A Taste of Coromandel

Geography fieldtrip to Muriwai

Early morning at the campsite, as you can see we had been making grilled cheese and even made eggs and bacon for breakfast! I was so proud.

The market in Thames..Laura :)

Our drive along the coast. We stopped a lot for photos.

Cathedral Cove

Photo Gallery of March 6, Hiking Day

 

 

            Kitekite falls in the Waitikere ranges

Piha beach, Lion Rock

Lion Rock, in the background-The Gap

First time putting my feet in the Tasman Sea

WINDY!!

The head of the Lion is facing the Sea, you can see the mane and the body. Pretty awesome.

Kerikeri beach

Sweet as tree roots.

I ended the night with a cat in my bed. I never was a cat person, but Gary is alright. Also notice the Plutarch book on the bed. so studious readin up on my classical studies.

I didn't sign up for this!

Though I had no idea I would be attending Secondary camp when I left for New Zealand, I am SO GLAD I got to go. I got to know the teachers and students in such a deeper way and couldn't have asked for a better welcome into the Hebron community. I led volleyball, chaperoned swim time, went caving with ten amazing students, rock climbed for the first time ever, went to Hamilton gardens and museum, and got to tag team a devotional time with the always enthusiastic, positive, and encouraging Lane Smith. God was able to speak through him, and maybe a little through me, to encourage these students. Go to Lane's blog for some detailed descriptions! newzealane.blogspot.com

I was also able to be "Paula" in the talent show judging panel and played the role of a hunter in our massive game of "animal survivor" which basically means I had to jump in some creeks, get scratched up by bushes, fall in potholes, and kill off some pesky students...finally! Only kidding...it was a fake gun. Needless to say, I came home with some bleeding scars and about a thousand bruises, but it was so worth it. If you're reading this year 9-13s, thanks so much for the awesome camp!

Before....

And after...

Notice I am climbing up Australia...

The fabulous year 13s

They stole my camera :)

Some Kiwi Chutzpa

I woke up last Saturday morning to the traditional duties of a babysitter....except all the kids had been awake for a good hour at least. I'm so responsible. I 'made' brunch, e.g. poured a bag of chips into a bowl and got the sour cream out of the fridge. I did manage to persuade the kids to tidy up before their parents got home from a night away for an article Sarah is writing. It always helps to use a little bit of bribery, or as teachers and psychologists call it, positive reinforcement :)

Theo, his friend John, Willa, Vince and I piled in their posh 'mini' car that was loaned to them for advertisement purposes over the weekend. We headed up north to the beach to meet Nigel with the boat and went for a nice long trip around some bays, stopped for a swim, and I even tried my hand at water skiing. I only attempted 4 or 5 times and almost made it up, but didn't want everyone to have to wait for me, so I'll have to go again before I leave. We headed to one of the aunt's houses for dinner and some cousins took me horseback riding on the gentle and very trained horse named Storm..kind of a disconcerting name. But i made it through without a scratch and got to see a beautiful NZ sunset over the green hills of the farm. I held Oscar in the convertible all the way home and was fortunate enough not to lose him out the window or get pooped on.
Up at 6:30 am on Sunday, so sore I could barely move. Levi drove me downtown so I could catch a bus to where Lane was starting and finishing an 11 K run around the bay. He finished in exactly an hour and did such a fabulous job! He was even energetic enough to walk back to the city rather than taking a bus which took about an hour and 15 minutes. We ate brunch at Denny's next the the Skytower (funny, eh?) and then went up the tower for a look around. It was so awesome to see all the sparkly bays and get a good look at the outlay of Auckland. We also got to experience the super amazing journey of an old woman who was at least in her 70's. Lane and I saw her suiting up downstairs and just thought "there is no way she is jumping." Sure enough, when we reached the top, we got to see her dropped dangling in front of the observation deck and waving to the crowd as she was dropped the rest of the way down. It must have been on her bucket list to do the Sky jump....I still can't even believe I got to see it though. This little old woman had far more courage than I will ever have!

