Sportsssssssss!!

Swimming!!!!
Swimming is probably the best sport ever invented!!! (thank you fishes!) Its probably the only form of excersise that makes you have more energy. Before swim this afternoon I could barely move and now my foot won't stop twitching! (Seriously its like it has a mind of it's own). It also makes you smarter. Example: I am able to think of things to say that are both entertaining for you, and really fun to type for me. (aka... the exclamation points!!!!!! gotta love em!!!!) Before swimming...... its just too depressing to think about.... lets just say my writing was crap!!!!!! :)
Soccer!!!
On Saturday I got to play a soccer game!! Daddy dropped us off at a field saying he had talked to a coach who had talked to a guy who would let me play (something like that-- I wasn't paying attention). We found a guy who was the coach of some girls my age and he let me play even though he had no idea what mama was talking about when she told him about all that other stuff. I ended up playing 3/4 of the game and getting a nice rainbow colored bruise on my leg from a girl stepping on me. Yahoo!!! I also am still sore from it and its like 3 days later. (Thats also why I love to swim-- it doesn't make you so sore).
Volleyball!!
Nothing really to say here because I haven't actually played it yet. The coach has been wanting me to join and, when the PE coach saw me do some drills in PE he asked me to start coming to the practices. Then, when I told the parents, they started bugging me about it to the where I just really didn't think I wanted to anymore. (I know that doesn't make sense, but I don't care). Then I changed my mind yesterday for some reason that I can't remember and I am going to go to the meeting tomorrow at lunch. I really can't believe all those coaches were going so crazy because I really have never done any volleyball except for PE stuff. Mama played though... maybe its genetics??
~mia
PS: did you notice that all the paragraphs are different fonts? if you didn't you are either too old, you have bad eyes, or both (probably both) hahahah love you bippy and gramps!!!!
PPS: hey there everett!!!!!!!!

Earthquakes

In Christchurch there are earthquakes literally every day. Pretty much every morning daddy will ask us if we felt the earthquake and usually we say we haven't because we are just that good at sleeping. The last two nights I felt them though and it was really cool and a bit scary. Its scary becasue I always feel like I am going to fall right through the floor when I'm upstairs in this house and the fact that the ground starts having parties every day does not help. The weird thing is, that they always happen at night. I have been right about to go to sleep and then the ground starts moving and I have to start all over again because that just wakes me right back up! That would be why I haven't been going to sleep on time.

hahahahah just thought I'd throw this one in here for your entertainment!!!

The 1 year anniversary of the BIG earthquake is really soon and my drama teacher says that they are putting really bright lights in the middle of the city as a symbol of hope and spirit or something. I saw then today and they are really cool-- they're the kind of really bright searchlights that shine all the way up to the clouds (If there are clouds, but of course there are! This is Christchurch! jeez). They look like they would cost a fortune to keep going day and night.... isn't there something else they could be doing with that money??? Like, say, feeding starving people or building houses for hobos? Hmmm. Food for thought. (Oooooh food!!! I'm hungry, bye!)


~mia

School

Last Monday was my first day at Aranui High School. I got to get there at 11:30 instead of 8:45 because I had a meeting with the year nine dean, Mr Hoffman. My classes are the usual stuff like english, math, science, social studies, and PE. I also have two option classes which are sewing and drama.All  the people at school ask me a ton of questions about why we moved here and stuff. They all thought I was crazy for moving here from California because its really cold and there are tons of earthquakes. All the people at school are really nice and welcoming and stuff.Pretty much everyone says that I should join the volleyball team, but of course that just makes me not want to. Its supposed to be optional and I've got like five people bugging me about joining the team. PS if you want me to do something, don't make it manditory because that will just make me not want to do it.
The campus is really spread out and confusing. It has been a week and I still don't have it all figured out. The fact that there are people with backhoes and stuff digging up the place does not help at all. Despite that, I haven't had any navigation problems (yet) because I just follow people from class to class. The classes are really easy even though I think I'm in the smart classes. My theory is that this whole country is behind the US, which is the total opposite of what I was expecting. I thought that the Americans were stupider than the rest of the world but I guess I was wrong. (Just kidding Kiwis are way smarter than americans just in different, more important ways. Example: the national basketball team is called the Tall Blacks!!! how hilarious is that?! A sense of humor is way better than book smarts in my opinion!! Sure, maybe thats a bit stereotypical but its funny and you know it.) Anyway, loving school, loving life, loving swimming (because its what put me in this crazy mood!!! One day without swimming and I feel like jumping off a cliff... shhhh)blahhhh blahhh blahhhh!!! Have a nice day!:)
~mia

Surfing, another one by Sarah

On Saturday, we went surfing at Waikuku beach just north of Christchurch.  We went surfing because mommy, daddy, and I wanted to. And it was a sunny, clear day and the surf was good. 

