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Santa Run!

So today we ran around Auckland Viaduct in Santa suits! It was lots of fun but very hot in full outfit including beard! It is so strange having Christmas in the sunshine anyway but running around in 23 degrees didn't cross my mind when we signed up for it! I 'ran' with Jennie and Michelle- well, they ran, I did more of a Santa Stroll! It was only 3km and there were stunning views of the Harbour Bridge and the Sky Tower but wow, it was boiling!

Fortunately, I get to keep the Santa suit so will be wearing at every opportunity obviously!

Fiafia Day

At school this week, the senior children (Year 5 and 6) at our school took part in a cultural performance to share with their families and our school community. It was called the Fiafia Day which means happy day! Many of my students will be posting their recounts about the Fiafia Day on our class blog and there will be photos and videos on there to look at so please take some time to check these out at www.yendarraschooltuis.blogspot.com

It has been a great week but I'm definitely ready for a well-earned rest over Christmas and New Year. I am SO excited about Katy, Owen and Nicola coming over to see me next week but have lots of work and packing to get done before then!

Counting Down to Christmas!

Hi everyone,

Sorry (again) about the long wait for more news from me. I have been SO busy with lots of end of year things and just had no time to sit down and share my news.

Hope everyone is well and looking forward to Christmas. It is very strange having Christmas on the way when it keeps getting warmer but sadly it's non-stop rain at the moment which is no fun!

Over the last couple of months, I've done some fun things like going up to Keri Keri to stay in a bach by the beach for a weekend. We went up because some friends of Jennie were running the Keri Keri half marathon so we went to support. Fortunately the weather was gorgeous and we got to enjoy the sunshine although the sea was a bit cold for a dip (for most of us anyway!)

I also went to Waitangi which is a very significant place in New Zealand history and we saw a Maori cultural performance which is always fantastic. We also took a very very long drive up to Cape Reinga which is the very northern tip of New Zealand. It was rather windy but a very interesting and spiritual place to be. Maori people believe it is the place where the dead move down into the underworld and there is a flat rock with a single tree on it where they believe there are steps leading the dead down. It is also the point where the Tasman Sea meets the Pacific Ocean and you can sea a line of bright blue water and crashing waves where this happens.

Coming up at school is our Fiafia Day tomorrow which is a cultural celebration where all of the senior children (Years 5 and 6) perform to the whole school and our community. I have been working with the Tongan group and have learnt so much about their culture and traditions. I can't wait to see and hear all of the singing and dancing tomorrow as the Maori, Samoan, Nuiean and Cook Island groups all perform (weather permitting!)

I will write again soon, hopefully with some photos and video clips! xxx

Room 13 Class Blog

Please check out my new class blog and if you have time, please comment on my student's work - it would really make them happy if you tell them what you like about what they have shared and where you are from.

www.yendarraschooltuis.blogspot.com

There are also links to other Yendarra School blogs if you have time to look - they would really appreciate it!

Thank you all! x

On my way back to NZ

Hi Everyone,

I know I've been very quiet for many months but shall endeavour to be much better at blogging during my last few months in NZ. I'm currently on my way back to Auckland and once again I am sat in Hong Kong airport and feeling surprisingly ok... I think this trip definitely gets easier every time and I have now just accepted that it will be painful and uncomfortable and that I just have to deal with it!

I have just had a fantastic couple of weeks at home in lovely Solihull. It was really good to see everyone and catch up on what I've been missing. Briefly popped into Bishop Wilson and Coppice (who did a wonderful harvest festival might I add!) and it was really good to see things are well.

While I've been home I've been lucky enough to see some sights - I went to Bath, Malvern, Stonehenge, Salisbury, to see Evita and even did a hot air balloon ride over Swindon!! I felt spoilt rotten with all the exciting things I got up to and it reminded me what a beautiful place England is and now I can't wait to come back! It did help of course that the sun was shining most of the time I've been back - I was very lucky to have been able to enjoy the good weather.

