First trip to the beach of the season

We vowed not to let a sunny day go by where we did go out and enjoy Dunedin, so today we had our first trip to the beach.  Now it is still spring and not yet into the heat of summer, so we didn’t go to one of the local swimming spots.

Instead we chose a nice drive out to Aramoana and a walk on the beach.  It was high tide, so we couldn’t go as far as usual, but we had a really nice time and it felt good to walk in the sea air.  I can’t wait for summer!

More photos…

http://www.new.facebook.com/album.php?aid=57828&l=31275&id=520358326

Last day of summer, first day of school

(Ginny says…) Hi everyone! Sorry, I haven’t written anything in a while so bear with me if it’s horribly boring. 🙂 Yesterday was the last day of the summer holiday (for me, not for Hank) so we took Alycia to the beach. We had a lot of fun and the weather was wonderful. Today I had to get up early for school. We were going to walk but it was raining. We drove to school and then began my first day in high school.

At first we all sat down as the form classes were read out. I was in a different form class from Vaciseva or Alycia. My form class starts in room K4. Our form teacher is Mrs. Gibbons. She also teaches social studies. When we got in Mrs. Gibbons told us some things about the school and took us to have our ID photos taken. When we got back she wrote our timetables on the board. This is mine. After that it was break or interval. I saw Vaciseva & Alycia there. After interval we continued writing our time tables. We also got our stationary lists. Then it was lunch. After lunch some year 13 students showed us around the school. While on our tour, key buildings were marked with a “habit of mind” card. We wrote down the H.O.M.’s to remember good habits. After that the year 13’s played name games and elected people for form jobs. I was elected Environmental person. I don’t really know what they do though. Then school ended. The End.

Car & Cricket

We got up early for Hank’s cricket match this morning, but had some unexpected excitement. As I walked out to the car I noticed the interior light on, so I new the battery would be flat. There are something like 7 interior lights on when the door is open so the battery, even though it is good, can’t start the car after running those lights for 14 hours. One of the doors wasn’t closed last night. I new we didn’t have much time to get to cricket so I asked the neighbour across the street if he could give us a jump. Wes and I pushed the car out of the garage, clipping the driver door on the wall as it entered the street. We got the car started instantly with the jump, but then I noticed that the door was dented all to hell. Bummer. Fa encouraged me to just enjoy the game, which was good advice.

Cricket was a lot of fun for Hank and us. The sun came out and it was really warm. The team played really well. There was much good batting, running, bowling, and fielding. We won our first game 83-61. The team was in great spirits after the win. We’re getting better all of the time.

Afterwards, Hank and I took a look at the car door. It wasn’t closing properly so I grabbed a C-clamp and pried it back into some shape. At least the door closes better now. We picked up some touch-up paint to cover the bare metal. It looks horrible but works. Hopefully, it won’t fail WOF now.

Later we went to St. Clair, where Corinna met us to take Christmas pictures. She took about 150, which I am going through now. Then we walked down the beach for half an hour and back. Wes treated us to dinner at Starfish at the Esplanade. I had venison, which was one of the best meals I’ve had in New Zealand. Check the end of this photo album for new pics.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17565&l=56840&id=543764697

Port Chalmers & Aramoana

On Friday Wes and I had a few hours so went out the other side of the harbour. We stopped at the Port Chalmers Harbour overlook and saw a huge cruise ship, the Rhapsody of the Sea. It was so big I had to do a panorama to capture it.

cruiseship.jpg

We continued on to Aramoana. We walked to the end of the mole, moving quickly because we could see rain off in the distance. We could see the albatrosses at the colony across the harbour, although they were little white dots from that far away. We spotted a New Zealand Fur Seal, which ignored us and went back to his nap. We hurried back and walked a little way down the beach. We didn’t see any polychaete worms this time. We got back to town in time to pick up Hank at school. Ginny went to Lorna’s for a sleepover.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17565&l=56840&id=543764697

Seatoun – NZ’s Twilight Zone

After several days of rain, we decided to see some more of the outdoor sights on our itinerary, so we hopped a bus for Scorching Bay and the famous Chocolate Fish Cafe (for you LOTR fans – it was a popular hangout for cast and crew).  After some misguided direction from the hostel staff we caught the number 11 to Seatoun because the number 30 to Scorching Bay only does a commuter run into the city a couple times a day.

