NZ birthday

Hello friends and family,

First, thank you all for your lovely comments..As usual, life takes hold and I am slow to reply but I do appreciate and enjoy them all very much.   Somehow school, life maintenance, stuff takes up whatever space you give it.

The word is this is winter in NZ, but particularly mild.  I am not sure I would call it winter.  It’s hard to imagine snow and skiing nearby. We have been out and about in the sunshine many days…for which I am grateful.  I do like the rain and clouds but the sun peaky through is great too especially when its only 60 degrees or so.  The girls are settled into school and this week we celebrated Isa’s 6th birthday, with our friends here and a couple of families they introduced us to.  One of them is a many generation NZ family and the other immigrated from Holland and run a large dairy farm in town.  They all have sweet kids and Isa was happy to have them over to celebrate.. Her big sister and another friend arranged all the games for the party and I must say we parents tried not to get too involved and the party was very smooth.  Sometimes our getting involved causes more trouble than letting them figure it out.  See the photos, including Pin the Beak on the Kiwi.  We sang Happy Birthday in English, Spanish, Maori and Dutch which was really fun for me.

Last weekend, we went for a tramp (hike) up the street from us.  No driving needed.  A goat who had broken her chain followed us across a bridge and then settled to chew some grass. We hiked through the bush and looked at some native trees and bugs along the estuary and past many fields of cows.  They looked quite docile but then a handful came snorting and jumping down to the fence.  We couldn’t decide if they were afraid of Jack or thought he was a calf we were trying to steal.  At the end, we passed the small local golf course with mowing provided by their own sheep and lambs.. You can see a picture below.  Funny and something we would never dream of in Abq.

Dan and I went for a paddleboard in the estuary at high tide today. (Sorry no camera) while the girls were in school and before he went to work.  What a great way to spend a couple of hours together.  I have only paddle boarded a couple of times on a gentle river in Idaho and lake near Durango.  The wind here caught me a bit off guard and I almost fell off twice but finally got the hang of paddling, especially turning and we had fun exploring the little coves and bays nearby.  I am not sure I will be hitting the ocean waves anytime soon, but you never know.

I hope you are all well in your own worlds.  Sending you lots of love,

Penny