A couple days before, mommy and I saw a surfing rental shop in the pedestrian mall down the street from our house.  We went inside and checked their prices.  A lady, the owner, told us that renting would be $20/day for each board.  The boards looked really good for rentals and in really good shape. Rental shops usually rent out soft tops, but I like fiberglass or epoxy boards.  The rental shop had plastic boards that looked like old fiberglass boards from below.  So on Saturday afternoon, we all went in and rented 2 boards; one 7'3" for momy and me, and 9'3" for daddy.  We walked them home and tried to put them into the car breaking the windshield or the rear view mirror. I was excited to go surfing!

I didn't get to use the boards at all.  Mommy and daddy got them the whole time because the waves were too big and the swell was too strong and it got deep fast.  I don't like it when it gets deep fast because the waves are bigger and break closer to shore.  So it was too dangerous for me to have a board.

Instead, I played on the beach and in the shallow part of the water where the waves were already broken.   I think that was smart, because I didn't want to drown.  Also, the water was really, really cold because it was from Antartica. My feet were frozen and it felt like they had frost bite.  Afterward though, the sand felt really warm to my numb feet.

The big kids just laid on the beach.  I think Zander made sand castles.  Mommy and daddy surfed in the big waves.  I had a good day!

The botanical gardens

For the last couple days, while Mia and Zander have been swimming, the rest of us have been going to the botanical gardens in Christchurch. At the botanical gardens, we go to the playground and play while mommy and daddy walk around.The botanical gardens are really big and lots of people go there  during the day.
     At the park, there are three dinosaur sculptures that Kayley and I named Dina, Dini, and Dino.  There is also a cafe where people get food and coffee. When we went there the first time with Mia and Zander, because they don't swim on weekends, we got our grants and bought food and drinks. I didn't get anything, except a little bit of momma's chai latte and two chocolate balls. After that we played at the park and walked around.    There are also two fountains. One is colorful with carvings of fish, sea grass, and birds; and the other one is just copper metal with a lady walking toward a metal fountain of pouring water.
       There is also a river going through the gardens where people kayak and lots of ducks swim and dive in. I think it's pretty.
        Near the entrance, there are big trees and one of then has branches that make a house thing so people go inside and climb the tree.  I climbed it a couple times.
  I think the botanical gardens are nice, pretty, and calm.

By Sarah !!!

Friday, getting not 1 but 2 awards

On friday, we had an awards asembly and my class planned it.  So, Friday was a really cramped day.  Earlier that day, when I went into the office with some friends to show some thing to the principal, she told us that we would all get an award at the assembly.  But at the assembly, I forgot all about it. So I was kind of surprised when the principal called my name for two awards.  One of the awards was for my snow machine explanation and the other one was for my explanation about how snowflakes are made.  That was a really exiting day.

-Kayley :)

The school newsletter

On Friday we got the newsletter from school and one of my school projects was in it ! It was a picture of my snow machine explanation that I did with my friends at school. First we made a machine that can scoop up snow out of legos and then we wrote an explanation about how it works.Then we showed it to the principal and she took a picture of  the part that I wrote because it was neat. Then it was on the school newsletter!  I was really surprised.

-Kayley :)

The Math Competition by Zander 8-24-11

                Today at 2:00 pm I went to a math contest representing Central New Brighton school 8th grade with a few of my friends. I have never been to a math contest in School. But I had to go because my mom thought it would be a good experience for me and, the school needed another player and they thought that I was good at math. Before we left we got to each get some bread. I got a big loaf and stuck it is my backpack and snacked on it during the competition.

                There were lots of rules for the competition and it made a big difference on how it was played. One of the main rules is that there is only one runner for your team in the whole competition. Plus, the distance and the traffic of the runners are all the same. Plus they only give you one question at a time so it makes your team work together to finish it. . There are 4 people per team including the runner.  There were 100’s of kids that came from tons of different schools all around the south Island. The Judges had been experimenting and got the rules almost to perfection in the 40 years that they have been running it.  I thought that it was pretty fair to all the teams.

                To get to the competition, I went in the teacher Mrs. Lumley’s car with JW and Phillip who are part of my math team. We went to a big stadium in Christchurch that had a café next to it. When we went in, there were lots of people who were there for the competition. We took our seats and watched the seventh years do their work. I thought that it was all a bit crazy that so many people were so excited to go to this competition. The 7^th years got all of the questions wrong. When it was our turn, we got 20 points. Each question was worth 5 points. We tried 12 questions. So we didn’t do so well. But at least we beat the 7th years. Towards the end, I realized that my parents were watching. I was pretty happy with my team for my first competition.  After the awards ceremony, we went home for dinner.