We walked down to Cuba Street to catch the bus (because it does not stop on Courtenay Place as we had been advised).  Even though Seatoun is just a suburb of Wellington, the bus takes the long, long way around, going to communities on the other side of Mt. Victoria before heading to the beach.  About 1/2 way into the ride, our bus driver asked all of us to get off and catch another one.  We had no idea what was going on, but dutifully did as we were told.  Unfortunately when the next bus came our tickets had the wrong information on them, but he was nice and let us ride anyway.

When we got to the town of Seatoun (although it is a stretch to call it a town, just a dairy, a post and a couple of shops), we headed for the water and walked the 30 minutes to Scorching Bay.  A local on the bus told us to catch the bus back to town on the street opposite and not to worry about a schedule because they come every 10 to 15 minutes (ha!), so we left in full confidence that it would be an agreeable stroll and a short ride back to the city.

The walk was nice and we had a light, warm meal at the cafe before heading back.  We were tired and a little soggy from the outing, so we were looking forward to a pleasant bus ride home – that was not to be.  The town was slightly odd (had a X-files feel to it) with a kid riding a skateboard with no wheels, a little old lady waiting at the bus stop who just walked away and never returned and a steady stream of people leaving the post, but no one ever going in.  The only buses we saw in our hour (!) wait said “sorry not in service”.  When a bus finally did come it was crammed with school kids and other commuters – it took forever to get back and we jumped into our bunks when we finally made it back to the hostel.

The upside to our bizarre day was that the sun came out and stayed, so we have been really enjoying walking around the city again.  Not sure what is in store for today, but it will be outside in the sun.  Cheers, Fa

Wildlife Tour

Fa’s classmate Ronda gave us a gift voucher for a wildlife tour about six months ago and we finally scheduled the trip. Since the kids are still on holiday I made the appointment yesterday. I was surprised to hear it started at 3:00 PM and went until 9:00 PM. This was to maximize the chance of seeing wildlife. I worked for 4 hours, played squash with Phil, and then we walked down to the visitor centre in the Octagon to meet the bus. This morning was very cold and it actually snowed for about 5 minutes at the house so we bundled up in all of our warm clothing. About halfway down to the Octagon we realized the mistake because the sun had come out and the temperature felt like 15C, but we were warned that the beach would be very cold so we would be prepared.

The bus arrived shortly after 3 and we boarded along with about 15 others. We stopped at a hotel to get another 6 or so. Everyone but us was a tourist, half of them Australian. As we road along the peninsula road, the tour guide gave a little talk about the wildlife we saw or would hopefully see. The bus took as first to the albatross colony at Taiaroa Head, the farthest most point on Otago peninsula. We hadn’t been out there since January, when we went looking for albatross. We were relieved when one guide took the Australians and the other guide took the rest of us to look at the wildlife. The colony is closed now since the young are fledgling and the new season’s pairs are returning to mate, but we hung around for about 30 minutes waiting to see if any showed up at the visitor centre. Albatrosses need a lot of wind to take off and unfortunately it was not very windy at that time, but right when we were boarding the bus we finally saw one circling around. You kind of wonder what it’s going to look like, seeing sea gulls flying around all over, but when you finally see one, it’s about 3 times as big as a sea gull with long, flexible, curvy wings. It was really amazing. It came and went about 3 times and then disappeared. We continued onto the bus and on our way.

Heading back towards Dunedin, the bus turned towards the coast and over to Papanui Inlet. We passed many birds in the shallow water and then stopped to avoid running over a lost lamb. The guide got off the bus, picked up the lamb, and placed it down the road and over a fence with it’s mother. Not surprisingly, this scene generated several jokes from the Australians. We rode through many farms and to the end of the road about Cape Saunders. The tour commenced in a private farm, so unfortunately we can’t come back again without paying. We again split up with the Australians going to the penguin beach and the rest of us to the New Zealand fur seal colony. Dropping about 200 metres across open paddock, we arrived at the colony. We saw probably several hundred fur seals, mostly female and pups, but with a few males. They were very cute with the pups playing in the small pools while the others mostly slept. A few were even out in the waves crashing on the rocks. Even better, several albatrosses flew by while we were looking at the seals.

