Winter's Last Stand

Monday

Today was officially the last day of winter. For some reason, spring here starts a few weeks earlier than the equinox, but we don't mind. Ro's class had a cupcake sale today, which meant Sherry spent most of yesterday baking cupcakes. She's become quite the PTA mom. To get Ro out from under her feet while she baked, Mark took him to Drury Park. Despite the intermittently rainy weather, there were a few other kids he knew there, and he spent a couple of carefree hours spinning around on the Witches Hat or sliding down the wet metal slide and generally getting as muddy as possible.

Hard at work icing cupcakes

Sherry was really pleased with how her Monsters turned out

Drizzly day on The Mount

They just don't make slides like this anymore

It's a brave kid who'll touch Ro's feet

Ro gets the party started

Sherry's masterful creations sold out quickly

Ro's kitchen chair and couch cushion fort has a guest

When Sherry brought the cupcakes to school this morning, it turned out that all the parents who brought them had already iced them like Sherry. Ms Carr was hoping for some plain ones so the kids could have fun decorating them in class; Sherry jumped to the rescue and quickly came home to whip up another batch in time for the lunchtime bake sale. While at the school, she noticed one of the class projects hanging up, where everyone drew a picture of fire, and wrote a sentence or two to go with it. Most of the kids' sentences were along the lines of: "my fire is hot," "don't touch my fire, it burns," and "my fire has leaping flames." Mat, one of Ro's classmates who until recently was living in Syria, told about an actual kitchen fire at his house there! Ro's was a little less, uh...Terran:

Maybe we let him watch too much Sci-Fi

Mat & Ro playing a sort of alphabet hopscotch

Ro went straight for Mommy's cupcakes

Jack & Ro double-fisting their "lunch"

The Hills Take To The Hills

Saturday

Due to a somewhat erratic schedule recently, Mark found himself with a whole week off starting today. Woo-Hoo! No chance of a peaceful sleep-in, though, as Ro was rarin' to go at 05:30...yeesh. We eventually made our way down to Papamoa to hit the toy library, where Ro picked up an airport playset and a Hot Wheels track. Everyone we know here has told us to check out Papamoa Hills Park, and today we finally did.

Entrance to Papamoa Hills Park

The Papamoa Hills are just down the coast from Mt Maunganui, before you get to Te Puke. The path to the top where you can get a view of The Mount is about 1.6km, but feels longer since it's nearly all a steep climb. Ro must not have been in a tramping mood, because he started complaining after walking only about 50 metres, "My legs are bending!" Like an old man, he sat down on the first bench he saw, scarfing down trail mix while carefully avoiding all the nuts. Fortunately, about halfway up, he got his wind when he saw a boy who couldn't have been more than three coming down the trail with his parents. He also struck up a conversation with a 65 year-old guy who passed us on the way up, saying things to him that he would say to a classmate that in this case were just nonsensical, like, "I'm older than you!"

The first of many breaks on the way up

Yet another break

Sherry finally caved in for a little while

Enjoying the view from the electric fence (noticed later)

As we neared the top, avoiding sheep droppings became a chief concern. Ro didn't seem to care, and would stomp on them just to hear them squish, much to Sherry's chagrin. The view as we reached the top was magnificent, even on this overcast day. Looking northwest you could see all of Tauranga and Mt Maunganui, to the northeast was the Pacific Ocean, southwest were rolling hills and the Kaimai range, and southeast was the fertile farmlands around Te Puke and the coast winding away towards Whakatane. There were plenty of sheep for Ro to try to sneak up on, although they never did let him get too close.

This lamb wasn't about to let Ro get near him

Lamb in Papamoa Hills

We stopped at the geologic marker at the highest point in the park, where we found a plastic canister containing a visitor signing book. Ro, of course, wanted to leave his name in it too, taking up half a page in the process. We brought a picnic lunch, and stopped to eat on some nice log benches near the top with a great view, but Sherry wanted to move to a more sheltered venue. It's pretty blustery at the top, and Sherry wasn't too enthused at the idea of eating while surrounded by sheep poo, as if it were going to jump off the grass and into her sandwich. More than likely, though, she didn't want to sit on the logs Ro had just walked on with his sheep poo ridden shoes. If you hadn't guessed, Sherry is the resident germaphobe in our family (she denies this, stating she's just a normal female).

Ro put his John Hancock in the log

Sherry in Papamoa Hills Park

Ro in a "Hobbit Hole"

Steep sheep

Sheep with Mauao in background

Mark probably could have left his shades in the car

"Here, little lamby-lamb!"

