Wellington in a minivan

The one issue with having Erin and Ethan visit is not having enough room in the car. For our roadtrip to Wellington we borrowed a friend's mini van - and dare I say, that it was actually really nice. Nice, as in, hmmmm....I kind of want one! Okay, not really, but having all that extra room for strollers, food, diapers, and crap was so nice. I don't think having two kids justifies a mini van, but maybe an upgrade to something just a wee bit bigger than lightning blue would be nice. When we win the lottery.

Our first stop on our whirlwind tour of Wellington was Te Papa - NZ's national musuem. It's free and very, very cool. You could spend a whole day here - but with three little screamers, we had enough after just two hours.

I'm addicted to maps. Te Papa has this ariel map of NZ. I seriously could have stayed there for a few hours, pointing out landmarks and daydreaming about yet to be visited locations. Here I am showing Luca where we live.

Erin in front of Maori carvings - learning a bit about the native NZ people and history of NZ

In front of the Marae, traditional Maori meeting/ceremonial house. Who's that kid in the vest? Not one of ours! ha ha

Wyatt enjoying a snack on my necklace

And more snacking on foam rubber

So many great things for kids of all ages - we will definitly be coming back sometime soon. Here we are in the Pacifica kids zone

Guess who couldn't take his eyes off the motorbike?

Watching the boats come into the harbour - a big Navy boat had just arrived

Next Stop - Lunch along the waterfront at the Mac's Brewery. When we had finally ordered our food and settled down at a table (with all our strollers in tow), Wyatt reaches over and grabs my beer - the whole thing gets tipped out all over the table. My first really nice beer in months. Not just any beer, but expensive brewery yummy beer. Luckily the barman must have felt my pain, and gave me another one for free.

Then we rode the cable car to the top of Wellington and hiked back down to the city through the botanical gardens. Everything was in bloom -gorgeous. Could have spent all day there!

The day was finished off with a walk around Parliment (aka the Beehive).

Kiwi Life

I breathed a sigh of relief after I was finished with my third student teaching placement - but it was only brief, very brief. My next task was to work day and night to finish my university assignments and THEN clean the house top to bottom before Erin, and Ethan arrived just a few days later. Not sure why I bothered (with the house cleaning that is!) because after only a few hours the house was again turned into a pit of rubble with toys, food crumbs, and luggage. ha ha!

Ethan arrived on his 1st birthday -

Luca and I baked him cupcakes with airplanes lollies on them

We have been talking about the arrival of Aunt Erin and Cousin Ethan for weeks now, so Luca was thoroughly prepared, and picking them up at the airport was a b-i-g event. In preperation for their arrival we had been reading books about airplanes and airports, so Luca was quite knowledgeable about it all "Mommy, where is the air traffic control tower? I can't see it?!" He was over the moon when they finally got off the plane - and I got to get my first look at my little red headed cutie nephew.

Opening Ethan's presents. The first night was spent sharing gifts and goodies.

We've enjoyed showing Erin and Ethan a glimpse of our lives - each day has been eventful, showing them the best of the cheap and free. City Library, swimming pool, hiking, playgrounds and parks, visiting farms, the beach, showing Erin what 'coffee group' gatherings are all about, indoor netball, cheap beauty school facials, walks to the store, and all of our daily rituals that seem so boring to us, but are new and different to them.

We hiked to our nearby "private" playground.

Erin even had a go at carrying Ethan in the backpack.

No New Zealand trip would be complete without a rural farm visit. Luckily our good friends Carla and Mars can help us out in that department as they are dairy farmers, and live out in the middle of nowhere....with other farmers! We love visiting them, and Luca will talk about our visit for days. He always looks forward to seeing the animals, riding the quad bikes, and watching mommy squeal as she is dared to put her hand in a calves mouth....ha ha.

With Ethan checking out a few of the new calves.

NZ has had horrible late spring weather, and many of the lambs have died, and the dairy farmers have been having to give feed to the calves because of the soggy grass - costing the country millions of dollars. Great...as if our dairy prices weren't expensive enough already!