Eventually, we had to make the long climb back up the hill and then drop into the penguin beach, passing the Australians on the way. Once at the beach we immediately saw Yellow-Eyed penguin resting after climbing up the hill. Then the guide pointed out a Blue penguin in a nest, but it was pretty tough to see. We left the penguin and walked along to the first Hooker sea lion. He was a large, at least 6 year old full grown male with a mane. He was trying to sleep in the sand, occasionally opening one eye to watch us. We then continued on to a group of three, who were initially sleeping, but as we gathered to look, they woke up and began play-fighting with each other. I took several movies, which I’ve get up on youtube soon. It was exciting to watch the, and it was a relief to have the guide there so we were not in any danger, hopefully.

We could see more penguins crossing the beach ahead and so we continued down to some blinds to watch. The poor little penguins had to climb a steep hill to their nests. It was hard to believe they could do it. We watched them as they passed sheep and lambs, up and over the hill. They nest up to 1 km inland from the beach, every night. Reminded me of March of the Penguins. We watched them for a while and then headed back to the bus. On the way we met the first penguin we saw on the road and so had to detour around him. We finally got back to the bus, again regaining the 200 metres elevation we lost on the way down. Needless to say, you have to be in good condition to do this trip.

The bus windows steamed up instantly with all of the perspiration from 23 people as we drove the 45 minutes back to Dunedin. We had to suffer the 10 Aussies loudly talking the whole way back, criticizing the Kiwis, Americans, Chinese, Poms, Germans, and anyone else they could think of, (except the Dutch, fine upstanding folk they are), but we survived it and made it back to town. The driver even drove us up to Roslyn after dropping everyone else off, saving us the long walk back up to home. We had a great time and it was well worth it.

Here are some photos I posted on Facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=13855&l=35576&id=543764697

New Zealand Fur Seals

Car, Squash, Soccer, All Blacks, Etc.

The car was taking a long time to get fixed. On Wednesday I called them and the said the wee steering shaft came back from the shop but they put it in wrong and had to take it out again so it wouldn’t be ready until Thursday. They finally offered me a loaner car, which I accepted. Up until then we had been getting by walking around town but I had to get Hank to soccer “training” so I took the loaner. They have an interesting way of picking you up here, at least with Steven Duff Mitsubishi: when you drop off your car for work, you drive to the shop and then you drive back in your own car with someone from the shop, who then drops you off at home and drives the car back to the shop. The reverse happens when the car is done. Of course in this situation my car was apart so they couldn’t use our car, so did the same with the loaner car. Since it was “rush hour” at this time, the shop worker took me back to the shop via some crazy back streets going all over the hills and South Dunedin. He said he had lived here all his life so new every trick. In fact, he had never been off the South Island. He isn’t the only person we’ve met who said that. I think there are quite a few people in Dunedin who haven’t been off the island! I got the car and made it to Hank’s soccer “training”, which is what we call “practice”, on time.

Thursday, after getting the kids off to school, Fa and I took a trip up the harbour. We stopped at Port Chalmers to have a look at the port, but there were no ships in at that time. Still, it looked like a lot of activity as always. We continued on to Aramoana and parked at the end of the road. We were the only ones there this time. We saw a large container ship coming in so we hurried out to the end of the mole to watch it, but it went on by without coming in to the harbour. We could see across to the albatross colony, where occasionally albatrosses were wheeling around in the sky, but they were so far away they looked much like seagulls. We must get there soon to see them up close. We then walked down the beach, where Fa picked up some nice shells for the kids while I looked for more bristleworms, but I could not find any. We did see a seal or sealion on the beach when we first got there. When we got on to the beach it had shuffled up into the dunes. I walked up to the edge of the dunes but couldn’t see it and decided to let it go – I wouldn’t want to corner it on the narrow path it took up into the grass! It was a very nice but cold day.

On the way back to Dunedin we took a detour up to Mt. Cargill, which is the dominant mountain to the northeast of town. Unfortunately, the south side of the mountain is not accessible by car, only by track, and as we didn’t want to tramp up the mountain, we headed back home. We came in through Northeast Valley and now have gone into and out of Dunedin by all possible routes. Just after getting home the shop called and the car was ready. I picked it up in time to get the kids from school.

