I added some pictures and information about our hike up Mount Maunganui and Pilot Bay
which we did on Saturday the 19th of Feb ;o)
Update coming on the week of the 21st! Should be posted in 24 hours :o)
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Tuesday, February 22, 2011
Earthquake in Christchurch on Tuesday the 22nd; we were not affected but we pray for those who were.
Hi, we know some of you will be wondering if the earthquake affected us. We are fortunate that the earthquake was on the South Island, about 8 hours drive south of us and a 3 hour ferry ride from there...would be like a earthquake in southern Missouri from Green Bay as far as distance.
The earthquake was much worse this time versus the one they had in the same city (Christchurch) last September 4th, 2010. That one was a 7.1 magnitude quake, with a few injuries and no direct deaths from the quake. This time, even though the quake was not as strong at 6.2 magnitude, there are many more buildings completely destroyed, and the death toll is at least 65 with higher numbers expected. The search and rescue teams are strictly working on finding those trapped at this time.
For more info, here is a good site:
http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10708166&ref=rss
or this one:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12533722
Thanks to everyone who checked in to see how we are doing.
--Tracy and Gillie
The earthquake was much worse this time versus the one they had in the same city (Christchurch) last September 4th, 2010. That one was a 7.1 magnitude quake, with a few injuries and no direct deaths from the quake. This time, even though the quake was not as strong at 6.2 magnitude, there are many more buildings completely destroyed, and the death toll is at least 65 with higher numbers expected. The search and rescue teams are strictly working on finding those trapped at this time.
For more info, here is a good site:
http://msn.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10708166&ref=rss
or this one:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-12533722
Thanks to everyone who checked in to see how we are doing.
--Tracy and Gillie
Raft Day at Gillie's school! (I know! Nothing but fun here!)
Hi, it's Tracy again. I feel like Gillie's social secretary.
Today was a big day for the Steiner School. This Raft Day is an annual tradition, to celebrate summer and the start of a new school year. All the parents told me I could not miss it!
The whole school headed out at 9am to a local park on one of the bays of the South Pacific ocean. The students, class 1 thru class 7 (basically grades 1-7), were divided up into 16 teams. Each team had 1 student leader and 1 adult to 'help'. There were piles of miscellaneous building materials, floatation devices, and scraps of rope...every team was on their own to build a great floating raft. Little kids were to sit on the raft with the older kids
paddling, kicking, pulling and pushing the raft out in the bay, around an adult marking the far end, and then back to shore...twice!
Yep, I volunteered to be an adult team member. Somehow, all the other teams had 12 kids, but our team had 5. However, Siobahn and Robin from Gillie's class, and Eva from class 5, and Quinn and Mia from class 3 were great! We had a blast. Another team claimed our pile of supplies, and it looked as if we were out of luck, but we ended up with 2 kayaks, and a ton of rope. Robin was excellent at "finding" (ie, sneaking off with) good supplies from other teams.
We had about 45 minutes to build our raft.
While we did not win the race, we came in about 5th. The winning team had 4 large Kiwi dads out pushing and pulling the raft....they were quickly tagged as cheaters! We got the award for smallest team with best raft. Our great prize? A hubcap!
However, seeing as the other awards included a zucchini, a small gourd (for the cheating team!), and a gumboot (rubber boot), I think we did well.
Gillie was not on my team, she had her own and they had much fun as well.
We all ate lunch, including a 'sausage sizzle'
(like a 'brat fry' by us, but they have different sausages),
then the kids swam more, and everyone packed up their stuff and we were done by 1:30pm!
If only school had been this fun when I was a kid!
Today was a big day for the Steiner School. This Raft Day is an annual tradition, to celebrate summer and the start of a new school year. All the parents told me I could not miss it!
The whole school headed out at 9am to a local park on one of the bays of the South Pacific ocean. The students, class 1 thru class 7 (basically grades 1-7), were divided up into 16 teams. Each team had 1 student leader and 1 adult to 'help'. There were piles of miscellaneous building materials, floatation devices, and scraps of rope...every team was on their own to build a great floating raft. Little kids were to sit on the raft with the older kids
paddling, kicking, pulling and pushing the raft out in the bay, around an adult marking the far end, and then back to shore...twice!
