Author: Hannah
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Settling in
Well, we’ve been in New Zealand for two weeks today, and it feels like we are getting the hang of life here. The first week plus was a bit rough — so many bags to unpack, but first we had to clean the cupboards of mildew. The kids played a lot of War. The Bay…
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30 hours of travel
We made it to SeaTac, managed to check our 7 bags of 66 lbs each all the way to Auckland (for free, thanks to Riki sweet-talking the agent Ricky!!) , made it through security, and breathed a sigh of relief at the gate. I figured I would need all my strength and patience to make…
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last weeks of packing, etc.
Our last few weeks in the U.S. were a whirlwind of packing, cleaning, saying goodbye and getting rid of a lot of stuff. most of the time I was focused on the tasks at hand, but sometimes I would get sad about leaving behind our magical neighborhood, strong community, and dear family. also we celebrated…
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5 weeks to go…
We spent the weekend camping at Washington Park in Anacortes, and climbing at Mount Erie with Mo, Dev & my mom Candace. The campground had gorgeous views of the San Juans. It was our first time climbing at Mount Erie. I got 2 blisters from belaying the first day without my belay gloves. It was…
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