so we went up a couple of old volcanoes to enjoy its gusts

today was a public holiday as it’s Waitangi Day

jane was up early walking pearl

then esther and i went on  hunt for a new power supply for a laptop, which took us in to the centre of town.

this afternoon went to devonport

we went up mount victoria

then spent a while walking round north heads, including exploring the tunnels

this evening we’ve been to our friends Biffy and Malcolm’s house for a BBQ.

kezia turned in to a teenager today!

we had cake this evening

everyone had school today.   Annica learnt about food poisoning and ate chicken pies

kezia tried to sign up to Snapchat now she’s 13, but it wouldn’t let her.  i suspect it was because she’s not 13 years old yet in the timezone where she was trying to register.  she’ll try again in the morning

i walked to work the opposite way i usually do today so i could shoot in to the sun

when i got home from work only kezia was at home as Jane had taken pearl and esther to her violin lesson and annica had gone out running

this evening, after eating birthday cake, we went out to see a French market in Takapuna

but it wasn’t very big, and the temperature has dropped and it was a bit rainy

i spotted a french stick.  the idea was to eat some food there but the queues for crepes were long and slow moving

so instead we decided to grab some posh burgers from a local shop which we ate at home. kezia was delighted as that was her favourite!

it rained most of the day although the day started nice

everyone had school.  kezia had a violin lesson and esther had choir and her concert band (i think)

Annica had a more exciting day at school and (amongst other things) learnt how to flush a toilet!  

She had some proper lessons too with other non-international students.  She’s also signed up for some tennis lessons

i saw this red chair in the street this morning and had a busy day at work which was good.  lots of meetings and useful talking.

and this evening’s photo club meeting was a workshop where we swapped tips with other people who had similar cameras.

school for all today and something musical for esther after school

annica had more orientation, including a chat from a police person, being taught how to cross the road (!) , learning about water safety and getting her school uniform

this evening i went to take some photos at the weekly takapuna beach series and Annica came along to see if she might like to do the running race next week

i did a presentation to my colleagues this afternoon on everything i learned on my week of work in london in December which went well.  i think i justified my time out of the office !

and my CEO was so pleased with my photo editing he gave me a Galaxy Tablet (it was a corporate freebie he no longer wanted).   i’m very pleased with it!

Jane met her tutor group today and they seemed nice so that’s a relief!

Annica had her first day at school today and spent the day on the beach with some of her fellow students while others were doing some tests.

Kezia had a good day at school and a choir practice

Esther had school and a violin lesson

This evening everyone had a swim and various homeworks/music practising

Below is a picture of a luxurious homeless person having a nap on the main shopping street in auckland.  dreaming of winning Lotto perhaps.

we skipped church and went to waiheke island to look at the sculpture trail today

it’s only on for a few days each year and this is the middle weekend.

it was a bit rainy when we left auckland and despite a little bit of drizzle early on it soon ended up being a cloudy but nice (and very warm) day

esther only had to protect herself from the rain for a short while

there were some mini-planetariums with proper constellations.  care to guess what the one below is?

most of the sculptures were big installations like this giant sean connery selfie

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my favourite (also kezia’s and annica’s) was this piece which consisted of lots of mirrors in a field.

it looked great from far away, but was really interesting up close too.

it was surprisingly effective.

and mind bending all at once!

the boat trip back was a smoother than the way there because we were on a bigger boat!

everyone is back to school tomorrow so this evening has been about organisation!

it rained this morning.  that’s good news for the garden.

all the ladies went over to Brown’s Bay this morning as esther had an opticians appointment and is getting some new glasses.  kezia and annica had a wander round

this afternoon was more wandering round shops, this time at the mall with me while jane was getting her hair cut

in between times i’ve been editing hundreds of holiday photos and still don’t seem to have made much of a dent in the holiday snaps!

here’s annica our excellent homestay student.  she’s with us for three months. 

the girls were all back at school today but annica doesn’t start until Monday so had a day of leisure today.  i worked from home this morning but had a meeting this afternoon so she had an explore of Auckland’s shopping delights while i was at my meeting.

then this evening we took pearl for a walk at Muriwai

here’s my lovely wife jane