The voyage home

On the Monday morning at parachute, we all went to the mainstage to see the final acts. Abigail and I navigated our way to the front of the mosh pit area, and I had my first experience moshing. Quite fun, but quite embarrassing at the same time. Finally, at about 1pm, the last act had acted, and the last song had been sung, and we headed off to the caravan. Our plan was to stop for the night just south of Taupo. Little did I know that less than 24 hours after moshing in the mosh pit, we would be back in Christchurch.

It was 2:30pm by the time we were ready to leave the festival grounds, and somewhere south of Taupo we decided to just head straight to Wellington and try to catch the ferry early Tuesday morning (we were booked on the Tuesday evening ferry). The bottles of liquid stimulant procured (I had to bark like a seal for one) from one of the festival sponsors were certainly helping me concentrate on the road. After a quick stop in Turangi for fish and chips, it started raining more heavily, and we passed the sign warning of high wind gusts on the desert road. Yay. We decided to press on cautiously regardless, and found that driving a bit slower than normal was sufficient to counteract the gusting wind. Somewhere near Ruapehu (we couldn't see it, because of the cloud and rain), a small gap opened up in the clouds causing a beautifully intense rainbow to form. At least, that was what I inferred from all the Oohs and Aahs from the passengers. I was concentrating on keeping the car and caravan on the road. The winds died down by the time we approached the Kapiti Coast, and by the last half hour or so towards Wellington, the liquid stimulant effects were starting to wear off.

The rainbow out the window of the car as we drove along the desert road.

We parked at the Interislander ferry terminal around midnight, but there was no-one around to help us change our unpaid booking to the 2:25am ferry. We lined up the car anyway, and put the kids to sleep in the caravan and waited for the gates to open at 1am. Carolyn and I were just drifting off to sleep when the car in front of us moved forward. The check-in guy was bored and had come down early to check us all (about 5 cars) in. Fortunately we were able to change the booking and lined up to wait for the ferry, with the children still sleeping (supposedly!) in the caravan. After chatting to the guy lined up in front of us for a while, Carolyn and I retired to the car and drifted off to sleep. We were suddenly awoken by a ferry worker tapping on our window asking us if we wanted to go on board. The car in front had gone up the ramp and was already entering the ferry and in my confused half-awake state I couldn't even work out which direction I was supposed to drive in. There was no time to get the kids out of the caravan, so we drove up into the ferry and parked with them still inside. It turns out that they had actually quite enjoyed the short bumpy ride. The ferry crossing was fortunately calm. Calm enough for me to lie on the hard floor and sleep most of the way, rocked to sleep by the gentle swaying of the ship. Abigail and James also slept well, but Esther and Carolyn didn't get much sleep at all.

After another ingestion of liquid stimulant, we drove to Blenheim for refueling the car. Since Cambridge near Hamilton, we'd traveled 522km with 81.5 litres of diesel - about 6.4km per litre. The sun started to rise as we travelled south of Blenheim, and we stopped at Ohau Bay north of Kaikoura at 7:30am for breakfast. Carolyn was desperate for sleep, so the kids and I walked up to see the waterfall, then along the beach to see the sunbathing seals and their cute fluffy pups.

Breakfast at Ohau Bay. James is on the right gazing out to sea.

 
It was 9am by the time we got going south again. After a couple of brief stops, we were in Christchurch before noon. Back to Carolyn's mums place, and back to Malachi our cat. Back to people, noise, and busyness.

Abigail relaxing with a book this morning with Malachi enjoying her company.

Driving through the outskirts of Christchurch, I no longer felt like Christchurch is my home. Home is where our caravan is - where we as a family are. That is home for me.

I will most likely continue to update this blog throughout the year, although updates will likely be less frequent.

Cheers, and thanks for reading.
Carl.

Parachute Festival 2011

Carolyn threw the dish brush to where we were washing dishes, but her aim was so bad that she threw it on the roof of the bach. James and I went in for the recovery operation.

 Thursday in Mangakino was spent mostly in packing up and tidying after having spent a couple of weeks in the same spot. It was another beautiful day, so we headed down to the lake again. After the rain earlier in the week, the lake was smelling much fresher, though was still as opaque as ever.

Brian "Head" Welch and band freaking out the religious people with his performance. I actually enjoyed it more than I would have when I was a teenager.

Carolyn drove most of the way to the parachute festival on Firday morning. It was her first big tow of the caravan since her near accident on the day we left christchurch and the road, for the most part, was quite narrow and windy. Fortunately there was very little traffic to stress her out, and she regained a lot of confidence. We arrived at parachute just before noon, along with thousands of others. It's been a crazy time - there are far too many events to be able to get to everything that you want to see. And it's tricky to coordinate the family across the site. We've enjoyed the festival very much here though. Abigail has been to see a number of dancing acts, Carolyn and I mainly stuck to the main stage (there are about 5 different stages scattered around). James has enjoyed the kids programme, and Esther has enjoyed the free WiFi, and visiting different acts. We saw the V rocketman blast off and fly over the crowd. Athough James was a bit close, and got a face and mouthful of dust. I've managed to score some bottles of V for the drive home. I had one last night at 5pm, and was able to stay up until the end of the main stage events at about midnight. That's pretty good for someone who hasn't even seen in a New Year since 2000.

Monday morning now. The festival is winding down. There are a few events this morning on the main stage. We will probably go to those, then pack up and head for Wellington.

Jobs day...

