An earlier start than we have been used to this morning. Dave was at church for 7.30 and the rest of us at 8.
After that our friends the Guthries came over for lunch and a swim and general hanging out.
This evening we watched another muppet movie.
See ya
it was a day of doing.
jane and kezia walked pearl on the beach and then went to a cafe
jane and esther went to janine’s house to get feeding instructions for their mini zoo
amanda came round with two of her sons to swim in the pool and chew the cud
i wrote a bit to do list and worked through it diligently and achieved most of what i set out to do despite having a massive headache (perhaps related to yesterday’s ice-cream)
today we went to mahurangi bay (where we went on new year’s day)
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it was almost empty but after a warm start to the day it got a breezy and colder so we went for a walk round a couple of nearby bays
after that we went home to finish the jigsaw and have a swim. of course it had been really nice and warm all day at home (and still is this evening)
this evening we to debbie and warren’s house for the evening which was really good fun
a fitting end to my last (official) day of summer holidays
today pearl went to doggy daycare and we spent the day exploring mangawhai heads and te arai point
here are a load of photos
and te atai point was absolutely packed … (it might get busier in summer?)
jane was at work all day today doing church music team stuff.
the girls and i went to the school gym this morning to talk to the school caretaker about some electrical problems we’ve been having during our church services and retrieve some flight cases which we’ve sold.
then it was off to janine’s house to take some picture of hugo hugs, for her book (sample picture above). family lunch with jane at pita pit then this afternoon some friends came round to use the pool with esther and kezia.
lots of domestic doing today – i went to see a man about selling our old church sound system (now sold), bought and replaced the lock in pearl’s daytime room (previously known as the laundry room), bought and put up a hook for some pool hoses (which involved drilling through the metal wall of the shed – quite advanced for me).
meanwhile jane did various walks with pearl, had a lady over to measure up curtains for kezia(‘s room), then went shopping and haircutting with esther
there was also some serious jigsawing by me.
i’ve still got another week of holiday (hoorah)
jane and esther took pearl for a walk
then we had a family walk from milford beach to takapuna beach which involves a walk over a beach side lava field
we stopped for an ice-cream at Takapuna before walking back
then this afternoon we saw Life Of Pi
followed by jigsawing (me), swimming (e&k) and pearl walking (jane)
Hello.
Us girls to Pearl to Long Bay for a walk this morning. We had lots of fun and she was fairly good about coming back to us.
Then skyping p and p, domestics, decorations down, garage cleared out, gardening done and general cleaning.
Then a quick dip in the pool before the gang came round for afternoon tea and a swim
we took pearl out for an outing today
it started off with a picnic at the dog allowed corner of Wenderholme park (where we kayaked to yesterday)
we took some pegs and pegged her down so she couldn’t run off which worked well
then we took her for a 8km walk round a new walking/biking track in Orewa.
it was really nice, but it’s been a really hot day and there was no shade on the walk after the first 10 minutes
we did a few geocaches on the way
but it took us an hour and half to do only half of it. by which time we were very hot and furthest from the shops and our water was running out
luckily we realised we must be close to the new house of some friends from church. so we gave them a ring and they kindly gave us water, and when they realised how tired we all looked (especially pearl) they gave us a lift back to our car!
the rest of the day was spent in the pool (girls) and doing the xmas jigsaw (me)
another great day!
here’s a stick insect we found whilst doing some geocaching. it dropped on to kezia’s head then in to our car. kezia thought that was a very cool thing to happen
here’s a video of me helping it back to its home. quite whizzy aren’t they?
jane was up early this morning for a run, and after some stomach troubles i decided i should go for a healthy walk with esther to do a few local munzees on the way
then we drove up to puhoi (prounced poo-hoy) for a picnic and then to hire some kayaks
you get on the river at puhoi and the idea being you float downstream to the sea where you get out before you’re lost in the entire ocean
jane and esther shared a kayak as esther was worried she wouldn’t be able to keep up for 2 hours.
kezia and i had our own ones and kezia was strong paddler
these photos were taken with kezia’s camera which had a big blob of some old sweets or something on the lens which i’ve since removed.
the hardest bit was the end where we’d been warned about a cross wind which was likely to blow kezia in to the main current which would whip her out to see forever. our instructions were to hug the opposite bank as we went round the final corner. when it came to it i tied kezia’s kayak on to mine and dragged her across the last open stretch and we all made it to land safely.
on the way home, those of us not on a special diet had ice-creams
then this evening we watched the Muppets movie and ate pizza (mine was on a gluten free base with allowed toppings of cheese, ham and pineapple
we went to Hell’s Pizza as esther is addicted to pinball. kezia came along to see what the fuss was about and got addicted too. we’re such bad parents.