Yep, I volunteered to be an adult team member. Somehow, all the other teams had 12 kids, but our team had 5. However, Siobahn and Robin from Gillie's class, and Eva from class 5, and Quinn and Mia from class 3 were great! We had a blast. Another team claimed our pile of supplies, and it looked as if we were out of luck, but we ended up with 2 kayaks, and a ton of rope. Robin was excellent at "finding" (ie, sneaking off with) good supplies from other teams.
We had about 45 minutes to build our raft.
While we did not win the race, we came in about 5th. The winning team had 4 large Kiwi dads out pushing and pulling the raft....they were quickly tagged as cheaters! We got the award for smallest team with best raft. Our great prize? A hubcap!
However, seeing as the other awards included a zucchini, a small gourd (for the cheating team!), and a gumboot (rubber boot), I think we did well.
Gillie was not on my team, she had her own and they had much fun as well.
We all ate lunch, including a 'sausage sizzle'
(like a 'brat fry' by us, but they have different sausages),
then the kids swam more, and everyone packed up their stuff and we were done by 1:30pm!
If only school had been this fun when I was a kid!
Team 14's raft!
Robin, Eva, me, Siobahn, Quinn and Mia
Some of the competition
Quinn and Mia with our prize!
(hubcap)
(hubcap)
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Gillie finished her 3rd week of school...Tracy is volleyball coach! (?!) ... and we tramped up the Mount this weekend!
NEW!!! VIDEOS!
and look up Gillie New Zealand in the search box. There are 2 videos,
and 2 more should be online by tomorrow. Enjoy!!***
***************
Hi again, it's Tracy. Today is Monday, 21st February, 2011. Gillie finished her 2nd full week, but 3rd week of school last Friday. It was her first full week of "real" school, where they were not at camp or otherwise just having fun! Gillie says the math is "easy", and she enjoys the other things she does at school, such as knit and learn about the Roman Empire.
The students did not do much to celebrate Valentine's Day here. However, they had just gotten back from camp and school has only been in session just over 10 days so I think that is partially why there was no big "party". Gillie got a card from me, and she made me one at home :o)
This term in New Zealand (term 1), the students can join the school volleyball teams. There is a team for Gillie's class 6 and class 7 students. The school was looking for a volunteer to help with the teams, and I said I could help the coach out. I showed up after school on Tuesday the 15th to pick up Gillie, and they were having practice! Well, you know how that goes! They did not have a coach so...now I am it! I was a bit worried about this NZ volleyball...Gillie's teammates were telling me they can kick the ball (?!), hit it with their head (like in soccer), and even catch the ball then toss it to another player...Yes, these are all true things, in the lower level volleyball. Luckily, Gillie's team is now in the "super league" level. They can't catch the ball or kick it (thankfully), and the other big difference from "American" volleyball is that you can score a point anytime the other team misses/drops the ball, and they play one game until the time runs out. We had our first game this past Friday the 18th, and I am happy to report the "Flaming Bonkers" (yep, that's the team name!) won their first game, 50 to 38. Gillie did well, she had a few good saves. We have 2 teammates, Tiana and Robin, who serve well and another boy Zac who knows the game very well and is a good athelete. Wish us luck for the rest of the season!
Other fun things during the school week last week...Thursday the 17th Gillie went to her first "Young Mariners" meeting in the late afternoon/evening. Here is some information on the YM from their website: http://www.youngmariners.org.nz/
Young Mariners New Zealand is an organization for girls 8-19 years old.
Mariners provides opportunities for fun, friendship and adventure. Through our activity choices, girls are encouraged to reach their potential, be independent, confident and caring. We empower them to give leadership and develop their decision-making and life skills. Young Mariners helps them connect with their community and with the wider world. They also become amazing sailors!