Tuesday was jobs day. The rain of the previous few days had finally passed, replaced with grey skies and the return of the humidity. I did four loads of hand washing, which took up the bulk of the morning, and in the aftenoon we had to empty the waste water in the caravan, which is a reasonable large undertaking, taking over an hour including preparing the caravan for departure, and then setting up again on our return. We were all desperate for a shower, but the clouds were blocking the sun from warming up the solar showers. Not only that, one of the neighbours arrived, meaning our back-yard shower was now not so private. After a bit of work with a tarpaulin and some wood lying around the back yard, we had a proper enclosed shower cubicle. A kettle-load of hot water in a solar shower bag warmed the water up enough for showers and we were all set. James and I went for a quick swim in the lake - there was a cross-shaped floating pontoon for swimmers anchored a short distance offshore. We both swam out to it through the lake-weed, and had balancing competitions. Until I fell off. Then it was time to go back. After dinner I went to an interesting bible study with some local church members - studying the book of Hebrews.

Wednesday is now fine. Time for more washing. The internet is still out in Mangakino. We will be back in Christchurch in a week, all going to plan.

Rain in Mangakino

Friday evening (21st) brought rain, but by Saturday morning the rain had paused leaving a heavy overcast sky. Abigail, James, and I decided to go for a bike ride. We were looking for some fat bamboo that we could cut down and make a raft with. We found a few stands of bamboo around town, but it was all too thin. On our cycle, we also found a couple of miniature horses keeping the grass down at a bach, and a bit further on a group of kittens resting on a chair. The first of the wild blackberries were ripening, so we munched on a few of those, and visited the local BMX bike park on the way home. The rain started up again in the afternoon, so we spent the afternoon reading and playing games. First Carolyn and I battled each other with backgammon. I won four in a row, but Carolyn insisted that we keep playing until she won, so we had a fifth game in which she annihilated me. Then we all played yahtzee (all except Esther, who doesn't like the way we all scream when someone gets a yahtzee). James won decisively, and I lost almost as decisively. We then had the whole family participating in the card game of Emperor and Scum, during which I had the misfortune of spending most of the game at the "Scum" position. (Interesting how, when we win or do well, we ascribe that to our competence and skill, but when we lose or do poorly, we blame bad luck or misfortune or a hundred other excuses. Reminds me of the first chapter of C.S. Lewis's 'Mere Christianity', which I have reread recently). Watching the news in the evening informed us of the numerous weather warnings indicating heavy rain covering much of the North Island...


The rain continued heavily all night, and into the morning. When I woke I was a bit concerned to see the puddle next to the tent. The roll-out awning was collecting the water and it was running off one end in a continuous stream and feeding the growing puddle next to the tent and under the caravan. I donned a raincoat and went to have a look. Behind the shed at the back of the property I found some old discarded spouting. I tied one end of it to the awning, and had the other end angled away from the caravan and tent. Now the water was being directed away from us, and the puddle slowly receded and disappeared over the next couple of hours. The rain continued and was very heavy. Just before we left for church I noticed when I was in the large tent (sleeping quarters for Abigail and James), that the ground beneath the centre of the tent floor was feeling cold and squishy. Somebody (who shall remain nameless) against his better judgement, and aware of the possible consequences, pitched the tent in a small hollow. I cleared the mess on the floor from the middle of the tent and dumped it to the side where the ground was slightly higher, and we headed off to church. The rain continued heavily while we were at church, and about this time the previously dry ground had decided that it had drunk its fill of rain, and couldn't hold any more. On our return, water had pooled in every available hollow. The caravan was sitting in a large puddle, and the centre of the floor of the large tent was floating on a cushion of water! We evacuated the large tent to the caravan, and Esther's small tent was becoming quite damp, so we evacuated that also. In the afternoon we visited Tom and Mavis (from church) for afternoon tea. They have been in Mangakino since the 1950's and we enjoyed talking with them.

Monday morning. The rain has slowed to a drizzle, and even stops sometimes. The puddles have receded somewhat, although the jury is still out regarding whether the children will sleep in the tents tonight. The whole of Mangakino is without internet, and Telecom mobile. My 2-degrees mobile (which uses vodafone) is still operational though. I'll have to post the blog through my phone.

Some photos...

Abigail is holding up the lighthouse at Cape Reinga!

Driving down Te Paki Stream, with Massive Dunes to our right. Need the wipers for the deeper bits!

Time for some lunch at the base of one of the Te Paki sand dunes

Tane Mahuta!

Me giving the Yakas kauri a hug. You're allowed to touch this one.

One of the neighbours cats that adopted us at dargaville. This one likes to crawl under the tent. Crazy animal.

Abigail loves the cats at Dargaville.

New Year's Day at Ponui Island.

Our set up in front of the bach at Mangakino.

More from Mangakino

It's been a while since we did any washing, so on Monday Carolyn and I washed a bunch of stuff by hand. It certainly takes a lot more of your time doing it that way. Fortunately, we have plenty of time. The local library has been regularly used also. We walked there on Monday as a family and when we got there they had large boxes of books that they were cancelling from the library. We don't really have room for anymore books (I think we brought too many away with us as it is), and I only had my backpack with me, but I couldn't resist the lure of free books. I flicked through them all as quickly as I could, and ended up with a banana-box full. I crammed them most of them into my backpack, along with 4 litres of milk from the local supermarket, and attached the remaining larger books and a french stick to the outside, then staggered back with the rest of the family in the sweltering humidity. We swam in the lake again later in the day. It's fun jumping in, but the water quality is not great. The lake has a lot of weed (catches your ankles!), and has very low visibility - about 1m. It smells faintly of fetid swamp - a smell which clings to the body and togs after you are dry. I don't really mind the smell too much, but Carolyn isn't quite so tolerant of such things. We have two solar showers (large black bags filled with water, and with a shower head on one end), so we could all have showers. I hung them up against the back of the bach, and we took turns having a quick shower. The back yard is fairly large, but quite private, and both neighbours aren't at home, however it's still feels a bit unusal having a shower more or less out in the open sunshine.

