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!