Author: Hannah
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Homeschooling
Well, it’s going pretty well so far AND it’s a lot of work! It’s pretty exhausting. We got a printer in Whangarei, so now I can print out math worksheets, rather than making them myself each day. I do most of the homeschooling, and Riki helps out. It is freeing and exciting, on one hand…
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Surf Camp
Tomu and Jade had surf camp for one week, from 9 am to noon each day. Our dear friend Melva lent us her only car for the week so we could transport the kids to surf camp and back each day (a 15-minute drive up the coast). We also drove to Whangarei to go to…
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Cruising
Since we haven’t had to be in Paihia for school, we have been exploring around for the past month. Our friend Hilton said a few things about cruising that really rang true for me: Anyways…. First we went north to the Cavalli islands and then further north to Whangaroa. Then we went south to Whangamumu,…
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Brown kiwi (and other wildlife)
The New Zealand national bird is a kiwi, and New Zealanders themselves are also called kiwis. You see road signs here that say “Be a tidy kiwi, keep it in the car”. Our kids learnt about native birds in school, and started drawing kiwis within our first month in NZ. I never thought we would…
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Summer solstice & Christmas
We got invited to a somatic dance party and potluck to celebrate the summer solstice. It was outside, everyone barefoot, and drizzling on and off. The music was a wave set, so starting off mellow, getting crazy, and back to mellow. It was so fun to dance!! It was a big effort to get there,…
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Prizegiving and Report Cards
On Monday 18th December Paihia School had the end-of-year celebration, called a Prizegiving. The whole student body (180 students if all are present) was assembled in the Whare. Each teacher presented awards for their class, and between the awards the students performed kapa haka. There were also some New Zealand Christmas carols thrown in. It…
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Happy 8th Birthday Jade!
I was worried about how to make Jade’s birthday special seeing as the cruising community is so fluid — but I needn’t have worried! The cruisers understand the importance of community, and our friends all showed up. We celebrated with a party on the beach in Paihia, on Sunday at 4 pm. We arrived to…
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A weekend of firsts
This past weekend we joined our friends Taylor, Brad & Rex from SV Pangea in a bay near Waewaetorea Island. The water was so clear! We tried a lot of fun water activities for the first time in New Zealand. Saturday night in the anchorage a pod of 11 dolphins were playing between the boat…
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Sushi night!
Taylor used to be a sushi chef, and started her own restaurant called Sushi Girl in Kaui, Hawaii. On Friday she came over to make sushi with us. It was so fun! Jade said, “Taylor, your meals are funner than Mama’s meals.” π And it’s true. We learned how to cool the rice by cutting…
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oh, the birds!
New Zealand is a real birder’s paradise. There are so many, so varied and colorful, and loud! And many unique birds because of the isolation of the islands of New Zealand, and the lack of mammalian predators (until the MΔori arrived from Polynesia, and after them, the Europeans). I’ve been loving hiking around and trying…
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