Kia whakatāne ake au i ahau!

I got so excited to show you the pig I kind of got ahead of myself. This is Whakatane. It's not actually on the east cape, but it is really close. The clouds were amazing this day.

The island in the background is Whakaari (White Island). It's actively volcanic, and a lovely dive spot, I'm told.

This is Moutohora (Whale Island). It's a wildlife management reserve (bird sanctuary).

This is a statue commemorating Wairaka, who dared break tapu and paddle the canoe to shore.

Nice work, sister.

What passes for entertainment around these parts

How do we spend our time here, you wonder?

Well this past weekend we went to visit our Brother-Husband (BH), Sister-Wife (SW) and Other-Kids (OK) on Waiheke where they now live. SW seems to have the swine flu. BH thinks she caught it from Daisy and Snippet. (Lies! Terrible Lies!)

To liven our spirits we had pigtail party:

That one's going on the Christmas card!







That blank spot, above, represents the story that will not be told here about how B, for not the first time in his life, had national rescue forces called in his behalf and against his knowledge. Let's just leave it with don't watch Solo, wherein a tormented (and quite possibly mentally ill) man decides to kayak from Tasmania through the wild Southern Ocean, braving great white sharks, 60 meter swells, and "salt sores," whatever those are, to nearly land in New Zealand only to die 30k offshore when his kayak rolled and sunk, and then watch your husband happily snorkel out of sight and not return for a really really really long time.

Sunday we got chased by a gang of sheep on our way to explore Stony Batter:

And now it is back to the grind until my next weekend off! Can't wait!
Hope you are enjoying the flower pictures!

Kayaking

Here are some photos of us sea kayaking last weekend around Mission Beach (for those of you who claim you never get to see US in our posts).

Straight ahead is Mission Bay. We live just up the road.

Orakei wharf and Auckland:

Looking from Mission Beach across the harbor to Rangitoto, NZ's newest volcanic island, and now a bush reserve (the kayak rental place offers tours to Rangitoto. That is our goal for next time, but I'm a little nervous about crossing the main shipping channel! Those cargo ships are HUGE!):