Amiri SERIOUSLY loves that sandwich

Exploring the redoubt

On our way south to the glow-worms' cave, we stopped for a little rest in the small art village of Pirongia, once named Alexandra but later re-named to avoid confusion with the larger and more well-known Alexandra on the South Island.

The boys were distinctly un-impressed with the galleries and shops that Pirongia had to offer, so after a snack we got back in the car.  We were almost out of town when I noticed one of the characteristic blue 'this way to a scenic or historic landmark' signs pointing down a side street.  REDOUBT, it said.  What's a redoubt?, I wondered.  I couldn't resist investigating. 

I looked carefully for the whatever-it-was as I drove, but we just ended up dead-ended in a nondescript cul-de-sac with fenced pasture all around us.  I noticed a sign on the fence and went to take a look. 

Oh, so a redoubt is a fort or something?  Is that it, up the hill there?

The fence had a hand-lettered sign saying, 'Please close all gates behind you'.  I took that as an invitation to proceed, and hey, it's not like there's anyone around to stop us anyway.  So we navigated a very cool sheep-proof (and very nearly boy-proof) stile and went to see what we've got here.

To save me writing a thousand words, here is what the redoubt looks like from the air.  Imagine inside it a church, and the last hope of hundreds of pioneers who surely all knew the shortest route for their anticipated desperate dash for safety ahead of the predicted savage invaders.

Happily, this grim attack never materialised, and so the redoubt was abandoned and is slowly returning to the earth. 

It's surrounded by a moat.

It was a great place to enjoy the beautiful day and to take in some nice farmland views.

We walked all the way around the perimeter of the redoubt, on top of its walls.  I reminded the boys over and over to be careful about where they were walking, so that they wouldn't take a tumble.  I wish I had listened to my own advice, because in a moment of inattention I went bum over teakettle into a thornbush!  Got a couple of little scratches on my arm, but the grass was so thick and soft that I was spared any real harm.  Arram shrieked with alarm when he saw me fall, but when he almost immediately saw that I was OK, he laughed until he had to sit down and rest.

The glow-worms' cave

We took a trip down to Waitomo, a tiny town built on top of some pretty impressive limestone caves.  We visited one of the main caves, which is full of glow worms. 

They warned us it would be cold inside the cave, so here are the little glow worms about to put on their sweatshirts.

It turned out to be only a little chilly, and mostly really humid, inside the cave.  It was breathtakingly beautiful, and the boys were awed into silence and just trotted along with their little hands in mine.  Unfortunately we were not allowed to take photos inside-- but the photos in the website I linked above are probably better than what I would have taken anyway.

The last portion of the cave tour was a boat ride through a silent underground lake with the ghostly blue glow worm constellations above us.  The boat was pulled hand-over-hand along a nearly-invisible wire by a woman standing on the prow.  Her name was Sharon and I really enjoyed that.

Here is the cavern we exited through, and some happy little boys.

Just sitting on the steps of a cafe one evening

Happiness is having a playground nearly all to themselves

Feed the birds

I just can't seem to say the phrase without that song from Mary Poppins launching on some sort of auto-neuro-playback-loop.  But maybe that's just me.  So as that earworm burrows merrily around in my head, I'll tell you about our adventure over to Pt. Chev. 

I'd been chucking all of our stale bread ends and stuff into the freezer for a while, and when we had a whole heap we went off to the Western Springs park to feed the flock of birds that are always there.  You know, the ducklings and the pigeons and stuff.

And then some swans turned up and it was this whole gorgeous idyllic scene with the afternoon sun glinting on the pond.

We had a great time making sure that everyone got something to eat, even the little sparrows.

With this attitude, we became quite popular.


Soon, the ne'er-do-wells began sizing us up for a score.

And it actually started to get a little intense.  Those greedy, grabby birds!



But it turns out that once the bread is gone the birds lose interest pretty quickly and it's easy to give them the bum's rush.

And once the roving gangs were cleared we were free to frolic once more.

!eseehC

I asked them to pose nicely for a picture by the sculpture.  They turned obediently and made for their positions.  But at the last second, Amiri demonstrated his parkour skills by leaping for its ledge and Arram veered left for the underbrush.

