Harrison's 3rd Birthday

Sunday was Harrison's 3rd birthday. He requested pancakes for breakfast and got a special "H" pancake. I'm pretty sure he was excited about the "H", even though he seems to be growling at it!? After breakfast we opened presents.



We had plans to grill hamburgers for lunch, unfortunately it was raining most of the day, so we were unable to grill. I think Harrison was okay with not grilling...Brad & I were a bit more disappointed. In the evening, we invited some friends over for cake and ice cream



We had a fun day celebrating and even got a hike in (even though it rained on us). Happy Birthday, Harrison!

One Week and Counting

Well, our time here in Gisborne is almost up. We leave one week from today on our long (did I mention that it is a LONG trip) back to the States. We leave here at 2:30 in the afternoon on the 13th and four flights later our plane gets in to Wichita at 9:00 p.m. on the 13th...a 24 1/2 hour trip that includes a 14 hour flight from Auckland to L.A. Whew, I'm exhausted just thinking about it!

We figured it was time to head back now that it's getting to be winter here. Basically, this means it's cold (in the 50's) and rainy with a few nice days thrown in here and there. Two weekends ago, we took advantage of a break in the clouds to head down to the beach and search the tide pools for creatures. Our friends, Mark and Lori and their daughter, came with and we had a great time getting out and exploring the rocks. Gum boots (aka rubber rain boots) were a necessity for the kids...



We went to a beach called Sponge Bay. It has a really rocky coast line, and at low tide you can even walk out to an island that is about 400 yards out from the beach. The rock formations are quite interesting...



Brad & Mark relaxing after climbing around on the rocks.



WARNING: You may want to put on a pair of sunglasses for this next picture...Jonathan dressed himself and it's a bit intense.

Jonathan checking out the crab we found.




The kids showing off their gum boots.



Harrison with his bucket looking for hermit crabs.

The Old Man and the Sea

Well, the ocean has finally swallowed Brad, chewed him up and spit him back out. Last weekend while surfing, Brad got pummeled by a rogue wave that caused his board to attack him (and the board won), tangled him up in his leash and dragged him back to shore. This is the result:





Needless to say, he hasn't been back out on his board since. He just hobbles around the house, moaning and groaning in pain. (He thinks he's going to get out again this weekend...I don't think so).

Easter

Ahhh, the changing leaves, just screams "Easter" doesn't it!? I saw a carved pumpkin outside one of the classrooms last Thursday, and just had to shake my head...THIS DOES NOT FEEL LIKE EASTER! At least the weather last weekend was beautiful and we were able to spend a lot of time outside.



The Easter holiday here consists of Good Friday and Easter Monday. We realized what a serious holiday this is for the Kiwis... They're heading into winter which brings colder, rainier weather, and Easter is the LAST Holiday for them until October! That's FIVE months (winter months) without a day off...the inhumanity! So the Easter holiday is a big travel weekend for most Kiwi's. We chose to stick around Gisborne and just relax, instead.

We went out to a reef north of town one afternoon. Jonathan had a great time searching for little starfish, and crabs. Here's his collection...Three starfish, two tiny hermit crabs and one mudskipper (the fish). The boys carried them around in their bucket for a while and then let them all go before we went home.




Easter afternoon, we went out to Gray's Bush (a small forested area with walking trails) and hid Easter candy for the boys. They had a great time searching for it, and an even better time eating eat!



We hiked up to the top of Makarori Point on Saturday morning. It's not a long hike, but it's pretty steep. When you get to the top there's a wide open grassy area that the boys had fun running around in, plus the views from up there are amazing!





One evening we went out to the beach and right by the parking lot is a trampoline (once again, something you would NEVER see in the States). So we burned off some energy jumping around for a while.




We're kind of in wind down mode around here. The evenings are getting pretty short, it's dark by 6:00, so we've been trying to find indoor activities to amuse ourselves with. Since Brad can't surf in the evenings after work anymore, he's starting to look forward to fishing back in Kansas, and the rest of us are looking forward to our return, as well. Only 3 1/2 more weeks!

Weekend Trip to Hamilton & Raglan

The weekend before Easter we took off for an extended weekend trip to Hamilton and Raglan. Hamilton is about an hour-and-a-half south of Auckland. It's New Zealand's largest landlocked city. It has a population of around 135,000. Brad's main goal for this trip was to get some surfing in at Raglan (NZ's most famous surf break). Raglan is about 35 minutes west of Hamilton. Unfortunately the swell was minimal to non-existent, so we spent our time at the beach searching the tidepools.




We found a couple of starfish that the boys were quite impressed with.



A beautiful sunset over the Tasman Sea in Raglan.



On Saturday, we spent the morning at Hamilton's zoo. It was a small zoo, but the boys really enjoyed it, especially the elephants and zebras. We forgot the camera, so I don't have any documentation of this outing, but you know...a zoo's a zoo! We spent the afternoon relaxing and then headed back to Raglan to check out the surf again (none!) and eat supper. It was a pretty low-key trip, but it was nice to get out of Gisborne for a bit, and it will be the last trip we take before heading home in a few weeks.

"We're gonna need a bigger boat"

A few Saturday's back, Brad and some of his co-workers went out deep-sea fishing. Luckily the swell was minimal so A) Brad didn't miss a good day of surfing and B) it was calm out on the ocean, so Brad didn't get seasick. They left at 7:00 in the morning for a beautiful day of fishing. The first couple of stops resulted in only a few bites, so they kept moving to various locations, until they hit the jackpot! Once they were settled in their prime location, Brad would literally drop his line in, wait a couple of minutes for it to reach the bottom, hook the fish and haul them up. They spent most of the day out fishing and Brad was beat by the time they returned home...He was in bed by 8:30!

They had a really great time and we enjoyed a couple of great meals of fish!

Changing Seasons

Well, it's starting to feel more like fall here. We've had more rain which means everything is green, flowers are starting to bloom and, well, it really doesn't look like fall back in the States at all (besides the few Northern Hemisphere trees that are changing color). The days are rapidly getting shorter, which means fewer daylight hours for Brad to surf, but he is coping amazingly well!

As of today, we officially have only 52 days left until we bid farewell to Gisborne. There are definitely mixed feelings...It will be so good to see all of our family and friends back home, but we will miss Gisborne and our friends here. We're already planning to come back in about six years for a six-month stint (Brad can't wait to get the boys out surfing...He is truly addicted!).

Otherwise, not much out of the ordinary has been happening here, no exciting pictures to post, just doing our day-to-day thing. Hopefully we'll get a few more pictures up before we head home!