Beautiful Bay of Islands

After resting up at home post Christmas 2011, we headed north to the Bay of Islands for the first week of 2012.  Lucia was spending a few days with a friend onboard her family boat, and we joined her for the first night, then planned to head to a camping ground for another five nights.  Again, we were blessed with amazing weather, and didn’t see rain until our last morning in Russell.  I think it may have been the only sunny part of the entire country during that week, so we were delighted.

The Bay of Islands really are quite idyllic, in good weather and on a good boat.  The photo below does show some rather ominous looking clouds, but it was incredibly warm and the clouds didn’t do anything other than look menacing.

Bay of Islands, January 2012

The girls hadn’t been on a boat overnight before and were thrilled by the whole experience.  They went biscuiting, paddle boarding, swimming, had a picnic on a beach, and stayed up late – what more could two little girls ask for? Read more of this post

Taupo and tummy bugs

After Christmas in Bulls we spent a couple of nights in Taupo.  Luckily there was a swimming pool there too, so the girls rapidly turned into prunes each day soaking in the water.  We visited the ducks and swans lakeside, and the girls were delighted to find several of the hot water springs dotted around the lake front.

We visited Huka Falls, which we last visited three years ago, and it was interesting to find that the girls had almost no memory of that visit at all – Madeleine vaguely remembered it, Lucia not at all.

Me and the girls at Huka Falls

And here we are, three years ago. Read more of this post

Christmas 2011

The summer of 2011/12 might go down in history as the wettest in New Zealand, but the weather gods were smiling on Bulls on Christmas Day and Boxing Day (maybe the rest of New Zealand as well but I must confess I never checked the weather report that day), and we were lucky enough to have beautiful sunny weather.

Highgrove, Christmas 2011

In the sweltering heat we managed to unwrap presents, force down several sensational meals and many more snacks, and lie about reading books.   I think I was still purging my body of the last remaining chemotherapy drugs, or maybe it was the unexpected heat (at least thats the excuse I’m going to use) because I was about as lively as a porpoise taking a nap on a beach.  I shifted from couch to armchair to deckchair to bed, and then re-started the cycle from the top.  Needless to say all the grandchildren were very well spoiled, and as you can see the Christmas tree was well supported by stacks of presents.  Read more of this post

School Holidays, December 2011

And so, with a huge sigh of relief, the 2011 school year came to an end and the girls were released into the wild for nearly two whole months.  I had visions of endless trips to the beach, zoo, parks, and long exhausting walks around the city.  Alas, it rained for almost the entire holiday period.  We did manage to have some fun, but for pretty much all of December it was indoors.

To start with, I was happy to let them lie prone on the couch and catch up on cartoons for several hours a day, breaking it up with the odd trip to a parks in-between rain showers, and even a visit to the supermarket if my most persistent ferreting around the fridge couldn’t rustle up something for dinner.  We made our fun where we could find it.

Early Santa presents

We also visited the local cinema quite a lot more than usual, and in this picture the girls are imitating their McDonald’s Happy Meal toy, which I think is a character from Puss’n Boots.  Either that or they’ve really had too much sugar.  Read more of this post

Carol Service 2011

Dio held their annual carol service at the Parnell Cathedral in December 2011, and as a year 1 student Lucia was a part of a re-enactment of the nativity story. She was a shepherd and a very serious and responsible shepherd indeed.  Except for beforehand, when she pulled all sorts of faces and didn’t look like a shepherd at all.  Madeleine took her place with the rest of the girls and sang along heartily.  Christmas always feels much closer when you’ve heard a rousing rendition of Hark the Herald Angels Sing, even if it is played in a key so high only about 1/5 of the congregation can actually sing it.

Carol service 2011

Girls winning prizes in 2011

Lucia and Madeleine had a fantastic year in many respects, but it was in the classroom that they really excelled.

Madeleine had a big challenge when she started at Dio in February 2011, moving to her third school in just four years, and joining a well established group who had mostly been together for three years already.  It was a big learning curve for her, and it would be fair to say that for a start she floundered and even begged us at times to send her back to her old school. Read more of this post

Sports Days 2011

The girls both had sports days to wrap up their sporting endeavors for the year.  I managed to get a great shot of Lucia mid-jump in the sack race, and a shot of Madeleine in her egg and spoon race.

Lucia sports day 2011

Madeleine sports day, 2011

They have both done incredibly well with swimming in 2011, having lessons every week during school terms, and are both better swimmers than I have ever been.  Madeleine played netball during the winter, and is now going to play Flippa Ball (like junior water polo) in the summer term.  Lucia hasn’t had the opportunity to play a team sport at school so uses up her extra energy leaping around the furniture at home – she likes to jump from couch to armchair to ottoman and back again, in a little circuit that usually drives the rest of us a bit mad, but which she finds hugely satisfying, for some reason.

Chemo and radio

Nearly four months have passed since I blogged, and actually I’m kind of surprised its only that long.  It feels like the last six months of my life didn’t really happen, since I was so pre-occupied with surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.  Although I’m still doing radio, I’m definitely feeling better than I have for a long time, so I’m going to start getting this blog up to date.  Stand by for more updates.

School Holidays :-)

Today is the first day of the school holidays, so Andrew took one for the team and took the girls to Rainbows End.  They were so excited last night that we were very nervous that the weather was going to rain on their parade, but luckily the rain held off until this evening, and they had a fantastic time.   Madeleine managed to fall over twice and come home with massive plasters on each knee, so Andrew learned his way to the first aid room, and Lucia came home with her face pink with candy floss.

Lucia rode the Pirate Ship 11 times, so obviously doesn’t take after me in the motion-sickness stakes, but decided she is not old enough for the Roller Coaster, so must have got some sensible genes from somewhere.  Madeleine did ride the Roller Coaster once but given the chance to do it again, decided she’d had enough.  They stayed til closing time and had a ball.  Now we’ll just have to weather all the requests for a return visit, til the next school holiday!  More photos after the jump.

Read more of this post

Lucia’s Assembly

Lucia’s class hosted the junior school assembly on Friday and each girl got a turn to speak in front of the school. Lucia had the responsibility
of saying a prayer for pets. She read very confidently, and sounded kind of grown up to me! Andrew was there to capture it for posterity – enjoy!

Lucia also got a special award on the following Monday for playing the violin and singing to the class…see below!