It's all about the weather

We're at the O'Hara Game Estate, just out of Paengaroa (which is 10km south of Te Puke). We've stayed here the last five nights and have three more to go: on Feb 1st we leave the Bay of Plenty and take the Adventure to Coromandel, beginning in Thames.

We are back up to a family of four, just for this week. Luka is now settled back in Chch, preparing for Year 13 at Riccarton High School, but we have gained another son – Connor's best friend / blood brother Tristan is part of the adventure for a week – he flies back on the 1st, the day before school goes back. We love having him with us & are making plans to kidnap him for future parts of the adventure.

It's wonderful here, the O'Haras are fantastic hosts (Helen brought us a fresh choc/zucchini cake the first night!) and have a hugely interesting setup. About 40 acres, bordered by the Kaituna River, with native bush in the gullies, deer & other animals in paddocks, and an elaborate, zany archery course through the forest. This weekend they are hosting an archery tournament. We've helped get ready for this, building a few features for the course, as well as picking some produce – beans and corn. We're only doing a day's work for the week, and are self-catering for the week and paying a small amount for the use of the house we're in.

The four of us flew into Rotorua on Monday, following our few days in Chch. The day before, there had been a wicked storm. There was still rain & low cloud about the airport & we were told we might have to abort landing & go to Hamilton instead... But no, the pilot managed to get us down OK and we were back in the Bay – yep it's startin to feel like home for us both.. Justy was especially pleased to land here as she hadn't been able to take off from Rotorua last week due to fog & was bussed to Auckland, adding 5 hours to her flight time!

We drove into town & bought a week's groceries, then went to Kuirau Park to show Tristan some hot stuff! There were new boiling water vents that had opened up beside and under (through) the road, also fallen trees from the storm crashed through the barriers.

The grey wet weather persisted the next day, so we took advantage of one of the great things about this place: hot water springs! We headed down to Kerosene Creek (which you can find on the Google Map of thermal hotspots that we have compiled). It was our third visit to Kerosene Creek and the place was very different after the weekend's flooding. A huge tree had fallen across the main pool. The river had about three times its usual flow, so was fast and fizzy! Only warm (26-27 deg.) rather than hot (40 deg.), but all bubbly like a jacuzzi!

Then, just to make sure we all know that these days, New Zealand is firmly in the path of tropical cyclones, we had Cyclone Wilma last night! This photo shows part of the archery course this morning: today's shoot was somewhat spoiled, as even after the water had receded, everything was covered in oozy silt. Gives us a small idea of what our cousins across the ditch have been going through. Most of this video is shot very close to where we are.

The travelling and working style of homeschooling is proving even more successful than we'd hoped. Connor is discovering new capabilities and talents & enjoying what's on offer despite missing his friends and lifestyle in Chch. We mentioned in our last post that Connor and I were going to cater a Rites of Passage event at Tracks... we did this (14-20 Jan) and it was brilliant. Between us we cooked 3 meals a day for 33 people, and didn't miss a beat. We're both so enriched by the experience that we are planning to advertise ourselves as available to cater other similar events around the country in future. Watch this space!!

So, we all spent some time in the shaky ol' town around the 22nd, which was Connor's fifteenth birthday! We had a nice family party (thanks Nancy), and Connor spent a couple of hours in town with his 3 best friends.

Being back in Christchurch was interesting; Justy managed to take in a decent spate of aftershocks, including the 5.1 wakeup on Thursday morning. I was only there for the weekend & didn't feel any... Like all of you down there, we're totally over earthquakes.

However, it's an ill quake that shakes no good... Justy met the EQC assessors at our house, and was told that we will get $11,000-plus of re-lining, re-painting interior walls, ceilings and recladding outside, to fix all the cracks that the quake made worse. Reading the EQC forms reminded me how bad some people's damage is, and we are so lucky to have a livable place that is going to be fixed up minty perfect...

We stayed three nights with Steve and Megan, just around the corner from our old house, they made it straight into our top 3 hosts of the adventure! :-) Wonderful peaceful place to eat and relax... and be entertained by Felix & Frankie! We visited Toni & Charlie – dogsitters extraordinaire! – also round the corner, & I took Alika for a long walk. Justy stayed with Erica her first two nights, and they talked till midnight even though they both knew they should get an early night! We also visited Judy Kay, and took this pic of rimu tree that Brett & Esther grew and gave as a memorial for Adrian.

While walking Alika, & meeting Luka in town for a coffee I bumped into a few more people (Sian and Chandra at C1, Megan Woods, Annette B – a right old catch-up!) On my way thru Sydenham I took some photos and when I got back up here, started a letter to editor – which turned into a 1200-word article! I rang one of the Press editors on Wednesday, and on Friday my article was published: Make Sydenham a walking paradise. And cos I'm now a freelancer, I'm getting paid for it!

So you're all reading professionable ritin here guys, hope y'all appreciate that! Anyway this post is long enough, better sign off & wish you all well. Giz some comments, will try & reply this time!

PS – we have had one stinking hot day – Thursday arvo it was 28 degrees so we was off to The Mount to sit on the beach and swim in some pounding surf! Met up with Charlene and Wayne our friends from Chch so that was an extra bonus.