Yep, definitely still here!

Some of you might have been getting a little twitchy, not having had a blog update in awhile. So, I'm here to lay your fears to rest. The New Zealand McLeods are most definitely still hanging about, learning fascinating things about our adopted land and spreading Canadian'ness to unsuspecting Kiwis.

For example, on Friday we hosted our always willing neighbours at a Canada Day BBQ celebration. We had ripple chips and onion dip, BBQ hamburgers, potato salad and butter tarts for dessert. Now Kiwis do have onion dip, but they don't make it with sour cream, they make it with this canned stuff called reduced cream which makes it more liquidy. So we made it the traditional way. And on a burger here in NZ you would not get pickles or American mustard - so we made sure we supplied that on our burgers. And butter tarts are unheard of here. And people were very kind to the boys, making sure they remembered the birthday of their home and native land. My mom sent the boys stickers, Auntie Sharon sent along some coffee crisps and a book about Canada. And another transplanted Canadian here in NZ tracked down some very rare peanut butter cups and some kick ass Canada tattoos. So we really did have a delightful Canada Day.

There was one little hiccup. The fireworks that the lovely neighbours provided provided a nice festive wrap up to the night but Connor, in his enthusiasm to light a sparkler, burnt his thumb rather nastily. Really large blister right over his knuckle. It was really painful and I thought I'd just run out and get him some topical anesthesia to ease his pain. So I set out at 10:30 at night for a pharmacy (or a chemists as they are called here). I drove here, there, really everywhere - no luck at finding an open chemist. So in desperation and annoyance I drove to the hospital emergency department and asked where the closest all night chemist was and was told that there isn't one. Not even a place open till midnight!! What the wha??? So in Tauranga, between the hours of 8 pm and 8 am, the hospital ER is the only game in town. And this is a city of 140 000 people. So rather than give my kid topical anesthesia, I made the ultimate sacrifice and let him crawl into bed with me for the night. I can count on one hand the number of nights I have allowed a child to sleep with me the whole night so believe it or not that offer did the trick, made Connor feel instantly better. I merely spent the night with his elbow in my face and and listening to his unbelievable teeth grinding. That kid will be lucky to have molars when he hits his teens.

For Father's Day I arranged to take Don and the kids out to a very nifty little establishment called 'Hand Powered'. It's run by a lovely older gentleman who is crazy (and very knowledgeable) about all weapons of a more ancient manner. So he owns a little piece of heaven outside of Tauranga where you can go out and spend time with him and all his different weapons. He shows you how to use them and then lets you 'go to town' so to speak. We spent more than 3 hours traipsing around firing bows and arrows, using blow guns, slingshots, spear chuckers and even double headed throwing axes. And yes the boys used all those things, more or less successfully. Definitely a boys' paradise.

I had the opportunity to fly from Tauranga to Auckland recently, giving me my first chance to experience domestic air travel in NZ. What a different experience from air travel in Canada. No security scans, no id checks. I literally walked into the airport with my carry on bag and my ticket, walked up to the gate, walked thru and onto the plane. They could gave cared less if I'd had a bottle of water, never mind if I actually WAS the booked passenger on the plane. So utterly bizarre. Same thing in the Auckland airport coming back. Crazy eh? And in the Auckland airport I discovered a Dunkin Donuts. Now that is something you literally never see in NZ, a donut shop. So for the very princely sum of $11 I brought home 25 donut holes (it would have cost the same for 6 donuts). The kids thought I was a hero.

Kids are on their 2 week term break. Don is a genius at sitting at home with them, letting them bliss out on video games and computer time. In an attempt to get them some fresh air he took them to the beach the other day when it was windy to watch the surfers battle the waves. While there he snapped a few shots of the beach which I'm sharing with you. There are really no major plans for these kids on their break. I did take pity on them and let them each sign up for a one day adventure camp next week. Connor has chosen to go on a helicopter ride and Aidan's making chocolate. Slightly different personalities eh?

And of course the countdown to Samoa is on. A mere 3 weeks till we are off on our next major adventure. Till then we are just trying to keep warm and dry :) Much love to all our friends and family who are hopefully finding ways to enjoy your summers!