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| Lots of beach walks .... |
It has been a bit of a chequered
experience in NZ this time around – not because the country or the
weather have not lived up to our expectations, but a few life
experiences have cropped up in the course of our journeying.
Firstly in our flights from Heraklion
to Athens, Athens to London, London to Hong Kong and Hong Kong to
Auckland, K first picked up a nasty bug which wiped him out for 3
days in Athens and I went down with it on arrival in Auckland (we
think it was the Norovirus) which then spread through the entire home
like wild fire – and with a new baby arrival at the other household
just at the same time, we were in purdah for seven days until
certified bug free. Not the best start to a family catch up or the
way to make friends and influence people! The kitchens and bathrooms
sport every possible bottle, surface wipe or spray to combat 99.9 %
of household germs, but it must have been the 0.1% which got us!
Even liberal use of hand gel throughout the journey did not save our
grief.
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| Emelyn Grace Beatrice - "Emmy" |
We became grand-parents for the fourth
time on 5th January when a precious grand-daughter, Emelyn
Grace Beatrice Rowe arrived in the world and we waited with baited
breath until we were symptom free enough to make her acquaintance.
To help blow the cobwebs away, we had a
few bracing walks along nice beaches and K got his fishing rod out
and nudged shoulders with lots of Chinese gentlemen who all had the
same idea on the pier at Murrays Bay. He actually caught a few
titchy Snappers - nothing big enough for the “barby”, but it was
more fruitful fishing than Crete has been of late. Talking of
“barbies”, look at this!
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| Rowie's Monster Barbecue |
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| Sophie, Hayden and Cameron - Balloon modelling minus the sound effects! |
We had bought various sorts of kites
for the little boys for Christmas, so we made sure of one morning's
kite flying so that they could get some fresh air and enjoy the
sunshine. Sadly, a serious illness at home in the UK meant that I
had to rearrange my flights to return six weeks earlier than planned,
but the night before take off, I ended up going to Accident and
Emergency with a gall stone blockage and severe pain which made me so
ill that it meant stopping to rearrange the flights again.
Fortunately Air New Zealand have been so helpful in sorting things
out and I am still waiting to find the right date, once things have
calmed down a bit and the weather in the UK has settled. It would be
good to ensure that the plane does not get delayed or diverted along
the way and I can travel on from Heathrow without any further dramas.
Meanwhile our son, Leo is just about to arrive in Auckland, so our
minds are spinning out of control and unable to plan anything with
certainty.
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| Pocket Kite at Hobsonville Point |
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| Lachlan helping Dad |
Because of all these happenings, we
have not been travelling far afield, but it has been an ideal catch
up time and an opportunity to re-acquaint ourselves with three
sprouting grand sons and their life on the North Shore. I am amazed
to find so many wonderful beaches, open space and play areas for
families, runners, cyclists and dog walkers which are all well
utilised. A visit to Long Beach on a bank holiday found us in the
middle of a Maori and Island people Jamboree with large awnings and
gazebo like tents everywhere where people had picnics and barbecues
while the children had marvellous assortment of equipment and a
zip-wire to play on, as well as music, cricket, footballs and kites. We
found the shade of a tree to sit down and enjoy ice creams. Another
short morning at Auckland Zoo when the baby was only a few days old
was scorching hot and so many other families had the same idea, that
it was not easy to find a bench to sit down in the shade. All the
children were well slathered in sun block and sported colourful sun
hats, which are more or less compulsory.
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| Cameron at the Seal Tank |
All the suburbs hereabout have
wonderful Kiwi vegetation – completely unique to NZ and they give a
rich background to all the gardens and drives. Palm trees, gum
trees, pahutakowa and tree ferns along with massive clumps of
agapanthas, give a rhapsody of greenery and colour wherever we go while the fluting birdsong at dawn is mesmerising and quite different from
anywhere else in the world. As travelogues go, this is a bit on the
thin side because our outings are short in length to accommodate
small children, infants and seem to include lots of buckets,
spades, footballs, doctors surgeries, laundry and ice-creams, but hopefully
more newsworthy happenings will occur in future posts.
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| View over Rangitoto from Kate's house |