On this first meeting, Gillie got to watch some of the older girls set up the sailboats for an early evening sail. She went out on one of the larger "small sailboats" with Amber, an experienced Young Mariner, and 4 other girls. It was a nice night for sailing, the winds could have been a bit stronger but was good for Gillie's first sail ever! She got to steer the rudder on the way back in. There were about 6 sailboats out total, 2 a bit larger, and then some very small one person boats! They sailed for about 1 hour. There were adults out in small powerboats in case anyone had problems.
Gillie enjoyed herself very much, and we'll continue to go to the meetings on Thursday nights. During the nice weather, they just sail and the older girls teach the younger/newer ones. The group is like a Girl Scouts on water! We will also have a chance to go to one of their camps
March 18-20th. We are looking forward to that. We will be going to an inland lake and learning sailing techniques, and camping out in tents. I will go with Gillie to this camp. Another American mom, who moved here with her family from Minneapolis, encouraged us to come and
try the Young Mariners, and she'll be at camp with her daughter as well.
Gillie getting ready for her first sail!
The Mount and Tauranga's skyline are
The Mount and Tauranga's skyline are
in the background.
 | ||
| Gillie's sailboat is the larger one on the right. They are sailing in Taurgana Harbor. Thursday, 17th February, 2011 ************* Friday the 18th, we just hung out after the volleyball game at home (the "bach") watching a video. We watched the "Tooth Fairy"...Gillie saw it a while ago, but I have not and I actually really enjoyed it! For Saturday the 19th, our big trip was to "the Mount", or Mount Maunganui, to do some tramping (hiking) up to the summit. We started the day off with breakfast, and just hung out at home a bit, then by accident Gillie locked the keys in the boot! (trunk) of the car! Luckily, I have New Zealand AA out here (Automobile Association). Did you know that if you have American AAA, many countries extend "guest membership" for free? So, we did not have to pay anything for the membership, or for the nice AA man to come out and unlock our car. However, the boot release is broken, and our car is so old the back seats do not fold down, so he had to take the back seats out to get to the boot! He was very chipper and smiling and did not mind. Only took him about 20 minutes to get us all set. Since this incident happened at home, it was no problem to just sit and wait for AA to get here and take care of things. Gillie was a bit mad at herself but hopefully won't do that again as she gets older! ;o) Here is the story of Mount Maunganui (called Mauao by the native Maori tribes) The Legend of MauaoIn the ancient times of the Maori people there lived a nameless hill, he sat alone in a discarded inland area and was slave to Otanewainuku, the most prestigious mountain of Tauranga Moana. Nearby there lived a captivating hill whose name was Puwhenua, she was adorned with the beauty of Tanemahuta (God of the Forest). The nameless one desired the affection of Puwhenua, but alas her heart had already been won by Otanewainuku. This resulted in disparity which led the nameless one to decide to take his life by drowning in Te Moananui-a-Kiwa (Pacific Ocean). So he called upon his companions the Patupaiarehe (fairy people) who dwelt in the dark recesses of the forest. The Patupaiarehe were people of the night and possess magical powers, the nameless one knew that with their help his ambition to end his life will be accomplished. When night fell, they laced the nameless one with dozens of ropes and began to heave and pull. The land rumbled as the Patupaiarehe forced the nameless one from his position. A valley was gouged as they heaved him along, which is where you will now find that the Waimapu river flows. They continued along the Tauranga Moana channels where Hairini, Maungatapu and Matapihi reside. Upon their arrival near the great ocean of Kiwa, daybreak was fast approaching. Unfortunately for the nameless one this was proving to be quite a complex and problematic task. The rays of Tama nui te ra (Sun) began to light up the summit of the nameless hill and before they knew it, the Patupaiarehe were exposed to the rays of light, so they retreated back to the depths of the forests.The Patupaiarehe decided to give the name Mauao to this mountain which now marks the entrance into the Tauranga harbour. The translation of Mauao can literally be termed as 'caught by the dawn'. In time this mountain has assumed its own great prestige and mana even over his once rival Otanewainuku and now stands as the symbol of all tribes of Tauranga Moana. Gillie and I enjoyed our tramp to the top of Mauao. It is pretty steep in some parts, and the steps are covered in somewhat slippery gravel. However, lots of people go up and down this area, and it is a popular area for runners. You will be very fit if you run up and down this daily! We enjoyed the view from the top, including the hanggliders (see the video on You Tube). After our trek back down (took us about 1 hour to get up, and about 45 minutes to get down) we found a great, inexpensive 'hole-in-the-wall' pizza place called "The Mount Pizza", and we each enjoyed our own little pizza. This was the closest to American pizza since we've been here. We'll be back! We also walked along Pilot's Bay on our way to the Mount. This is a very nice beach, the water is calmer as it is protected from the main ocean currents. We saw our first starfish here! They are "stubbier" than the starfish I have seen in books, but they have a distinctive starfish look!   