On Tuesday, I finally received my contract for the first half of the year, so I made sure it was signed and sent back again. We spent the bulk of the day reading - I got most of the way through "The Dilbert Principle", by Scott Adams (one of the free books I found in the library). The weather was closing in on Tuesday evening; the remnants of Cyclone Zelia were coming through. The metservice had issued a heavy rain and heavy wind warning for our area, so Abigail and I lowered the awning in the evening. This meant that it wouldn't be blown away during the night, but also that Abigail and James couldn't get from their tent entrance to the caravan door without getting wet. Esther was a bit further away in her own small tent. The rain came and went throughout the afternoon and evening, but after dark was when it really started to rain and blow. It was quite noisy in the caravan, but in the tents would have been much louder! Abigail and James braved the weather and came in at 1:00 am saying they were scared and it was loud. After a short motivational talk ("yes it's loud and scary, but you'll be safe.") they ran back out to the tent and remained there for the rest of the night. As it happened, the storm was nearly over by then anyway, and Wednesday dawned fine and calm.

Wednesday was mostly more reading, although the children and I went for a bike ride in the morning along the lake. The trail starts out as a beautfully constructed path, but suddenly stops inexplicably at a missing board walk over a swampy section, only to reappear in a less-well used state a bit further round (we had to detaour into the golf course to get to it). It looks like somebody had a good idea but ran out of enthusiasm or money part way through. On our return we detoured to find a geocache guarded by a violent blackberry bush. At least, where I was looking for the geocache was infested with the angry vines, but the geocache itself was actually nearby. We also had a parcel of mail forwarded to us by Noeline (Carolyn's mum), where I was dismayed to find a letter from the police. I had been caught doing 76km/hr in a 70km speed zone! $30, my first speeding ticket ever! When did I do that? Boxing Day? When we were rushing around Auckland trying to find a church. But Carolyn was driving that day!

Thursday dawned fine, and we decided on the spur of the moment (James was reading a book on volcanos and asking heaps of questions) to visit Taupo. First stop was the "Craters of the moon" thermal area, where James and I wandered around looking at steaming holes and boiling mud while Carolyn and the girls hunted down the Taupo library. They returned to pick us up shortly before noon and we raced to the Aratiatia hydro dam. The water is usually fed into the hydro tunnels to a distant turbine building, but four times a day the floodgates are opened and water is allowed to surge down the usually-dry Aratiatia rapids. It's an amazing sight to see a trickle that is hardly visible between boulders become a raging blue-white torrent within a few minutes. It's a sight easily rivalling the more-constant Huka falls. To finish off the day in Taupo, we drove the short distance to the Taupo Spa. A five minute walk to the shore of the Waikato river brought us to where a stream of hot water cascaded of a waterfall and entered the Waikato river. The waterfall was too hot to go underneath but we, along with a large number of others (all tourists, it seemed) found a comfortable middle ground between the heat of the water under the falls, and the cool of the main body of river about 10m away.

Friday morning brought about school work then James and Carolyn baking....yes you can bake in a caravan! Yummy chocolate chip cookies..... afternoon now. (Carolyn's added bit)

The children (and the parents!) have done some school work. Easing back into it now. We are currently in the library. The librarian (who is getting to know us now!) found an old network cable and managed to get me plugged in to the 'net. Yay. Time to read and answer my growing number of emails.

To Mangakino

After New Year's Day, we spent the next 5 days in Auckland taking it easy - reading books, and watching a few DVD's. One day we did some geocaching nearby, and found a couple of geocaches. Another day Carolyn's younger brother (Phillip)came over with his wife (Tina) and child (Temuera). They were visiting NZ from Australia. We had a great time talking and catching up, and then we all went to Maraetai Beach and swam in the sea and jumped off the wharf. We started cleaning and tidying the house on the 5th of January in preparation for leaving on the 7th. On the 6th I was doing some work (preparing for lecturing later this year), when I got a text message from the owner of the house saying that they were coming back that day. And, they were only a half hour away! We all went in to panic mode, and ran around finishing the cleaning of the house and quickly packing the caravan. We were fortunate that we had already done so much. As I pulled the caravan off their lawn and out to the road to turn around and park out the front, I saw them turn in to the road. In all the rush, we only left a bike lock behind. Pretty good considering the rush in which everything was done. We headed out of Auckland in the late afternoon, and found a place to stay just south of Hamilton.

The following day, Friday the 7th of January, saw us (after a slow start) head off to Piopio, just south of Te Kuiti. We were heading there because Trish, the sister of a friend(Lynne), was shifting house from Piopio to near Te Kuiti and needed a hand. She had already organised a trailer (an old horse float) and that evening we filled it up and took a load around to her new house. Saturday saw us spend most of the day helping with the house shifting, and in the evening we took our caravan around and parked it on their lawn. We spent the next few days camped on their lawn, helping with the unpacking and generally having a fairly relaxed time.

We left Te Kuiti on Wednesday 12th of January and drove about an hour west to Mangakino on the shores of Lake Maraetai on the Waikato river. We had the use of the front lawn of a bach in the village of Mangakino. After parking the carvavan, setting up the tent, and getting organised in general, we had a small explore of the general area. We are only a short walk down the road to the lake, and there is a small town centre not far away. We tried to drive to the two hydro dams at the end of the lake, but they are heavily fenced off (and the fences are heavily electrified too!).

