A weekend in Hamilton!

Apologies for the long absence of pictures and news. We're all well and have been settling in to life up North more with each passing week. Will and Bernie are getting into more Mum's and Bubs groups and Will is developing so fast now. He's walking freely now - still wobbly, but hilarious to watch! He also loves talking / shouting / singing which words cannot describe... literally!

We made the most of a long weekend to visit Paul, Shirley and Bradley in Hamilton - quite a long drive south, but well worth it! Click here for a video of Will and Neo the cat

 Will enjoyed his first fluffy! (Can you tell that B and I cut his hair - its a bit 'bowl-cut' in places!)

 And has an obsession with many things now, including balloons!

 Another obsession is cats and he finally got to touch them on a regular basis this weekend - he was so gentle and chuffed!

 Bradley and Will got on awesomely and Brad shared his gear so well - the boys got to know each other so well!

 We went to a kids play centre with heaps of fun activities...

 We fed the ducks on the river...

 And the boys became more closely united as the hours passed!

 We hit the beach on the way home

 Paul and Shirley were great hosts - we even had a night out thanks to Shirley's Mum Lesley and came back to Kerikeri with two avocado trees courtesy of Shirley's Sister Hazel and her green-fingered daughter Karmen! Here's to it happening again soon!

Weekend Wonderland!

We have a new playground - the stunning Bay of Islands where I've spent the last 3 weekends free-diving for fish and shell fish with a new friend who happens to have an awesome boat!

We got up at silly o'clock and headed out on the water not long after the sun had come up and as we motored out through the network of bays and islands, we had to slow down for a pod of about 30 bottlenose dolphins which swam straight towards us whilst putting on an acrobatic display (all but the last picture is taken from Google images as I never remember a camera!)We saw dozens of fish the first weekend we went out, hundreds the second and thousands this time - no exaggeration. We spent over 4 hours in the water and I'm getting better at staying down longer each dive. We were accompanied by an experienced diver who stays under for a minute or more each time and went to depths I could not see despite the good clarity.

I shot a few fish for the dinner table - beautiful Pink Maomao (both in looks and taste)And some equally pretty and delicious Blue Maomao (bizarrely no relative of the pink species!)After one dive we noticed a certain 6-foot bronze whaler shark following us and it later fed on the fish guts we threw overboard. It was also quite beautiful and its amazing to think that these must pass by us all the time without us realizing... including bigger ones!A few funky blue penguins were also after a good feed in the plentiful watersAnd look at the one that didn't get away! Its a Kingfish and my friend shot it, not me! It is a relatively small example of a common fish that is the main quarry for many a fisherman in these parts. It tasted delicious - we smoked some and had Kingfish pie the other night which I highly recommend!

Will is jabbering away heaps and getting close to walking - he just needs the confidence to take those first steps. His favourite words are Bum, Ooooh and Muma and Dada gets a reasonable use too!

Bernie is doing an ace job as Mum and house wife and is loving the new bread maker we got through the insurance company - Will and I are loving the many wonderful products that keep being churned out of the kitchen in general - I'm off to eat Cape Gooseberry Cheesecake - Ooooh as Will would say!

Love to all,

CBW x

On the up!

We are all becoming more and more settled in the Bay of Islands thanks to our New Year's resolution - to go to the beach as much as we can!

There are hundreds of beaches, bays and rocks to explore and we have begun in earnest. The past two weekends have been spent free-diving looking for crayfish, shell food and spearfishing food for the table. We have made friends with some awesome people - many of whom have boats which makes for even more possibilities. The sea is almost always flat and visibility is really good. Last weekend I swam with hundreds of powder-puff blue fish and an arar of other colourful fish - a few larger grey ones ended up on our dinner plates too!

Will and Bernie come out on the boat or hang out on a beach - roughing it as you can see!

Our boy continues to develop fast and is talking, pointing and moving more and more each day.

On Tuesday night, a lady from work took us out on her 33-foot yacht for the evening - a couple of us dived for mussels before boarding for fine wine and food in a secluded bay. Will loved it - pointing at birds and islands, before going below deck to open al of the cupboards - heaven!

I cooked the mussels and have never tasted such creamy flesh on them before - they're not exactly small either:

We had cherry-picked the smaller ones as they get tougher when they are much bigger than this!

Hopefully we'll get out again this weekend - life's a beach!

CBW x

New camera!

I have a brand new camera now - thanks to the burglars... plus a new laptop, TV, sound system etc - it feels like Xmas in our house at the moment - but we would rather have not gone through this horrid process.

I have been taking more pictures of Will and Bernie than ever before - Will is a little more happy to post copious pictures of him online - he definitely plays to the camera!

Bath time is play time and he loves brushing his teeth - in between smiles!
That gummy smile is reminiscent of me circa 1986...

He managed to walk whilst pushing a box along the floor yesterday - completely of his own invention! He has accelerated his development considerably in recent weeks and fights sleep some nights as he wants to climb and play continuously - more challenging for Bernie now I'm back at school too.

I have some home work to do this weekend and had to pass up a diving trip to the Poor Knight's Islands (regularly voted in the top 10 places to dive in the world) and we have a St Valentine's party on Sunday with new friends - let the good times roll!

Love to all,

CBW xxx

Kerikeri - so nice, they named it twice...

We both miss Nelson heaps, but the above slogan - coined by a tourist a few years ago - is fitting for this gorgeous part of the country. It is home to the oldest building in the country - not far from where we live: The sea comes right up to the building in an inlet and there is a nice cafe and walks all around:
Will is developing increasingly fast - climbing up onto his feet at every given opportunity and talking / shouting at cars, birds, dogs and many other random things he sees. He loves to watch birds and mutilate insects:

We eat all our meals out here:

I've been keeping up with one of my new year's resolutions - hitting the beach much more often - it aint too shabby here!

Will is getting a taste for the odd ice cream:

And I've gone all arty...

Pic-nic time

How cute?!

In colour too!

I have began running again and always do the same ugly, boring route, along a crystal clear river, through native bush and ending up at this eye-sore... life's tough!

You can cheat and drive / walk to it too - unfortunately I cant push Will in his buggy through the forest so we drove on this occasion.

Its 29 meters high and called Rainbow Falls due to the rainbows created when the sun's out - hard to picture unfortunately - you'll just have to come and visit!

Going arty again...

As is Will with his creative eating! We have always let him feed himself and despite this picture, he is getting less messy... honest!

He obviously doesn't believe me either! Notice his top tooth - the one next to it is now on its way through to make it no. 4

Pointing and clapping are his two favourit e triecks - after shouting at things!

Our little Hammer is glad to see West Ham at the top of the Championship...

Opito Bay is our closest beach and we already love it - Bobby is allowed to run and swim there which is a rarity in this part of the country due to the large populations of Kiwi that live here - most places a no-dog zones - we can hear them from our bedroom some nights! Will loves the beach too:

Although he isn't brave enough to compete with Bobby yet!

Bobby and I spend ages chasing his ball - I win the sprints, but I'm ashamed to say that I get beaten for stamina these days and call it quits before Bobby Dazzler!

We have finally recieved all of our belongings minus what was stolen - new electrical gear to arrive this week hopefully - 6 weeks without TV has been quite good - done heaps of gardenning, reading books and reading the Times for world news... oh gosh, I'm turning into my Dad! We are looking forward to having the Whits and Wakefields with us in April - hopefully they will finally realise that they can live the dream too and book a one-way ticket in 2013... here's dreaming!

Love to all,

CBW xxx