Author: Hannah
-
Moments of delight
Last night after a glorious day hiking with friends and hosting friends for dinner on our boat, the kids wanted to go swimming at 8:15 pm. The water was flat calm, the sky was pink and orange, and I was just watching some White-fronted terns dive into the water. The kids put on their wetsuits…
-
Paihia School
All the classes start each day with a karakia (prayer) and a hīmene (hymn) in te reo Māori, the Māori language. This is the karakia which they say first in te reo, then in English: in te reo Māori: Kia hora te marino Kia whakapapa pounamu te moana Hei huarahi mā tātou i te rangi…
-
Exploring Northland
A few weekends ago the kids and I went on a 5 mile hike to Rainbow Falls. It was beautiful! We also spent one day at the beach in Paihia — the kids played in the waves in wetsuits for about 4 hours. And we visited the public toilets in Kawakawa, designed by the famous…
-
New friends and boat projects
We met John, Caroline, Dalton & Hall from Charleston, South Carolina on SV Nogal, and enjoyed a few days of dinners together and lots of kid play time. When they pulled up the anchor Sunday morning Tomu said, “aww, they’re leaving already?” And Jade has said repeatedly, “I miss our friends Dalton & Hall.” We…
-
We finally cut the marina cord…
and are living life at anchor in Matauwhi Bay, near to the town of Russell. This means that we take the kids across the channel in the morning with the dinghy. There are always less waves in the morning than the afternoon. The kids are all keen to take turns driving the dinghy, and trying…
-
Happy Halloween!
Well, here in New Zealand they don’t really celebrate Halloween, though there were a few parties at restaurants including costume contests (we didn’t go to any). Jade did some Halloween worksheets/coloring in school because she had a substitute teacher. Margeaux from S/V Lion’s Den organized all the boat kids in the marina to decorate trick…
-
Boat christening party
On Saturday evening we had friends over to christen our boat. There is a lot of superstition among sailors that it is bad luck to change a boat’s name, and there are lots of rules to be followed about proper re-naming. We had some appetizers and drinks in the cockpit, then everyone went out to…
-
First night at an anchorage
As we get to used to living on a boat and learning all the systems of this particular boat, there are a lot of firsts. Thursday a week ago we were going to go out for a docking lesson for me from Amanda, a Kiwi sailor who is quite famous. She was the rigger on…
-
Public School for the Win!
On Monday, October 9th, Tomu, Jade and Luz started school at Paihia School! It was a big relief when the Principal agreed to let them attend school. I had been emailing with her back and forth since July about what type of visa they would need, and it wasn’t clear that I had ultimately procured…
sv evi 