Mid North Rodeo

Now did you ever think that New Zealand would one of the four countries taking part in Rodeo? USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand make up the Rodeo champions. Stuart and I went to the Mid North event last weekend. It was one of the coolest things I've ever been to.

Real cowboys, with full gear, some of them cowboys as a profession. They had built a rodeo ring with stalls for the bulls and broncs. We watched bull riding, saddle bronc, bare back riding, and even a calf event for the little kids. It was so sweet seeing the little cowboys trying to ride the bucking calves.

We also saw some pretty nasty accidents. One of the bull fighters who was helping chase the bulls from the ring, got kicked in the face by the back end of a bull. He was stretchered off by the ambulance team, with the commentator stating his cheek wasn't quite in the same place anymore. One of the horses died in the ring. It was running around and then for some stupid reason ran head first into a closed gate. He had a heart attack and died straight away. They were all very honest about it, the vet said he was dead before he even hit the ground. And young cowboy fell from a bucking bronc and dislocated his elbow. Dangerous life, that of a cowboy!

There were also rope and tie events, where the cowboy was mounted, had to lasso a calf, jump from his horse and tie up the calf's legs. The quickest guy did it in just over 10s!!

We had a pretty surreal day, I really enjoyed it!

Freewind

Stuart and I took a day trip on the beautiful 'Freewind', a three sail yacht.

We were taken out into the Bay of Islands for the day. There was a great wind so we were out with full sails, and pelting along. The yacht was tipping right up and dipping into the water. I had to hold on by bracing my feet on the side railings.

We anchored out in a bay for lunch, and Stuart and I took a dip. With wet suits, flippers and snorkels, we jumped off the back of the boat. I've only been out snorkeling twice so far, so jumping off the boat into 30ft deep water was pretty impressive for me :-) Only thing was there were no fish. We saw two little piddlers, silver and black, so not very exciting. Stuart spent the time teaching me how to surface dive. I'm not too bad.........the main problem is my big bum keeps trying to bring me back up to the surface. It's like I'm strapped to my own buoyancy aid! lol

The day we were out was also the race for the Tall Ship Regatta. Beautiful big sail ships racing from Paihia, out to the hole in the rock, then back in to the Russel port. On our way back to shore we in amongst the tall ships. It felt pretty good overtaking some of them, even though we weren't taking part. At one point I looked back to where we had been and it was as if a pirate ship was chasing us. It was a beautiful old ship.

Had an awesome day out on the boat, my dad would have absolutely loved it. When he come out this year I'll have to take him up for a look.

River Swim

The weather has been fantastic recently. Very hot...a bit too hot for Stuart....so we have been swimming in the river for a cool down. It's down at the bottom of Aunt Janette's hill. It may not be the prettiest cleanest river, but the water is freezing and it gives a lot of shade. We even took little Brodie down for a swim. He is Janette and Alistair's grandson.

On the way home Stuart found a butterfly and sat it on Brodie's hand. It was actually dying but we didn't have the heart to tell him, so Stuart sat in back on a leaf. The wind kept blowing it off so we just said it was tired lol

New Year

Happy New Year!! Welcome to 2013.

Hogmany isn't really celebrated here in New Zealand. For the first time I actually went to bed before the bells. No party, no fireworks and no bells even. If we didn't check the date, New Year would have just passed us by.
New Years day we went to Waipu for their annual Highland Games. Surreal being at a Highland Games in New Zealand. But we couldn't actually stay long. Due to a problem we definitely don't experience at home......too hot. We were burning up in the sun with no shade. Our white Scottish skin was not catered for lol It was a good attempt, but not a patch on the real thing. I did meet a couple of Kiwi William Wallaces though.

 And enjoyed a treat of a mince pie with a can of Irn Bru.

I hope you all had a fantastic New Year at home. Not too many hangovers the next day I hope. 2012 has been an unbelievable year. Being able to travel over here, all the things we have seen and experienced, and it's only the beginning. I wish everyone all the best for 2013, I've got a feeling it's gonna be amazing! :-)

Boogie Boarding

I have never been a great lover of the sea. The waves seem pretty scary, and I'm not the strongest swimmer. So Stuart has been attempting to get me in, diving under waves and building my confidence. It was going very, very badly, until I discovered Boogie Boarding. When I have that board strapped to my wrist, all fear disappears and it is amazingly good fun. Oh, but I still had to wear a snorkel mask......looks stupid.....but I didn't care :-) lol

And the kids board were a good laugh. Dolphins for me and a very scary shark for Stuart!! :-)
As a treat we had fish and chips that night at Shippeys. A beached ship that has been turned into a chippy, eating fish and chips out of newspaper on the deck. A really cool place that we are definitely going back to.

Christmas

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! :-)

Our first Christmas in the sunshine of New Zealand. It's pretty weird celebrating Christmas when it's hot outside, all the windows and doors are open, and you're enjoying breakfast wearing a summer dress! Aunt Janette made a spread of salmon and Californian cocktail. For the amount of food she had planned for the day, we had to start pretty early lol

Time for presents. Mum and Dad had sent parcels from Scotland, so it was great to open presents from them on Christmas morning. My Mum sent a beautiful jacket, totally my taste and style, prefect! :-) Aunt Janette made me the most beautiful box. She filled it with all small collections of old trinkets. It had hat pins, brooches, lace and linens, a perfume bottle, old scraps and loads more. I love it.

We had a ham and turkey Christmas dinner....cooked Kiwi style.............on the BBQ. Just as well, because no way would they be fitting in the oven! The ham was MASSIVE!

Although Stuart did attempt to eat it in a oner lol

Christmas dinner was very tasty. I piled my plate pretty high, and only just managed to finish it. Loosening off a couple of trouser buttons helped though.

 And no Christmas would be complete without the Christmas tree. Kiwi style......outdoors.

Instead of cheap Christmas cracker trinkets and jokes, Aunt Janette gave us Kiwi Christmas tree decorations. Santa on the beach, and a Santa and Tui campervan. Our first decorations for our tree next year.

After dinner we had to have some traditional Christmas cake. Abigail and I had decorated it the night before with a little icing snowman.We even had a play about without the excess making a summer sea scene. Arty eh? :-)

Marsipan fruits anyone?

It has been an awesome Christmas, fantastic to spend it with family. Stuart and I have really enjoyed these past few weeks with Aunt Janette and Uncle Alistair.

Kauri Museum

After visiting the Kauri forests, we went to Matakohe, home to the Kauri Museum. It was a little like Beamish near Durham in the UK, with a post office, school house and pioneer church with actors and interactive displays. A living, breathing, pioneer museum. It even had a full size boarding house, all the rooms complete with old furniture and mannequins to act out each scenario. The hairdresser, the banker, even the doctor and the dentist.

The museum is massive. Rooms filled with old Kauri trees, Kauri furniture and full displays showing how they cut down and then removed the trees from the surrounding forests.

You just can't believe how big these trees can grow until you see them for yourself. This wall shows the circumferences of the largest Kauri trees ever discovered in New Zealand.

And this section has been cut from a single length of tree trunk.

We even  got to sit inside one that had been hollowed to fashion a seat.

My favourite display was actually outside of the museum, what they call Swamp Kauri. Kauri trees and roots that have been preserved for thousand of years underground in swamps and bogs. They end up there after volcano eruptions or earthquakes.

They also had huge glass cases filled with Kauri Gum. New Zealand's version of Amber. It was a pretty good day out. It took us at least three hours to explore everything, and was a good way to get out of the rain.