Kiwi Sabbatical 2018

The Jester House Cafe is a favourite of ours. It is located about a half hour drive from our house, in a very small town called Tasman, which is outside another small town, Motueka. It ranks very highly on tripadvisor's list of things to do in Tasman district. The word to describe the Jester House is 'whimsical' - that perfectly describes the place. One of the first things I noticed at Jester House was the booth with a sign reading "Did you forget your hat? Did you forget your tail?" See, whimsical! But in the forest it is magic. Amazing wood-crafted animals to play on, a treehouse slide, a big concrete tiger: so much creativity and imagination. There was a chicken with chicks on our last trip. Probably, a better overview than these photos is this video (especially the last few seconds). And finally there are the eels. The eels are 'tame' which means they are used to being fed. You buy the eel food (ground-up chicken) for $5 and...

Daycare had a personal development day on Friday January 11 and so we headed out for the long weekend to Okiwi Bay, 83 km northeast of Richmond and a 1.5 hour drive. This is bach country at its prime in the kiwi summer. There was no internet and cellphone reception only out at sea. On the ride out I saw a small goat eating native bush on the side of a mountain. We arrived at the kids' bedtime, but Nico had fallen asleep in the car and when we arrived the kids were super pumped and tearing around the house. Mathieu was thrilled with the pool table. Prior to leaving, we had bought both the boys' little trigger rods and Friday at 11am was Nico's first kiwi fishing trip in the ocean. We took the strollers down the hill to the ocean and stopped at the only shop in Okiwi Bay for ice cream.  Nico went out with Granddad and Shawn in the boat, while Grandma, myself and Matheiu played in a little freshwater stream leading into the ocean. We made a sandcastle, saw a baby eel (eelle...

The kids were a bit concerned that Santa's slay needs snow to land, and they were still holding out hope that it would snow right up to Christmas day. However, in New Zealand Father Christmas (aka Santa) looks like this: no shirt and BBQ-ing (as modeled here by my holiday time beverage of choice). All Christmas trees are white pines or even the pohutukawa , the New Zealand Christmas tree, no fancy spruce or fir down here! It rained on Christmas Day, but no worries because we had plenty of Lego to build. For the 12 days following it's been smoking hot (25-30C). We had Christmas at my parents' house and I decided it would be fun for me to run there through the forest. Shawn drove the kids over in the car and we told them it was a 'race'. It took me 56 minutes to complete the run and I think I probably lost by about 1hr 6 mins (I had to get dressed and lock up after they left). The kids surprised me by jumping out from behind the trees with axes and pitchforks. H...

New Year's Day We headed out to Rabbit Island for most of the day with Grandma (Robyn) and Grandad (Malcom). It is about a 20 min drive from our house. Robyn and Malcolm brought their trailer and set up camp in a nice location not far from forest, toilets, and beach. Our home for New Year's Day at Rabbit Island. The day began with Grandad launching his home made bottle rocket high into the air and the boys chasing after it. It was a good idea to do this before the place got too busy! Then we had a water fight followed by lunch. It was getting pretty warm around lunch time so the beach was on the menu post lunch. The boys had a blast digging, running, rolling in mud and waves. Amy enjoyed a quick dip in the ocean too.   Near the end of our beach adventure! Natureland  A few days later, we decided to check out Natureland , which is a zoo at Tahunanui Beach . We were pleasantly surprised with the diversity of animals and the lovely layout with plenty of play...