Ethan has enjoyed 'learning' from his cousins. He's mastering the art of walking and his father, Matt, I'm sure will notice the difference when they are reunited in just over a week. Ethan has also been trying out a few new foods while he has been here. Luca has been a good playmate for him, and Wyatt loves watching both older boys. We have to keep an eye on Ethan, because when we aren't looking, he likes to come up to Wyatt and take his toys and food. Mostly his food.

Rub-a-dub-dub, 3 men in a tub

Yum!

Wyatt is a full fledged eating machine. I'm amazed at how much he can cram into little body. They say to feed him until he stops. He'll let us know when he's done. Really?! I somehow don't believe it. I'm almost thinking that he's got the dog mentality of eating till he gets sick. Or maybe I am worried I will make him turn into an obese sumo wrestler baby if I keep feeding him as much as he wants - ha ha. Whatever the case, he's not fading away.

This is his first Gingernut! Obviously quite satisfied with himself. How you manage to get it behind your ears is another story

I just love how little he looks in his high chair. His newfound independance means he wants to grab everything in his sight, and any food that I am eating, he wants in on the action.

Luca and Wyatt on 'the train' - with passports ready

More Student Fun!

Two weeks ago, I took my year 12 Outdoor Education class on an overnight tramp. As expected, I got to know the students better, and enjoyed watching them expierence the wilderness together. We left on Father's Day, and came back to school the following Monday night.

The weather was crazy. We had two vans packed with students and gear, and it was so windy on the drive to the trailhead that the vans were being blown around everywhere. It even blew a piece of the van off. The entire ride, the other teacher and I, were making plan B, plan C, plan D...in case we had to change things due to the weather being too bad. Luckily the weather calmed a bit, and we were able to make it safely to the mountain hut - Just in time. As soon as we arrived to the hut, the weather packed in. Gale force winds, constant heavy rain. The hut was literally shaking and we made all the students sleep with their boots and rain jackets ready to go in case we had to evacuate. Just 10 years ago, a hut on the ridgeline near us actually DID blow off the mountain - so you can see why we had our doubts. Luckily this was a newish hut that had extra cables to stablise it in the wind, and I the roof must have been screwed on - otherwise it surely would have blown off.

Unfortunatly the weather was so bad, we didn't get to enjoy many views

The hike back down the mountain was basically a soaked mudfest - but the students all took it in stride, and I think it did make them walk a bit faster as they were keen to get to the vans, put on dry clothes and head to McDonalds! The rivers were swollen, and there was no way we would be able to do our planned river crossing - it would have been a death sentance to even attempt it.

We had no idea just how much rain had fallen, until on our drive back home we realized that many of the roads had been closed due to flooding. We were forced to take a 100km detour through windy farm roads. It was classic New Zealand. Windy roads in the middle of NOWHERE. Green rolling hills (mountains), no cell phone reception, and only farms and woolsheds.

Then the poor foreign exchange student from Hong Kong got car sick. Luckily he was in the other van. There were slips and landslides that covered parts of the road....and then we got to the scary bit. A section of the road had been flooded, and the water was really deep and flowing. If I had been driving, there's no way I would have attempted it. But we did...and I seriously thought I might have a heart attack. The revs in the van started dropping, and the vans started to drift with the current. SCARY. The road was closed right after we crossed it. If we hadn't gotten across we most definitly would have had to spend a night in a woolshed with the students. Luckily we had all the gear...but I really didn't want to have to do that.

Myself, Mike Patternson (OED teacher) and Stuewy (one of the principals of FAHS)

We eventually made it back to school, and were welcomed by many worried parents and admin staff (hey it's not our fault there was no cell phone reception)! I even made it to daycare by 5:30 to pick up the kids. Barely.

The students won't forget this trip anytime soon, and neither will I. The weather made it even more challenging, and isn't that what outdoor education is all about :-) Everytime I hear that song by Creed called 'Rain' I think of our trip. We played it over and over in the van - it was our only CD.