The last couple of weeks....

I meant to post earlier, but I guess I've been having too much fun. Actually, I'm getting a little tired of sitting outside of a coffee shop in my car writing by blog. I'm pretty sure every one in the town thinks I'm on a stakeout. But, since coffee shops close at 3 pm every day, I don't have a lot of options except to look like I'm casing the joint.

2 weeks ago, I got to see some of my students perform traditional Maori dances and war challenges called the haka. The pictures below are my students performing the haka. The video link is just something I found on you tube that can give you a better idea of what it is. The New Zealand rugby team, the All-Blacks, does this before each game. It's pretty impressive and intimidating to watch. My students looked great and were very proud of how well they performed.





I enjoyed the local market on Saturday morning. They have all sorts of stuff (junk) for sale, but also lots of locally grown fruits and veggies as well as local artwork and pottery and an old guy singing Sitting on the Dock of the Bay.



Then, on Saturday and Sunday I headed to Kathy's and we took the kids to the beach. It was definitely to cold to go, but we took the kids anyway. We spent the day in the sun bundled up under blankets and towels. The sun was warm but there an Arctic wind coming off the ocean. So, I made a windblock (and an oceanblock) so we could enjoy the beach.



During the week, the weather was great, and I went to the beach a couple of times after work. Got to see a couple of great sunsets, and had fun playing on rocks.




This past weekend, Sarah and I took off to the towns of Napier and Hastings on the east coast. Neither of us had been there before and it was beautiful. The town of Napier is right on the ocean- it would have been ideal except that you can't swim there. You can actaully stand in the shallow water and look just 1-2 feet beyond where you're standing and be looking into the deep ocean.

This is about the only water you can play in.

We woke up early Saturday morning and saw the sun rise over the Pacific - definitely a first for that.


I was very excited about using my camping stove and my new coffee mug.

We spent a good part of the day at the beach. Water was really really really cold, so it was a perfect day for long naps on the beach.

We found some trails around the area and spent the afternoon hiking.

The sign says keep off - I'm not sure why the boards are there and I'm pretty sure noone would want to get on them.


You never who or what you're going to run into when you're hiking. I heard there are 2 sheep for every 1 person in New Zealand - or I might have just made that up, but there are a lot of them here (sheep, not people).


The weather is getting warmer, the daylight lasts longer every day, and I'm trying to spend as much time as possibleoutside. In case you're wondering, I did do some teaching these past couple of weeks.