A Request from New Zealand

Right-o and hello all faithful blog followers. Happy Easter. We here in NZ are sitting on the cusp of the 4 day weekend and our trip to Auckland. We plan on leaving on Saturday morning and spending 2 nights in the 'the big smoke' - apparently every country has to have a 'big smoke'. So I'm quite sure that next week we will be posting pics and stories about our time in the city.

But that's not what this blog is about. No, this blog will be doing something that makes Don and I squirm, but regardless, must be done. I have to ask for sponsorship from you all - friends, family, acquaintances. If you know us, you may realize that Don and I loathe asking for money from people (the exception would be my parents whom I fleeced quite regularly and still do) but I have committed this family to a course of action and simply cannot back out.

So, here is the story. In my desire to have adventures galore here in the NZ, I resolved to accept every opportunity that comes our way. Well, one of those opportunities was to participate in a 5 km fundraising walk. Hmmm, sounds a bit tame does it not?? And I would agree, if not for the fact that I signed up the whole fan-damily. Yep, Connor and Aidan and Don will be lacing up their shoes (or putting on some jandals knowing this country) and will be walking along with me. Not a problem for Don - Mr. Sea kayaking-biking-boogie bording-body builder. No, the issue will be dragging along the 2 wee lads who can't walk 20 consecutive steps without whining about how tired they are and how their legs/feet/backs hurt. If there isn't a beach or an amusement park involved, they have no enthusiasm for walking.

But it's all part of the adventure of NZ. This family is going to walk 5 kms in Roturua at the beginning of May and love it. Right, maybe not love it, but certainly avoid screaming at each other in public. That's a good goal for us. So, of course, we have to raise funds for the charity of choice this year - which happens to involve the prevention of hearing loss in youth. Right up my alley.

So, I implore you, you who are reading this right now, please would you click on this link:

http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/McLeodFamily/

and donate even a small amount of money so my children can see the point of the walk - the raising of funds.

If you have ever had a laugh while reading the blog, or ever 'ohhhh'ed over a picture, or derived any enjoyment at all from hearing about our adventures, please do us the favour of sponsoring us for a few dollars??!!

And if you don't want to send money via a credit card but would like to stuff a check in the mail or take loonies to a card, we'll take those too!! Just send it to 284 Grange Rd, Tauranga NZ 3110.

Many many thanks to you all. And just think of the great blog that will be posted after that particular event!! Many the Easter Bunney find you all.

love V and D

A brief update

Knowing that some of you are addicted to the McLeod family adventures, I feel a certain obligation to update you, even though we really haven't done much in the way of really exciting stuff lately. This past weekend we went down the coast line, about 90 minutes south, to a little beach community called Ohope. One of the other audiologists that I work with owns a condo in a lovely development that is across the street from the ocean. Not knowing our boys too well, she invited us to use her unit for the weekend. The condo was utterly lovely - even had art on the walls and matching furniture. It definitely felt luxurious compared to my daily surroundings. I kept the boys on a very short leash - no climbing on these walls, no crashing into the furniture!

The days were very warm, still lovely here although the evenings are getting cooler and some mornings have been a touch chilly! But the daytime temps still reach about 23 degrees on average. There was a pool just outside our door that the boys were in at least twice a day. Swimming daily at school has made them more comfortable in the water. We discovered that the community of Ohope has quite the community of sand flies that enjoyed nibbling on all exposed flesh. It's the first time we have run into any buggy problems here in NZ. So it's obviously not nirvana, as I don't imagine bugs are allowed in paradise.

Ohope is a funky little town with a great little art gallery that we wandered around in. There was a sculpture garden that had amazing creations. We all got a kick out of the dragon especially. When not swimming or eating, we generally wandered around on the beach. Lots of frolicking in the waves! Our most challenging walk involved walking up and then down approximately 150 steps to get over to another harbour where a bottle nose dolphin hangs out. He wasn't in residence that day (he'd been there the day before though - shoot!) but the beach there was really nifty as it didn't have the usual fine white sand, but instead the beach was made up of pulverized shells - they weren't sharp at all and looked very cool.

Connor went off to an adventure camp with the rest of his year 5/6 class on Monday. This was a 'big hairy deal' to Connor as he is not too keen on leaving his home on overnight forays, especially with strangers. We spent the entire week before pumping him up and getting him mentally psyched up. Neither Don or I were entirely sure that he would get in the van and make the trip. But, low and behold, off he went for his 2 nights and 3 days of camping fun. The camp itself was apparently awesome. There was a pool, a hot tub, as well as a flying fox wire and rock climbing and abseiling. Connor tried it all. Even better, he had to eat food that he would never touch at home (noodles, natchos with cheese).

Next week is parent teacher interviews for the kids. To sign up for the interviews we logged onto a website, added the names of our kids teachers', and were able to see the remaining time slots and pick the ones that suited us. All very high tech and easy to use. April 1st is the end of the first school term. NZ does year round schooling, so now the kids have 2 wks off before heading back for term 2. The excitement for the boys in term 2 is that hats are no longer compulsory and there is no more swimming everyday. The excitement for the parents is that kiwitag is over so we get to reclaim our Monday nights! Don is not too thrilled to have the boys home for 2 weeks, it feels like he just got them back to school, but if the weather holds I'm sure they'll spend lots of time at the ocean.

So, that would be the update for now. I told you it wasn't anything too earthshaking. Hopefully you enjoyed some of the pictures at the very least!

My tummy doesn't feel well...