Zander

The Snowstorm!!!

Since it started snowing here the day before yesterday, all the schools have been closed and it has been really cold and snowy. There is snow all the way to the ocean!!! Its a really weird thing to see snow covered sand dunes and palm trees. The weather also changes really fast. When we got a break in the snow we go out and take a walk on the beach or something. We get out there and five minutes later its hailing. Its pretty crazy. This storm is historic! It snowed in Auckland for the first time in a really long time and there were a bunch of funny videos of Auklanders freaking out on the news. They are also getting record low temperatures all over the place. The storm came up form the Antarctica so fast that it didn't have time to warm up by the time it got here. Its the worst storm recorded here in decades. They don't have snowplows here because it never snows so the streets are full of slush. There are also giant puddles everywhere during the day because its all melting.When you walk your feet get soaked because of the slush. They say the storm is going to keep up for the next few days before melting.

~mia

The Library -by Sarah

At the library, we check out books .  My favorite types of books are the fiction books because they are interesting and imaginative.  They are more like  a picture in your head and if it's nonfiction, it could look like anything.  Right now I'm reading a fiction book called Flyte.  It is about a family that lives in a cottage in the woods.

The librarians are nice and they take care of books and they helped me when I lost my card.  They told me where it could be and they looked in the basket of lost cards and told me that I could get another one by paying $2 if I can not find my card.

The computers at the library are nice because you can use them whenever you want when you have a library card.  I use the computers to do typing games and to do my blog entries.  Zander let me use his card right now because I lost my library card a couple day ago.

The TVs at the library have most of the channels and some of them have games.  One is a flat screen with the channels and the other ones are basically a computer screen and a wooden utility box with games stuff on them.  I like to watch the chanels 12 and another channel because they have kids shows and all the TV shows.

The cafe, bar and restaurant is connected to the library.  And people go there when they are thirsty or hungry.  I feel like they are taking up lots of space from the library and they make lots of money from the people that go there.

The view of the ocean, the pier, and the library are connected because the pier is attatched to the library by a deck.  At night the pier has colored lights that shine on the water and make a reflection.  It very pretty to walk by the pier at night and see the colors in the water.

Chenda's Corner 17Aug.2011

Hi Everyone!

We've been working hard cracking the whip with the kids to create all these posts and really appreciate the feedback.  Keep them coming, and if you haven't commented, what's keeping you!  They (we) like to get the feed back and know that someone is reading.  It's good motivation. 

We could really use some motivating factors (besides mom and dad) right now that we're on our 3rd snow day and the roads are clearer, but not clear enough for school to commence.  But atleast the awesome New Brighton Library is open today!!  We've had to take lots of cold beach walks to get our ya-yas out the last 2 days when the only choices in work spaces were a warm "lounge"(our living room with the heat pump output), or the rest of the cold, drafty house.  I think Sarah described it to the "bare bulbs" in her last entry. Needless to say, we've been hanging out a lot on the couches in the lounge-together!

 Homes rarely have central heating here, even the more modern contruction focus heating each room, not whole homes.  They are big on plug in space heaters, electric heating pads, and radiant towel wracks (not insullation).  We've found these heating choices in all the rentals and hotels we've stayed at, even the nicer ones!  Only large commercial buildings or highrises have central heat.  Kind of weird when you consider the energy usage, etc. 

We're working hard on finding another home, but there is quite a shortage in furnished rentals for our time period in this area.  Fortunately, the weather can't get any worse than it's been with the blizzard conditions, quite unusual weather for all of NZ.  It's late winter, almost spring here, so sunshine, sometimes a little rain, and budding trees are the norm, but not now. We are buddling up to go outside while the rest of you are enjoying warm summer heat.  So, the house might be where we have to stay for the duration.  The good news is, that the living conditions of the house improve the longer we live in it.  It's all relative!

The kids have visited a school and we'll try to have then attend regularly, but unlike the states and parts of Europe, they require a work visa(a parent has to have one..) for it to be free. -Didn't know this before we arrived. I should have read the fine print better. I just figured that we would be accepted bc. we have a rental contract and we live here... and "all children in NZ are entitled to free schooling".  Without a work visa, we would have to pay international tuition which is 5-7K per semester per child.  Which doesn't really fit into our budget.  We're trying to find a way to get a work visa, but you need a sponsor and job offer already and then it takes a few weeks after pages of paperwork.  So we're taking the visitor route for now and the kids are allowed to "visit" for 2 wks before things get really complicated. 

I'm trying to get the kids involved in some extracircular activities and have found a swim club that they are all trying out for this evening.  Less a tryout and more of an assessment to see which levels they would go into.  Mia and Zander have made the squad that is training now, but Kayley and Sarah's squad doesn't start til the club's pool opens up again next month due to earthquake dammage repairs.  We'll see if we are able to make life work in the Brighton area. 