After a slow start on Thursday, we walked in to town and explored the few shops. We ended up in the cool of the library where I briefly used the free WiFi to check some emails. It turns out though, that the library doesn't actually have free WiFi, and I was using someone else's! Oops. We were allowed to join the library, and get out a number of books for us all to read. After returning to the caravan and having a late lunch, James and I donned our swimming togs, and wandered down to the lake. There were some kids jumping in off the floating wharf, so we went and joined them. The water was surprisingly warm, so we spent a couple of hours jumping in. We were right next to the boat ramp, so had to keep an eye on boats and trailers coming and going. It was great fun, and finally it was hunger that drove us home, although James would've stayed longer if I'd let him. After dinner we left Esther to read, while the rest of went back down to the lake and James and I again jumped in, although the air was a bit cooler by that time.

On Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, the weather has been hot and humid. We've all cooled off in the lake every day, and generally lived a laid-back existence. Sunday morning we went to a local church - a small bretheren congregation. I think there were 13 people present (including the five of us!), but both Carolyn and I enjoyed it. It was a refreshing change of pace to have a simple service and sing some hymns. The children had their first taste of real wine for communion, which they unanimously decided was inferior to fruit juice. Fortunately Carolyn had brought in a bottle of water (another hot day!) and the children were able to wash the yucky taste out smartly. I quite liked it. I could've taken a bigger sip! I got an email from university saying my contract is ready to sign, so we're going in to the postshop Monday to find out how to get something sent to the postshop for us to collect, and I should get this blog posted then too. Next big trip, I would love to have cheaper mobile internet (why exactly is it so expensive in NZ?), and a laptop with a longer battery life (this one is about 5 years old now).

Esther's update

Spirit's Bay feral/farm horses.

We drove into the campsite and much to our delite on the other side of the river there were two herds of horses we decided to name them. Abby named four, James named three, and Mum and Dad named one each and I named sixteen. The name's were quite interesting Mum named hers Rat-bag (Ratty). Dad named his Coal Dust (Coal), Abby named hers Champagne Bubbles(Bubbles), Cupcake(Cutie) and Sugari D'lite(Sugar). James named his Pretzel(Pretzi), Golden Syrup(Goldy) and Mistletoe(Missy, though it was a boy). My favourite foal I named Hot Shot (Astra) then the rest I'll just tell you the nicknames of, Dream, Hawk, Angel, Saffie, Lass, Victori, Breeze, Aqua, Blade, Flame, Silvy, Shadow, Rose, Galaxy and Dusk. Though they are probably not as creative as I would have liked it is hard to find unique names for 16 horses and foals.

Dargaville.

At Dargaville there were lots of cats the person who owned the land had four, Bridget, Neighbour and I can't remember the others. There was also the next door ginger tom, Puma which we didn't see much of till the last few days and our favourites the farm cats 3 doors down who adopted us. Abby named the three big siblings Mullet, Opal and Princess(also a boy) and james named the smaller dainty one with the coat the colour of a possum, Bean bag(don't know why he just did). So that's what we called them we knew each on site since they all had something different, Mullet a smudge on his nose. Opal looks the same but without a smudge, Princess was more silvery and Bean Bag well he was completely different. Eventually the owner came around asking if we had seen there cats that had disappeared and we said they had been with us the whole time. She told us there real names, Mullet - Fuddley, Opal – Burria, Princess – Stripe, and Bean bag – Possum(Perfect describing name). They stayed at the owner house for the night and morning but were back in the afternoon. During the rest of the time we stayed there the owner had to keep coming back to collect. We also went to the library in Dargaville and got to get book out since we were staying for a week(Note most library don't do this) . I got a 900+ page book out and read it in 5 days which if you added it up would be more of 3-4 days since we were out 1 and a half days once I finished I also read two more books normal 200-400 pagers.

Happy New Year

We continued our long standing tradition of going to sleep on New Year's eve, and not bothering with the fuss of seeing in the new year. Another reason not to stay up too late was the plan for today, New Year's Day. Through friends from Christchurch, we got to ride to Ponui Island for a picnic with a large group of other day-trippers on a barge. Ponui Island is the large Island just south of Waiheke Island, and is pretty much all farmland and native bush. The barge was an aluminium barge powered by two 200 HP motors, and large enough for a couple of large cars. There were about 50 people going over for the day, and we enjoyed a calm passage to the sheltered beach. On the way, James and I had our first experience of 'Barge Jumping': The barge is slowed, with only one motor going. The front is lowered, and a rope is trailed behind. Then you jump off the front, let the barge float past, and then quickly grab hold of the rope and pull your self up at the back. This is a little trickier than it sounds, as the barge is going fast enough that  holding on to the rope with both hands pushes a large wake up an into your face. I was a little apprehensive about how James would handle it. On my second jump, James and I were going to jump in together, but he hesitated, however, just as I pulled myself up off the rope (but still at the water level) another boy jumped in off the front and James jumped in right afterwards. I leaned my hand out and called to James, he swam towards me and I grabbed his arm and pulled him up behind me. Great fun. We had another couple of jumps, although on James's third jump, we only just managed to grab hold with our fingertips. He had to quickly grab the rope instead, but then the rush of the water made it difficult for him to hold on. I leaned back a bit further and he managed to stretch out a hand, and then I pulled him safely on to the back of the barge. Great fun! (There was a small motor-powered dinghy trailing behind the barge to catch any people who were unfortunate enough to miss getting back on the boat, so it was not quite as dangerous as it sounds). The beautiful sheltered bay was classic New Zealand: steep farmland peppered with native trees leading down to a line of old pohutukawa trees guarding a peaceful sandy beach, with rocky points at each end. We chose a large tree and settled under part of it, along with a few other family groups, and spent the next hours swimming, relaxing, and meeting friendly people. There were some sit-on-top kayaks that were available for general use, and our children took full advantage. At lunchtime we were the envy of the cut-lunch masses (especially those down-wind) when I whipped out my portable gas cooker and cooked up the beef patties that Abigail and I had made a few evenings before (we had made so many, that I had frozen half). It was 6pm by the time the barge had arrived to collect a much more tired bunch for the ride back to the mainland. Once we passed the shelter of Ponui Island, the wind-whipped chop of the waves smashed against the front of the barge sending plumes of spray up and then in to us all on the barge. The kids enjoyed it, with James right up the front watching (and experiencing) it to the fullest. It was almost an hour's ride in the barge, and then about 40 mins in the car back to the house. We are all quite tired now, but have had a lovely, enjoyable day.

