First Day of School

After our adventure filled school holidays, it was back to reality! School started back up on Tuesday. Ethan started Year 8 (7th Grade), Gavin started Year 6 (5th Grade), Trevor started Year 3 (2nd Grade), and Reese started Year 1 (kindergarten!!). Nobody was thrilled to be back, but they all had good teachers and friends to see. They looked sharp on their first day! While they were at school, I made donuts…because it is sure hard to come by a good donut here. And these tasted just like home! It was a fun treat for them to come home to as they talked all about their first day.

Reese has a nice teacher with 15 kids in her class. Trevor and Gavin also have great teachers and each have friends in their classes. Ethan has a different year with 5 different teachers: Maths (yes, they refer to it as maths…not math), English & Social Studies, Science & ACG (counseling), Music, and Health & PE. It's a great transition for next year when he'll be in high school….! They all get to do really cool things this year. The primary school (elementary school) kids all get to go swimming at least twice a week. Gavin has started swimming lessons at school every day for the next few weeks. Gavin will also get to learn how to surf in a few weeks! They will all have fun field trips to go on and beach trips. I'm so excited for the things they get to experience here and the things they get to learn. It looks like it will be a great year!

Kayaking the Puhoi River

As if we weren't tired enough from our backpacking trip, we were still up for another adventure! We worked our legs on Friday & Saturday so we decided to even it out and work our arms on Monday =) We planned a kayaking trip paddling the Puhoi River with friends. Dave & Amie took their paddle boards and we took our kayaks. We left bright and early and launched at Wenderholm. We coordinated our trip with the tide. It was a beautiful sunny day and the water was nice and calm. We just took our time and enjoyed paddling along. Once we reached Puhoi, we docked our kayaks and had a picnic lunch right on the shore of the river. After a nice break, we reloaded and hit the water again. Dave was so awesome and let Reese and Trevor ride along on his paddle board. Ethan and Gavin were great little paddlers and never complained. The water was pretty smooth up until the last bit. Then it got choppy and we were paddling against the current. We were putting our all into each stroke and we we're getting tired! But we finally reached our destination in one piece. After all was said and done, we took a look at the route and saw that we paddled 15k!! We had no idea and were so proud of our accomplishment =) Another great day and another great adventure in the books!

Here's a movie of our fun day:

https://youtu.be/cA9UdeWPHDU

Pinnacles Hike

Our school holidays was winding down fast so we wanted to cram in as much as we could! We had a 4 day weekend so we packed it with fun. We decided to go on a backpacking adventure with a group of friends in the Coromandel. And it was an adventure and it was tough and it was memorable!

We drove 2 hours to the trailhead and got stuck in holiday traffic. As soon as we arrived, we unloaded and strapped on our packs. Cody, Ethan, Gavin, and I all wore hiking backpacks and Reese and Trevor were in charge of walking on their own. It was a nice sunny day but shaded along the way. We saw Ethan and Gavin at the very start and then we didn't see them again until the very top! They were having fun hiking with their friends and setting their own pace. We crossed one person swing bridges, climbed rocks, hiked up TONS of stairs, and felt the burn like no other. It was tough. But we did it! We reached our destination after almost 3 hours of constant hiking. Seeing our hut was a nice relief! The hut was a building with 2 large rooms of bunk beds and a kitchen. There were long drops (outhouses) and running water. We all quickly unloaded our heavy packs and got started on making dinner. We had freeze dried meals that were so yummy after a hard hike. The kids had fun playing with their friends and the adults had fun chatting. We all turned in early since we were pooped. 

The next morning, we quickly ate breakfast and then got ready to head to the very top of Pinnacles. We left our backpacks at camp and started out on another steep climb. We climbed lots of stairs, over huge boulders, and up ladders to a gorgeous view! It was breathtaking! 

After a great start to our day, we headed back to get ready for our climb back down the mountain. Again, we didn't see any of our boys until we reached the bottom because they were too busy chatting and walking with friends. It took almost as long hiking down the mountain because of Reese's short legs but she walked the entire time. She and Trevor were awesome! We reached the bottom and found everyone playing in the river cooling off. It was such a great adventure! It was not easy and not necessarily fun, but so worth it! It was 14k round trip! I love to see how our bodies can accomplish amazing things when we put our minds to it. 

We made it back to the car and loaded up. We were all so hot and so tired. As we were driving the dirt road back, we found a great place to jump and swim in a river.  So we pulled over, threw on our togs (swimsuits), and took a refreshing swim in the fresh water. It felt sooo good! 

We had one last stop before heading home…Pokeno ice cream! We stopped and had double scoops all around because we deserved it after all that hard work! What a great experience and one we will never forget! I'm so proud of my kids for being so tough =)

This is a video we made of our fun adventure:

https://youtu.be/KcgRdwBPo88