sv evi

I got a phone call on Wednesday morning a few weeks ago, and the woman was from Northland attendance. Imagine being called by the truant officer in another country! She asked, “why has Evi Luz Bailey not been coming to school?”

I answered, “Well, I understood that we weren’t allowed, per visa restrictions”.

She said, “oh no, you’re allowed”.

I clarified, “you know we are from the United States?”

She confirmed, “yes, you are allowed”.

Whaaa?! I immediately emailed the Principal at Paihia School, explained the phone call, and asked if the kids could start the following Monday. She responded that of course they could, and that she felt awful, but she was just following the rules as she understood them. I sent Sarah in the office our updated visas, and voila! The kids are back in public school! The kids were all a little nervous about going back, especially because they all moved up a class. Tomu is now in year 6, and is in a mixed grade class with year 7 and year 8 students. Jade is in year 4, and Luz is in year 2. After some tears from Jade and Luz the first day, they are all loving being back.

And so am I! It is hard to be with your kids every waking moment, to be responsible for their education, to have one parent completely dedicated to boat projects, and the other completely dedicated to kid care and schooling. Right now we are in crunch time mode — trying to get everything ready on sv evi to sail to Fiji and beyond, come early May. I found myself thinking, what did I do last term while the kids were in public school?! I wasted all that precious time! And now, when the kids are at school, I am in TCB mode, helping Riki with boat projects that need to get done.

Now that the kids are in school, we are back to weekend sailing trips in the Bay of Islands. Two weeks ago we went to a new anchorage, Oke Bay. We saw orcas, a mom and baby, right beside and behind our boat in the anchorage!! It was our kids’ first whale experience. It was breathtaking and magical. I found myself scanning the water for the rest of the weekend, wondering where the Orcas were and if they were going to pop out again.

We dinghied from Oke Bay to Deep Water Cove, then hiked out to Cape Brett. It was a gorgeous hike, marred slightly by complaining from Tomu that he wanted to turn around.

After our 6 hour hike, we had to dinghy back to Oke Bay. The wind had picked up and there was a choppy sea. We kept getting sprayed by waves, and Tomu yelled out, “Mama, you have to write about this in the blog!”. It was an exciting end to a great hike.