On Friday I talked Fa into coming to watch me play squash with Phil. She took a few pictures and movies, but then got very cold and bundled up in the corner. The squash courts are not heated, but we warm up pretty quickly when playing squash so it doesn’t matter. Sitting there watching for an hour is too much to take, though. I did finally beat Phil, 3-1, probably because I had an audience! Here is one of the points I lost. I had him put away but hit it right to him. Yikes.

Later we rented some movies from Video Ezy – 5 for $10. I picked up the kids from school – we gave them a break and didn’t make them walk up the hill. I made some home-made baked beans for dinner, which we had with hot dogs (frankfurters), and we dragged our mattresses to the lounge for movie night.

Hank had a soccer game against Moari Hill Yellow at Ellis Park, his home field, Saturday morning. It was a bitterly cold 2C with a moderate wind. Wow was it cold! I brought our video camera and tripod to film the game. My finger just about froze off setting up the equipment. Even with gloves on my fingers weren’t working correctly so I fumbled my way through it. Hank was moving around so he and his teammates were nice and warm – sweaty even, but the parents were all huddled on the sidelines freezing. I can’t imagine a colder soccer game – any colder and it would have to be cancelled. What a contrast to last July at Jefferson when Hank had a game on the hottest day of the year – 99F or 38C! Although no one keeps score, we won the game 2-0.

Last night we all went to Phil’s for the All Blacks game against Australia. This was for both the Bledisloe Cup and the Tri Nations Trophy. The first half was pretty slow with a pounding rain (this was played in Auckland) and a bunch of penalties. I believe the score was 15-12 at the half. The second half began the same way but the ABs slowly pulled ahead and eventually scored a try around the 60th minute. The excitement really picked up by then and we cheered the eventual 26-12 win. Although it wasn’t pretty it was probably a typical All Blacks – Wallabies game and very enjoyable. I really love watching rugby. It’s too bad it’s not bigger in the states. I think it’s much more exciting than gridiron (American Football) since there are few stoppages of play. The whole game is done in about 2 hours. It’s also good that they don’t wear helmets so you can easily identify the players by there faces – more like baseball or basketball. After the game we played a bit of trivia and then got home by 10:00.

We often find the neighbor cat around, and in, the house. Here she is on Fa’s moped.

More Snow

I hear Olympia is 90 degrees Fahrenheit – here in Dunedin it was -3 degrees Celsius and we had a bit of snow last night and the night before. Even though it’s cold today was a spectacular day with clear blue skies. The kids and I went to the beach to see the erosion we’ve been having for the last week at St. Clair. We couldn’t get too close but did see the loaders, trucks, backhoes, etc. working on the dunes. Much of the beach is gone but hopefully they can save the dunes and Kettle Park, where Hank had his first soccer game.

Yesterday I gave Hank a haircut – my first attempt at it. It turned out OK but light years away from Jamie Lee.

Aramoana

(Ginny writes) Today we took a short drive to Port Chalmers. We went to check out a new crane that they just shipped in. Port Chalmers is about the size of Port of Olympia. It has a little more action going on though. We saw some woodchips being loaded onto another ship by bulldozers. Then we took a drive to Aramoana. It’s a tiny little town. We stopped at a beach at the end of the town. It was extremely beautiful! When we left Dunedin, the thermometer was at around 7C. By the time we left, it was at 11C. We walked along the beach to see what a local described as a hole in the rock. It was pretty interesting. There was a huge sand dune that was really fun to climb up and run down. After doing that for a while, we rested. Bye this time it was getting late so we headed back to the car. We dropped off our coats because it was hot! We decided to walk out on the mole (Why is it called a mole?). The waves were extreme! We walked back and drove home.

More fish stories

I haven’t written for a while – almost a week. The whole family went to Tunnel Beach last Saturday. It was great for Fa to get out with us. She even went in the water. We have some pictures I’ll post later, as I don’t have the camera at the moment.