Restful in Auckland

We had planned on going to church on Boxing Day. We had been told of a couple of churches, and chose the nearest one after me having a look at the website. I was wrong. They didn't have a Boxing Day service. Never mind, I thought. We were early. We chose another church way across the other side of town, but near where we were going later that day. And, their service started at 10:15am, so we had more time to get there. Unfortunately, after wandering around the school where they meet, we concluded that they mustn't be having a boxing day service either! On the way we had passed a sign for a church with a similar name to the one we were looking for, so we back tracked and had a look, thinking that perhaps they had changed premises, but it wasn't the one we were looking for. By this time, it was getting too late to catch a morning service, so we gave up and went to visit the family whose house we were going to look after while they went on holiday. A lovely family, with a large house - certainly a contrast from the caravan (I mean that the house is a contrast from the caravan, not the "lovely family" bit!).

Monday saw us move across town to the house. The first thing we did was empty the caravan contents into the house. There was a pile of washing to be done, and the caravan was, after 6 weeks on the road with 5 people, in need of a good clean and tidy. The next few days merged into one another - I was feeling tired - I felt like I was getting Chronic Fatigue Syndrome back again, so had plenty of rest. Esther wasn't 100% either and got lots of rest. Carolyn soldiered on and did a magnificently thorough job on the inside of the caravan, and of putting up with us sickies. What a wonderfully diligent, capable, and compassionate wife I am blessed with!

By Thursday I was feeling better, and spent a large chunk of time outside with my togs on cleaning the outside of the caravan. Towards evening we all drove to Maraetai beach - we were staying a few minutes from the road to Maraetai Bay and enjoyed the pleasant rural drive. The women stayed in the car, and James and I went straight into the water. It was meal time, so the girls hunted down some fish and chips, while James and I headed for the wharf and I helped James overcome his fear and jump off the wharf into the water. It was about 2m off the water, which is quite a bit when you're 9 and can't swim very well. Once he had done it once, it was hard to stop him! I was jumping in too, as were a number of other people. Lots of fun.

Friday we went to see my nephew and his Mum and partner and had a lovely time talking and catching up. It was just supposed to be for morning tea but we ended up talking until after noon. By the time we got home after a stop at an educational shop it was mid afternoon. Carolyn then went off to the library, and I dozed on the couch reading a book.

Despite having the luxury of a large house to use, for which we are very grateful, both Carolyn and I don't feel like we are missing out on anything important by being in a caravan. If anything, the family feels a bit less cohesive because we have so much more room to spread out. Having said that, being able to have a good, readily accessible hot shower is certainly convenient (for some more than others!)

Hope you all are enjoying the holiday season, and thanks for the comments!

Merry Christmas from the land of Aucks.

We had planned to leave Dargaville on Tuesday, but we still had a bunch of library books to finish and return to the Dargaville library, and also it was very windy, so we had a quiet day. I managed to get half way through Bill Bryson's "A short history of nearly everything". I'm up to page 256 (an easy number for a computer scientist to remember!), so will have to find the book in another library somewhere. It turned out to be a scorcher of a day, so in the late afternoon we all piled into the air-conditioned car and headed off to Kai-Iwi Lakes for a swim. The camp site was starting to fill up with long-term holiday makers from the 3-4 tents that were there on our last visit about a week ago. We had another great swim in the warm shallow waters. Just beyond the shallow shelf, where the water depth increases sharply, was a line of buoys marking the boundary of the swim and boat areas. The line was only anchored at each end, and Esther, Abigail and I swam out to one end, and then 'tight-rope walked' the rope holding the line of buoys - the line would sink under our weight, but allow us to keep our heads above water and our hands would be waving wildly underwater in our attempt to maintain balance. Because of the mostly overcast skies and the later time of day we had decided sunblock wasn't needed. We were wrong. Abigail, Carolyn, and I had got quite burnt. Esther had got out early because she gets cold even faster than I do and had been sitting in the car reading, and James was wearing a rash top, and is now brown enough that he has enough natural protection.