Lane and I took a bus to Onehunga next and had a sleepy walk around the outlet mall. We walked another 20 minutes to the home of the Sellar family, walked to One Tree hill, and WALKED back. My legs were about the fall off! Luckily, Mr. Sellar drove us across the bay the Mt. Victoria where we ate some delicious burgers and head down to a bunker for a folk concert. Yes, you read that right. An old Maori Pa (or defensive point) was placed inside of Mt. Victoria since it is situated at the mouth of the bay. The bunker has been turned into the meeting place for the Auckland folk club, led by a very cute old man who looks very much like garden gnome. No joke. So we got to experience Fiddlore...an amazing celtic style fiddle ensemble that gave me goosebumps, made me laugh, and even had us sing along during the concert. I just felt like I was part of such a family by the end of the night. 

So though I am not as gutsy as that woman who jumped off a very high tower, Vince still complimented my chutzpa for this very active weekend.

Toby in the Mini

Storm and I

the skytower's official name is Scotty! A shout out to my favorite brudder!

I reckon...another weekend in paradise.

One of Theo's favorite sayings is "I reckon....." He so reminds me of a little Southern boy, but strangely always speaks with a Kiwi accent. Another good Kiwi phrase- "Good-on-ya" spoken as one word. I have a feeling other cultures use this one too, but it basically means "good work."

A much welcomed weekend after a busy week. Friday night we headed to Point Chev beach for some relaxation time complete with books, a chip picnic, lemon and barely, and the classic NZ sunset. We watched the movie "Boy," a sort of sad, funny, real snapshot of rural Maori living. Plenty of Michael Jackson references included. Score.

Slept in until 9:30 on Saturday, such a change from 6:30 AM. Read HP7 all morning, laying on chairs outside with Levi, petting Oscar as he hid under my beach chair from the hot sun. Off to another beach, with a pit stop at the park to harass the little children (well, that's what the boys did) and eat some hot chips (aka fries) in the grass. Vince asked me what my reflection on Kiwis was after 2 weeks....I answered: pretty much how I loved how active they are as well as their stereotypically accurate laid-back demeanor. Just watch the Flight of the Concords and you'll be seriously transported here-creepily right-on. Some of the kids took a quick dip in the steaming bay and I got some strange sun-burn lines in about 10 minutes. We came home, I made some Amercian style pancakes (which were apparently "too thick for the Kiwis") and opted to stay home and rent a movie with the boys instead of head to a 50 year old's birthday party. I like meeting people, but since I would be 20 years younger than any of the guest, the boys easily talked me out of going. We watched "Sionnes Wedding," a quirky Polynesian style flick.

AND THEN came Sunday. Vince woke me up at 6:10-"You still coming this morning"..."Uh huh"...."Okay well be ready in 10 minutes." We headed to the "Weet-Bix Try-athalon" that morning. I was in grunt mode almost all morning...until I had my coffee. Weet Bix are the Wheaties of New Zealand and they held a massive kids triathalon event at St Helier's bay. Theo signed up with 2 other boys from Hebron to compete as a team. Being the brave soul I am, I decided to go along with Vince even though the rest of the family stayed home and went to church. The triathalon was PACKED with fit parents, antsy kids, and school groups that managed to pack huge picnic tables and mass amounts of food under a quality looking tent just for a 5 hour event. I drank coffee and read HP7 while the boys signed up and enjoyed the undeniably harmonious atmosphere of the whole morning. Who needs sleep on a beautiful sunny morning when you can live in such a community? Sounds cheesy, but watching the kids hug their parents when they finished just almost made me tear up.

