Here in New Zealand

Okay. Finally some captions for these babies...
Here is Ana jumping for joy that I withdrew her from school and drove her to the beach. Well... close. First we went to LV (see last blog entry), and then to the beach. My mom lives in gorgeous Orange County now, and when we visited, we frolicked on the Laguna Beach.

I just had to put a photo of my car in here because I really miss it. The kids don't... they love our new "party van" here in NZ, but I just miss the luxury and funk of my old 1981 Benz. Luckily, I still own it and it is waiting for me in SoCal. Hop on a boat over here FSHNCHP and I'll pick you up at the port.

Okay. Here's Ana the Octopus... still in CA.

This is a total throwback... in fourth or fifth grade, I took a field trip to this ship in Dana Point and we spent a night or two on the ship and had to be "sailors". My group's watch time was 2 am - 4 am. It was cold. But overall a great field trip. We drove over to Dana Point, and I couldn't believe that the ship was still there...AND there was a group of kids boarding for an overnight field trip!

How can you not take a girl like this to Disneyland?!? She looks like a Pixar character!

We were so lucky to have Uncle Ty Ty join us for the Cali trip to visit Mom. Cam is pretty happy in this photo, but you should ahve seen him AFTER we rode Space Mountain... it was his favorite ride of the day.

So, I finally had all my anxiety come to fruition when we made our way to the LAX airport to leave for New Zealand (this is back on April 1st, btw). I had been TOTALLY stressing about luggage for the last two weeks, and I couldn't believe we were finally there. This luggage above is just our CARRYON luggage. Somehow, only one person commented on how much we brought. It was such a relief for me when we finally loaded ALL the luggage into Sonna's borrowed van at the Auckland airport. HOORAY!!! Huge relief. Like birthing a baby.

I think this is our first day in NZ. This is Mt. Eden... an extinct volcano in the middle of Auckland.

That's Auckland and the Harbor in the background. The kids don't look too jetlagged, right?

For the first two weeks in NZ, we slept in the tent, the van, at my sister Sonna's apartment in downtown Auckland (GREAT place, but with her family and mine in a two bedroom flat, its a little too cramped to stay for long), or at our friends the Grace's. Mostly, we slept in the tent... well, Jonah and I slept in the tent and we put the kids in the van. It was a great set up. This is our van, btw, that we bought on the internet before we got to NZ. Its an 8-seater and the seats in the back fold down to make a big bed and also can turn to face each other... that's why the kids call it the party van.

The kids really took a liking to NZ right away, especially because of the playgrounds and hiking and camping. Elsie has especially adored all the birds and constant birdsong/cacophony.


We looked for the first few weeks at places for sale and rent, and decided to rent for awhile until we find the perfect place to buy. Above is a photo of the kids on one of the empty lots for sale.

Here is Ana with one of her BFFs Aniva. These girls have known each other since they were 2, and even though its been a couple years, they were thick as thieves instantly.

Our friend Dean invited us to his cousin's Maori wedding in the central North Island, so we went down and stayed in a hotel. Here are Dean's younger kids and ours in our room enjoying some TV.

One night while camping we went on a hedgehog hunt and luckily found one. Elsie was convinced it was a "kitty", until we picked it up, and then she realized it was a "pokey kitty"! She still loved it and wanted it to sleep in the van (heck no!). Oh pokey kitty...

Here's a great view from one of our hikes on the Karekare beach near Auckland.

Same hike. It was so gorgeous, and I couldn't believe we had never gone there before. In a one hour hike, you pass through 4 different environments, all of them gorgeous with great views to boot. Unfortunately, Elsie wet her pants about five minutes into the hike so none of us wanted to carry her... so she had to walk and the hike took 3 hours instead of one.

We've had a lot of fun "borrowing" my niece Ruthie for a couple weekends so Sonna and Sloan can get some work done. Ruthie (2) was a good sport to even camp with us for a few days. She settled into the party van just perfectly. Here are she and Elsie enjoying some freezing beach time.


Cam is in heaven wearing flip flops all the time. And even though it's fairly cold here now, he still wears shorts everyday. He's such a kiwi (New Zealander)... except he luckily hasn't started wearing "short" shorts and black knee high socks, which is the "true" kiwi outfit. Here he is with his geometrically displayed shell collection.

We found an incredible campground right in the middle of the city on a huge farm. It has all these tame farm animals too! It was actually the quitest campground I've been to in NZ. Weird. We love it though. Ana especially loved the Clydsdale. She promptly went and picked up his feet to see if he had shoes on.

Early in the morning, the two year olds went to check if the chickens were awake yet.

On one of our most recent camping trips (one that ended in a horrible downpour, which meant we had to go swimming in some hot pools and stay in a hotel for the last night), we found a remote beach with some craaazy rope swings. Elsie's no chicken... she demanded I put her on the high one. After Elsie loved it, Ana was brave enough to try too.