Today dragged the kids along on another fishing trip. Again, we went to the Taieri River, since it is the closest to home. We drove up to Middlemarch and found an old suspension bridge across the river. I saw some fish rising and cast to them for a while, but no luck. I gave up and looked at the water from the bridge. After studying the water, I noticed fish swimming around. They were moving quite a bit up, down, and across the river. I figured I’d have no chance with them moving so much, but eventually I couldn’t resist and dropped a little Copper John down from the bridge. I stripped out about half my line and let the fly hang in the water. Eventually a fish moved up to it and took. Somehow I played it from the bridge and scrambled down to the water and landed it. It was quite a sight passing my rod around the cables and posts on the bridge. I dispatched it and quickly hooked another, but it threw the hook. By then the whole pool was put down so we went looking for more. I found another spot where I hooked a couple more, but lost those also. Then I drove many kms looking for the river but only reached it at one more bridge. There I didn’t see a thing. Then we drove back to Outram and stopped at the usual place, where I saw a nice one jump clear out of the water. I tried wet, dry, up, down, etc, but to no avail, so we headed home.

Here I measured and photographed the fish. It was a hair under 15 inches and about 2 pounds. The stomach was completely empty – must have been preparing to spawn. Sorry, fish.

Warrington Beach

Yesterday we went back up to Warrington to go to the beach. This time Fa and Corinna came. We played in the surf and body boarded. Fa even got in the water. It was the first time she used her wetsuit. This was after doing homework on the beach for an hour. We had a great time. I think it is our favorite beach because the water seems warmer and the waves are gentler that any of the others.

We dropped off Fa and Corinna at school and then went home to have baked potatoes. I picked up Fa at 9:30 PM. It was only the second time driving the car in the dark since we bought it. I discovered that some of the heat/ac controls are not illuminated. It actually looks like they’re not burned out but never had a light. Pretty weird. I’m still learning about the car, I guess.

Today – school work, supermarket, Ginny ballet, dinner (home-made mushroom soup), movies, bed.

New Video

Here are Ginny and Hank at Tunnel Beach:

Still here

Sorry – not much to say, but we’re still here. Nothing new yesterday – today to the beach for a bit. Pizza for dinner. That’s all. Bye.

Pictures

Lots of pictures today.

When we were at the beach the other day we saw a traction engine going down the road at about 5 km/h.

Hank doing some painting for Art Lesson.

I’m helping Ginny with a science experiment.

Today we went to Tunnel Beach. The trail started high above the water at 160m elevation.

We walked through sheep paddocks.

Eventually we could see sandstone formations below.

The path to the beach goes through a tunnel. The tunnel was blasted out of the rock in 1870 by Cargill, one of the early residents of Dunedin. He wanted a path to the private beach for his family. This is the entrance.

Inside the tunnel.

Tunnel Beach.

Our guidebooks warned against swimming here, but gave no reason (too dangerous, maybe?). We played in the water. It was much warmer than the other beaches we’ve been at recently.

Boxes

On Friday we received 5 more boxes. Patria airmailed us one, which we had to go pick up at the Post Office. Then 4 more arrived at the business school. Again, it was like opening presents on Christmas. We got many more clothes, including warm ones we need, and some comforters. Now we don’t have to use our sleeping bags anymore. Ginny’s math book came, which will make it easier to complete her schoolwork. I got my best squash racquet too. So now we only have 3 to go. Strangely, we’ve received boxes 1, 2, 3, 6, 8, 9, 10, which were sent in order. I hope #4, our computer, is not lost somewhere. It’s the only one I could not track on the US Post Office’s web site. It said it was delivered last July to Canada. Hmmm…..

After all of that activity, Fa and I walked to the store for some cheese, salami, and crackers. We had a nice light dinner with wine. Then after dinner the kids installed some games on the computer since all of our software arrived in box 10.
Saturday was going to be Farmer’s Market day, but again we didn’t get up in time. We did some quick schoolwork, then Hank and I walked Ginny down to ballet. We continued down to the Rialto Theatre to meet a Trademe seller. I bought a book from her about viewing stars from New Zealand for $3.50. Now I will be able to identify what I see, if the sky is ever clear! Actually, at night I notice the sky is almost always clear.
It was such a nice day that we hurried through school and at 3:00 went to the beach. Unfortunately, just as we got to St. Kilda, the clouds rolled in. The kids and I boogie boarded for about an hour while Fa froze on the beach doing homework. By the time we left we were just about the only people left there.
After cleaning up at home, showering, and changing, Hank and I drove to The Flying Squid for fish and chips – perfect as before. Then some computer games and after dark, Ginny and I looked at stars for a while.

