A couple of stories from Kien

I can't believe how quickly these last couple of months has gone by for Kien being back at school...and then we will be finished with this first term! He hasn't written anything for this blog recently, so here are a couple of stories. The first he wrote today on the iPhone, and the second was written a week ago.

​When I went swimming

​Yesterday I went swimming. I went in the deep pool. First I practiced diving. Second I practiced getting into a boat safely or if I didn’t do it right the boat would sink.

Koala in Mars

School field trip to Point Erin pools

It just happened to coincide with my day off so I volunteered go with Kien's class to the pools last Tuesday. Took the bus, had a briefing, and then 4 1/2 hours trying to kill time without killing any kids.

You know what the temperature is like in an unheated outdoor pool in Auckland when its cloudy? And what's worse, they have a giant spa pool for people to sit in to get warm, but it was out of bounds for the children! The kids were in the pool for maybe an hour and they came out blue - ok, not quite blue but definitely teeth chattering and shaking all over.

One hour down, 3 1/2 hours to go - in this caged off area.

The sun did come out later on in the day, and the kids did get back into their wet togs and went back in the water. They mucked around and played with frizbees, flying them over the fences and asking dog walkers and runners to throw them back over. I normally run this route when I'm working from the Hub, so I am all too familiar with this.

Somehow we were all able to entertain ourselves, and then we lined all the children back up again to get on the bus back to school.

Samoan road trip

Unlike the last time we were here (when we didn't do anything whatsoever except laze around reading books and swimming all day, every day), we took the opportunity this time to hire a van and do some exploring...a van seating 12 people and there were 14 of us. Good thing there were some pint sized people amongst the group!

We visited a waterfall - pretty. Easy money for the village people here - they charged 10 tala per person to view the waterfall over that gnarly cliff.

Then we were off to the idyllic To Sua ocean trench. Over the course of millennia, erosion of the lava fields around Lotofaga left the area pocketed with tide pools and a series of blowholes, the largest of which is To Sua (name translates to “big hole”). Surrounded by lush gardens, the natural salt water pool is sunken deep into the earth, and we had to climb down a very steep ladder to get inside. Kien was too scared to go down the ladder, so Jef stayed behind with him while the rest of us went for a swim.

By the time we finished our swim we were all extremely hungry. Good thing us mothers thought ahead and had packed a picnic lunch. So we occupied a gazebo in the groomed gardens that kissed the cliff face.

We then drove all the way to Lalomanu, a beautiful village on the east coast of Upolu. We stopped at the local store to get some cold Vailimas. There were some cute piggies on the side of the road too.

This spot was heavily damaged by the 2009 tsunami, and even now the reef is still recovering. You can see this when out there snorkelling. But man, this beach is so beautiful. The next time we visit Samoa I want to stay here for a bit. Its quite different to Return to Paradise beach.

What a fantastic and exhausting day. We took the long drive back to Matautu, witnessing a spectacular sunset across a still river.

The warmth of Southeast Asia

​Been back over a week now and I'm still reviewing and processing photos from our trip. Blog posts will be written in drips and drabs as priorities allow. I won't even bother making excuses or provide explanations on time constraints. Truth be known I'm just damn lazy!

Katong, Singapore

We moved away from the island of Sentosa and spent a night and half a day in Katong, Singapore. The Grand Mercure Hotel is located opposite Marine Parade markets. It's also a nice short walk to the beach, but since it was raining on and off we didn't spend a huge amount of time there. Instead we wandered around and enjoyed being in another country. Singapore is not like other South East Asian countries. Not that it's good or bad, but it's clean and sterile. Make what you will of that statement.





I had a lovely asian breakfast (I don't know what it was) at the markets after we gave Kien pancakes from Mc D's. It's a blessing in disguise there are Golden Arches all over the world!



We enjoyed the pool at our hotel even though it was raining...which means no one bothers going swimming. Nice for us.



Off to the airport in the afternoon and we were on our way to Thailand.





We flew over Senai Kulai, Johore.



And the Straits of Malaca.

Kathu, Phuket

My first exploration of our area was a jog to the beach at dawn. I watched the sunrise from Tri Trang beach.





Behind the screen is a building site, and there is full on work happening to construct a giant resort.





We spent the first day pretty much poolside. I did walk to the local store to get some beverages.











We had dinner up the hill from the beach. The kids had western food, Jef had Pad Thai, and I had a lovely seafood salad. Everything washed down well with Chang.







On Monday we decided to head down to Pa Tong. We wandered around the shops for a bit, then went to the beach for a bit. It was so hot and sticky and crowded, and so we all made a unanimous decision to hop in a tuk tuk and head up the hill to the other resort where we could use their facilities since it's all part of the same group.









Got to the gate and we could have been any old crowd as the guard didn't even question us.



We started teaching Kien how to dive.



We cooled off in the pool for a couple of hours. Bliss.