 Saturday, 19th February 2011 Gillie at the top of the Mount. It may look like we're not up that high, but the ledge behind Gillie basically goes straight down. (They are not big on safety railings here...you just gotta use common sense!) Look at how small the people on the beach are!  Gillie looking over the paragliders.  Gillie pointing out towards where we live. We live along the South Pacific Ocean, where you see the beach curve off to the left at the top left of the picture. (About 8km (5 miles) from the Mount, along the beach) Pilot Bay and the cruise ship are just under Gillie's arm. |
 Gillie at the start of the tramp...this is the easy part of the hike. Tauranga is the in the background, along with one of the main swimming beaches. Lots of beach volleyball! |
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Gillie is back from camp! We went to a local fair this past weekend, too. :o)
Hi again--it's Tracy. Gillie was at camp since Monday Feb 7th, and came back on Friday, 12th Feb at 3pm. It was so good to see her! I missed her a lot.
What had I done while she was gone?
A little bit of shopping for sleeveless shirts (It is warm here! Sorry to all of you back in cold WI ;o)
Went to a local veterinary clinic on Tuesday 9th February, spent the day there and watched them do a stem cell transplant procedure on a dog, to help with its arthritis. More to follow on this cool technology.
I will go back in 2 weeks and see this dog when she comes in for her follow up.
Wednesday, 10th Feb, did some exploring of the Tauranga Harbor and found some cool places to run.
I spent Thursday 11th Feb, in a town about 1 1/2 hours away, Te Aroha. This town has some of the coolest old Edwardian (Victorian) buildings, from the late 1800's. Very pretty, and a lot of cool history there.
In between, did a bit of video editing...will post some videos here soon :o)
Here are some pics from this week....
Yes, they have malls, similar to ours, with different stores.
What had I done while she was gone?
A little bit of shopping for sleeveless shirts (It is warm here! Sorry to all of you back in cold WI ;o)
Went to a local veterinary clinic on Tuesday 9th February, spent the day there and watched them do a stem cell transplant procedure on a dog, to help with its arthritis. More to follow on this cool technology.
I will go back in 2 weeks and see this dog when she comes in for her follow up.
Wednesday, 10th Feb, did some exploring of the Tauranga Harbor and found some cool places to run.
I spent Thursday 11th Feb, in a town about 1 1/2 hours away, Te Aroha. This town has some of the coolest old Edwardian (Victorian) buildings, from the late 1800's. Very pretty, and a lot of cool history there.
In between, did a bit of video editing...will post some videos here soon :o)
Here are some pics from this week....
View from island/waterfront of Tauranga, looking northwest to the Mount.
Taken Wed 9th February
This is a good reprensentation of the shopping areas in New Zealand.
This is downtown Tauranga.
Can you believe Wal-Mart has not made it's way to NZ?? I can't!
(and I'm glad, or all these nice shopping/local stores would be gone!)
However, this type of shopping center is more common--many of the little towns outside of the bigger cities have stores like this along their 'main street'...the main road through town.
You have everything you'd need...banking, restaurants, take out places, video stores,
clothing stores, etc.
And, they are very pretty! Most every town has flowers and decorations to make it a pleasant place to walk.
That is one nice thing here, they don't have huge parking lots with big box stores...even a big stand along store shares it parking with other stores.
That is one nice thing here, they don't have huge parking lots with big box stores...even a big stand along store shares it parking with other stores.
New Zealand also seems to keep their housing and cities much 'closer' together.
You don't have the subdivisions with 2 acres of land around each house.
