Aaah NZ...... April 2017

While we were packing and traversing the great country of Canada, a drama was unfolding at home.  Grandmother (Great Gran) had been feeling ill, and this (with the help of a nasty reaction to antibiotics) had resulted in rapid deterioration and the feeling that this just might be the last battle for her.  After a bunch of to'ing and fro'ing  I booked seats for the four of us to fly back to NZ to spend a bit of time with her and hopefully make some good memories with the kids.  Daunting as this was, I packed the kids up and off we went.

The kids were absolutely awesome on the flights.  Air Canada got us to Vancouver in reasonable time (hurray!) and then it was into the capable hands of Air NZ to get us home.  The first thing they did was upgrade us to two skycouches which was brilliant.  The boys ate dinner, watched a movie and then I insisted they lay their heads down and go to sleep.  Which they did.  For a while anyway.  I woke up a couple of hours later with Amelia kicking at me (never share a skycouch with a 4 yr old) And they were both sitting up blearily staring at their screens!  I told them to put their heads BACK ON THE PILLOWS and not to touch the screens until we were 2-3 hours out.  They were pretty good I think, but didn't get as much sleep as they possibly could have!  I had to wake Amelia for breakfast... She was a bit angry that she didnt get to see all of Frozen (for about the millionth time) but otherwise in good form.

We had a bit of a wait in Auckland so dawdled across to the domestic terminal and sat listening to all the good kiwi people who sounded like Lynn of Tawa...  Hilarious!  We had a chocolate ice cream too, just because that's what you do at 6am when it is hot and you are a bit jetlagged.  We arrived in Whakatane at about 9 after a shakey flight on a shakey little pencil plane!  ugh.  Narnie and Lyle were waiting at the airport for us which was just magic.  It was so good to see them both - especially Lyle who we hadn't seen since we left!   We went back to Narnies' house for a spot of lunch and a walk along the riverbank to shake out the cobwebs.  In to bed early.

The next day we headed for the farm, the start of a routine!  Grandmother was up so we had an extremely good cuddle and a quiet chat before I dragged the kids out to give her a bit of peace.  We went up to the woolshed where they were doing a bit of shearing, and the boys were well pleased that they got to help out! The lovely rousie even showed them how to pick up wool properly so they could fill the wool press as well as push it down!

 Amelia was hungry and cranky....  Grandmother had gone back to bed so we set out and climbed Alex the hill, beat up an few thistles and headed back for lunch!  After lunch we went swimming in the creek... well actually it was more like a paddle given how chilly the water was and how paranoid everyone was about eels! Either way it was bliss!!

We walked up to Lyles' to see the wee polish bantam chicks and on the way back Amelia and Lyle had a bit of a standoff over him not wanting her to climb over the gate, and her wanting to.... was hilarious!!  She did get over it and did forgive him :)

We said a quick goodbye to Grandmother and headed back into town in time for school to finish.  Sarah and Jack were away at school camp, so Bella and Suzannah were staying with Narnie with us.  Amelia immediately set to tormenting Suzannah and Isabella and the boys tied each other to the verandah posts - good cousin time!

We fell into a routine of going out to the farm, spending snippets of time with Grandmother when she was up and felt well enough, going for walks, playing in the garden, swimming, and eating our weight in kahikatea berries!  Lyle got to sit though a show of photos on my phone - Amelia generously explaining each one to him :)    The boys upped the ante in the creek and put the old kayak in to slide down the little waterfall.

Our afternoons were mostly spent in town playing with Narnie, Bella and Suzannah.  Blissful week - the kids mostly slept in the same room, with Bella and Suzannah sneaking a night in with Narnie here and there (never sleep with a 4 yr old!).

Grandmother seemed better at the end of the first week there and after a visit to the Dr, some subtle changes were made to her diet which seemed to reduce the pain she was feeling a lot.  As she recovered slowly we got to spend mroe and more time with her, always trying to preseve that delicate balance between quality time and wearing her out!  Amelia was very attentive - smoochy and cuddly to the point of irritation I think!  She did seem to enjoy having the kids aroundand it was awesome for them to spend time with her too.