Here’s the neighbour cat on our bed:

She just walks right in the house and makes herself at home.

Narnia

I forgot to mention that Purakaunui Bay was used in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Watch for the scene almost at the end which shows a beach and the castle above it. Also, as they look down from the castle to the beach. That’s it. We watched the movie last night to find the scene.

Camping Trip

Tuesday we had grand plans. We were going to clean the house, then get ready for our trip. But right in the middle of the vacuuming, the new computer came. So we dropped everything and set it up. Of course before we set it up we had to reorganize the office and clean it. Then we put it together. It took about 2 hours in all, but now here it is:

It’s a “cheap” Dell with a 20″ screen – not bad, but I’m sure several of my friends would be very disappointed. At first it seemed dog-slow on the internet. I was about ready to call Dell to complain, but then I noticed that the free McAfee it came with seemed to be a bit bloated. It had all this anti-phishing, anti-spam, anti-this, anti-that – man, it was slow. I turned off most everything and it works much better.

Then we finally got going to run some errands for our camping trip. We went to Pak N Save supermarket because Hank really wanted to go there (it’s mentioned in Wallace and Grommit). Not my favourite, but fine. We hurried to The Warehouse to get some bins, but we didn’t find a chilly bin (cooler) we liked. Then home for dinner, but we weren’t in time to make dinner before Fa’s ballet class, so she left and we had pasta.

We went out later looking for a chilly bin, but we couldn’t find any stores open. Most close at 5:30 pm, except for the supermarkets which close at 8 or 9. We ended up going back to The Warehouse and got one that was acceptable for $85. Unbelievable. We should have sent ours! Finally, we thought we were ready.

Yesterday, we woke and began packing for our overnight trip. Somehow we filled the whole back of the car! We only had to get diesel and some white gas for our hiking stoves. I had heard we could get white gas at a petrol station, but BP didn’t have it. We tried The Warehouse – nope, only butane. By the way, no such thing as “white gas” here, try “white fuel”. We tried Katmandu – they sent us to the supermarket. New World – no, Countdown – no. We finally went to the outdoor shop which sold me the fishing license and they had one bottle of “Coleman Fuel”. They also said it was known as “fuel light”. Obviously not a popular product here.

We were finally on our way 2 hours late at 11:00. We drove Highway 1 south, through Milton and Balclutha, turning off on 92 to Owaka, then into the Catlins Region. We were heading for Purakaunui Bay Conservation Camp, which is run by the Department of Conservation (DOC). Fortunately, we had a good map (New Zealand Atlas) because at no point before we got there were there any signs for a campground or park. Turned on progressively smaller and smaller roads, we left open sheep country and entered native (somewhat) bush. Finally we came out on Purakaunui Bay. It’s an

amazingly beautiful place. Wow. Unbelievable. And under 2 hours from home.

We took a look around and chose a campsite, but right then we saw a Toyota Hilux Surf (Forerunner?) and a Subaru Legacy drive past us on to the beach and up to some other campsites, so we followed them. If I hadn’t seen them I probably wouldn’t have, but it was very easy with 4 wheel drive and high ground clearance. We set up camp on a grassy point right next to the beach.

We had lunch and changed into our wetsuits. The kids played in the little stream where it entered the surf while I waded with them. I was frozen and wouldn’t get in – too cold. I was a party-pooper because the conditions were a bit rough, so I didn’t let the kids do any boogie boarding. It was tough because there were several surfers out there in the big waves, but it looked too dangerous for us. Anyway, we had a great time.