Most houses have what we would consider to be a very small lot.
It just seems nice and cozy, though, and not really cramped at all.
Houses are designed to fit in with their lot, so you are not looking at your neighbor's windows!
 |
| Gillie back from camp...she is a tired girl! Friday 11th Febuary 3:30pm at the school. That is our '89 Nissan Sentra in the background! **************** So what did we do after I picked Gillie up on Friday? We hung out at home, watched a DVD, and had some Mc Donalds. On Saturday, we went to a local "county fair"...but they call them an "A&P" show... for Agriculture and Pastoral (plants and animals). We picked up Gillie's classmate Abigail, and headed to Te Puke (that's pronounced te pookie!), which is about 9 km (5miles) south of Papamoa. Te Puke is a small town that calls itself "the KiwiFruit Capital of the World!"  Saturday, 12th February at the Te Puke A&P Show. Leave it to Gillie to find the litters of puppies that you could hold. There were 4 Jack Russell pups, and Gillie and Abigail of course fell in love. NO, we are NOT bringing one home! More later, gotta go pick Gillie up from school now. Will try to get some videos on YouTube, things just take really long to upload here! Love, Tracy and Gillie |
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Gillie's second week of school...will be spent all week at CAMP!!
This is Tracy--
It is 1pm 6th January (Monday) in New Zealand. I am currently sitting in a Mc Donald's (yes, of course they are here as well, but have many different menu items and are missing others we are used to! Hey, where is the 2 cheeseburger value meal??!) The main reason I am sitting at McD's is that they have...FREE WiFi! And it is pretty fast! The internet connection options here in NZ are slower than what we are used to..and cost can be a bit more. We have a mobile broadband modem now for use at home but we have to pay for that just like you'd have to pay for mobile phone time, so I am sitting here to use the "free stuff" while I blog.
OK...so on to Gillie. She started school last Wednesday, 2nd February. She was a bit nervous about starting school, but ready to get there as well. We had a lot of fun while in our campervan from the 17th of January thru the 28th of January, but hey, that is a lot of time alone with your mom! So, she was lucky before school started to hook up again with some friends she made via email before we landed in NZ...3 girls from her class: Abigail, (her mom is from the East Coast of the US and Canada, and her dad is a native "Kiwi" (New Zealander)); Delila ("Lila") who is from England; and Maddie, who is a native Kiwi. This really helped Gillie look forward to school and not be so nervous, as she got to play with these girls and have a sleepover at Abigail's house the weekend before school started.
Gillie thought her first 3 days of school were "AWESOME"...a 100 on a scale of 1 to 100! She has 30 kids in her class, which may seem big to us, but is a good size for a Steiner-type school. Only 1 teacher, too! Her name is Fran McCall, and all the kids and parents call her Fran. She has been with this same class, moving up each grade (level) with them here for the past 3 years. All the parents think she is awesome, too, and I like her. She is friendly, but no nonsense...I think the kids respect her for that. So far in school Gillie has studied Te Kuiti, a famous Maori. Gillie will blog more about this when she is back from camp, but basically, the Maori people are the native people of New Zealand. Many people in New Zealand speak some Maori in addition to English.
The reason G though school was so awesome is that they had little homework so far, and the little homework booklets for the term are very easy...spelling words and math problems she is very familiar with. However, Gillie's friend Abigail has warned Gillie it will get harder once they are back from camp!!
Also, every Friday at 2pm (school goes from 9am-3pm M-F), the kids in Class 6 (basically, 6th grade) get to go down a big "Slip 'n Slide" that they set up down a hill next to the school! I will post pictures next time they do this...the kids all get in their "togs" (swimsuits) and then get to go right down the slide...how cool is that?!
This whole week Gillie will be at camp about 2 1/2 hours away. She left this AM at 9:30 and will be back Friday at 3pm. This is a camp the school sends the new Class 6 kids on each year...Gillie's teacher Fran told us parents the purpose of this camp is for the kids to start to learn to do things more on their own, away from their parents, and how to better use their friends to figure things out... a "growing up" camp! Gillie and her classmates will be swimming, tramping (hiking), mountain biking, canoeing, kayaking...incredible!