It's now Tuesday morning UK time but Tuesday night NZ time and I'm currently stuck in the middle in Hong Kong where it's about dinner time! I don't get back to Auckland until lunchtime Wednesday (Is it wrong I am timing things by meal times!!) and am back in school Thursday! Not looking forward to it only because it'll be a shock to the system after such a long break but I am very much looking forward to seeing my class and to telling them all about my adventures! I hope they're kind to me on my return! :)

Will do my best to blog more regularly and keep you posted on my last 3 months in Auckland. I will also attempt to upload a couple of pics from my visit home for you to enjoy.

Missing you all at home already! xxx

Long time, no blog!

Hi Everyone,

That is if anyone's still checking this blog since it's been such a long time since I updated it! I'm very sorry for my lack of blogs...I hadn't realised it had been over two months!

I'm currently sat at Hong Kong Airport waiting for my connecting flight from her to London. I'm coming home for a couple of weeks because it's our school holiday in Auckland and I'm missing everyone! I'll try and visit Coppice and Bishop Wilson while I'm home and am hoping to see as many people as possible while I'm back! The school year ends at xmas anyway so I should be home for good then. :)

It's been a very busy few months - it was our winter holidays here in July when my mum, dad and brother came over to NZ to see me and then we've been pretty busy at school too with one thing or another. The term has flown by and I can't believe it's nearly the end of the year! At school we've been looking at germs and staying well which the children have enjoyed. They had great fun creating a 3D germ each to display at our whole school art exhibition which sadly I'm missing because I'll be on my way home then. Next term we're learning about Kiwiana which will be really interesting and will also involve me doing a lot of learning! My NZ dictionary will come in handy then...!

Outside of school, I've taken part in the Otara Clean-Up which is when we went and picked up rubbish from our school's local area and have had a couple of weekends away. I've moved house yet again! I'm now living with my friend Jennie in a lovely house (with a dog!) and I'm really happy there.

I'm going to see if I have any photos to attach but have been a bit rubbish lately at taking them so apologies!

I hope all is well at home and everyone's happy to be back at school - I can't believe it's been over a year since I started at Coppice!

xxx

Learning to speak Kiwi!

I am slowly getting my head around the different New Zealand words for things so thought I’d share some with you. I have seemed pretty dim to most people here who are surprised I don’t know what these words mean, especially the children at school!

Kiwi - slang for New Zealander so refers to any thing/person from New Zealand. This is quite confusing as there is also a native flightless, nocturnal bird called a Kiwi and the fruit, which is never called a Kiwi but always a Kiwi FRUIT!

Eh – at the end of every sentence which means ‘don’t you think/agree’, e.g. it’s pretty cold, eh?

Sweet/sweet as – cool/very cool

Bro - mate

As – really, e.g. hot as=really hot, cheap as=really cheap!

Jandals – flip flops

Singlet – vest top

Ice block – ice lolly

(I thought my housemate was talking about a glacier when she first mentioned an ice block!)

Lollies - sweets

Twink – tippex

Vivid – permanent marker

Bach – holiday home

Dairy – corner shop

Football – rugby (confusing, eh?!)

Gum boots – wellies

Getting smart – teasing

Poking tongues – sticking out your tongue (odd as we only have one tongue!)

Tramp – bush walk/hike

There are probably loads more that I haven’t remembered but these are a few that have confused me!

Also, there are things I say which people don’t understand like brolly, poorly (they just say sick here for any illness), sweets (see above), mucky, wellies (see above ) etc.

Something else they do is to say dates as the number of the day, e.g. my birthday would be June twenty one instead of June twenty first – sounds odd to me!

Also, most people don’t say half past/quarter past when telling the time but always say in digital, i.e. 8.30, 2.45, etc.

And so concludes my NZ language lesson! ;)

Winter in NZ!

Winter is definitely here and it feels cold! So strange that it's June and I'm wearing hat and gloves-can't get my head around it! It doesn't get as cold in Auckland as it does in the UK supposedly but it feels colder because the houses are wooden and don't have central heating (radiators). My classroom is particularly cold and this week my heat pump was broken and was stuck on air conditioner instead which really helped matters!