We changed and the kids played in the sand for awhile while I drove back up the road to find cell phone reception. I did eventually and called Fa to tell her where we were. I guess phone reception is not that great or we were way out in the wilderness. I followed a Toyota Hiace (minivan) back to the camp, then passed it as I went back on the beach to our campsite. I was surprised to see a few minutes later it followed me out. Unfortunately, it immediately got stuck in the soft sand. This is not an off-road vehicle of any kind so it wasn’t unexpected. A British guy and his girlfriend were driving around the South Island in it. It was pretty run-down, but I think this was the worst that had happened to him so far. I helped dig him out and we pushed it back, but not quite far enough. He got stuck again and I helped dig him out one more time. Then he backtracked to the path from the sand to the road, where he got stuck again. This time I couldn’t help him. Everything we tried made it worse. He even tried jacking up the van, but it didn’t work and the jack bent the body of the van so much he couldn’t close his sliding door anymore. Some campers nearby tried towing him up with a Honda Accord – didn’t work. Finally he asked the surfers for some help and the Hilux came. They pulled it down and then, with a running start, pulled it up. Funny thing, though, when the Hilux unhitched the Hiace, it couldn’t move because it was stuck for the fourth time! On flat, grassy, ground. This time was the last because we quickly pushed it out of a hole and he was good as gold. He drove a few meters and parked for the night out of sheer relief. The door wouldn’t close, but by morning he had fixed the door enough to close it so he could drive the thing.

After that very interesting experience we had dinner. It was too windy for a campfire so we figured we’d cook over the stove. I hadn’t tried the hiking stoves before we left Dunedin and so of course they both had problems. In Olympia they worked great right before I sent them. Now the good one leaked, so I tried the not-so-good backup stove. It leaked less, but the burner wasn’t working right. After a long time Ginny’s veggie hotdogs were lukewarm. I got fed up and switched to the leaky good stove and voila, it didn’t leak anymore. After an hour wasted we quickly finished cooking with the good stove and ate. By now we were freezing as the sun dropped in the sky but we found we hadn’t brought any hot chocolate, tea, coffee, or Milo (Kiwi drink). So I boiled some water and drank it straight. Weird, but not bad. This prompted me to start a list of things we forgot, which reached about 15 by the time we got back. Better preparation next time.

After a short walk we went to bed by about 9:00. I wore just about everything I had with me (3 shirts & 3 sweaters) because I thought it would be cold. It turned out about right because I never was cold except my fingers. The kids did pretty well too, although Ginny woke up at 5:30 to put on another sweater. We slept in until 9:00, listening to the wind beating on the poor tent. We got up and had breakfast. It was much easier to cook this time because I got the stove up and running instantly and had water boiling for oatmeal in ten minutes. The kids played on the beach for a while and we briefly considered swimming, but it was too windy. We packed up the camp and headed home by noon. I stopped for a look at the Clutha River and decided I’d have to give it a try. It was my first attempt at fishing in New Zealand. No luck, though. I did see the didymo everyone’s talking about. It’s known as “rock snot” and now I see why. I didn’t see any on the bottom but there was a lot of it floating downstream through the water. It looks like a white algae. It didn’t affect me but would be a problem for spin anglers. After a stop for Hokey Pokey ice cream at a dairy in Milton, we reached home by 2:00.

Cats

Yesterday – more schoolwork. Then off to the business school to watch the Superbowl. Some of the students wandered in and out of the social room while the kids and I watched the game. I did enjoy watching but have to say it was probably the worst Superbowl in a long time because of the poor quality of play – turnovers, etc. I was happy the Colts one, though. I don’t know why but I hate Chicago.

After dinner I ordered a computer from Dell New Zealand. Since the computer we shipped hasn’t arrived yet, we decided we couldn’t wait. We’ll see in about a week if the old or new one shows up first.

Since it was Waitangi Day today, we decided to take the day off from school, I mean the kids and me. Fa spent several hours itthere and still has lots more to do. I had a squash game at one so I took the kids down with me. Phil was warmed up from a tennis match and handily beat me 3-1 this time. Ouch. I’ll get him next time, though.

We picked Fa up after squash and headed to the beach. We chose St. Kilda because it has the best area out of the water for Fa to sit. Because of the holiday the beach was very crowded. We forgot the boogie boards but good thing because the waves were too big and broke right on shore for boogie boarding. Instead we played in the waves and had a great time. We got worn out eventually and headed home.

Earlier Phil invited us to his house for a beer at 4:30, so I checked the map and it looked very close so we tried to walk there. Unfortunately, I got the street wrong and we couldn’t find his place. After wandering around for a while, Hank skinned his knee so we decided to head home. Once home I checked the map and discovered we were about a block away at one point. Oh well. Phil called later and we decided to do it another time. Sorry about that Phil.

