Amy and Steven's Endless Summer.: A New Zealand Summer

Written 23 July 2013

We had an outstanding end to our Endless Summer.

Here are a few snippets of what we got up to.

We took Jonny out fishing and saw dolphins.

And got a good haul of kai moana (sea food) too.

I finally finished Twenty Thousand Leagues Under The Sea which I started in Bangkok when we returned there from Indonesia. Needless to say it didn't really have me riveted as I can normally digest at least a book a week if I want to and this one is not that long...

We took Leanne and Tim out on the boat and visited the seals on Oaia island.

We ate more yummy food at a cousins Christmas get together.

And read some terrible christmas cracker jokes.

We spent Christmas morning with my family at Gemma's house.

And Christmas lunch with Steve's family at Leanne and Malcolm's house.

I had baked a pavalova for the occasion. And let four little helpers lick the spoons.

Bethell opened her present from Ronda. (It was a cat brush like Tish's one if you are wondering.)

On my birthday (28th December) we did more fishing.

With Steve's Uncle Wayne and cousin Sam.

Then had Bec and Tim and my sisters over for some a spot of afternoon tea.

The next day I had a surprise delivered to me when we were about to go away.

Chris had baked my a yummy gluten free chocolate. Yummy! What a nice surprise! Thanks Chris!

We picked up Bec and Tim and Mango (their dog - he's in the boot) and headed off on an adventure up north.

When we arrived at Ahipara we let Mango out to bound up the beach.

We drove round the points and found a place to freedom camp.

What a lovely spot! You can see there is a surf break in the background.

We had a nice campfire to keep us warm on the cool evenings. And Dan and Sam had come up too so we had even more fun friends.

The boys did some diving.

And we got to have yummy paua for tea.

Mmmmm, creamed paua. Looks green. Tastes delicious!

We got some fun surfs in.

Look how beautiful it is there!

Our campsite.

Jabin and Laura came to join us too and then we had even MORE fun friends!

One day we drove over to the east coast and went for a surf there.

We had a fun surf.

And played on Steve's new skim board too.

Then ate more paua back at camp.

The boys prepared it.

While Mango and Hurley (Jabin's dog) watched Bec eat corn all the while dribbling like fiends.

Laura with two doggy feet warmers.

And this is New Years night. Spent telling yarns around the campfire.

This innocent looking labrador is actually a terrible food scavenger.

He ripped a hole in Chris' tent to get to the gluten free bread inside!!!

We went on another fishing trip.

We had some fun waves right out in front of camp.

There was no access to a toilet or shower since we were freedom camping. For a loo tim had doug us a long drop (aka a hole in the ground) which we would fill in a little after each use. It was rather nice to use at night so you got an uninterrupted view of the starts glimmering overhead.

For a bath however there was this handy puddle which was a result of a nearby cheek that ran down to the sea but pooled in this depression in the road.

It was lovely fresh, clean water. So one day when everyone was out we had a lovely skinny din in there complete with shampoo, conditioner and body wash!

When they returned from their walk Bec and Tim said that in the distance they had seen two hippies having a bath in the puddle but they didn't realise we were in the nude haha.

We went for another east coast mission for a surf.

And climbed the hill at camp to admire the view and collect some fire wood from the ground.

I carried this log all the way down from the hill and it was heavy!

Steve cut up the wood and flashed us all his but crack!

The next day it was time to pack up and head home.

It was a bit a squish to fit everything in the car in one go to get back around the points!

Tim and Chris had to hold onto the sides of the truck and Mango had to run.

When we arrived back at Jill and John's (Adam's parents who let us store the boat with them) we packed everything from the car back into the boat.

On the way home we visited my mum's (Ani) grave at Waimate North Cemetery. It's very peaceful there.

We also stopped off at the Hundedwasser toilets in Kawakawa.

Some time after that we did some more boating at Mangawhai.

Here's the Hen island cloaked in the early morning light.

We did some diving.

Steve shot a snapper with his spear gun.

And they got some crayfish too.

Steve also shot a kingfish which half got eaten by a shark! The bit that was left was 9 kgs!

Liam got one too.

I spent some time visiting with Bethell and taking her for walks.

And was keen to get building on my dollhouse again.

We walked out to the gannets at Maori Bay.

I sent the photo of Steve and the kingfish in to The New Zealand Herald for a photo competition and they ended up writing a story about it (although half of it was completely unrelated to the photo).

We did some more boating!

And I set up my class room.

Steve and Chris got my doll house out of storage so I could keep working on it. Yay!

We were excited that our friends Bron and Ryan who we travelled with for some of our trip in Laos and Cambodia came to visit us on Waitangi Day! So we took them for fish and chips at Maori Bay, went to see the gannets (where are bee stung me under my arm and I cried in front of everyone because I'm allergic to them and it REALLY hurt!) Then we drove up Muriwai beach for fun. It was so cool to see you guys again!