Back to Blogging

It has been a long while since I have last written on this site. However, our adventures have never ceased. We are now in the process of moving from Indianapolis to Cincinnati. Our house has been up for sale for about 10 days and we have already had about 7 showings. We have our first 'second showing' on Sunday. Hopefully, a good offer will come soon.

I have established temporary residency in an apartment as I have already started my new job. Luckily, I am only 2 hours away from Indy. Consequently, driving between the two locales is not prohibitive and merely an inconvenience.

As we transition to Cincinnati, I am planning on keeping this blog active to document our adventures. Let's see what today brings!

The First Day of School

Austin's countdown is finally over... School has started! He was a little upset because today was only a half day and he did not get to try out the new playground. He did, however, sing us the first song he learned... 'The Rules of the Classroom.' He is very excited about school and enjoys his teacher. A picture is on the left hand side of this blog.

Today was, also, Hayley's first day at Intermediate School (5th grade.) This year, Hayley's day is broken up with three different teachers... one for English, one for Math, and one for Science and Social Studies. Additionally, she has three more teachers for Art, Music, and Gym. She was a little upset that none of her friends are in her class rotation. In fact, she jokingly feigned sickness before she went to bed tonight.

Home Safe and Sound

We made it home safe and sound. What an amazing trip! The weather was great, and not a single thing went wrong during our travels. How amazing is that? Our cats are happy we are home and it is nice to sleep in our own beds again. We had such wonderful hosts on our trip though, it's hard to get back to it! Several people have asked if we intend to keep up the blog, and at this point I think we will. There's always good stories to post, although it may not be a daily thing. I think I can set up email alerts to send off when a new posting is made. Let me know if you are interested in being alerted to a new posting.

Departing

Thursday we had a fairly relaxed day visiting the zoo and beach. The kids' favorite part at the zoo was the Meer cat exibit. There were tunnels underneath that the kids could climb through and then climb up a ladder to pop their heads up in a clear plastic dome that looked right into the Meer cat's home. Their faces were just inches away from the cats. They thought that was pretty cool.

On Friday, we spent the day with Tracey, a school friend of Cheryl's, and her 2 1/2 year old son. When we arrived at her house, I was stunned by the angle of her driveway. It appeared to be a 60 degree slope. Needless to say, I was hesitant to go down it. We had a good time going to the beach and ordering fish and chips from a Take-away later in the day.

Saturday morning, I finally got to play a little golf with Graeham, William, and one of William's friends. Austin joined us and played shy at first. However, much to the dismay of William, he warmed up quickly. Austin acted as William's caddy and was fortunate to rake many sand traps for him. When someone hit the ball into the trees on the first hole, Austin proclaimed... "Why did you hit the ball into the trees? Daddy never hits it there." After a good chuckle, Daddy hit the ball into the trees off the tee on the next hole. On another occasion, after William topped the ball, Austin exclaimed... "I can see that ball. It didn't go very far at all!"

We went back to Auntie Lyn's for lunch and had many of my favorites from NZ... Scallops, Mussel Fritters, Cheerios, Chips, and Sausage Rolls.

We are now at the airport getting ready to depart. The trip has been good with many great memories. NZ seems much more relaxed than the States and very in-tune with environmental issues. I have uploaded some more photos to our Flickr account.

See ya soon!

Bird Sanctuary

Today, we received a call early from Darren that my grandmother had passed a few hours earlier. I find it no coincidence that our excursion for the day was a trip to a bird sanctuary island. Bird watching was one of Granny's favorite pasttimes. I hope she was able to enjoy it with us, as we saw some amazing birds! We will upload some pictures of the day soon for those of you who were unable to enjoy it with us in spirit.

More Pics and Power Rangers spotted

We have added more pictures to the original links. The pics are from our excursions on the Coromandel Peninsula, Rangitoto Island, Kelly Tarlton's and our time with Annette in Mission Bay.

You should see the police officers, here! They dress like Power Rangers and they carry ZERO weapons. That's right, they do not carry a gun or even a taser! I saw one with a radar gun and was secretly hoping he would pull me over so that I could get my picture with him.

Did you know it is against the law to spank your children in NZ? It is a recent rule and the teachers make sure that the kids know about it. After learning this, the kids were eager to move here. However, Austin had a change of heart because he did not want Mom taken to jail.

Cheers! (That's NZ for Goodbye)

The Extended Weekend

On Saturday, we got to meet up with Cheryl's cousins and relatives. The morning started with Cheryl's cousin Graham, 2nd Cousin William, and friend Pete coming over to "trim" some trees. Graham likes his chainsaw and as a result the trimming left about 3 feet of trunk on each tree. Austin and I helped out and we were rewarded with some cold frosty beverages. At lunch, we were treated to several NZ specialities... spaghetti on pizza, cheerios (a small red sausage), and bangers (a larger sausage.) Cheryl's cousins Nigel and Vivian and their families came over later. Austin found a friend in Trent (also 5) and they partied until 11 at night.

We had to wake Austin on Sunday morning so that we could meet up with Cheryl's childhood friend Annette. They live in a newer house and it did not show up on our GPS. Consequently, we had to use a prehistoric method to find their abode... stop at a gas station and ask directions. We headed to Mission Bay and had lunch and played on the beach. We later toured a supermarket (my idea) and had some coffee. Sunday night, Vivian and family came over for dinner. As many of you know, Cheryl was concerned that the Kiwi's would not appreciate my sense of humor. Unfortunately for her, I am fitting in quite well. In fact, much to everyone's shagrin, Vivian's husband Dave and I created a splendid atmosphere for dinner.

On Monday, we woke and decided to go to Rangitoto island, a Volcanic island that has not erupted for 400 years. After a very rough docking (the skipper thought it would be a good idea to ram a pilon at the dock to slow the vessel down), Cheryl thought it would be a spendid idea to hike to the summit of the Volcano. The trek started off well enough. The volcanic rock and solidified magma was quite amazing. However, about three quarters of the way up we figured out that Cheryl's eyes were bigger than her desire to surmount the summit. The trek became much rougher. Finally we reached the summit. As we paused to take in the view, Cheryl noticed rain approaching. Keep in mind, we just hiked for over an hour, straight up, to reach this point. Now, we were going to have to descend quickly to beat the rain. Cheryl took the lead and after sometime I realized I didn't recognize the path we were taking. I brought this to her attention and she paused and started to question the path herself. We asked a passerby and sure enough, we were on the wrong path. *** We now had to climb back up and go down the mountain. Keep in mind we only had an hour and a half until the last ferry was leaving the island. We had atleast an hour journey with rain approaching if we did not make anymore wrong turns. *** Luckily, we made it in time. The kids decided to vote Mom off the island and not let her plan any more treks up the side of a Volcano.

I am not receiving messages on my phone again. We hope to upload more photos tomorrow.