Wednesday then became the day of our departure. Another day of heat and humidity (even the locals were complaining!). We had hoped to get going early, but by the time we got to Dargaville and emptied the caravan waste (we couldn't use the dump station we had used previously, because now the bikes were on the back of the caravan, making us too long. At least it wasn't pouring with rain this time!), filled up the fresh water, and returned the books to the library, it was lunchtime. We drove a little way out of Dargaville and had lunch on the way to the Matakohe Kauri Museum. The museum is a fascinating place, and we could have spent much longer there if the air conditioning wasn't broken, and the children were able to last a bit longer without getting stroppy. By the time we had finished at the museum, we were all hot and bothered. We hadn't decided where to spend the night, and Carolyn said that, wherever it would be, she wanted to be able to go for a swim. After a quick look in the our book we settled on the DOC camp at Uretiti beach. Through the NZMCA, we were able to purchase a season pass for most of the DOC camps, although for some of the more popular camps, Uretiti included, the pass isn't valid from Dec 23 - Feb 1. Fortunately for us, it was Dec 22. We quickly parked the Caravan and headed to the beach for a refreshing swim in the cool of the evening. The cool waters soothed those of us who were sunburnt, and the waves were big enough to be lots of fun without being too scary.

The four bikes are proving to be a bit of a problem. They sit on a bike rack that sits on a towball that is attached to the back of the caravan. The rack needs regular tightening, and the straps that help hold the bike rack to the caravan and stop it jiggling too much get worn through. I've broken about four straps already. Just before the entrance to the Uretiti campsite I had checked the bikes - the strap was still tight, but the bike rack itself was loose. Unfortunatley, this is when I remembered that I had left the Allen key that tightens the bike rack on the back of the caravan, probably at the point of our departure that morning. When we had parked the caravan for the night, not even 10 minutes later, another strap had broken amd fallen off! I took the bikes off and instructed the children to go on a tour of the road we had travelled through the campsite to locate the missing strap and hook, which they found within a few minutes. Even though the children enjoy using the bikes, I'm not sure the children get enough use out of them to warrant the stress they cause. There's always that nagging concern when driving: "I wonder if the bikes are alright on the back of the caravan".

James and I woke early the next morning and saw a rabbit out the window. We chased it for a bit, and then headed down to the beach. There was a very large sand fortress near the high-tide mark which some children had constructed the previous day with the help of a spade. The incoming tide was just lapping at the edges, and James and I played and watched as the sand fortress battled against the inevitability of the ever-closer waves. After quite I while I thought I really should return to the caravan and cook breakfast (I'm the porridge expert). Opening the hatch to get the porridge revealed a mass of scurrying ants. They had come up from where the front of the caravan was resting on the ground. I spent the next good while killing and spraying ants. There was a small army of DOC workers outside sweeping the camp with ant posion - a bit frustrating that they didn't tell us the day before when we arrived that they had an ant problem - then I could have undertaken some pre-emptive ant defense action. It was after lunch when we finally left Uretiti Beach and headed south to Warkworth. On the way we stopped in Wellsford for a quick break, and I found a Firestone tyre shop which happened to have an Allen key that would fit the bike rack (which by that time was becoming uncomfortably loose and wobbly.) The quick break turned into a longer break, with the kids discovering the local library. We ended up having fish and chips before heading for our overnight stop just south of Warkworth.

We packed up smartly on Friday, Christmas Eve, and headed into Auckland. There were a few minor navigational issues once we arrived in Auckland, but we managed to get to the NZMCA park-over property in Henderson. It's a well setup place with a locked gate and small lounge available. I decided where to park, but after I had got out of the car, Carolyn insisted that my choice wasn't very good and perhaps it would be better facing the other direction. She reasoned that facing the other direction would allow us to get out easier. I pointed out that there was only one other bus in the property, and who would come here on Christmas eve anyway. Nevertheless, I relented and turned the caravan around. Carolyn was right. By the end of the day we had another 4 campervans arrive, and her suggestion for caravan placement was much superior to my own. It was a peaceful and (relatively!) stress free Christmas eve. We met some of the other campervanners, and the children played on their bikes in the nearby reserve.

In place of the traditional Christmas-time gifts, we had each member of the family write an encouraging note for each other member of the family. Much of the afternoon was taken up with family members scattered about finishing up their notes for each other.

Christmas day. We chose a church that we had heard of, Life Church, to attend for Chirstmas morning. With the help of google maps on my androd phone, I got us to the wrong end of a very long street (house number 965 instead of 95), but we had allowed plenty of time, and got to see a bit more of Auckland in the process. The church service was short and fun, with a brief message about the good news of Jesus Christ being wrapped up in the 'religion' of church, (in the same way as a gift is wrapped with wrapping paper), and how some people don't get past the wrapping paper to discover the gift. Following church we drove to the summit of Mt. Eden, but it was cold and windy, so we didn't linger. James was very interested in the Volcano crater at the top though, and asked heaps of questions, most of which I was able to answer, though some (Will it blow up again? When will it happen?) were answered somewhat speculatively. After our descent we drove into a very quiet downtown Auckland (ooh look! There's the skytower), and Carolyn (the driver) managed to figure out how to get on the motorway heading towards our caravan despite the help from me (and google maps). After a pancake lunch we sat around the table and shared our encouraging notes to each other. It was a special family time of sharing that we all enjoyed. It was delightful to see what we had all come up with for each other. To pass the rest of the afternoon, we all watched the DVD 'The Fiddler on the Roof'. It is a long movie, but we all sat engrossed for the full 3 hours. Carolyn had bought it (for $2.49 at the red shed) after hearing about it in a book we are reading to the children ('Where Arrows Fly', the sequel to 'Where Lions Roar at Night'). After dinner we went for a pleast cycle and walk in the neighbouring reserve and watch another movie, before bedtime for the children, and updating the blog for me!

I appreciate reading your blog comments, it helps me know there are people reading! Merry Christmas!

Rain

It's been raining. And raining. We've been mostly holed up in the caravan and tent with a pile of library books and some DVDs. Late this morning the rain finally stopped for a while, and a bit of breeze dried out the tent, so we packed it before the next lot of rain arrives. I'm briefly borrowing the internet of the house where we are parked behind, so just a quick update today.