This lamb was Sherry's favorite

Heading down

On our way back down, we stopped and ate lunch. Sherry brought a blanket for Ro to picnic on, but made sure he took off his poo shoes first. After we made it down to the carpark and cleaned Ro off as best we could, we headed for Papamoa Beach. It's still too cold to get in the water, but Ro loved getting as sandy as possible. He played with his new toys once we got home, as Sherry prepared sweet & sour chicken for dinner. We watched Burn After Reading once Ro was in bed, and Mark stayed up to root for the Wallabies in the Tri-Nations match as they hosted the Springboks, who need to lose for the All Blacks to have a chance at the title.

Enjoying some cheese and crackers


Ro & Mark on Papamoa Beach

Our 100th Post!

Wednesday

Earlier this week, Sherry was helping Ro's class make clay tea-light holders (her pottery background is finally paying dividends). After helping the teacher clean up, Ro was coloring during free-play and wrote the word "Mom." A girl in his class named Greer corrected him, "No, it's M-U-M." Ro looked puzzled, and Sherry came to his aid, letting the girl know that it can be spelled either way depending on where you live. The girl, hearing Sherry's accent, asked "Oh, you guys are from America?" When Sherry replied in the affirmative, the girl squealed with delight, "That's where Hannah Montana lives!" Then she ran off to tell her friend as if we were Miley Cyrus' cousins or something. Apparently, like swine flu, some plagues are universal.

Yesterday, the three of us went back to The Rock House so Ro could climb (he'd been asking us to go back ever since he went on Sunday). We ended up buying him a 6-month membership so he can climb as much as he wants. Now that his rugby season is finished, he needs an outlet for his energy, and this actually works out better because he can go climbing whenever he feels like it, and we don't have to worry about keeping to anyone else's schedule.

Ro heads for the ceiling

Sherry belaying Ro as he tries a new route

Made it to the top where the big boys live

Although it's still technically winter, it was shorts weather today, and Mark has hopefully retired his blue jeans as far as New Zealand is concerned. Sherry started feeling sick again last night as the monster virus bounced back to her, and woke up this morning scarcely able to move. As she took to the couch with her blankets and hot water bottle, Mark kept bringing her tea, and we sat around watching movies all day while Ro was at school. No matter how many times you watch Animal House, it's still funny. Mark picked up Ro and Tori from school (MJ was home sick), and knowing Sherry needed some quiet time alone, took the kids to the rock climbing gym. Although the kids had to take turns, since Mark was the only one who could belay them, they still had a good time. Ro's favorite activity there is climbing the metal fire ladder, which is on a reverse incline and goes all the way to the rafters. Well, climbing it isn't really his favorite part - swinging off it is! About every other rung, he'll let go of the ladder and swing out away from it, stretching out to grab it as he swings back and continuing on with his climb. After a while, he began turning away from the ladder, hooking the tops of his feet over the rungs and leaning forward with his arms outstretched like Superman about to leap off a tall building. Tori was copying him in no time flat. After climbing for a couple of hours, we dropped Tori at Carla's flat and came home to wake Sherry from her much-needed nap. Mark "cooked" dinner, hoofing it down the street to pick up Indian takeaway for Sherry and Ro, and fish & chips for himself.

Jockeying for position

Tori took this one

...and this one of Ro conquering a new route

Ro Finds His Calling

Sunday

Working all weekend and still sick as a dog, Mark took a risk and stayed up last night to watch the Tri-Nations rugby match, and it was worth it. Down 12-3 at halftime, the All Blacks came back to beat the Wallabies in dramatic fashion 19-18 at Olympic Stadium in Sydney in front of a crowd of 80,000. Their victory ensured their retention of the Bledisloe Cup for a sixth consecutive year. After both the All Blacks and Wallabies were manhandled by the reigning world-champion South Africans in recent weeks, it was good to see NZ get back on track. Even our local Bay of Plenty Steamers won yesterday, and sit atop the standings in the Air New Zealand Cup.

See links: http://www.scrum.com/trinations/rugby/story/101540.html

http://www.scrum.com/newzealandclub/rugby/story/101471.html

The house officers at the hospital change over tomorrow, so today was Mark's last shift with a lot of his experienced juniors, who are moving on to other places. He was able to get one of them to write him a Rx for pseudoephedrine - you can't get it over the counter here due to the meth problem.