Lately I've not been up to much...went to the Bay of Islands with Michelle at the end of Easter holidays-it was fun despite raining the whole time we were there! Apparently you can swim with dolphins and whale watch up there but the sea was just too rough to do anything and all boat tours were cancelled. It was Anzac Day while we were there which is when Australians and New Zealanders remember people that died during the wars. They chose that day because there was a huge loss of life around a beach in Turkey (I think) and they have poppies and lay wreaths just like we do on Remembrance Sunday. We met some of the NZ Navy who were at the Bay of Islands for a dawn parade.

On the way home from the Bay of Islands we stopped at 'the most photographed loo in NZ'! It was designed by an Austrian man who lived in this small village and there were so many people there to see it! It's an actual tourist attraction in the guide book but is just a very fancy, decorated toilet! It appeared to be made from ceramic, glass, clay and coloured bottles,etc. See the photos above.

I learnt more about the history of NZ when I went to the Auckland Museum last week. It's a really amazing museum with lots of Maori and Pacific culture and lots about NZ's unique environment including animals and plants that are only found here like Kiwi birds and the Moa (a huge, now extinct, bird that looks a bit like an emu). My favourite part was the Volcano exhibition. There are tonnes of volcanoes in and around NZ (some still active) and Auckland is built on around 50 volcanoes. There was this house you could go inside and they had a fake news report saying that volcanic activity had been seen around Rangitoto and then through the 'window' you could see it erupting it the sea and the house shook. It was really quite scary, especially as there is a chance it could actually happen!

Currently, looking forward to my parents and brother coming out to visit in 4 weeks time-will be really lovely to see them and will finally get a chance to explore the south island. It'll be even colder than here though so I'll need to pack some warm clothes!

The rest of Easter...

I've just realised that I actually only told you about half of my Easter holiday! So much more to tell...! Well, I went to the Auckland Luge which was a highlight. This is like go-karting but not quite as hi-tech and basically just a downhill course which you go down on little-more than a sit on skateboard with handlebars: the luge. Jennie and Sarita took me there and on the same day we went to some thermal pools not far from Auckland which was nice. I also went with them to 'The Chocolate Boutique' where we drank hot chocolate which is more like drinking a mug of pure melted chocolate - yum! :P

Long Awaited Post...

Sorry it's been such a long time since I posted any news...it's more that I haven't had much to report on rather than being too busy to blog sadly!

I've been working hard at school with Parent's Evening, Reading Assessments and Report Writing to look forward to in the coming weeks, I'm being kept very busy!

It was lovely to meet the families of the children I teach and was amazed at how many of them thanked me for teaching their children which was really special. It was a very positive experience and made me realise how settled I am here and how well I have gotten to know my wonderful class. I have a few new children and am constantly trying to do new things with them as I get used to the New Zealand system.

The weather is certainly getting colder (although it's been a warm 20 degrees this weekend which is not bad for winter!) and the rain seems endless. I see rainbows almost daily and although I was in awe and kept pointing them out to everyone at first, quickly realised how common they are and that the New Zealanders just thought I was a bit nuts going on about them!

Currently just curled up reading Marley and Me which I'm really enjoying so will get back to that and promise to blog when I have some interesting news to share!

Hope everyone is well and thank you for continuing to check my blog! :)

Happy Easter!!