We went to church in Dargaville yesterday, which we all enjoyed. They had a lunch afterwards which we were invited to.

James and I visited the local school pool with the neighbours (they have a key). Even though it is raining a lot, it's still easily warm enough to swim. Today is particularly humid - I'm struggling a bit with the humidity - I think it gives me headaches.

The three houses that are nearby (the only three houses for quite a distance) have about 10 cats between them. Four in particular have 'adopted' us, much to the delight of the kids, though the cats can be a bit annoying in the evening when the children are trying to get to sleep.

We are heading off tomorrow or the next day. Not too sure where we'll end up.

On to Dargaville

About a week ago (Saturday 11th December) we left Spirits Bay and headed South. On the way we stopped at a Kauri shop just north of Kaitaia. It has a spiral staircase up the *inside* of a Kauri log. Really neat. After a bit too long of a stop at Kaikohe, we didn't get to Opononi until evening. Unfortunately, we had quite a bit of trouble locating the place where we were going to stay. The GPS coordinates were incorrect, as were the directions. We ended up on a dodgy narrow dirt track, and had to do a tricky 3-point turn between two blind curves using a steep farm track. After a bit of stress, I finally just typed in the address to google (once we had reception) and it located it fine. It is a pleasant spot overlooking the Hokianga harbour.

On Sunday we were all too tired to do much of anything. The kids tried a bit of fishing in the afternoon after having seen quite a few fish earlier in the day, but only managed to catch two lots of seaweed, the back of Esther's shirt, and a rusty iron bar. There were a couple of small single-room shacks on the land, one of which was occupied by a guy, and his girlfriend (?). They proceeded to argue very loudly together about every hour or two. I wasn't trying to listen, but the argument always seemed to be the same. They didn't stop to sleep either: 11:30pm, 2am, 3am, 5:30am, and I probably missed a few! It was a blessing that the kids managed to sleep through it. There were three other couples staying there, each with a small house bus. They weren't happy about the situation either.

After a lousy sleep on Sunday night, we decided we had to move on, and stopped for lunch at Waipoua Forest. We did the walk to Tane Mahuta, the largest (living) tree in New Zealand, and then a little further along did the walk to the Yakas Kauri (you can touch this monster, but it takes over half an hour to walk there). It was mostly overcast, but a hot, humid day - weather that isn't experienced in Christchurch. We were all grateful that the air-conditioning had been fixed in the car. Late afternoon saw us arrive at our destination - the back paddock of a guy who lives in Aranga (about half an hour's drive north of Dargaville). No phone (or anything else) coverage.

We went to Dargaville on Tuesday, and somehow managed to join the library and get out over a dozen books and a few DVDs (including Toy Story 3 - had just arrived). It looks like we'll be here for a week or so. The afternoon and evening was spent reading and watching DVDs.

On Wednesday we woke up to drizzle. Unfortunately, our extender awning (no sides, just roof) collects water, and it had a couple of large bucketfuls in it. A blessing in disguise though, because we just realised that we had run out of fresh water! We poured it carefully off the awning, and most of it managed to get stored in a bucket and the chilly bin, with the remainder hitting the grass or James. I then lowered the awning a bit so that the rain would run off instead of pool. We thought we would go for a bit of an explore, and drove down the road to Kai Iwi Lakes - three sand-dune lakes. We decided to go for a swim, even though it looked like rain was coming. The lake, which has a wide, shallow shelf, was surprisingly warm and we had a fun time swimming out to the buoys from Pine Beach (which has no pines anymore, they were all recently cut down.) On the way back home we took a diversion down to Mangonui Bluff where the prevailing westerly has twisted the trees into hunchbacked shapes and a small collection of baches huddle together. There was a rather steep 4wd track ("Council Maintenance Ends Here" read the sign) down onto a wild west-coast beach with soft sand and a nearly full tide. The family (one child in particular) were freaking out a bit, so I did a donut and headed back up the steep track only to get stuck in soft sand. Reversed a bit, and then gunned it up the sand and on to the bouncy 4wd track and up onto the normal (council-maintained) road. Great fun. Except the large container in the back that was half full of water had lost about 10 litres and was now about a quarter full.

Thursday. The rain started about 6am and has been going pretty much ever since. I rigged up a wool-yarn drain for the awning and filled up a couple of buckets of fresh water, but our black-water tank needed emptying, so we left the tent pitched where it was, packed up the caravan a bit and headed into Dargaville to empty the waste tanks, and fill the fresh water tank (in the pouring rain). The first dump place wasn't suitable for the length of our vehicle or the waste hose fitting on our vehicle. The second dump place was even less suitable for our vehicle, but a bit of creative manoeuvring (touching the fence with the caravan) saw us (actually 'me') manage to do the job. Caravan living certainly requires a bit more thought - Receptacles you want filled (fresh water, gas bottle, fuel tank, bank balance, fridge) are always getting emptied, and those you want empty (black water, gray water) are always getting filled!

James holding the frog we found at Maitai Bay right near the tents

Spirits Bay campground and beach from the top of the hill

The kitten Abigail found at Spirits Bay

The kids on the staircase that is inside a massive kauri log.