Mauao as seen from Tauranga Hospital

While Mark was working, Sherry tried to keep Ro entertained on a rainy Sunday afternoon. She's still a little under the weather herself, but Ro is back to his usual form, with the exception of an occasional cough. Sherry is also doing a week-long fast/cleansing, which Mark doesn't quite understand; as he put it, "Does whoever dies with the cleanest colon win?"

Fortunately, Sherry remembered that there is a rock-climbing gym on the other side of Blake Park, which Ro took to like a fish to water. They have a kid's wall there, but Ro soon conquered that, and proceeded to climb 4 of the 6 adult beginner walls while Sherry belayed him. He could have easily climbed the others if he were a few inches taller. If we ever build a house, we'll have to put a bouldering room in it, as we'd always know where to find Ro. Even the staff members and other parents remarked to Sherry at Ro's enthusiasm, "He's a natural! It's nice when they find their sport, isn't it?" After climbing for 3 solid hours, both Ro and Sherry's necks were starting to ache from looking up so much! Although, Ro didn't want to leave, Sherry saw an opportunity to ride home between rain squalls and took it.

See link: http://www.therockhouse.co.nz/welcome.htm

Ro having fun at The Rock House

Enjoying the view from up high

Just hanging around...from a "rock" no bigger than Sherry's fist

After stopping at the chemist to pick up his treasured pseudoephedrine, Mark came home to Sherry cooking him a rack of lamb, steamed broccoli, and baked kumara (with brown sugar). Mark felt a twinge of guilt sucking the tender meat off the bones while Sherry's dinner was nothing but beef broth, but that soon passed. One good thing about Sherry's fast - Mark got to eat the last of the Tim Tams! We've long since finished the Girl Scout cookies Brittany (Ro's baby sitter) shipped us from the States. Props to you, Britt! We put Ro to bed (he was tired from climbing all day), then settled on the couch with our runny noses and Kleenex to watch Mission Impossible 2, which Sherry had never seen. It was cool to see the spots in Sydney we'd been to in the film. Sherry retired after the movie, but Mark was wired on pseudo and stayed up to fiddle around on the laptop and watch the 4th day of the 5th Ashes Test match (Test cricket takes a while). The TV crew kept cutting to shots of Daniel Radcliffe and Tom Felton (Draco Malfoy) sitting in the front row of the stands, downing their beers and prompting the commentator to ask, "What mystery potions do we have there? 'Harry Potter and the Mystery of the Disappearing Lager.'" It all seemed to be an excuse for the camera to linger on Tom's girlfriend Jade Olivia, herself a tabloid favorite in the UK. England ended up beating Australia by 197 runs to claim the deciding match of the series. Not a good sporting weekend for the Ozzies.

See links: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Ashes

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12172_5462303,00.html

The Beast Claims Its Last Victim

Saturday

Whatever vicious microbe Ro caught, he has since passed it on to Sherry, who was miserable all week. Last night, it was Mark's turn. Fortunately, he had the quietest evening shift in the ED that he can remember since, well, ever. While there were probably 30 people in the ED at 11pm Thursday, last night there were only a half-dozen. Something to do with the rain pouring down all day, probably. Mark started spiking a fever his last hour at work, and by the time he went to bed he was in full-blown rigors.

Mark spent most of today lying on the couch, covered in as many blankets as he could scrounge up. Sherry, who was finally feeling better, took Ro out to burn off some energy at the nice Playplace at the McDonald's down in Papamoa Beach, giving Mark some much-needed peace and quiet. While there, they stopped at the Papamoa library to get some new books. The library there is much bigger than the one in Mt Maunganui, and they even have a toy library! For a nominal charge, you can rent out some really cool toys for two weeks at a time...longer than most kids' attention spans for a new toy anyway. Today Ro picked out an Imaginext jungle playset, similar to his pirate ship back home (props to grandparents Randy & Martha for that one - Mark enjoys it almost as much as Ro). After playing with his new toy for a solid couple of hours, Ro helped Sherry prepare dinner; he really enjoyed cutting up the string beans with a "big boy knife." So much so, that Sherry had to stop him before the beans became diced and not merely sliced. Thankfully, there were no finger amputations!

We soon tired of the jungle sounds on Ro's Gorilla Mountain playset, but he didn't!

Remember, slicing your fingers is considered poor form!

I Get A Kick Out Of You

Sunday

With Ro still a little under the weather, we stuck close to home today. Bay City Cinemas is right down the street, so we caught the matinee of Coraline. Although it opened in the States back in February, it just recently started here. Mark tried to talk Ro into outvoting Sherry and seeing the new Harry Potter instead, but no luck. Ro has finally gotten to the point where he'll actually stay in his seat for a whole movie, or maybe it's just because he was sick. Even so, he wanted to leave about 2/3 of the way through the movie when it started getting scary.