Sorry I haven't written in ages but I've been so busy with preparing for Easter and the holidays. I've been very busy though so lots to share and many many photos... So Sohail's been here which has been lovely and he enjoyed coming into my school and meeting my class - they liked that Mr Khan was a decent bowler compared to Miss Hughes so we had a good game of cricket! We also went to the planetarium in Cornwall Park near One Tree Hill and learnt all about the sky here and constellations that can be seen at this time of year in New Zealand. The guy showed us how to find south using the Southern Cross (which Sohail and I managed to do in Rotorua) and told us all about the exploration of Mars which was really interesting. For Easter weekend we went down to a surf town called Raglan, stopping off on the way at the Botanical Gardens in Hamilton which were lovely. We went with my teacher friend Libby, who teaches at the same school as me, and her husband. Libby used to live in Raglan and so knows the area well so she was a great tour guide! We went to see the beaches there which are apparently world-famous for surfing. On Easter Sunday we did an Easter Egg Hunt at out hostel and then kayaked across the harbour to see Pancake Rocks. It was fairly calm on the way over but then the tide turned and the wind picked up so it was rather like a log flume, especially for me who was at the front of our double kayak! Safe to say we got absolutely soaked! On Monday we went down to Waitomo Caves and saw the glow worm caves. These are limestone caves where the environment is just right for glow worms which lie on the roof of the caves and emit light from their tails. They were beautiful and when we took the boat ride through the caves it was like looking up to a starry sky at night! (Didn't see the Southern Cross though!) We then went down to Taupo, which is on Lake Taupo and is very beautiful. The town itself isn't very exciting but there are some lovely views and we went out on another kayak to the Maori carvings which were really cool. The weather was gorgeous so we were really lucky. Oh and we also went to the thermal spa there which was very relaxing - the whole area is naturally heated by geothermal energy because of all the volcanic activity around so lots of thermal springs and pools to go and sit in! Mount Doom is also near Taupo (from Lord of the Rings) but we didn't really get close enough for a proper look - you can just about make it out on some of the photos amongst the clouds. Next we went up to Rotorua which is a real thermal hotspot and stinks of rotten eggs (sulphur) because of it! Seriously, the whole town smells but it is home to a Thermal Wonderland which we visited and was pretty cool. We also visited a Maori thermal village where they settled and built homes over the vents to heat their houses - very clever I thought! We saw a Maori performance of singing and dancing and they even did the Haka and got lots of the men and boys involved! Finally we went to the Mount (Mount Manganui) and went for a walk around the base track before heading home. On Friday we went out with Michelle and her friends in Auckland and played mini-golf yesterday which was fun! Overall an action packed week with still another week of holiday left!!

A Surprise Letter! :D

I was so excited to come home today to a surprise letter! I studied the handwriting but didn't recognise it, then looked at the post mark - Birmingham - and still didn't know who it was from and then when I opened it was so happy to see lovely Steph's beautiful handwriting! Thank you Steph! :D

It was so nice to hear your news and I'm so sorry you haven't been able to leave messages - I have no idea why as I haven't changed any of my settings and other people still seem to be able to...a very strange mystery it appears!

Steph told me that she too has seen Bjorn Again so I think they must be world-famous! They were really good and I hope to catch them again at some point. On Saturday night they were showing Mamma Mia at an outdoor cinema in the park on the North Shore but I didn't find anyone else who was quite as keen as me to go and see it - boo!

Thanks again Steph - I really loved hearing from you and it has cheered me up on a very dull Tuesday!

Matakana and Point Wells

Yesterday, Jennie took me on a little road trip north to visit a few nice places not far from Auckland.

First, we stopped off at a Honey Centre where you see all the bees on the honeycomb and could taste loads of different types of honey. I bought some local honey and some strawberry honey - yum! This guy who works there started chatting to us (he was VERY passionate about bees and told us that without them humans wouldn't exist!) and he gave us lots of information about the bees and pointed out the male bees and baby bees but we couldn't spot the queen. He asked where we were from and it turns out his wife is from Solihull and her parents still live on Rectory Road-what a small world!

Next we went to a village called Matakana where there are lots of nice shops and a market every Saturday selling delicious food. I bought a lentil and mushroom pie to eat for my dinner from a stall called 'I Love Pies' - all of the pies had a pastry heart on top! :)

After that, we drove a little bit further to Point Wells. We went to look for a bench which was put their in memory of Jennie's mum's cousin who died there in 1985 when she was travelling around New Zealand in her twenties. She was doing a cycling tour and was knocked off her bike on the Point Wells Road. Jennie's grandad had a bench put in the tiny village in her memory but after almost a year of looking, Jennie and her mum have never managed to find it so it was a bit of a mystery to solve.

We knew it was on Point Wells Reserve so walked along the riverside for a while, checking any benches we came across and speaking to a few locals but with no luck. Then we went to the store (the only shop in the village) but they knew nothing about a memorial bench so we wandered down to the community hall. Round the back of the hall there was some tennis courts and a small playground and from a distance we spotted a bench which happened to be it! It had a small plaque on it so we knew it was the one and Jennie was so pleased to have finally found it after all her searching.