To top the day off, we ventured over to Murawai beach to Sarah's family farm. It seriously looks like the shire-British countryside feel with bits of tropical trees-cows and sheep included. Through a few gates and down some grassy hills, we drove to a quaint little lake and spent the late afternoon cooling off in the water, eating fresh apricots and peaches, and drinking down some orange juice. Sarah gave me a tour and picked some of the water lilies her grandfather planted in the pond so many years ago. It was a classic summer day. Its funny that even though I'm in a foreign country, Sarah's family tales about her grandfather's childhood remind me so much of my second-hand memories of my Papaw in his cotton-pickin days. But before I get all sappy...here are some photos. Hopefully you'll see another post this week. Until then, love you all.

Gettin ready...

Sarah let me borrow her floppy hat, Toby wanted to go for some stereotypical Asian poses

The family farm

It so reminded me of Blenheim in England

So LOTR, right?

What a week!!

Sorry it's been a week since I posted last, but first week teaching is such chaos. I taught about 8 lessons this past week, all with a fair amount of success. I'm loving the amount of material and the vast amount of age groups I get to see and meet on a daily basis. I've taught year 9, 12, and 13 last week and I taught year 10 Social Studies today. I even taught Geography last week, plus I get to teach library classes twice a week from now on-Hooray! I love books.

Anyway, due to the loads of paperwork and my last few full-on MVNU lesson plans, there isn't much weektime adventure to speak of. Lane and I decided to move our date day to Wednesday, only to find out that he had an hour long meeting after school that quickly turned into an hour and a half meeting. So we didn't leave until 5:30. We made it into town, did some window shopping on Queen Street, wandered around and even found a sweet as park called Mt. Albert Park. We made some pretty hilarious videos treking up the city's hills, so I'll have to get Lane to post them. We found this hobit-sized tropical tree forest and found Emily Street ( a shout out to all my favorite Emily's out there). We had dinner at mission bay-Seafood to be exact. Followed my gelato which was served to us by a very friendly Middle-Eastern man. We'll definitely go back. The bay at night was simply stunning and Lane of course opted out of dipping his feet into the water because of his new white shoes-What a girl. Good thing he spilled gelato on them 10 minutes later. I had to laugh.

MMM muscles!

We had our usual Staff Meeting on Thursday and I taught for the first time with my CT on Friday. Nerve racking, but I made it all the way through a lesson on "A Man for all Seasons." Then she told me the exciting news that I could teach the rest of the book unit! I have a feeling I'm a bit of a nerdy teacher, but aren't we supposed to be? I'm getting to know the staff more and more each day and learning students' names slowly but surely. They have all been so welcoming. I'm loving being at school everyday, especially in paradise.

Weekend, At last!

This weekend’s highlights:

-I taught my first lesson on Friday and gave the students some chocolate buckeyes that I brought with me.

-Sleeping in until 9 am on Saturday (Can you believe that Vince actually called me an “early riser” the other day? There’s a first for everything.)

-Getting a driving tour of west Auckland and even being treated to an Oreo ice cream drumstick

-A family/friends cookout, and I even made my first Pavlova-The Kiwi’s favorite dessert. (pictured below)

-Sunday at the beach! We visited Sarah’s parents’ home in Red Beach-a thirty minute drive north, across the Harbor bridge. Her dad, Nigel (from the homeland of England), gave me the house tour and in perfect, grandfather fashion, pulled out the world Atlas and chatted with me about WWII airplanes. Such a sweet man! He also insisted on getting a picture of me with Sarah in her convertible. Oh, the paparazzi. I got my first taste of New Zealand coastal water and got a beautiful tour down the beach. And even got the beginnings of a tan! We ate dinner with Sarah’s sister’s family and I got to ride home in the convertible with the top down. The boys rode in the back and we listened to some sweet mellow sounds of a Caribbean-style local band. I couldn’t help but thinking about how lucky I was to be there, top down, wind in my hair, with the lights of Auckland brightening the late evening sky. What a day. I’m getting better at walking into a room of complete strangers, but the Heeringa’s extended family really make it easy! 

The Rahiri house. My classroom is on the 2nd floor, on the right (bay window).

Pavlova!

Theo and his best friend ever!

Red Beach

Driving home. Levi (left) and Toby (right). It was more fun than they make it look.