Matakana!

We had an adventure up north to Matakana (pronounced 'Monica' by the kids.)  We took a stroll down Main Street, and found that the local church was having a little picnic and inviting all the passersby to come in.  So we came in.  We had to.  Because they were offering pony rides.

This is April.

And this is Jazz.

And this is the boys getting saddled up for their first ride.

And here they are in action.  Ride 'em cowboys!!


There were actually lots of things to ride in Matakana.  Like this lawn ornament that was apparently more fun in theory than in practice.

Or this, which was, I'm pretty sure, the most fun that our family has had for a dollar all this week.

We love ducks

We will follow them right down into the river if Mama will let us.

The boys taste their first cannolis*

 

 *As recently popularised in our house on 'From Scratch'.
 

I am beyond impressed

Today I had lunch made for me, and the house cleaned.  No, I didn't hire a housekeeper; I just have an incredibly mature son.

Amiri was pretending that the living room was a beach and decided that, naturally, we need to have beach snacks.  So of his own initiative, he went to the cupboards and got out the bread, peanut butter, and jam.  He assembled a sandwich for everyone and even got us little drinks of milk.  The meal was delicious!

Then, to my utter amazement, he put away all of the ingredients, wiped all the crumbs off the counter, and then got out the vacuum cleaner and cleaned up the flour that I spilled this morning when I was making pancakes! 
 

After the fountain they did some rock climbing

After a great deal of encouragement from his big brother, Arram finally did try to jump to the next rock.  And he made it!
 

Not much has changed in the fountain department

May I direct you back here for a blast from the past.  The fountain no longer exists; that's progress for you.
 

Michigan wins the bridge competition

I was sick recently and just couldn't manage an exciting adventure.  But we needed SOMETHING to explore.  So we drove over the Harbour Bridge and then stopped to look back.

We even scampered underneath it!  (Look at the little trolls...)

As an engineering feat, it's pretty impressive, no doubt about it.  Especially the part about doubling its vehicle capacity later with the 'clip-ons'.  But it's still dwarfed in comparison by the mighty Mackinac.
 

Expressions of dignity and quiet reserve during another dinner out

Phone etiquette

Ring, ring...
'Hello?'
'Yeah.  Is that Allison?'

'Contact Allison on 021-xxx-xxx.'

'I've got to go right now, but can we talk more later?'
'Sure.  I'll ring you tomorrow, OK?'
 

It was a milkshake kind of night

We had a fancy Friday night dinner out, and the boys got to have milkshakes.  Arram definitely enjoyed his and was pretty pleased with the sprinkles and little peacock decoration in it.

Amiri was stoked to have a strawberry milkshake all to himself.  He was also fascinated by the peacock.

What do you mean it's made of paper?

At first I thought 'Shemp' but maybe now I think 'Moe'

Amiri got a big kick out of discovering that he can stand underneath the big WHHHRRRRRR hand dryer in the bathroom.  His hair stayed like that the rest of the evening.

A trip to Bastion Point

We enjoyed the flower gardens, the reflecting pool (although it was tremendously disappointing for not containing any fish), and the Savage Monument which we ran around and over and across about a billion times.  We watched the kite flyers, played tag, both hid and sought, and had a highly amusing game of catch-the-imaginary-ball.  Arram is awesome at that game!  I didn't manage to get any good shots with the boys in them because I was just too busy playing, but take my word for it that we all had a wholesome afternoon of exercise and went home thoroughly tuckered out.

At the Wintergardens we saw something so entertaining we ended up staying for most of the afternoon

The Wintergardens are a couple of gorgeous greenhouses amid some courtyards and formal flowerbeds inside the Auckland Domain.  We went exploring there on a whim after lunch the other day.  We poked about and stuck our noses into all the little corners and then we found Something Amazing.

A pond.  With goldfish.  Real goldfish. 

It turns out the fish are half-tame and beg for food.  They school up and will follow you en masse as you move around the edge of the pool. 

Well, that's that.  Mom just better sit down and make herself comfortable, because we're going to be here a while.


I was totally proud that my kids were respectfully observing the fish, not snatching or hassling them.  What's better, I didn't even have to tell them to.  That's just the kind of people they are.