..is really becoming a mantra here in New Zealand, windy roads that traverse the hilly coastline tend to bring this mantra out in both our kids now. It seems that the prairie stomach was not designed for sloshing about in the backseat. The haripin turns barely wide enough for a car, let alone a camper tend to bring the quesy out in me as well. The locals fly around these corners at speeds that tend to defy physics. I don't know how they keep their cars, and their lunch, both where they belong. We average about 1 stop every half hour during the worst of the serpentine sections, to quell the rising contents of small tummies. It is a lot easier to pull off the road and get out to walk around a bit, than to clean the inside of the car with a box of tissues. (mental note, perhaps we should stock some cleaning supplies on the car!)

Well enough about that, on to the reason for the queasy stomachs.

This weekend we headed up through the Coromandel forest park to Whitianga. It was about a 2.5 h drive, so we decided to book a cabin for the night because we had been forewarned about the road. Our trip began at about 8:30 Saturday morning, with the first stop being "hot water beach". There is a lava chamber below the beach which is cooling, but still has enough heat to create some very hot ground water. I was standing knee deep in the ocean on a hot spot, which you could tell because even though the water was cool your feet on the sand felt warm. If you dig down a couple of inches you hit some very hot water which caused me to pull my foot out very quickly! The water is way too hot to remain in. The beach was amass with bodies jostling for the best location to dig a hole in the sand and tap into the hot water. The water was then funneled down a series of trenches to mix with the cooler water making it reasonable enough to sit in like a hot tub. There are only 2 locations on the beach that you can tap into the stream of heated ground water, thus this very long beach is empty save for the 2 very crowded spots. We got there at about 11am, so I guess you have to get there pretty early to get the good spots. We managed to tack ourselves onto the end of one of the trenches and the people were nice enough to break the wall on their pool to let some of the hot water into ours. Then we left at about 12:45 for some lunch at a nice cafe recommended by the guide book. From here we headed off to Whitianga about 35 minutes from hot water beach, to check into our cabin. In the "holiday park", There was a playground for the kids with a trampoline, as well as a swimming pool which the kids enjoyed as well. After supper we took a walk down to the marina.

The next morning we got up at 7am to get breakfast made, clean the cabin and be on the road for the trip back to Hahei, which is where the sea kayaking tour was meeting. OMG what a great time this was!! Three hours + of paddling in the ocean with great kayaks equipped with rudders for steering. We paddled along the shore to a marine reserve that encompasses "Cathedral Cove". the shoreline here is composed of ignimbrite produced by volcanic explosions 8 million years ago. The erosion of this rock produces first peninsulas, then caves, then arches, then finally when the arches collapse you are left with isolated stacks.

This location was used in the second Narnia movie.






























Our guide Mike was a great fountain of knowledge and filled the entire tour with information about the area. He grew up in the area not far from Cathedral Cove. He also gave us a great place for lunch, the Purangi Estate winery. It was a lovely rustic little establishment with a great outdoor patio area, and a ping pong table inside that we played on for a time.

Well that was a good trip, even with the queasy stomachs. The kids really enjoyed the kayaking, just not the car ride to and from the area. With all of the traveling we are going to be doing we can hope that the prairie stomachs will toughen up over time.

That's all for now, take care everyone.

Kiwi kids are tough!

I say, the kids here are tough. I've seen the tiniest of girls mowed down by a boy twice her size during "flag" rugby, but she bounced up triumphantly with the flag in her hand. This happens several times a game, without a noise, fuss or tears. I think i have figured out why, at any opportunity, the kids play "rough and tumble" games. This involves just messing about trying to tackle each other, sometimes from behind without the kid knowing! I've seen this happen on the sidewalk, the kid taken by surprise had bleeding knees but the kid who knocked him down said "oh sorry, you alright?" and helped the kid up and away they went.

This activity takes place on the school yard, during "supervised" breaks and all! They would never let that slide in Canada! On the other hand you hardly see a kid hurt, or upset, or running to get the teacher because someone did something to them. They learn to stand up for themselves and "suck it up" Which I am finding is rubbing off on my boys. Both of them have been going to school for the last week and a half without shoes. We walk along the driveway, down the back alley across the road in into the school yard. Aidan has stubbed his toe several times to the point of bleeding but he continues on with the barefoot experiment. Connor cut the bottom of his foot on the pavement yesterday and has gotten his socks and shoes back on, but i am sure when he is able they will come off.

The other big change is Connor's fear of insects. Some of you will know that he had a deadly fear of all flying insects, to the point of hysteria some times. Well the number of flying insects here has forced him to accept them for what they are and realize that his fears were largely unwarranted. He can now walk outside amongst the insects with impunity, and even he realizes how much better it is to be free of the shackles of irrational fears. Growth on an emotional level, just one of the benefits we hoped would result from our adventures.

Indeed Danielle they will return men!

Our neighbours Chris and Jaqui had extra tickets for a benefit concert in town. One of the local radio stations had sponsored a tour of New Zealand called the "Winery Tour 2010". It was a lovely day and if you know who Tim Finn is, he was one of the main performers. The crowd at the front of the stage grew steadily throughout the evening, as more people were moved by the music (pun intended). I saw young and old singing along to the tunes that were largely new to me, though there were a couple of tunes we sung the chorus to.

That was the extent of our weekend activities, other than having the neighbours over for another impromptu dinner on Saturday...seems to happen every weekend. We were thinking of taking it a little slower so as not to burn out too early...need to recharge before heading out on another adventure.

I have created a calendar application on the web for anyone that wants to book a visit. Once on the site you can enter your travel plans and see the times that are already booked, on the table at the bottom. You are by no means excluded from visiting at the same time but accommodations may be a little crowded. Click Here

We did enjoy the Hockey game and the closing ceremony on Monday....(yes were live in the future.) I made me very proud to be Canadian.
















And finally Vic wanted this to go up for Sharon....