Blog

Well, today was the first day of the hols. Poor Esther had to have an injection today as she missed them at school, as it was the day that she had her violin exam. But then we went shopping and got new shoes for Kezia and ordered some for Esther.

Esther has a school friend, whose mum is a nanny for our next door neighbours and Beth has to go with her mum in the hols, so Beth came round here this afternoon and kez got on with some arty projects.

Dave went out with Warren this eve as we have cancelled lifegroup for the hols

We bunked church today and went for a family day out to Thames, which is just on the Coromandel peninsula. Thames is an old gold mining town. As we had expected, it was mostly shut, but there were some good signs around.

 

There was a little railway, which we went on. $2 a ride or 7 rides for $10!

We joined a tour at the gold mining school. the guide was excellent and he loved his job and the history of gold mining. It was a good reminder of chemistry lessons.

 

We had our lunch at a beach a bit further up the road and then went inland up the Kauaeranga Valley for a look. It was a very cold day and we stopped at Miranda hot pools on the way back to warm up.

See ya

jane went for a run then got her hair straightened

kezia went to a friends house for a couple of hours whilst the rest of us went for a walk and lunch at mairangi bay

along the way we saw these rescue penguins being exercised in a rock pool

two of them are being released tomorrow at tawharanui further up the coast

jane, esther and kezia then went to see a production of Cats at Jane’s school which sounded good.  they then did a bit of shopping

this evening we watched a bit of family telly including a some more on new zealand railways and a new series looking at different pacific islands

whilst the ladies were out watching cats i did a load of admin and submitted our UK tax returns which is a bit of a victory!

here’s a few more penguin pictures

jane and i went to see the Flight Of The Conchords this evening and they were excellent.  They played a small part in our moving to New Zealand (at least for me they did) so it was nice to finally see them in real life!

i had a good day at work.  something i’ve been working on for a year was published by the regulator and was really positive for Telecom (my employer) so that was great.

jane was at kristen doing cover work all day and took an ill colleague home (in exchange for some german pastries)

esther had swimming but kezia had to miss hers because jane and i were going out. 

here’s a work friend counting up foreign coins for a charity collection.  it’s just coincidence i think that someone found some foreign money in the ladies toilet.  I scrubbed out her telephone number just in case you were tempted to phone her to claim it!

and the girls had their last day of school and are now on holiday for 2 weeks. yay

jane had a day working at kristen today and is a stand in guitarist at the church music practice tonight.

kezia had her pupil lead conference (or some such name) today which was good and this evening esther had her netball.  they won 20-4 which was excellent.  the other team was two players down, so they leant them one of their players for the final two halves.  but esther’s team was still brilliant!

there seems to be some kind of post-it note war going on at work which is quite amusing.  i had this on my desk this morning.  people have started writing to each other too instead of emailing.  i’m finding it a little old fashioned to be honest. 

not much to report for today.  usual things for all of us – school, work etc

there was a big boat parked where the big cruise ships park up in summer.  by mid morning it had moved across to the boat petrol pumps a bit further down the harbour

this evening jane had esther’s teacher chats which was quite a low key affair i think.  and kezia had swimming.  there was some violining and shopping involved too.

otherwise, a usual wednesday

Hello (: I am Esther

Today it was mufti day at my school. It was also a busy day for me.

First I had a science test ): then a lady came to speak to my class

about Peter Blake. The lady was a little odd… Then we had a BP challenge.

We had to make something to collect ping pong balls from one place

and take them to somewhere else. My group won. Yippee!!!

Then it was market day. There was not much good stuff to buy…

And then I had maths, like normal.

After school I went to tennis for two hours. It was fun and I was not

too bad in the competitions we did. Today was the last tennis for the

term.

 

🙂 From Esther (:

 

 

Hello. Last week of term here. Looks like it might be a busy one for me, having not had any supply at all for weeks, now I am doing lots of work. It will be nice for holiday pocket money.

I got up super early this am, as I think I had better do some training for the half marathon.

Kezia spent some time at Esther’s school doing the BP challenge, where you have to make things to fire shuttlecocks.

Dave met Tim, from Twyford, who stayed with us last year and who is back in Auckland on business.

Kezia made this hair accessory yesterday. She has started a trend and after school made lots for her friends who had requested them. (She had spotted a money making opportunity, but her mother wouldn’t allow it).

 

Home group this eve for the men. Amanda and I went to the ladies’ dessert evening.

jane was singing at church and i had some helping to do so it was an early start for church.  all was good though.

then after church warren, debbie and laura came round for hearty soup and that was really good.

later this afternoon kezia had a flippa ball match.  her team won (first time in ages) and kezia scored the winning goal.  yay

this morning we went to janine and james’ house for morning tea and to take some pictures of the chap above.   

then it was off to the DIY shop to buy various things which we were talked out of by the staff experts! after that we went to the library

then this afternoon we drove over to one of the two local ice rinks (ignoring the temporary one which has just popped up in the centre of auckland) to test its suitability for esther’s birthday party.  it passed the test so they’ll be back

jane and i sat in the cafe while the girls were skating

 

this evening esther and i went to the supermarket which was quiet as the rugby was on.  i spotted an imposter amongst the grolschs.

 

i’m still feeling pretty ill. getting a bit sick of being sick now.