We spent the rest of the afternoon across the street at Coronation Park, teaching Ro to kick a rugby ball. Although strategic kicking in a match is crucial for upper-level players, youth leagues hardly have any kicking whatsoever. Remember that you can't pass the ball forward in rugby, but you CAN kick it forward. Regardless, it's a skill he can easily translate to soccer or American football back home. After watching the boys kick the ball around for a while, Sherry went home to get dinner started (steak, kumaras, and roasted Brussels sprouts), while Mark and Ro played Hide & Seek at the park. The ducks have finally shown up at the pond again, and Ro loved chasing them around trying to feed them.

Ro getting the hang of it

Learning to catch kicks, too

Ro booms one skyward

Rolling down the hill...always a favorite pastime

Relaxing in Coronation Park

Sherry perfecting her pan-frying technique

Everything's Coming Up Roses

Saturday

Ro has been sick for the past few days. During the day he seems fine, if a little more subdued than usual (read: about the same energy level as a typical kid), but at night he's got a bad croupy cough and is spiking fevers. When his fever is up, he's very clingy and doesn't want to do much except cuddle on the couch. Sherry has kept him out of school the past couple of days, because she knows that as soon as the teacher heard his seal-bark cough, she would have called Sherry to pick him up anyway. His friend MJ had to spend half a day in the school sick bay just because he complained of a sore throat, waiting to get picked up. Swine flu is rampant here, and the school doesn't take any chances.

Sherry and Ro's nights have been pretty sleepless as a result of his illness, so we skipped rugby this morning. He was feeling better by mid-morning, though, and with Mark having the weekend off we decided to check out someplace new. Ro had gone to the Te Puna Quarry Park on a field trip when his class was studying butterflies last term to see the butterfly farm there, so Sherry checked it out on the internet and it seemed like a good place to spend a warm (Yes!) Saturday afternoon. The park used to be an abandoned quarry in the blink-and-you-miss-it town of Te Puna, just west of Tauranga (on the way to Waihi and Auckland), but has since been transformed into a really beautiful botanical garden.

http://www.quarrypark.org.nz/

We got to the park around noon, and found a place for our picnic lunch, right next to a big stone dragon and a medieval-looking stone building with a curved slide around it. Ro would come back to us every few minutes to nibble his sandwich, then run off to play again. It didn't take him long to meet a new friend, Kirsten, who was there with her parents and baby brother. Ro started off by hiding in the bushes and spying on her...kinda creepy if he was thirty years older, but cute when he's five. We had a bit of fun with Ro and kept intentionally blowing his cover, eliciting several scolding glances from him. As the girl and her family wandered off to explore the park, he egged us on, "Go talk with her parents so we can walk together!"

Ro trying to keep his balance walking down the slippery slide


Ro meets Kirsten on the slide

We headed for the orchid garden, which Sherry wanted to see, reassuring Ro that we would likely meet up again with Kirsten since all the trails connect. Sure enough, she and her family were coming the other way on the trail 5 minutes later, and Ro and Kirsten were inseparable for the rest of the afternoon. Although the park was very beautiful, we probably hit it a few weeks too early to catch the best of it, blooming-wise (with the exception of the roses, which were peaking). From multiple places in the park, you have striking views of Mauao (Mt Maunganui) and the western Bay of Plenty.

Stopping to smell the roses

Sherry checking out a crockery-mosaic couple

Making music together

Ro & Mark with Mauao seen faintly in background

Expansive view from the quarry walls

Sherry still rocking the scarf and hoodie in T-shirt weather


Helping Robbie onto the log train


Inspecting the mosaic stream running under the footbridge

The western face of Mauao

Kirsten was carrying around a white stuffed dog named Mittens, which she kept intentionally throwing in the bushes for Ro to fetch for her. After the kids ran themselves tired around the trails in the park, Ro and Kirsten commandeered the stroller, displacing her baby brother Robbie. Her dad didn't seem to mind as he pretended to keep letting go of the stroller on the steep hillside, much to their faux-fright delight. Although we didn't end up seeing even half of the park, we were there for several hours and the kids wanted to play on the dragon again before we left. Mittens got stuck up in a tree after an errant toss, and Mark had to subtly retrieve it (lacerating his finger in the process) so Ro could still play the hero. Kirsten even gave Ro a hug as they said goodbye.

Enjoying the ride


Just kidding!

One last slide down the dragon's back