That's all for now. 
Miss you all,
Chenda

  

Wednesday 17/8/2011

    

            

             Today is a really good day. After we got ready for school, we found out that it was closed for the day. Then my mom drove us to the library to get rid of us. There was a suprise when we got to the library because it was open but the school was closed. It was a suprize because it was closed for the last 4 days because of the snow. My dad has been pretty miserable because we had been around the house for the last 4 days. My dad was miserable because we make alot of noise when we are at home for long periods of time.

            So at the Library, I went to the gaming computers and played Eragon until my dad made me write this blog. I like playing Eragon. I was getting pretty good at it, until I got pulled off it by my dad. I wasn't very happy about that because I was right in the middle of a level. I really like this library because it lets you be as loud as you want. There are lots of options on what to do, and it is open a lot. Pluse, what library have video games.!

            Then we went to a school in Christchurch to try out for a swim team. It was pretty easy and I got in to the Warriors group. I was pretty happy with my self for this achevment.  We went home and got ready for dinner. After we had stew for dinner Kayley and I did the dishes, and when we were done we joined our family watching TV in the living room. At 10:00 pm my mom made us brush our teeth and go to bed.I was pretty bumed that we had to go to bed because we were right in the middle of the Simpsons. All in all it was a pretty good day.

.

Zander

Roald Dahl treasury

Lately we've been spending lots of time inside because of the snow storm so we have been reading alot. I've been reading The Roald Dahl Treasury and I really liked it because it is really funny. The treasury has a bunch of different chapters of his books and poems. I liked a poem so much I made practicly every body in my family read the poem. The poem is about how mother cristmas does all the work and how father cristmas gets all the creadit. I also read part of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and the Witches,I really liked those too. My favorite story was Girafe and Pelly and Me It was about a Girafe and a Pelican and a monkey who cleen windows. 


-Kayley

The Walks in Christchurch

During the snow storm we took walks on the beach across the street from our house in New Brighton.  Usually we walk, on the beach at low tide because at high tide the whole entire beach is covered with water.  Usually we see people sledding on the sand dunes that are covered in snow.  On the first day that had the most snow, we saw some people with an ATV and a snow board tied to the ATV.  They were snow boarding on the beach.  It was pretty funny!  I thought that people were snow boarding for fun and exercise because they were stuck inside all day.  I felt like skiing behind an ATV...  I wished I had an ATV and skis.

We also saw people sledding.  Once we saw a little girl with a sled made out of a car seat and plywood that they used to sled down the sand dune.  I didn't think that it would go very fast because plywood doesn't go down hills very fast with weight on it. But if they waxed the bottom of the plywood, it would probably go faster.
We walked on the beach and saw tons of people sledding and snowboarding.

- another one by Sarah

The Snow Ball Fight

  For the last couple of days, it has ben snowing.  Yesterday,we had  a snow ball fight in our backyard.  We made snow forts.  Mia made a snow man and named it Jesus because it had a crown around it's head made of ivy.  Mia was also the referee of  our snowball fight.  Kayley got a snowball skimming her nose that made her scream.  Zander threw it at her.  I got hit in the face like five times! -by Zander!  I pegged Zander once or twice around the legs and chest.  He is pretty good at throwing snowballs and he is good about being hit.  I like when we have snow ball fights, especially when I get to peg Zander.
  Zander's trick for making snow ball is to smash snow in his hands and form a ball that is very icy.  So when it hits you, ice splatters all over you.  I think it is cool.

                   by Sarah

The House In Christchurch

Today I just figured out that both toilets in our house have problems. The one downstairs has a window that is open and slanted so the snow bounces off of it and hits your head if you are sitting on it. The one upstairs has holes in the wall right at butt level so when you are going to the bathroom you can feel the wind on your butt. Also the one upstairs is almost falling off the wall. In the house the only warm room is the living room so I had to wear two layers of clothes when I go anywhere besides the living room. In the kitchen there is a big hole in the ceiling that is covered with a peice of wood. In the living room, when my dad walks around upstairs, I hear thumps and dust falls on my head. Also, the lights in the bedrooms and the dining room are bare bulbs. In the living room it is really dim even with all the lights on because the lights are not good. Our house is really sketchy.
~by sarah

Snow!!!