Spirits Bay

We packed up our site on Monday morning. It took us all morning! It is suprising how spread out and settled in we become after staying in one place for nearly two weeks. Finally, shortly after noon we said goodbye to Maitai Bay and headed for a chore-stop in Kaitaia. We had a large load of washing to do, lunch to have, groceries to buy, a gas bottle to fill, insect defence arsenal to stockpile, and black and gray water tanks to empty. Everything went smoothly except dumping the waste from the caravan. The car park where the waste facility is located was being resurfaced, which meant the dump point was slightly higher than the caravan outlet, but not only that, the position and shape of the curb in relation the dump point was such that I was never going to get the caravan close enough without damage. I'm getting pretty good at backing the caravan now, but that dump station was beyond me. We checked on our map where else we could go to dump. There are two camp grounds with waste dumping facilities on the road to Cape Reinga, so we decided to stop at one of those and pay the dumping fee. We stopped at the second, just over 40km north of Kaitaia, but they had a policy of no dumping unless you stayed the night. Everyone up there has septic tanks, apparently, so understandably no one likes to let passers-by dump waste. We were getting somewhat concerned at this point that we would have no where to dump our poo and wee so we turned back down the road for 5 minutes to the first campground hoping that we could make them an offer. Fortunately they were happy to take our waste for $5, and let us fill our freshwater for another $5. By this time it was early evening, and we still had quite a bit of travelling ahead of us. In particular, the road in to Spirits bay is a winding, unsealed, washer-boarded track. I quite like driving on that sort of road, but the rest of the family weren't too keen, and it was the end of the day. Finally, just on sunset at about 8pm, we arrived at the DOC campground at Spirits Bay. To the delight of Esther and Abigail, we chose a site just opposite the river from a field of horses (including three young foals). We quickly pitched the tents and got set up for the evening, and settled in to a good night's sleep.

Tuesday morning dawned clear and warm. James and I wandered off to explore the beach - the white sand curved to the left for a number of miles towards Cape Reinga, visible in the distance. To the right was a small island and bay, ending abruptly in steep bush and grass covered hills. There was a half decomposed body of a whale lying a short ditance away on the beach, much to the interest of James, and in our wandering spotted a few dead penguins washed up also. Little blue penguins, I think. After lunch James and I left the girls to watch a recorded TV program (the Austalian X-Factor final) and headed for the beach. It was a warm sunny day, and the water was warm enough for a good play. First we had climbed the small island, and on our way back down James spotted a stingray in the clear waters right near where we were planning to swim. This didn't deter us as the water was clear enough for excellent visibility, although this is the season for fish eggs to wash up in their multitudes, and the first few meters of water was thick with the transparent jelly-like globules. After a while we tired of going over and under waves and, as the tide was out, instead focussed on civil construction techniques concerning a small stream flowing down through the sand. We dug, channeled, banked, and reinforced without any regard for time until Carolyn and the girls came down with their togs. We had another lovely swim, coaxing them in despite the stingray story and the fish eggs. It was evening by the time we all returned to the caravan. The children have named about a dozen of the horses in the paddock on the other side of the river.

Wednesday started out quietly. I had a long nap late morning, only resurfacing for lunch. In the afternoon the kids and I tackled the steep hill on the other side of the river. We had spotted some horses half way up the hill earlier in the day, but it looked like they had gone. However when we reached the small crest half-way up we saw 7-8 horses calmly munching on the grass and scratching themselves on the cabbage trees and pohutukawa. We continued to the top, and were rewarded with a magnificent view out to Cape Reinga and along the length of Spirits Bay.

Thursday saw us pile into the car and head for Cape Reinga and the lighthouse, then we turned around and drove down the dusty track to Te Paki stream, the northern vehicle entrance to 90 mile beach. We had a great time blasting down through stream, spraying water in all directions, but when we got to the beach the tide was in, so we turned around and splashed our way back up. Even Carolyn had a go at driving. The sand dunes there are monsters, I never knew NZ had dunes like it. I felt as if I was in Saudi Arabia. We couldn't afford the $15 each to hire the boards for sliding down the sand dunes, but had a go using one of our boogie boards (The guy hiring boards calls them 'brake pads'), but they have too much grip. The sand was very hot. Too hot to stand in for very long even for my feet which haven't seen shoes for 4 weeks now. On the return journey we were a little concerned about our fuel level, so at the turnoff to go back to Spirits Bay decided to head south to find the nearest fuel stop. It's a few hundred metres down the road and around a corner! It has to be one of the most expensive petrol stations in the country though. Diesel was 189c per litre compared to about 133c in Kaitaia! I put in enough to make sure we could get to Kaitaia with the caravan. On the plus side they sold huge icecreams.

The kids and I went for a short bike ride on Friday morning, but it was too hot to do much exercise. Carolyn, James, and I went to the beach for a swim in the afternoon, and on our return to the caravan were met by Esther running towards us telling us that Abigail had just found a kitten! It was small, vocal, and looked like it hadn't eaten for quite a while. We had some chicken defrosting in the fridge, a small portion of which the kitten greedily gobbled down. The children were extremely excited to have a cute kitten to play with, but we are in a DOC campsite, and no pets are allowed. Unfortunately, the DOC workers which had been working around the campsite during the week hadn't come back today, and there is no cell-phone coverage nearby. We had to drive 10 minutes to the top of the road to get cell coverage to ring DOC, and even then only Caroyn's phone worked, and not my expensive Android phone (I don't know why it wouldn't work. I could get 2-3 bars, but it wouldn't call or do mobile internet). Fortunately some DOC workers were reasonably close (an hour away) and could come to pick up the kitten. The children were all upset to see it go. Amazing how attached they became to the cute furry animal in just a few hours. We are planning on leaving tomorrow and heading somewhere south of Kaitaia, so hopefully we can post this on the way when we get mobile coverage.


Yes. The McDonalds in Kaikohe has free wifi. So here's the post. The laptop battery is running low though....