Kids to New Plymouth

Laura offered to give me a break from kid duty one day in May. I took her up on it and she and the kiddos went to New Plymouth for shopping, the park and kicking around town.

Jack at the Warehouse (NZ version of KMart)

Playing worms amongst the pears

Rolling down the TSB Bowl

Kunekunes are one of our favorites

They visited the little zoo in the park and went to the beach near the Wind Wand. The beach by the Wind Wand is imposing at high tide but pretty tame otherwise.

Meerkat cage

Tree climbing is a favorite activity

Steven overlooking the beach in New Plymouth

What's up with this 'wind wand'?

Headed down for a romp on the beach

Camp!

The big event for the kids during the second school term was their trip to camp. Camp is held each year at Vertical Horizons near Inglewood. It was a great experience for the kids to get out of the house for a few nights.

Sending the kids off to camp

My task was to visit camp a couple days during the week and lend a hand as a volunteer. The outdoor activities started with a large group game after breakfast followed by morning tea. Next, the kids broke into groups for morning activities. The many stations included kayaks, rope swing, grass carts, swimming, the zip line and raft building. The kids rotated through all the stations during their stay.

A morning game of chase

One of these kids isn't a native Kiwi

Happy days in the cabin

Waiting on lunch

Teacher cabins

Morning activities lasted for ninety minutes and were followed by lunch. The kids stayed with their group after lunch and then rotated through additional stations. The next opportunity for nourishment came in the form of afternoon tea and pre-dinner free time rounded out the daylight hours. During the evening, they watched movies and chased each other around the camp with 'torches'.

Lake and the rope bridge

Jack hiking up to the top of the zip line

One of the high obstacles

Laura and I had pleasant evenings at home watching movies and generally not missing the evening get-kids-ready-for-bed shuffle.

Noodle hockey in the hall

Steven ready to Kayak at school camp "Vertical horizons"

Steven paddling the red kayak

The chow hall

Steven on the super swing

First Snow

We saw the first snow of the season on Mt Tranaki on the 1st of May after a weekend storm.

View of Mt Taranake from Ngati Ruanui clinic

Another day in Welly

On Sunday we went to services near Westpac stadium and met some nice folks. Later, we walked around town a bit and then headed over to the Anglican church to see a WWI sketch exhibit. The Anglican church is very beautiful and has great acoustics.

Water sculpture on Cuba street

The Welly Anglican church

Jack outside the Beehive

Jack reliving his childhood

Up close with the giraffe

Looking across the city from the zoo

We hit the Welly zoo in the afternoon. The zoo was small, but we all enjoyed it. We had skipped lunch on Sunday and by dinner we were really hungry.  The kids ate Subways and Laura and I ate at Aunty Mena's, a nice vegan place.  We hustled out of town Monday morning to make Steven's double header basketball game.

Steven trying on chem gear

Post-game huddle

ANZAC Day

Saturday morning, the 25th of April, we went to town to join the sunrise march to the war memorial for ANZAC day. The service and wreath laying got me thinking about the parents of the guys that died. It was easy to picture them on the streets of Hawera back in the 1920s, remembering the sons they had buried a decade ago.

ANZAC service at the Hawera War Memorial

Once the sun came up, the service ended and we hopped in the car and drove to Wellington to see the sights. Our first visit to Welly was back in November for Laura to teach ALSO and she didn't see much of the city. We stopped by the US Marine Memorial near Paekakariki. The Marines used the area off and on during WWII as a staging and training point for the Pacific war.

US Marine Memorial

More of the memorial

Once we pulled into Welly, we drove to the war memorial downtown. The services there had just finished and we walked through the memorial for some photos. Behind the memorial is the old Dominion Museum. Peter Jackson and Weta have taken over the building and installed a very nice ANZAC exhibit featuring period uniforms, weapons and photos. Peter Jackson's museum efforts are something to see. He punctuates focal points in the display with large dioramas to illustrate the action. The display will be in place for four years.

Wellington War Memorial

Inside the memorial

Waiting for the ANZAC display in old Dominion

Parts of the display are like a movie set

Guns,

miniatures,

and full-size dioramas

Weta colorized old war photos

Courtyard of the memorial

One of our great discoveries in Wellington has been the Roxy Cinema in Miramar. The theatre is the closest to Weta Workshop and Peter Jackson put $10 million into a complete remodel. It is simply fantastic. This is no mega-movie-plex. There are only two screens but the interior is straight out of the 20s with a cafe downstairs and a bar upstairs. The screening rooms are large with comfortable leather seating and a curtain covers the screen.  If you get to New Zealand, don't miss the Roxy.

The view from the motel

Upstairs at the Roxy

Waiting for Avengers 3D to start

Nighttime at the Roxy