Sunday 25th March
This is a new day for the whole
of the people of New Zealand. They changed their ‘give way’ rule at 5.00 am.
The old rule had the effect that if two cars were both turning off into a side
road the car coming from the right had precedence over the one from the left.
They now use our British system. It will be interesting to see how the
long-driving Kiwis cope with it.
We made an early start (9.00 am)
to go off with our friends, Stefan and Debbie to Howick Baptist church. When Stefan got into his car he ‘found’ a
post-it note reminding him about the new road rule. It was an enjoyable service
which left us with things to think about. After the service we went back to our
friends' house for coffee.
When we arrived back home it was
somewhat hairy, trying to show the multitude of drivers coming back from the
tri-athalon that we would like to pull into our drive. Sally and Zoe were
standing in the drive waiting for a friend to pick up Zoe to go off ice
skating.
At lunch I made a mistake of
asking Emily which park she would like to go to. She chose the butterfly park
and she really did mean ‘Butterfly Creek’. Irene, Emily and me spent a pleasant
afternoon at a familiar place. I spotted a sheet on the development of the
monarch butterfly. Recently she has been collecting caterpillars and pupa of
this insect.
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| Alligators |
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| Rabbits |
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| Stepping Stones |
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| Butterfly Cake |
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| Butterfly |
Monday 26th March
In the morning Irene and I set
off to Sylvia Park to do some shopping at the Warehouse and Pak ‘n Save. On the
way we stopped off for coffee at our usual shop and our usual barista (for
the uninitiated – a person who prepares coffee) who starts our order as soon as
she sees us.
After collecting Emily, having
lunch and taking her to a special lesson we made our way to Ladybird Park where
she had a happy time climbing and sliding. We had tried kicking a ball about
but the strange, spongy grass was totally water-logged and a falling Emily got
wet.
In the evening we sat with Ian to
finalise the plans for our next trip. We shall be staying one night at each of
the following places from 16th April; Taupo, Bell Block (near New
Plymouth) and Raglan, before returning to Auckland.
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| Shower Cubicle Floor Down |
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| Building Progress |
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| Ladybird Park |
Tuesday 27th March
Wednesday 28th March
The day started by talking to
Lawrence and Jan on Skype. At the end of the call there was a knock on our door
and we had the treat of seeing Zoe in mufti and hair ready for ‘funny hair’ day
at school.
Today there was a change of plan.
Emily’s regular lesson had been moved to Friday. After collecting her, having
lunch and doing some school work we went down into St Heliers. The first task
was to look in shop windows and even shops for hidden Easter bunnies. Once
found the number was recorded on the competition sheet. Emily sat on the
pavement writing the numbers on her own sheet. We have until Saturday to find
all the bunnies.
After this we went on the beach.
Emily made up a game of quickly building sand castles and demolishing each
others. Coffee and a fluffy finished the time out. I spent an hour being the
three bears while Emily was Goldilocks.
In the evening we drove up to our
Glover Park bench to sit and watch the sun go down on the boats and islands. To
finish we went to lookout with a view of the city and watched the sun set.
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| Lower window boarded in. Air-con in place. |
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Our Bench in Glover Park
by the Cliff Edge |
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| Evening Ferry Passing Brown's Island |
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| Passing Rangitoto |
Thursday 29th
This was a normal day of
collecting Emily and going to Gymbaroo.
In the morning I took myself over
to Pak ‘n Save. We needed some supplies for the house. I also was to look to
purchase Shredded Wheat from the ‘English’ shelf. I did not succeed and after
consulting Irene I purchased Cadbury’s Flake as a substitute for Easter egg nest
building. I also purchased some wine, cheese and Walnut Whips (from the English
shelf) as our contribution to supper.
The day ended with a
Kindy picnic on Glover Park. There was a barbecue, a tug-of-war and an egg hunt.
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Plaster boarding complete.
Air-con removed. |
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| Emily and Friends |
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| Easter Egg Hunt Begins |
We left the picnic and make our
way for evening with our friends, Stephan and Debbie. She had prepared a
wonderful, thick homemade soup and purchased an interesting loaf of bread which
went well with our purchases. We finished the evening with tea before returning
home.
Friday 30th
This was a change of plan day.
There was the usual pick up of Emily, but we had a short break before taking
her to the lesson that should have happened on Wednesday. We then went into St
Heliers where Grandma and Emily played on the beach.
My task was to find the rest of
the Easter bunnies in the shops. Apart from walking around and around looking
for the Dentists, it was quite fun chatting with people around the village my in
effort to track down the elusive bunnies. Mission accomplished I returned to
the beach to see Emily walking backwards and forward between the sea and the
part of the beach where she was attempting to create a puddle.
When we returned the carpenter
had completed his part of the work and the plasterer had begun.
I went off to get Zoe and
returned to find Sally walking towards the house. We set off for the school
picnic on the St Heliers School field. Ian turned up with sausages, fish and chips. However,
the weather turned very chilly. We were not attired for such a change as we
would have been in the UK so we left early, closely followed by the rest of the
family. We can only hope the change in the weather is not a bad omen for St
Heliers Festival tomorrow.
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| Plastering Begins |
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| St Heliers School |
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