Sarah and Jack arrived back in time for the Wilson kids to go to their Dads for the week.  He was pretty generous with his time tho and let them come and play, and come out to the farm for a cookout one night.    We shifted down to Sarahs house for the seond week - having spare beds and all!  Her kids came around after school and they all bounced on the tramp or went over the stopbank and dug holes.

Babcia came up which was lovely.  She came out to the farm with us, had fish and chips down at the heads and stayed at Narnies the night before heading back before the weather broke.

As she left it started raining...  it rained.. and it rained... Cyclone Debbie gathered over the Eastern Bay and gave us all she had!  Luckily that was just a whole bunch of rain, and not winds like it could have been.  The kids got out the boogie boards and 'surfed' on the front lawn :) 

We checked the river before dinner and it was rising, but not incredibly high.  The next morning it was right up to within about a metre of the top of the stopbank.  We watched trees go rushing past in the flow.  It was quite spectacular in a 'gosh I hope it doenst rise any more' kind of way...  We heard later that a stopbank had given out in Edgecumbe and innundated the town.  They had given the evacuation notice 15 mins before it broke...

We called the farm and the good news was theat Grandmother was up and quite perky.  The bad news was that the road was flooded - Burnett Road and the gorge so there was no visiting today.  Everyone else went to work/school so we hung out in the playgrounds and reaquainted ourselves with NZ treats :)  The next day we drove out, but the flooding at Burnett Road was still too deep for our car, so after a bit of wading we headed back into town for more playgrounds and ice cream.

The next day the flood water had receded and we had a lovely visit to the farm.

We headed back to town for a play with the cousins.  The boys headed over the stopbank with Jack and came back asking if they could play in the mud.  I said yes and followed with Amelia not too long after.  She put one foot in and asked to 'get in' so i took her clothes off and in she went.  The mud was at the bottom of the stop bank and was jsut over ankle deep.  I have to say it was FABULOUS.  It was smooth and fine and felt like you were walking though chocolate pudding.  The kids of course were all covered in it.  They mucked around like little piglets, wallowing and stirring.  Amelia drew little pictures in it and even tried to swim a bit!  Eventually it was dinner time and they all washed off in the next (water) puddle over and trooped home. 

 

Amelia washed off, walked back to the mud and before I could stop her lay down....  So she walked home muddy and I had to hose her off in the back yard!

Fish and Chips at the Heads again for Suzannahs birthday, and an Easter Egg hunt in Great Grans garden bought us to our last night, last cookout at the farm and our goodbyes.  It was awesome to see Grandmother so well recovered and I can only hope that we see her in good spirits in 18 months time.  Many tears and hugs later we were on our way again.  Had a good view of poor old Edgecumbe out the window of the plane - a town under water...

We flew to Auckland  where we had a long layover.  I had contacts our friend Stara and her son Casper and they met us at the airport and spent the day hanging out with us.  It was awesome.  I havn't seen Starra for aaaggges and the boys fell back into playing with Casper very quickly.  We wandered around the airport a bit and then walked up to Butterfly Creek to spend the day looking at butterflies, dinosaurs, pigs, goats and ice cream!
We left them reluctantly and headed back to the airport for some dinner at the lounge and we were off again!  No wait.. there is something wrong with the plane.  Please be patient.  We waited on board for nearly two hours before they told us we would have to get off so they could fix the problem.  I lugged Amelia off (asleep) and sat down with her asleep on me.  They gave us chips and water, then meal vouchers.  I recruited one of the hostesses to take the kids and get them some food.  Finally, 5 hours after we were meant to depart.. we left.  Kids worn out!!  They got us a reasonble connection and we were home and in bed again!  Awesome trip - best outcome  and so great to see everyone.

Best Coast West Coast, March - May 2017 (with a wee gap in there...)

The trip across was a bit of a blur.  We were delayed so badly in Halifax (over 12 hours) that we were sure we had missed our connector from Toronto, but it luckily turned out that our flight was boarding as we arrived in and hauling sleepwalking kids we made it on.  Arrived in Victoria in the wee hours feeling very wiped out.  We went straight to our house which was (thank god and the land lord) all made up with milk and bread in the fridge and the beds ready for us.  Dumped the kids into bed and slept until 11 the next morning!

