Winter Holidays, Lake Hawea, Wanaka

I must say, Kiwis really know how to split up their school terms. I love having 2 weeks off after 10 weeks of school. So this holiday was in the coldest time of the the NZ year. The weather has been cooler, but not like those Canadian winters. Most days the temperature gets to about 8-9 degrees and the nights flirt with freezing. The fog greets us most mornings, but usually burns off by 10am. When the sun is out it is quite nice and we spend time outside most days. The kids ride their bikes down to Pukerau, we hang laundry and do some gardening. Mr.& Mrs. Kelly used to live at Camp Columba and they built the house we are living in 30 years ago. She was kind enough to come out today and help me prune the rose bushes that line our front flower bed, as they have been neglected since they have left the camp 10 years ago. It was a delightful visit. She is a vivacious lady who knows her gardening! I have a lot to learn about gardening here.

Last night we went to Robert and Stacey Young's house for "tea". Our kids and their kids go to school together. They have a Sam, who is 12 years, James 10 and Libby who is 8. Sam and James are friends. Abby and Libby are friends and weirdly have very similar nicknames. Abby= Gooby Libby= Goober. We had a great time, ate well and enjoyed a game of Bonanza.

We took a 3 night trip to Lake Hawea this holiday. The cottage we stayed in smelled just like the upstairs at Grandpas house. I experienced many moments that stopped me in my tracks and whisked me back to being a little girl watching Grandpa putting on shave cream with a wooden handled bristly brush, in his white undershirt and green farmer pants. The cottage was charming and wonderful. It was very relaxing and we spent a lot of time reading, hiking and soaking up the scenery. Wanaka is a neighbouring town and it was very nice to spend part of a day wandering it's streets. Just outside of Wanaka there is a business called Puzzling World where we spent an afternoon. They have a giant maze, a tilted room (which messed me up), a room of many faces and all sorts of strange things.

Dano leaves early tomorrow morning for a Christian Camping Training weekend. He flies to Hamilton (NZ) and will be staying at a camp called Totara Springs. It will be good for him to be amongst the camping community in NZ and get a feel for "their way". Me being selfish, I am having a hard time getting my head around single parenting for those days and keeping the homesickness "ache in your throat" feeling at bay. I will be fine.

The kids and I have been painting a large room in town that I will teach tap in on Thursdays after school. I have 3 classes already, ranging in age from adults to 7 year olds. I have a few of my high school students helping with the painting tomorrow, pictures to come.

I love the updates from everyone back home. It feels so good to get an email or pictures or snail mail cards/packages. Thank you to everyone that takes the time to do things like that. It really helps. Until next time, Samantha.