The morning always seems to come earlier than wanted – today at 645am. I decided to head fifteen minutes into town to check email as I had been ‘off the grid’ for a couple days and was eager to see how my first class went that I had missed. I got into town and found the tourism booth by 8 a.m. but had to wait until 830 for it to open. I headed over to the New World grocery store and picked up a few items and headed back to the tourism shop. I logged in and retrieved my course outline and first two assignments due this weekend – yoikes! Let the reading/writing begin!
I travelled back to the cottage stopping to get fuel and a city map of Auckland so we could navigate our way to some shops, a couple scenic sights and eventually the airport where we head out tomorrow at 5pm.
Everyone was up and eating breakfast by 930 when I arrived home. We did some tidying and made some plans to go for another boat ride to a bay around the corner a bit. By the time we got 8 kids, 4 adults, a dog and all the supplies loaded on the boat, we were quite the spectacle travelling across the water.
We found a beautiful cove to moor the boat and hung out on the beach for the afternoon. We all went for numerous swims in the clear crystal blue water. The kids started to get a wee bit bored so Grant suggested burying a few in the sand and creating some neat figures. Rose was a mermaid, John was a race car, Isaac was an airplane, Charlotte was a Rolls Royce, Emily was a mermaid and Jacob was a hot rod! We went for a walk out on the rocky reef and found some smaller pools with very warm water to sit in for a bit and decided it was time to head home. We filled the boat with all our stuff and 13 bodies and headed back to the house.
The children played some board games while the ladies fixed snacks and supper of amazing Burgers and salads with fried potatoes. After the children were fed, the adults retired to the picnic table out back for a few brief moments of peace and quiet before being engulfed in children begging for dessert. Coconut and pineapple frozen ice treats were quickly devoured and with a sugar burst, a Frisbee and soccer game was borne. It quickly turned into water fights followed by a difficult time getting them into pyjamas.
It had been quite a breezy day which kept things a bit cool, but the children all had a great deal of sun and would be calling it a night earlier than usual. After the kids got into pyjamas and a bit of reading, they were in bed by 830. The adults sat down for a game of Canasta and even though the men went out first, the girls still won. We only had 4 decks instead of 6 so it made it quite difficult to score too highly but all in all a good match. We headed off to bed at 11 as tomorrow would be another busy day of driving and sightseeing.
No comments:
Post a Comment