Yesterday we walked on the beach and it was sunny and people were flying kites, it was a beautiful day. We were walking south along the beach and then some clouds passed over head,the wind picked up and it startid hailing really hard.The beautiful day was ruined. Then daddy told us to run home.
When we finally got home every one was freezing and wet so we changed cloth and sarah and I bundled up in our blanketson the sofa. Then it got SUNNY again? Really wierd right. So, the next morning there was snow every where it looked like a white dreamland it was amazing. the school was closed so no school today:).
-Kayley:():)

the first missed day of school in New Zeland by Zander

                8-15-11

                Today was the weirdest day of my life. When I woke up this morning and looked out the window, there was snow every ware. I was surprised about the snow because we were right on the beach and they are supposed to be warm.  So I got up and got ready for school. Then I went to the bath room down stairs and it was snowing in there. It was like that because the window had to slots that faced out and the hail would hit the slots and bounce into the bathroom. Then, we got in the car to go the school.

                When we got to school all the gates were closed and it turns out that they had shut down the school. I thought that they did it because it was hard to get to school. I had some mixed emotions because I wanted to learn the named of my friends but I also dined like to do work. The roads were really hard to drive on because it hadn’t been cleaned and there were lots of ice and snow on the road.  So we drove home and went inside to heat up our house. We had to because it is really cold in it because there is no insulation in it. Plus we didn’t have many heaters and the heaters we had didn’t work very well.

                So instead of going to school I went on a walk on the beach with Mia Sarah and my dad. We had a big snow ball fight. I thought that it was enjoyable because I hit my dad and my sister a few times. Then while Mia and my dad walked on the pier, Sarah and I built a snow man. It was really entertaining but my hands stared to tingle because they were numb because of the cold and we didn’t have gloves.  Then when they came back we went to check and see if the library was open. I like the library because you can play video games on the computers there. It turns out that it was closed so we went home to lunch. I was sad because I wanted to play Eragon on there computers.

Zander

Zanders First Day at School

My first day of school was really different then I expected. The first thing was that every one used word that was every one used weird words. For instance when I would say hood they would call it a Bonnet, when I would say trunk they would say boot, for every meal they called them tea time instead of breakfast lunch and dinner. Boys would also call the other boys Bro when I would say dude. There is a big difference in the words that we use but they also mean the same thing.

Since the earth quake people have donated lots of stuff to school so we get free fruit and snack time and some little kids got rain boots that people donated. I expected them to feed us lunch too. The only bad thing is that everyone has to bring our own lunch. The people would expect a 5 earth quake every month. So they aren’t surprised when they happen.

They also have school sports that take place during school hours. I got on the soccer team on the first day because I played soccer during lunch and the coach asked me if I wanted to, and my team was really bad. They were bad because they had bad skills because they couldn’t kick the ball. We lost the game 4 to 1. But we got to skip school for the game so I was happy to be there. We had our own uniform and they gave us equipment to play with. The uniform was black and red with white stripes. They also used city buses to get to the soccer games. It was weird because we didn’t have to pay and they used it as a school bus.

Over all my first day of school was pretty good, I fit in pretty well. Plus I made some friends, got on a soccer team, and learned about earth quakes.

Zander

first day at school sunday,14 august .2011

On friday Sarah, Zander, and I went to the Central New Brighton School to try it out.I liked the school  and it has like 117 kids so its smaller than I'm used to, and its mostly boys.But my class has the most girls in the school :)! The school gets lots of free stuff due to the damage the earth quake left,and every day every class gets a bucket of fruit for morning tea time. Also, instead of a computer lab ther is a table thing on weels that has a bunch of laptops in it. The uniform is pretty simple, you just have to wear black. The people were really nice to me,amazingly I want to stay here and go to that school but mommy and daddy are still looking for houses at other places.
-Kayley:):):)

Sarah at school

On Thursday, my mom and dad found a school and we signed up for it. On Friday, we went to school and we went into our classrooms. Three girls showed me around the school. When the bell rang for school to start we went back to our classroom and sat in our seats. My teacher's name is Miss S. She's really nice. First we sat down at the carpet and she took roll. We learned about a poem and after snack we went to the library. At the school library we read and checked out books. I couldn't check out any books becasue I was too new. Then we went to lunch. At lunch we sat at our desks to eat. After I was done with lunch we went out to play. I played with my friend Charlie (Charlie is a girl, not a boy). After lunch we went to an assembly and then we had music in our classroom. In music we sang songs that I dont know the names of. After music the day was over.
~sarah