On our last night camping before we moved into a rental hourse, we brought Aniva with us since it was her last day of school holiday. She and Ana set up their tent ALL by themselves a "few miles" away from our tent... (about 100 yards, actually). They even survived the coldest night we've had since we got here. Nice.

Ironically, the campground is about five minutes from the house we rented. Look at that gorgeous reservoir. Too bad for Jonah... no boats (or waterskiing) allowed.

Thanks to Jonah's determination, we found this incredible little rental house near the house we used to live in four years ago. It's only two bedrooms and one bathroom, but it includes 16 acres, a fully planted vegetable garden, a kiwi fruit orchard, dozens of other fruit trees, two chickens, three cows and some sheep. We call it the "cottage", which is a NZ code word for "super cute on the outside, but cold and moldy in the winter". So far, Jonah has mastered the tiny little wood burning stove so we haven't had to suffer, but it always amazes me that during most of autumn and winter, New Zealand homes are colder inside than it is outside. There is no such thing as central heat here... bring on the longjohns.

The best thing about the rental house is that the owners have it for sale, so they didn't make us sign a lease, which is really what we needed. We didn't want to get locked into one place for too long. So far, though, we really like it and we'll stay for awhile. We also have a nice little guest room out near the garden if anyone wants to come visit...

So, as I mentioned, the kids LOVE LOVE LOVE the New Zealand playgrounds. They are always over the top, and usually include a big long zipline or other dangerous equipment. Elsie loves swings... no really, she does!

This is a big giant slide down in Hamilton that we have always loved, although it has gotten a little slower over the years, so now you have to sit on a coat or shirt to really go fast. Unfortunately for Elsie, Ana figured out the fastest way to go down, and tried it on Elsie first, who flew five feet PAST the end of the slide before belly flopping right on the concrete. Later that morning, I met another parent at the playground who looked at Elsie and said, "Whoa! Isn't that the "rocket girl" from the slide?!?"

We took Sonna and Sloan down with us to the Temple in Hamilton so we could swap babysitting and go to the park. I guess we wore them out..

Cam and his friend Manessah (Aniva's little bro) both have the same tooth gone now. Too bad Nes looks like he's about a foot taller!

And perhaps our BEST thing about New Zealand so far has been sending our little Kiwi boy to school (he's the only NZ citizen in the family, so he's the only one that can go to school right now... eventually we'll get Ana's visa worked out so she can go too). Here in NZ, kids start "Year 1" the day they turn 5. So, there's a class called the "New Entrant" class for all the kids who have turned five. As soon as they're ready, they move into the other Year 1 and finish the year up there. If they aren't ready at the end of the year, they stay in Year 1 until they have the skills to move to Year 2. I guess this is how it happens up to year 4 or 5... kids are put in the year they have the ability for. So, Cam is in the New Entrant Year 1 Class for now. Totally different then what I'm used to, but we'll figure it out.

In any case, Cam LOVES his school. He's been going for two whole weeks now! He has a cute little uniform (which he loves... Cam hates fashion, so it really helps him having the same outfit every day) and has to bring his own lunch (actually, two lunches for "morning tea" and "afternoon tea"). There are only 10 kids in his class and they go from 9 am to 3 pm. We don't make him ride the bus yet (mainly because the bus leaves at 8 am and he can't get up that early), but it only takes 7 minutes to drive there so that's no big deal.

The school only has about 100 or 150 kids, and it goes to Year 8! They have weekly assmblies where the kids get awards. Also, the kids have to say "good afternoon" to their teachers before they leave the classroom. Jonah says it is a lot like British school, except not as strict and shoes are optional. Love it. It is SO perfect for Cam. He even told me, "Mom, school is even MORE fun than home!"

I can't believe our little guy is off to school and even learning to read. I also feel like I am living in a world 400 years ago when families only sent their sons to school... but, Ana is getting some good "home schooling" in too. Here is her schedule: 8 am Farm Chores, 9 am English, 9:30am Math, 10am Memorization and Read Aloud, 10:30 Typing and Morning Break, 11 am Spanish, 11:30 Music, 12 Lunch, 1 pm Science/History, 1:30 Art, 2 pm Nature Journal, 3 pm Fun Reading. She was SO insistent that we make a schedule and be extra strict about it. Of course, she has taken the bull by the horns with her schooling, although I do have to push her in Spanish. Hopefully it'll go well and she won't get behind other kids her age. Mostly, we enjoy the chance to spend so much time with our growing girl again... it was hard having her gone 7 hours a day for school, never mind all the bad habits and cheeky tidbits she'd pick up from school. I also LOVE having her around to help with Elsie.

Anyway, we'll try and be better about blogging more often now that we actually have internet here at our house. HOORAY! Please call Jonah's old cell phone number anytime (after 12 pm, actually... don't forget the 5 hour time difference) and it'll ring our house here in NZ! Or, we're always up for some webcaming.

Love from across the sea!