Stillwater to Okura Bush Walk

We celebrated Anzac Day in New Zealand. Anzac Day is a day of remembering the soldiers that have fought and died for their country. On Sunday, we stood and sang the New Zealand National Anthem as a congregation and also paused for a moment of silence to give our respect to the soldiers. It was such a peaceful and special time and I loved being able to be a part of their culture. I love that we have been privileged to live in two countries where we have the right to worship God and have a freedom of speech & religion….what a blessing!

Anzac Day is similar to Memorial Day in the States. Businesses are closed for the day and kids are out of school. We took advantage of having the day off and went on an adventure with our friends the Hamons & Skeas. We parked 2 cars at the end of our journey in Okura and parked 1 at the beginning in Stillwater. We had a picnic lunch in Stillwater and then started our walk (hike). To help preserve the wildlife, we had to spray our shoes off at the entrance. At first we walked through some mud and walked past murky ocean water with sailboats anchored in the distance. Then we headed through low tide sand and shells. We stopped halfway at Dacre Cottage for afternoon tea (snacks) and some fun on the rope swing. The kids loved being swung high by the men and the men had a bit of fun too!

Once we past the water, we headed into the bush. It was so green and lush and beautiful! The trail rolled up and down and around through kauri trees and other native New Zealand trees and plants. We climbed up and down stairs and got quite a workout! The kids all did really well and were pretty tough. We were well worked by the end! It was amazing to see how different all the landscapes and scenery were even though we only hiked a few miles.

We headed home and were all too tired to cook dinner so we walked to our neighborhood takeaways and got fresh fish, chips (fries), sausages, and burgers to eat at home. The adults enjoyed the down time while the kids ran around outside playing games. I love that our kids get along so well. What a great day!! 

Here's a movie of our fun day:
https://youtu.be/AyuHDOwYuO8

This is the New Zealand National Anthem pasted into our church hymn book

Apparently the sign Ethan is throwing in this pic is equivalent to flipping your middle finger up! Lesson well learned....haha!

Shakespear Park Walk

At the end of the peninsula we live on is an area called Shakespear Regional Park. It is a sanctuary with trails and beaches that provides a safe environment for endangered wildlife and is pest free. When we pulled into the car park (parking lot) it felt like we were on the set for Jurassic Park. It had a large fence around the trails with lush green shrubbery and trees. We expected a dinosaur head to pop up! We had to scrub and spray off our shoes before entering to make sure we help preserve the endangered kauri tree from a disease that's spread through soil. It was such a beautiful track (trail)! We had a green canopy completely surrounding us with birds chirping all around. It was so peaceful. We popped out at another side into a totally different landscape. Here we had rolling hills of green with fields of cows. We could see the ocean on both sides. It was breathtaking! We met up with our friends and the kids loved running free and finding cool things. The boys especially loved climbing a waterfall and trying to build a dam to back it up… We absolultey love getting out in nature, exercising, being with friends, and enjoying God's beautiful creations!

Here's a video we created from of our fun day:

https://youtu.be/4cq34wKPDmU