1st Day of School 2012

It came and it went! I would love to tell you every detail of what happened but let's face it I have boys so I am still trying to get one or two details out of them!

Golden Bay

After camping for two nights we continued onto Golden Bay where we stayed in a home for 4 days! It was great, we were right off the beach. We pretty much spent the whole time at the beach and just went in the house to eat and sleep. It was a great way to relax after a crazy year of moving, starting new schools, new jobs, earthquakes and lots of change. Thankful to God that we were blessed with this time!Logan caught this fish his first night there. He was out every moment possible after that, although this was his only catch! He was proud to provide dinner for the whole family!

Landon was not too sure about the boat! He said it was too small and the ocean was too big. He lasted for about 10 minutes!

Now Levi loved the kayak and would of stayed out for hours. He kept saying go farther. I told him there was just two problems...1: we needed to stay in the safe zone and 2: Mommies arms could only take us so far!

Logan digging for sea creatures! He loves science at the moment and finding things. One thing that was really cool was that there were Jelly fish that don't sting in the water. So they could hold them and learn about them! Very cool! They do know there are some that sting!

Logan and Levi being silly in the water!

Landon playing in the water! He is always a little nervous by the ocean and doesn't always get in so I was so proud that he played heaps in the water! Fun times :)

As you can tell Levi is turning into a character. He loves having fun and making us laugh!

We headed over to Farewell Spit to check it out. I am not sure what I was expecting but this was not it! It was miles and miles of sand bar. We walked it for about an hour and didn't even make it very far! You might not be able to tell by the picture but it was extremely windy here and the sand is very fine so didn't hang out long but the view was cool!

Check out this map to see where Farewell Spit is! You can see it is just a small portion of land that goes out into the sea. Many whales get stuck here when the tide is high and get trapped. There are a lot of volunteers that help try and get the whales back. I (Erin) would love to be trained. I have always wanted to do that!

The house we stayed at was Parapara. This is the top west part of the South Island! About 5 hour drive from our house!

Quinney's Bush Camping

We decided it was time to experience a favorite Kiwi summer activity of camping! Now of course that is also a favorite US activity but I (Erin) have not done much of it and this would be the boys first tent camping experience. Our friends Marc and Lydia joined us and we combined some great American camping traditions with great Kiwi camping traditions and had a great 3 days!

There are some big differences between camping in the US and camping in New Zealand! Here are just a few:

1. There are no predators in NZ so leaving your food outside and not locked up is not a problem!

2. Most camping in NZ is in a big open field not in the woods...so you just find a spot and put the tent up.

3. Some Kiwis spend a whole month camping!

4. There is almost always a kitchen, bathrooms, and a common room at the campsite!Marc and Lydia

Cooking s'mores
Our US tradition with some substitutes!
No graham crackers here so we used malt biscuits.
No Hershey's bar so we used Cadbury.
Interesting fact...marshmallows are not made the same here...but still good

Cooking Damper
Kiwi Tradition...it is a bread cooked on sticks over campfire!
After you cook it you take it off the stick and use the whole made by the
stick to put jam, butter, chocolate or whatever you want in it!
New Favorite!

Water Slide at campground and to the left the wire is the flying fox!

Playing in the river

Those brave enough to get all the way in....really cold!

FISHING

The boys decided to use some of their Christmas money and buy nice fishing poles. So today we headed over to The Groynes and went fishing. All three started out and fished for about 30 minutes. The two little ones decided to go play on the playground while Logan kept going. He got good at casting but still no luck. I (mom) decided it was time to take a break and have some dinner. Logan was not ready to leave so I ran out and got us some BK :) We headed over to the other side of the lake where there was a picnic table. After having a bite to eat all 3 boys got back to work and it became their lucky day. Within 45 minutes they caught 6 fish...yes 6! Two each :) First Landon, then Logan, and then Levi (with a little help from Mom and Dad)! Let's just say we know what we are having for dinner tomorrow! The kids had such a good time and I am sure will be ready to go fishing again real soon!

Picnic

Last week we had a nice hot day so we decided to head out and have a picnic up at Raikaia Gorge!