You should have seen the scene at the school...there are 8 parents and 2 teachers (Fran and Mario) going along with the 30 kids...so there were 40 mountain bikes, about 8 cars, and 4 trailers taking everyone there! Crazy!
Well, be sure to email or post to me here, as I will be all alone ;o( this week,
as Chris and I talked to Fran and we decided that Gillie will be fine without mom, as that is the purpose of this camp! (Develop some independence.) I will miss her, but I will be visiting a veterinary clinic tomorrow to talk about their stem cell treatment for arthritis in dogs...and I will see if I can somehow get some work out of this! I am not used to this freedom, and I have to say I miss work!
Love you all!
--Tracy
It is 1pm 6th January (Monday) in New Zealand. I am currently sitting in a Mc Donald's (yes, of course they are here as well, but have many different menu items and are missing others we are used to! Hey, where is the 2 cheeseburger value meal??!) The main reason I am sitting at McD's is that they have...FREE WiFi! And it is pretty fast! The internet connection options here in NZ are slower than what we are used to..and cost can be a bit more. We have a mobile broadband modem now for use at home but we have to pay for that just like you'd have to pay for mobile phone time, so I am sitting here to use the "free stuff" while I blog.
OK...so on to Gillie. She started school last Wednesday, 2nd February. She was a bit nervous about starting school, but ready to get there as well. We had a lot of fun while in our campervan from the 17th of January thru the 28th of January, but hey, that is a lot of time alone with your mom! So, she was lucky before school started to hook up again with some friends she made via email before we landed in NZ...3 girls from her class: Abigail, (her mom is from the East Coast of the US and Canada, and her dad is a native "Kiwi" (New Zealander)); Delila ("Lila") who is from England; and Maddie, who is a native Kiwi. This really helped Gillie look forward to school and not be so nervous, as she got to play with these girls and have a sleepover at Abigail's house the weekend before school started.
Gillie thought her first 3 days of school were "AWESOME"...a 100 on a scale of 1 to 100! She has 30 kids in her class, which may seem big to us, but is a good size for a Steiner-type school. Only 1 teacher, too! Her name is Fran McCall, and all the kids and parents call her Fran. She has been with this same class, moving up each grade (level) with them here for the past 3 years. All the parents think she is awesome, too, and I like her. She is friendly, but no nonsense...I think the kids respect her for that. So far in school Gillie has studied Te Kuiti, a famous Maori. Gillie will blog more about this when she is back from camp, but basically, the Maori people are the native people of New Zealand. Many people in New Zealand speak some Maori in addition to English.
The reason G though school was so awesome is that they had little homework so far, and the little homework booklets for the term are very easy...spelling words and math problems she is very familiar with. However, Gillie's friend Abigail has warned Gillie it will get harder once they are back from camp!!
Also, every Friday at 2pm (school goes from 9am-3pm M-F), the kids in Class 6 (basically, 6th grade) get to go down a big "Slip 'n Slide" that they set up down a hill next to the school! I will post pictures next time they do this...the kids all get in their "togs" (swimsuits) and then get to go right down the slide...how cool is that?!
This whole week Gillie will be at camp about 2 1/2 hours away. She left this AM at 9:30 and will be back Friday at 3pm. This is a camp the school sends the new Class 6 kids on each year...Gillie's teacher Fran told us parents the purpose of this camp is for the kids to start to learn to do things more on their own, away from their parents, and how to better use their friends to figure things out... a "growing up" camp! Gillie and her classmates will be swimming, tramping (hiking), mountain biking, canoeing, kayaking...incredible!
You should have seen the scene at the school...there are 8 parents and 2 teachers (Fran and Mario) going along with the 30 kids...so there were 40 mountain bikes, about 8 cars, and 4 trailers taking everyone there! Crazy!
Well, be sure to email or post to me here, as I will be all alone ;o( this week,
as Chris and I talked to Fran and we decided that Gillie will be fine without mom, as that is the purpose of this camp! (Develop some independence.) I will miss her, but I will be visiting a veterinary clinic tomorrow to talk about their stem cell treatment for arthritis in dogs...and I will see if I can somehow get some work out of this! I am not used to this freedom, and I have to say I miss work!