After dinner I found a pruner in the basement and spent a few minutes pruning back some of the overgrown roses so we can get around the house a litter easier. I met our neighbor Jeff, who is feeding another neighbor’s cat across the street, who has adopted us. This black cat comes in the house through the cat door and acts like he lives here. Pretty funny, although he isn’t the only one, there’s another cat next door that does the same thing. Sometimes it’s surprising to open a door and see a cat inside your house when you know you don’t have one. These are very nice cats, though.

Catching Up

Sorry – missed a few days.
Fa called from school to ask if we wanted to go down for some fish and chips – of course we said, “YES!”. We picked her up at school, drove around for 5 minutes looking for a place to park, and finally arrived at The Flying Squid. We brought it home and it was fantastic! Probably the best fish and chips I’ve had in years, or ever. Or maybe we just haven’t had any good food here we haven’t made ourselves.
We were so stuffed with lunch that we skipped dinner and watched some movies – Fa and I watched Fellowship on the laptop while the kids watched something on the DVD player. Since we have no TV it’s nice to be able to see movies anyway.
Saturday we walked down the hill to the local Ballet school to sign up Ginny and Fa. Ginny will be continuing where she was at Johansen’s and I’m not sure what Fa is doing, except that she’s doing it with a couple of friends from school. Then we continued on to the Octagon, where we had to wend our way through big crowds at the summer festival. We stopped at the fishing shop so I could get my license, some books, and an atlas of New Zealand. He told me some places to try, and the guy was so nice he even gave me some flies for free. Have you ever heard of such a thing?
We picked up some school supplies at Office Max and took the long walk home. Then I took Fa to school again and watched some Rugby while she did some work with her syndicate. Rugby was a lot of fun to watch but I’m going to have to get some pointers from someone to really appreciate the game. When Fa was done we did some more shopping for food and household supplies (never ending, it seems). After getting home I spent a few hours reading, studying, and planning my fishing trips. I think I have some things lined up now.
Today we got going early to scout out some fishing spots and enjoy an outing. We headed south to Waihola Lake, about 40 km away. It was an interesting lake, but the fishing didn’t look good and the kids weren’t very interested in swimming, so we took off. We headed over the hill to the coast and stopped at the Taieri River mouth. Very beautiful and picturesque, but the river was too big at this point for fishing and the swimming didn’t look too promising. We explored for a while and took the back way to Brighton Beach, where we swam a couple of weeks ago. There the conditions were perfect – hot day and tolerable water. Fa studied on the beach while the kids and I boogie boarded for a couple of hours. There were hunderds of people on the beach, but it was never too crowded. We had a great time. We came back, dropped Fa off at school, and had some ice cream. A great Sunday in NZ.

Chess

This morning we spent several hours doing school work. First Ginny, as much as we could, then Hank, who has everything here. It was a great day so we were hoping we could get to the beach, but only if the car was fixed and we had finished school. Unfortunately, by 1:00 it was apparent the car wouldn’t be done so we decided to walk down to the Octagon (center of town) to visit the Dunedin Art Gallery. It took us 15 minutes to get there, where we picked up “Art Hunt” sheets to fill it. There were a series of questions we had to answer by finding different pieces of artwork. It was a lot of fun and got the kids looking at the art. After finishing the Art Hunt, they rewarded us with a Cadbury chocolate sample each along with some postcards and stickers. We had a good time.

Ginny has our old camera so she took some pictures of the Robert Burns statue and other sites around the Octagon. We spotted a giant chessboard so Ginny and Hank played a game:

Eventually, some more serious players (teenagers) showed up so we left. I think Ginny was winning but Hank wants a re-match. We headed back home up the hill (200 meters elevation gain). 15 minutes down became 30 minutes going up. We were exhausted when we got home. Fa’s been doing this every day but twice as far. She’s going to be in great shape when this is over. We rested for a while then took the loaner car back and picked up the car. It was great having the car back. It works great now. We stopped at Office Max to get some school supplies, then Fresh Choice (supermarket) to get dinner, then home. We had a quick dinner that Ginny made, then Hank and I did some more schoolwork (bad idea at night – too wound up), then to bed.