The House

The night we got to New Brighton, Chrishtchurch we stayed in this tiny one room cottage thing that the lady we were renting from had in her back yard. We were staying there because the house that mommy had already rented was being fixed up and cleaned. We stayed there for one night and expected to move in the next day but they weren't done fixing it up. There was supposed to be only a few superficial cracks caused by the quakes but there ended up being holes in the roof and walls that they patched with plaster. The cracks that were actually superficial never got fixed. The house was full of dust so we could barely breath. It was gross. The house was supposed to be a 4 bedroom 2 bathroom but there were only two bedrooms that had tiny rooms branching off then  and the bathrooms were both incomplete. There is one the has only a bathtub, one with only a toilet, and the laundry room has a toilet and a shower in it. It is extremely weird. Despite all the complaining I am doing, The location is actually really great. There is a school within walking distance for Kayley, Sarah, and Zander and the library and grocery store are both blocks away. It is also right across the street from the beach. Because of some earchquake damage the water is off limits becasue it is full of poop. That kinda takes the fun out of it, but we can still walk on the sand anyway... We spend a ton of time in the library becasue it is like twice as warm as our house and we can actually breathe there. The time we spend at home is usually mealtimes and sleeping and maybe a little for watching movies. We couldn't work the TV at first but then we figured out how so its all better. The bad thing about that is that you have to pay extra for the sports channel and the movie channel so we don't have it. Daddy is freaking out because we cant watch rugby, but I am perfectly fine with watching normal TV shows. It is actually better because now daddy doesn't like to watch TV so we arent watching old Predator movies and rugby instead of the stuff we want to watch. Its also good because we dont have to spend 99% of the time watching him change the chanels... but i love my daddy anyway!!!! hahahahahahahaha
byebye :) ~mia

The dinner incident

The other day I made spaghetti and meat balls for dinner while mommy and daddy went to the grocery store. I made the pasta and cooked the meat and dumped out the meat oils and stuff. Then I put in the pasta sause. We at dinner and it was really really good spaghetti (if I do say so myself). We ate a huge carton of ice cream (yum) for dessert. Perfect dinner!!! We went to bed and that night it got really cold. (If you think all the seamingly pointless stuff I am saying is random then you are wrong. The stupid stuff I'm saying is not pointless.) The next morning mommy was cooking breakfast and discovered that the left sink did not drain. At all. It was totally blocked. She asked me where I had dumped the oils from the meat and I said I had dumped them in the sink.(Duh, where else is there to dump them?!) Then she explained that dumping fat down the drain will clog the drain becasue when it cools off it hardens in the pipes and clogs the drain. What you're supposed to do is dump it in a cup or something and leave it overnight and then throw it in the trash! I had to unblock the drain after breakfast and it was really gross. I had to get all the water that was in the sink into the other sink so it wouldn't drain onto the floor when I unskrewed the pipe. Then I had to unskrew the pipe with a bucket underneath to catch the water that was sitting in the pipe. When I got the pipe unskrewed I scooped all the hardened fat out of the pipe and into a cup and dumped it outside. Then I skrewed the pipe back in and the drain was all better!! TaDaa!!!!
~mia

Getting to Christchurch

After we went to the museum in Wellington we walked a few blocks to a Turkish place for dinner. They have really good Turkish food here in New Zealand. There was an amazing one in Mt. Maunganui (but of course we had to leave). We had our Turkish food and walked around for a while before getting in the car to search for a hotel. Daddy found a really nice one that was so high end that he had to get us a room with only two beds in it so it was affordable. I don’t think I could count how many time we have all told him that it doesn’t matter if the hotel is a 4 star if half of us have to sleep on the floor! We got up early to catch the ferry the next morning and the kids went down to find breakfast. It turns out there was a really good free breakfast buffet there but we couldn’t eat it because we had to catch the ferry. We drove on the boat and sat around for a while before we could get out of the car, and then we waited another half hour or so before we actually started moving. We totally should have stayed for breakfast….

We spent the two hour ferry ride watching extremely repetitive infomercials and reading magazines. There is seriously a channel on TV devoted entirely to infomercials! There was one for Proactiv and one for this steamcleaner thing. They just played those two over and over again until mommy asked the lady if she could change the channel. There was a cool playground for Kayley and Sarah on the lower level but it was freezing down there so we didn’t stay long.

When we got to the South Island we waited in the car some more before we got out of the ferry garage. We drove for a while until we got to Christchurch. Along the way we saw a ton of damage caused by the earthquakes that they have been having for the last year. It was pretty crazy.

~mia

the catholic school

This after noon daddy told Sarah and I to get dressed up and daddy wouldn't tell us were we where going so I assumed we were going to look at a school. Sarah, daddy and I walked too the school, it was really close to our house. It took us a while to find the office and when we got there it was locked and no one was init so we waitedfor some one to come . Then a guy came over and daddy told the guy he would like to talk to a person about schooling.The guy came back with a lady and the firts questian she asked us was "Are you catholic?"and daddy said "No,"and then daddy and the lady talked about school and inroling and stufflike that.Then lady told us that they didn't have space for us so she told us about the other school that we could go to and were to find it so we left and went to that school she told us about. 