Afterwards we decided to try the local library to see if we could find any records of the accident in the local newspaper (The Rodney Times) but they had already closed for the day so Jennie's going to try and look at the archives online. It felt as if we were on that 'Who Do You Think You Are' TV programme!

On our way home, we stopped off at a cheese factory (yes, the day was very food-orientated!) where we had lunch. We each had a cheese platter and I had a French one called 'Parlez Vous Francais?' so tried lots of brie and smelly blue cheeses! It was very tasty and I had to resist buying some to take home!

It was lovely getting out of the city for a day and the weather was beautiful for our adventure!

New address (again!)

Yes, I'm afraid I'm having to move out of my lovely home because Shaun and Richard want to travel to Europe and they're the lease holders so we're homeless!

Luckily, Sarita who I work with (she's on the Round the Bays photos) has a spare room at her house and although it's not in such a great location it's a bit cheaper and closer to school so should work out just fine!

Please don't continue using my old address as no-one will be living there anymore!

New address is 208A Penrose Rd, Mt Wellington, Auckland 1060 (If you type it into Google maps you can see my new road!)

Round the Bays

Today I took part in an event round the bays in East Auckland where I live. It is an 8km road event that hundreds of thousands of people run or walk, many of them in teams and/or in fancy dress. I walked as part of the Yendarra School Team and completed it in about 1 hour 45 minutes. It was so packed that we had to walk sooo slowly! See the photos for evidence! It's been a beautiful day so it was a really lovely walk and afterwards we went back to Jennie's for a BBQ which made the walk very worthwhile!

PS The guy waving from the bridge is John Key, the Prime Minister of New Zealand! He was giving us encouraging words as we crossed the Start line!

Pasifika Festival

On Saturday I went to the Pasifika Festival at Western Springs. The weather wasn't great so I didn't really feel like I was on the Pacific Islands but it was a really great atmosphere and free! :D There was a little village for each island or group of islands with live music and dance performances, food and art from their culture. There were loads of islands I'd never even heard of! My favourite bit was seeing these female dancers from the Cook Islands with feathers around them-they were amazing! (See the photos and hopefully videos if they work). It was great for me teaching so many children from the islands and I learnt quite a bit. Also brilliant to 'visit' so many places all in one afternoon! Shame the pouring rain meant we weren't there for long! Felt like I was back at home! ;)

Night Out in Auckland!

Last night, Jill (who I haven't seen since the clothes swap party in January!) invited me out to celebrate her friend Caylie's birthday. Caylie is from Durban in South Africa but moved over with her family and is now a NZ resident. We went for a Thai meal which was delicious and then went to a few other places around the city including Sky City which is at the bottom of the Sky Tower. It was really fun going to lots of new places that I didn't even realise were there! Not a great picture but we were trying to get one to send to Caroline who introduced us!

Shakespeare in the Park

Last night, I was very cultured and went to see a production of The Tempest put on by Auckland University students. It was outside (a bit blustery!) and they'd done a really good job of the set making it look like an island with sand, rocks and scattered driftwood.

I found the whole thing quite funny because the musical 'Return to the Forbidden Planet' (which I did costumes for at uni) is based on The Tempest and has lots of the same lines in it so I half expected the actors to burst into sixties rock and roll songs when I heard certain lines! Very amusing but only to me I think!

Overall it was good though and I very much enjoyed my first outdoor Shakespeare experience but maybe next time I'd like a slightly warmer theatre! ;)

Devonport Food and Wine Festival

Two weeks ago, Michelle and I headed over to Devonport on the ferry to attend the annual Devonport Food and Wine Festival. The weather was glorious, despite rain in Auckland that day (we could see it over the water!) and we had a really great time tasting wine and food from around New Zealand and listening to some live music. The highlight was the ABBA tribute Bjorn Again who we sang along to and the fact that we were given some flowery garlands for tasting some Sangria! In one photo you can see a famous NZ singer (can't remember his name now...) who used to sing in a band called the Exponents - I'd never heard of them but apparently they're a really big thing over here and everyone was singing along to the tunes!