Gillie's Blog: Update, week 4 & 5 of school

Hi again.

I was a few minutes late picking Gillie up after school today.

There was road work on Welcome Bay Road.

Yep, really! I had to wait for the cows to come home ;o)

Last week we had the Raft Day, all the school participated, on Tuesday the 22nd of January.
You saw the blog on that already! The earthquake in Christchurch happened at 12:51pm that day. They are still of course talking about the earthquake daily. There have been about 150 confirmed deaths so far, with more expected as they continue to clear the rubble. There is talk about how to pay for the earthquake clean up and to rebuild Christchurch. Ideas on the table include stopping the no interest student loans (charging interest instead), or stopping the Working for Families payments, which are tax credits based on how much you make and how many children you have. Of course there is a lot of political discussion back and forth, but New Zealanders seem very determined to see this city and the residents of the area get back on their feet.

Gillie had her second Young Mariners meeting last Thursday the 24th. It was another nice evening in the Tauranga harbor.

***************

Here is a note from Gillie!

Hi--i got to steer the boat and learned how to put up the sails. I got to find starfish and put them in my hand and let them suction cup onto my hand. I will be competing in a duathalon with my friend Shelby from class. This will be on March 18th. I will run 750 meters, she will bike 2.5 kilometers, then I will run 1.5 kilometers. Bye and I miss you all!

*************

Ok, back to mom...Gillie is doing homework.

Friday the 25th the Flaming Bonkers (our volleyball team) played their second 35 minute volleyball game against another Tauranga Intermediate team. This team seemed to be made up of tall 8th graders...every kid was taller than our players!   They also could mostly all serve overhand, and were much better at handling the ball.   We tried, but had problems this game getting our serves over.   We lost 70 to 41. Wish us better luck this Friday!   However, after yesterday's dismal practice (lots of chatting, not much listening), I am not sure!

Saturday the 26th, Gillie and I went hiking up the Papamoa Hills. I had done this once before, and I really enjoyed it. The view from the top is pretty cool. We can see our house, where we shop, and the Mount from up here, along with almost all of Tauranga. These hills are not as high as the Mount, but are still nice!   Gillie stated that she did not like this hike as much as the one to the top of the Mount. She was still glad we did this together.

Here are some pictures:

The Mount and Tauranga in the background.

Gillie's school is just off to the left over the hills.

Gillie pointing to where we do our shopping, in Papamoa!

We live just where the houses end and the line of trees start

along the edge of the beach/ocean.

Saturday night, Gillie stayed over at Abigail's house and Sunday she then went to her friend Delila's house. Gillie was a lucky girl, she got to sleep over Sunday night -- on a school night!
This allowed me to go to the Barkes Corner Vet Clinic early on Monday (7:45am) to see 2 more stem cell cases. I will post some video after I see the dogs in 2 weeks for their recheck. I like hanging out with these 2 vets.

Tuesday (yesterday) I had a great run on the beach in the morning. It is not too hard to go out and run when you can run barefoot on the beach! We had the lackadasical volleyball practice after school, and then Gillie and I went to the beach for a workout. We did wind sprints, chasing each other, and Tracy is sad to concede that yes, Gillie is now faster than me. :o( (I think I knew that for a while, but now I have proof). However, if there is anywhere I wanted her to beat me in a sprint I guess on a South Pacific Ocean beach is a good a place as any!

Today, we did a tourist-ey thing and drove to Te Puke (tay pookie) which is only about 15 minutes from our house. Te Puke claims it is the Kiwi Fruit Capital of the World!

We rode on a large golf cart tour bus, with about 10 other people, touring around the kiwi fruit vines and other fruit trees, while we heard about the great health values of the kiwi fruit! Of course they claim that kiwi fruit is the most healthy fruit.   I did not realize that kiwi fruit can be stored refrigerated at just above freezing, for up to 8 months! Also, only the "best" kiwi fruit (no blemishes, and have to be the right size and shape) are sent to the 52 countries that import them. In fact, only the 'rejects of the rejects' are sold in NZ! The 'first rejects' are sent to Australia.   Rejects only mean that they have a blemish on their skin, or are shaped wrong, or are too small in size.   However, our guide told us that there are so many kiwi fruit that they actually can give away many tons to farmers who come and get them for free, to be used as
animal food!

We had fun here, spent about 1 1/2 hours exploring. They had an old section for kids that is in need of upgrading.   Looks like the slides and the maze are about 30 years old, but Gillie had fun here of course.