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quite a quiet day today. 

 

jane went off for a run before 6am with a chum and was back by 7.30am.  the girls skyped their friends in the UK then we went to church for an all age service.

esther, kezia and i walked back from church which is held at esther’s new school to work out how long it takes.  and on the way we popped in to an open home and looked at a 1950s 3 bed weather board home with its original fixtures and fittings which was quite fun.

then this afternoon we’ve been mostly being very hot and staying in.  at some point along the way we drove over to pick up our friend Courtney from work because her parents didn’t have enough cars to go round, and we watched joanna lumley on the telly at tea time.

the lack of excitement and heat meant i only took one photo worth sharing.  and that’s not particularly good.  sorry about that. [actually i just found some others that were ok so i’ve popped those in]

we were up early for a Skype (but the skypers at the other end forgot).  but that was ok because i got a call from Warren saying his car battery was dead and could i give him a jump start.  so that worked out nicely and he was soon on the way again

then we had to empty all our cupboards and under the beds so the spider poisoning man could access the back of the cupboards with his magic spray.  He turned up at 10.30 so we had to leave so as not to get poisoned ourselves

so we drove up the coat a bit for a picnic on the beach.  the girls spent a few hours on the beach

then we came home to find a few dead spiders (but not total arachnid carnage) and esther, kezia and i made ourselves scarce so jane could put the house back together nicely

so the girls and i went to the local mini golf place to use their christmas vouchers and then we did a load of shopping in pak n save.  we also got a new gas bottle for the bbq which meant we could have a barby for our evening meal

and now it’s now.  everyone is still tired.  i’ve got a bit of a sunburnt face and our friends who left yesterday to get to the UK are still in the air because their connecting flight looks like it was delayed 5 hours.  poor them.

by the way, the lower photos shows 4 balls because mine magically changed colour on one course as it went down a hole orange and came out green.  it turned out it knocked a different ball out that was stuck in the pipe.  kezia spotted mine down the hole and poked it out.  which is why we ended up with 4.  so now you know.

day 7 was our last day in the bay of islands so we packed up and headed south. the girls ate the end of the chocolate ice cream for breakfast

 

we stopped off on the way at a lovely beach for a picnic, but no loitering for us as it was sooo hot, there was no shade and everyone was already a bit overcooked from the day before’s beach jaunt.

 

 

we were back by mid afternoon and i spent most of the rest of the day sorting out photos, then after some holiday admins for everyone we had a bbq.  and that’s that.

a jolly good holiday, and we’ll definitely be heading back up there now we know it’s so close.

(and thanks  again to andrew and julie for letting me include some of their photos anonymously with mine over the last few weeks)

well, our visitors have left us and are flying back to blighty as we speak so that’s left our house feeling rather empty (at least for a few days)

i was at work so missed the leaving ceremony which involved loading loads of bags in to a ‘van’ which was actually a big taxi so that was ok, and off they went

jane then took the girls to Altura for a cake of sadness.  whilst there they bumped in to Biffy from church and then went and bought esther her new school uniform.  the picture above isn’t from the uniform shop !

meanwhile i was at work where we went to new zealand’s second best fish and chip cafe and bought a tin of ketchup.  kiwis love ketchup so much that it’s the only country in the world where you can buy ketchup in a tin.   here’s my colleague gavin enjoying having his photo taken.  he’s like an advert for watties ketchup

anyway i had snapper which is the peoples’ favourite

we watched a bit of family telly when i got back from work then esther and i hit the mall to get jane’s ipod repaired, but we have to call a number on monday instead.  so we ate ice-creams and did some late night window shopping

all the shops shut at 9pm so we had to make our own entertainment in the cinema foyer before coming home

everyone is already in bed and fast asleep, so that’s where i should go too.  big day tomorrow as the spider man’s coming …

andrew went on a dolphin trip on friday whilst the rest of us went to explore some local water falls

then we headed up the coast a bit to look at an old stone shop

it’s really very rare to find anything as substantially built as this so it was lovely to be reminded of big old stone houses from the old world

this one has been a shop for a hundred and fifty years or something which makes it ancient by kiwi standards

after that we had a quick look in a chocolate factory

before heading over to russell to meet andrew

these ladies took the pedestrian ferry

whilst julie, kezia, olivia and i went on the car ferry with all the beach paraphernalia

we got there first so set up camp

  

after much playing in the sand and sea we made our separate ways back. 

we did a spot of geocaching on the way back by car and the laughlands went home by boat (and saw some dolphins apparently too)

well, our first proper visitors (with apologies to those who have visited before) are leaving tomorrow

 

so for their last day today the ladies did coffee with our chums then hit the beach

i believe there was much swimming and fun had by all

andrew arrived back in auckland from wellington just as i was leaving work so that was good for getting the same bus back home

then this evening we went back to the beach for fush and chups and andrew had a last swum

tonight they are mostly packing whilst jane and i are doing admin and quickly writing letters and signing things which they can post back in britain to save a few pence / cents on the postage.  frugal hey ?

meanwhile i got given a potentially interesting piece of work at, er, work which is, er,  potentially quite interesting.  so that might be good

 

right, time to watch a home movie we made with our visitors 15 years ago or something so we can remember good times

we returned to waitangi on day 5, this time with jane (with various medicines)

the girls did some flax weaving and made some nice flowery things

and then jane, andrew and me had a guided tour from a very funny man (in the peculiar sense of the word) who was very good

at one point andrew and i sat in a cafe and the boy in the middle in the picture below fell in the cafe pond and lost his shoes in the dirt.  🙂

we stayed on a little longer at waitangi so jane could do some proper looking

then we all met up again and went for pizzas

then we headed home for some organised chocolate tasting where i presented the assembled with some of the best (and worst) of kiwi confectionary

 

somewhere in the day (i think it was in the morning) the girls organised a party where they took our finger prints and we decorated paper boats

today started with a stomp up a hill for the simpson family

we chose rather a steep one and wished we’d had some breakfast before we’d set off

by the time we got back down we were a bit late to eat out breakfast so we hurried back so we could get on with the day’s combined doings

here’s a strange plant seed !

and here’s some genuine blackpool rock for sale in a local shop

anyway, in the afternoon we went to waitangi which is where the import treaty was signed between the native maori people and the white british settlers

 

  

even without its historical significance it’s a lovely place with a lovely old building from the olden days (bit before 1840 i think)

 

we watched a little cultural show whilst jane went to the doctors because her eyes were really hurting

in the evening we got the boat over to russell for our dinner, and bumped in to layne and lorraine plus family who live near us and are in our church small group !

in fact we bumped in to them each of the next three days

here’s what we all had for dinner – snapper and chips

and here’s some desserts. 

 

kezia’s ice cream got a thumbs up

esther and katie have been doing some spy thing, and they think i’m the prime suspect for stealing a medal from kezia’s room that they asked me to get a grown up to steal so they could work out who it was.    this might be the funniest thing i’ve ever read !

anyway, i’ve been home alone as Andrew has gone to Wellington for a couple of nights and julie and jane have taken the kids down to Rotorua for bubbly mud seeing and thrill seeking adventures.

and they’ve certainly been having adventures by the sound of it as their holiday house wasn’t ready for them and they had to call the AA out to mend the car (though it was easy to fix so all’s good).

i took advantage of the quiet house by working from home and i went out this evening to buy some new ink cartridges, then i came back and brushed cob webs off the outside of the house to see if i could do something about the number of spiders in our house. see, i can make my own fun when i need to !