mother’s day

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today is mother’s day in new zealand which was a bit of a mix of emotions, with jane and i being so far away from our mothers.

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church this morning was good.  here are esther and kezia with two of their chums – the two girls on the right are in esther’s class at school which is really nice as they go to our church too.  the chap making a run for it in the top picture is in kezia’s year although they’re not in the same class

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this afternoon we went geocaching in a posh place nearby called greenhithe.  it’s somewhere we thought we might like to live before we moved to new zealand, but none of the places to available to rent were suitable so we passed it by.  it’s interesting to wander round and see it though.

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there was a nice play park

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here’s a view over the harbour to herald island

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and this was interesting. it’s a south african praying mantis.  its front legs are bent down so you can’t quite see them.  and it’s back body was quite fat and looked a bit like a corn on the cob.  this was the best photo i got i’m afraid as i only took my small camera.

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there’s lots of very posh houses around there as well as a few arty run down places, like this one which had one of the best letter boxes ever

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after our geocaching we popped in to a Dutch cafe for a drink.  i’m sure we’ll go back there for something more substantial like chips with mayonnaise.

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here’s greenhithe from the sky.  click on the minus sign to zoom out and see how it fits in with downtown auckland and albany (where we live, just 10 minutes away)
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this evening esther’s off to play flippa ball.  i’ll let you know how she gets on !

STOP PRESS:  Esther’s team lost 0-12.  Down on points but not on spirit