the museum

In Wellington we went to the City and Sea Museum. There was three stories in the museum. The first floor had all the old fashioned stuff. The second floor had a boat cabin and a prime minister meeting room. The third story had a reflection show where there was a reflected lady that told stories about the Maori. My favourite parts were the boat cabin, the prime minister meeting room and the Maori show. The museum also has a little TV that had a show with people exploding a boat and sinking it so tourists would scuba dive in it. The museum had lots of educating things.

by sarah

Wellington

Today we arrived in Wellington after daddy drove all night from Mt. Eden. In Wellington, the capital, we parked by a park and played while daddy took a nap. While he was sleeping we went to a coffee shop and I got a chai latte and so did Mia and Kayley. Zander got hot chocolate. Mommy got a chai latte too and she got a mochachino for daddy. After daddy woke up went to a botanical garden. After that we went to a cool museum. After the museum we went out to lunch at a Turkish place that was really yummy. I shared a pizza with Kayley and I shared a sprite with Mia. After lunch we drove around and looked for a hotel. The hotel we got is called Copthorne and it is really nice. Daddy got a small room though because it is really expensive. The room only has three beds and mommy and daddy get the big one and Mia and Zander get the two small ones so Kayley and I have to sleep on the floor. Wellington was fun so far.

by sarah

All Blacks vs. Walabees

  On Saturday my family and I went to the Rugby world cup. When we got to Eden park we raced over to the stadium where the game was going to be. The teams that were playing are The All Blacks and the wallabies. After the All blacks did the Hakka (there Maori war dance), on the opposite side of the stadium big fire balls came up right in front of the crowd. Before the game started daddy bought us each a soda. Finally the game started. In the first fifteen minutes the All Blacks had scored 3 tries. And the people did the wave. One time the wave went around 3 times. When people were doing the wave they threw their beer bottle in the air when they still had beer in them. The beer spilled all over the crowd! The score at the end was 30-14 and the All Blacks won.  At the end of the game they shot more fireballs. The game was awesome in a cool way!!!

by sarah

rugby tri Nations game

8-6-11

            Today we went to a Tri Nation’s rugby game in Auckland, New Zealand.  We got to the game a few hours early, but there was a lot of people still coming in and it took us a lot of time to get our tickets and get to our seats. Then we went to our seat and watched the big screen where they showed the earlier games that the All Blacks (New Zealand national team) played. This match was a really big game because it was between New Zealand and there rival nation, Australia. There were 60 thousand people coming to the game at Eden Park stadium. People started coming to the game really early and the security closed off parts of the road that are near to the stadium because there were so many people there. This would be a big match because it is one of the testing games before the world cup. 

            After the All blacks did the Hakka, (the Maori war dance), on the opposite side of the stadium big fire balls came up right in front of the crowd. When the game started there was lots of yelling. During the first half the All Blacks dominated scoring 2 tries and making all there kicks. The Australian team were crushed; they missed all but one kick that they got after scoring there first try.  One of my favourite things was the waves that the crowd would do. Sometimes people would through beer bottles in the air when the wave went through the. The All Blacks scored some tries until it was 30 to 7 and then the Wallabies (Australia) scored one more tries till it was 30-14. Then the game ended the final score was 30-14 and the All Blacks had won!!! Then, the all blacks captain was given a big trophy to hold in the air on the podium. The crowd cheered!!!

            Then my family and I walked through beer bottles and trash to the exit of the stadium and walked through the crowd to our car that was a mile away from the stadium. On the way back to our car I saw an Aston Martin.  There were lots of signs that said Rugby World cup official bar and they were all really packed. Plus every few minutes people would drive by screaming and all the fans would scream as they drove by too.  When we got to our car we planned to drive all the way down to Wellington, which was 8 hours away.

Zander Rolph

Parks in New Zealand

   In new Zealand there are tons of awesome parks. My mom and dad would drop us off at parks like every day because they were looking for houses. I liked when we did that because the parks had tons of obstacle courses, swings, spinney things and teeter-totters. Whenever Zander and I would go on the teeter totter Zander bounced really high and I would go flying. On the spinney things I would get sick because Zander spins them really fast even after I tell him to stop. On the obstacle courses I try to go through the whole thing without touching the ground. I would most of the time get through all of them without touching the ground and sometimes I wouldn’t. In the obstacle courses there are climbing ropes, monkey bars, nets that you walk across, and zip lines. They’re really fun because they are a bit hard. On the swings I go really high and jump off. They also have a lot of really long slides and some of them are metal so I go really fast on them. Parks in New Zealand are really different from ones in the US.

The End

-          Sarah

-          Typed by mia!!!

surfing blog

                8/5/2011

                Today we went surfing at Sandy Bay New Zealand. It was supposed to be the best surf spot around where we were staying in Whangerai. To do that we got up eat breakfast and got out of the house at 11:00 am and took a really long drive to the town of TutuKaKa where we found a surf shop that rented boards. But we had to go to the shop owner’s house to pick them up. We got two 8 foot epoxy boards because we don’t surf for the whole time so we just figured that we would share them. After we got the boards, we drove to the beach.