Love you all!
--Tracy
Gillie, Sibohan, and Maddie in the truck ready to drive off to camp!
(Monday, 6th February 9:30am)
Controlled chaos! This is about 1/6th of who and what is all going to camp...Gillie is right in the middle waiting for things to get packed up! Gillie's class room is the blue building with 2 tall windows right in the background. Her school has multiple buildings, and you just walk outside to get to the different classes.
Gillie and her New Zealand teacher, Fran Mc Call.
This is taken on 1 Feb 2011, Tuesday, the day before school started.
There are 30 kids in Gillie's class!
 |
| Gillie and Abigail on 5 Feb 2011, tossing sand in the air...on the beach near our "bach" (house). |
Update after our 12 days in a campervan...
This is me in a hot pool at Hot Water Beach! It feels good!!!!
this is me petting two pigs at Stony Oaks Wildlife Park near New Plymouth, the one in the back I named Coco and the one in the front is named Marshmellow!!
This is me surfing at a festival called Republic Days in the town of Whangamomona!
*************
This is from Tracy---
Gillie outlined the major cities and towns we saw. For fun, google map them and see where we were! We picked up the campervan (an RV to us) in Auckland on Monday, 17th of January. We then drove it to Raglan, which is on the west coast of the North Island, and is a "surfing" town...pretty area and cute. The drive into Raglan told me a bit about what I was in for with NZ driving! I did not mind the whole driving on the left, or the fact that the campervan is manual transmission (kind of like driving a big tall conversion van with a diesel engine), but I DID mind the narrow, very twisty roads with steep drop offs and no guard rails!! Pretty much everywhere out of a town the speed limit is 100 kilometers/hour...which is 62 miles per hour. Sounds fine, until you think about the driving conditions...in some places the "recommended" speed around the curves is 15 kph...or in other words, about 9 miles per hour...but some people prefer to still try to drive faster than that!
Ok, enough about the driving.
Gillie enjoyed Raglan. We stayed 2 nights in their "holiday park" (a campground to us) and the holiday park had a nice trampoline but also had a cool "jumping pillow"...we had not seen one of these in the United States. Basically it is a big inflated pillow on the ground that you can jump on. It is very similar to a trampoline but safer as you have a bigger area to jump and you can't easily fall off of it.
It was overcast on 18th Tuesday (I write the dates this way as it is how they do it in NZ!) so we made the mistake of not putting enough sunscreen on, and Gillie got a bit of sunburn from being on the jumping pillow a good portion of the day. Nothing too serious, just a good reminder that the sun is MUCH hotter here than it is in Wisconsin.
We walked into Raglan from the holiday park, and saw a bunch of small crabs along the waterline...Gillie did NOT like them very much, as there were hundreds of them crawling in and out of their little holes in the sand.
Mom was more interested and watched them a bit.
It was fun to walk into town, we looked at the art gallery and we ate supper there. At night, we watched DVDs on the DVD player in the campervan. Our campervan had a couch that pulled out into a bed, a stove, fridge, and sink.
We left Raglan on 19th Wednesday, and stopped at Bridal Veil Falls, which is just about 45 minutes from Raglan. This was awesome!! We could walk right up to the top of the waterfall (scaryto mom but not to Gillie!) and look down, and then see the waterfall 1/2 way down, and again at the bottom. At the bottom we got a bit wet from the spray (not bad) and saw a couple there with their dog. The dog was named "Tama" which means "boy" in Maori (the local native population/language). Tama went in the water and pulled out huge rocks with his mouth! It was crazy! We then drove on to Waitomo, to see the glowworm caves.
More to follow on this!
We miss everyone, and will be able to post more now that we are back in Tauranga, once we get fully settled in next week. School starts for Gillie on 2nd February.
Gillie standing in front of the bridge from the holiday park to Raglan. The little crabs all walk along the edge of the inlet. This waterway leads to the Tasman Sea.
Talk to you all soon...please comment and email us, we love hearing from everyone!
Tracy and Gillie
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