Roughing it

Who loves camping? Us! We love camping. It's "roughing it", but not really.

When I was in the army my favourite exercises were those out in the field; setting up shelter, digging trenches, radio relay, heating rations on a hexi cooker, and even being on sentry duty. Back then the threat of being sent off to war wasn't real at all, especially for someone with my profile - i.e. female, territorial force signaller, asian, university educated. Believe it or not I actually wanted to be sent on tour when I was regular force for a bit, but, like I said, my profile put me at the bottom of the list. I was just a girl wanting to play soldiers, as far as my commanding officer was concerned, and I guess (to a degree) he was right. I've had many philosophical debates with myself regarding war, the army, and where I come from and what my family has been through. It's complex, multi layered, perhaps paradoxical, but anyway - ANYWAY, I'm not here to talk about the army!

Camping. We love camping! We went camping. A couple of Saturdays ago, after finishing up at work (don't ask) we headed out to Muriwai and set up a tent. It was very cosy.





The beach was right next to us, just over the rise. But first, dinner. No hexi cubes here. We got burgers and fries from the local.



We hid from the wind by eating in the car.



Then we ran over sand dunes.









We kicked sand around as the waves crashed violently before us.







All this happening under the setting sun.















It rained overnight, and early morning, but who cares. We were snug as a bug in a rug - a bug with an umbrella.





After lazily packing up our camp site we went to Maori Bay to see the gannets.









Man, it was one heck of a weekend, and just what I needed to take my mind off things. It was easy, and definitely fun.

Pumpkin carving extravaganza

Last weekend we went to a kids dinner which also consisted of a pile of pumpkins being massacred. Here's what that decimation looked like:









The carnage:



The result:



The kids had dinner after the cleanup:





Then it was judgement time:







The votes were cast, and I'll give you a guess at which one won. OK, it was this one:



Guess who carved it?



The end.

Last minute run to the beach

We were home all day today trying to catch up on tasks that we've both put off. But unfortunately the 3 3/4 year old boy doesn't do too well being inside while mum and dad try to do their own thing. He broke a few things, knocked over a few others, and cried a number of times over trivial stuff. Jef did most of the parenting today - I was in a bit of a funk and stayed in bed. So when a friend got in contact at around 5pm saying they were camping out at Muriwai Beach and suggested we join them for dinner, well it was an invitation too good to pass. I gave Jef a break, persuaded Kien to come out with me, and 35 minutes later we were at the playground out at the beach.

I had a really pleasant time catching up with my chum and her son, and after Kien stopped being clingy he too had a good time. We ordered fish and chips from the Sand Dunes Beach Cafe and took it back to the campground. After dinner we left them to their "camping", and Kien and I headed over the sand dunes to the beach.







This was exactly what I needed tonight to pull me out of my gloom; fresh air, running around on a long stretch of beach with the wind in our hair, Kien and I chasing each other and having sand fights.







Of course the beautiful sunset topped it all off.

Glorious Sunday

On a beautiful sunny Sunday we looked for somewhere new we could head out to. Tahuna Torea Nature Reserve was a perfect destination for us. This was a coastal bush walk that took us meandering through trees, on the board walk, and along paths lined with tall grass.





We stopped to look at Purple Swamphens (known locally as the Pūkeko) and heard the beautiful trill of a Tui.















We wandered through the mangroves and made our way onto the sand/cockle shells as we headed out to the spit.





Kien was throwing shells up in the air and would celebrate a successful throw with a groovy victory dance.





As you can see it was way low, low tide.







That's the marina in the background we moved out yacht from back in January.

We walked around and back to a clearing on the beach to shelter us from the wind that whipped through the channel. There we stopped for refreshments.





Kien got a haircut. A hairdresser comes around to daycare and if we want to pay her $15 she will cut our child's hair to any specification. I explained to one of the teachers what I wanted. This wasn't it.











We had a fantastic outing and felt so refreshed after such a hectic week. My work life right now is just mad. I'm working ridiculous hours because I end up taking stuff home. Our vendors are based in another time zone so I've been doing a full day at work and then come home and sometimes will do another half day after Kien is in bed. I just need to get over this hurdle and then put a stop to this, pronto. I remember making the decision to work part-time for a reason! Anyway, I can't complain, really. I am lucky to have my very flexible job with flexible hours and a flexible team. So the whinge was just to get it off my chest, but also to let you know why I haven't been updating regularly or replying to you when you've been in contact. Things will lighten up soon (1 December, actually). Yay! Roll on summer!