            Once we got to the beach I found out that the waves were really big so my sisters and I just got on our wet suits and bodysurfed, while we watched our parents get pounded by the waves. Once while I was watching my little sister who was closer to shore, a big wave snuck up on me and when I turned around it broke right on top of me. But I wasn’t the only one who got pounded.  My mom barely got past the break line to catch any waves. After we had an enough time in the water we got out and built a really big sand castle while watching our parents surf. Once everyone got hungry, we got out of our wet suits and ate lunch (sandwiches) while returning the boards. It was really fun to get back in the water again.

            After we returned the boards to the board rental shop, we drove to the other surf beach that was 1 hour away from the Hotel. We were pretty glad that we didn’t surf at that spot!! The waves looked like the waves at Pipe Line in Hawaii. They were humongous; they were so big that spray was flying of the top of them. Plus the wind was blowing really hard.
 I hated the wind because it blows the sand into your legs so hard that it burns while we took a really long walk on the sandy beach.  I had a really good day, except for the fact that I forgot a change of clothes so I had to where my wet and uncomfortable swim suit for the whole day.

Zander 

Awesome Caves!!!

Daddy’s weird plan also includes a bit about Zander and I planning days. My day was yesterday and I was supposed to find something to do at Tongariro Mountain (a.k.a. Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings) like ski or something but it turned out that it cost like $700 for us all to ski there so we obviously didn’t do that. Then momma suggested we go to the Waikomo Glowworm Caves instead. Then daddy went online and bought the tickets for us to see all three caves and drove us there the next morning. As you can see I had a lot of help planning this trip and I am not complaining.

The next morning we drove to Waikomo and ate lunch at the visitor’s center. The visitor’s center was really cool because it had a big wood frame with a plastic blow- up cover thing over it. After lunch we drove over to the mouth of the first cave. After a super short walk we went in the mouth. It was lit only by the guide’s flashlight which was really dim. Just as I was thinking holy crap that’s what we are going into a cave with she pushed a button and that cave go all lit up. They had wired it all that way through with lights illuminating the coolest formations. We walked through the cave on a metal walkway and saw a lot of stalactites, stalagmites and a bunch of other really cool formations. The guide told us about how the Maori thought it was good luck to have a stalactite drip on you. If that’s true my life just got good because my hair was soaked when I got out of that thing.

After that we went to the glow worm cave. The guide for that one was really stupid. In the beginning he was all ‘I understand not all of you speak English so I’ll speak slowly’ and from then on he talked to us like we were two. The cave its self was really cool. We walked through it for a little while and then we went to a platform thing above a river and the guide talked about how glow worms have sticky strings of mucus hanging down from their mouths that catches mosquitoes. Then he turned on a light so we could see them. It was pretty gross. Then we got on a boat on the river and looked at the glow worms on the ceiling while the guide pulled us along by a rope. The glow worms glowed green in clusters and patterns on the ceiling. The guide said that it takes about a month for them to eat a mosquito. Another guide later told us that if you yell really loud it makes them glow brighter but this guide said we had to be totally silent. I really didn’t like him at all.

When we got out we went back to the visitor’s center and waited a few minutes until a bus came to pick us up for the next one. The guide for that one was really cool and she showed Sarah how to magically open the doors to the cave by waving your hand over it and saying the magic word. It was really funny and she totally fell for it. The cave was cooler than the other ones because there were different formations called curtains and some cave coral. There were also stalactites, stalagmites, and a stalagpipe (ok, just kidding, that last one was actually an old metal pipe coming down through the cave ceiling through which they lowered materials and the workers’ lunches). We saw some glow worms up close and they look really nasty. We also saw their mucus “fishing lines” up close. It was cool how much mucus they could hang from the ceiling each. It was also really creepy to think that there was spit hanging from the ceiling.

Yesterday morning momma and daddy dropped us off at the beach for a long time. Before they left they took us on a walk on a small island hill that had a trail that came off the beach. The trail was gravel and Sarah and I didn’t have our shoes so our feet were hurting like crazy, so we stopped walking and sat on the dirt and waited for everyone to come back down. Soon after that Zander came trotting down the hill, after that mommy, daddy, and Mia came walking down the hill Sarah and I followed. Then we walked down to the beach  and momma and daddy went to the car to go look at some houses while us kids went along the beach to check on Sarah’s and my shells and play. We played there all morning. Once mommy and daddy stopped by and gave us a bag of apples and were off again. Mommy and daddy have been really stressed about renting a house and they drop us of a lot so they can run errands. This is not fun!!:( 

-Kayley