So!  First impressions!  It is very green.  Very mossy.  The view from our deck is great - we can see Mt Baker over in Washington, and down to the Olympic Mountains out to the right.  House much smaller than Halifax (where in the name of all things good am I going to put all our stuff and how am I ever going to manage sleeping in a queen sized bed again?) The trees are tall... so tall!  Straight towering douglas firs and cedars..  Songbirds!!  It's been so long since I've heard birds singing!  Fabulous!  There are also deer everywhere - sort of smaller and scruffier looking than the NS deer but lots of them all the same.

The road we are on is part of a citywide cycling trail - I think it used to be a rail route - so the road is narrow without kerbs and there are about a gazillion bikes go past every day.  The school is about 10 mins walk away, and just beyond it is a little shopping centre with a market, restaurant, gallery and some other little shops.  The beach is 5 mins down the hill.  It is grey sand and pebbles with loads of great big logs lying everywhere.  It looks pretty calm and shallow so could be good for swimming!

We only have a couple of days with Matt so there is a flurry of setting stuff up activity, finding the local supermarket and all that stuff.  The second afternoon we are here we went for a walk on the beach just to stretch our legs.  About half way along my phone rings and it is the school asking if Alex and Owen are going to pop in for a visit before spring break.  I got my dates wrong and thought we had another week to go visit the school but it turns out that they are shutting for the break today so if we want to vcisit we should get down there!  We wandered back along the beach and up to the school where we met the office lady and the principal.  We walked down and met the boys' teachers and had a good look around the school.  After some nerves the boys seemed to settle into their classrooms and even volunteered to stay for the afternoon!  Best result ever!  So away we went and left them in the capable hand of their teachers for the afternoon.  Picked them up later both as happy as sandboys which was awesome and took some pressure off over the spring break!

Matt soon departed and not long after so did we - a dash back to NZ to see Great Gran who wasnt well but thats another story - leaving our Victoria adventure on hold.  We arrived back in Victoria the day before our truck load of goods arrived which was quite good timing!  With about a million boxes to unpack and a house to reorganise I was quite busy for the next little bit.    We slowly got back into some sort of routine.  Walking down to school with the boys turned into riding to school and Amelia started gym, forest school and a dance class at the local church.  We rediscovered all our treasures (and threw a whole bunch more stuff out!) opening all the boxes, and by the time Matt arrived back I had it down to 3-4 boxes for him to empty.

We have done a bit of adventuring - we spent an afternoon wandering around down town watching the float planes out on the harbour and checking out Beacon Hill park and its tallest totem in Canada.  We have picked up sea glass on many beaches, including Glass Beach in Sidney, which kinda takes the fun out of finding it...  I told the kids to only take stuff that they thought was really special, otherwise we would have ended up with buckets of slightly grubby white glass...

We have been to the top of Mt Doug - our local high point and the site of Amelia's Forest school - for a bit of a look around the area, and been for lots of walks on the beach.

One of the highlights so far has been a visit out to Buchart Gardens.  I had heard they were spectacular, but I didn't really appreciate how big they were when we rocked up at about 2pm and ended up being one of the last out the gates!  Floriade in Canberra has nothing on this for the sheer volume of tulips  they have going on in spring!  The whole thing was absolutely gorgeous and the highlights were the sunken garden, the carosel and the Japanese gardens.  The kids loved it and have been asking to go back which is great!

We have ridden about 4 km in each direction along the Lochside bike trail and are looking forward to checking it out further when some of us can ride a bit further without whining too much.....   The afternoon we headed towards town we ended up down on the beach for a bit of a break.  The tide was right out and we soon discovered little indentations in the sand that spurted water at us if we poked them with our toes.  The boys thought this was hilarious and tore around madly digging in the sand trying to get wet.

A passer by informed me that they were sone kind of seacucumber, and someone else said they were clams.  When we got home we googled them and found geoducks...  the bizarreness that is....  Either way they were great fun and I'm sure we will be annoying them again in the future!

So the scene is set - fabulous area and great opportunities!  All we need to do is find some good friends and get out there and enjoy it all!