Beach Time

There is something very special about visiting beaches.. they provide hours of entertainment for the kids and chill out time for the parents watching the kids! You always have common interests.. to relax and enjoy the beach and the beauty about it is that every time you visit the beach, it's different, and free!! 

 

We enjoyed Stanmore Bay beach recently, a special beach to me as it's one of the beaches that I spent a lot of time at when I was a kid, and now I am sharing it with mine!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rocky Bay Dip, Great Mercury Island

Great Mercury Island is a small island between the end of Coromandel and Tauranga.  It is not far from Whitianga and for the kids it was the first time they had been there.  After walking over to this secluded bay they enjoyed nature at it's best with swimming, collecting and relaxing.

 

There were so many different types of stones, it was hard to not pick them up!

 



Island Trekking, Great Mercury Island

On our summer holiday cruise we went ashore at Great Mercury Island.  This is a beautiful island with walks all over it to many of the bays and huge rock formations. 

 

The kids had great fun exploring amongst the farm animals and beaches!  Trekking over it we found cattle stops, an abundance of sheep and cows and even a small patch of flowers!

 

 

 

Retail Experience

While I am doing some sign writing for a local retailer, the kids get to accompany me and help me out.  Fortunately I have known the staff for years so they love having the kids help them with the 'stock'.  They also like to see what I'm doing, help me with some of the letters, and always like doing the exclamation marks!

I think it's great practice for them so let them help me when they want (provided I have their painting clothes along with me too!) After a while Blake likes to paint his own box so that keeps him busy as he likes to paint EVERY surface!

  

Book Swap, Te Wero Island

There are 3 shipping containers that are near us on Te Wero Island where we are currently moored in the Viaduct Harbour.  Over the summer one of them was used as a children's "stop in and play" area, where some board games, colouring books and cards were left for people to use.   Over the past two months it has been now transformed into a "Book Swap" which relies on people's honesty in either swapping or returning the books. So far it's been very successful!  Even the kids have a great time rummaging through the kids section!

Collecting Cockles, Waiheke Island

Easter time meant we can escape Auckland City (much easier by boat!), and venture out to the islands of the Hauraki Gulf.  After anchoring at Waiheke, we enjoyed relaxing and the ritual of harvesting shelfish from the shore.  We went ashore not actually knowing what we were going to collect, but we found lovely cockles!

The kids love helping collecting them, and even filled up their flippers!

Ashore at Waiheke, the kids had a great time making volcanoes out of the mud

 Blake found his mustache!

 Making volcanoes, puddles & finding cockles

Watching a sea slug doing a 'fast escape'... yes, it was travelling slightly faster than a snail 

After contacting DOC about this sea slug for identification, we were advised it is a "Woolly Sea Hare" or Bursatella Leachii.  It is known to emit a purple liquid when disturbed (which it did with us, strange as it was!), and is found on sheltered shores of northeastern New Zealand and the warmer waters of the Western Pacific Ocean.  It is fairly common and can grow quite large up to 120mm in length - which is quite large for a sea slug!!!

 Cockles!  Flippers are multi-use!

Finding shells, fish and flounder in Mickey & Mike's net.

Freya helping the locals release the baby flounder they had caught in their net.