All Blacks

This weekend was a good one. Friday night began with us going over to Martin and Sarah Murrell's house for dinner. I work with Martin at Gore High, he is the Wood Tech teacher and Sarah works with some of our special kids at the school part time. They moved to NZ from Wales last year and they are here for good. They just bought a house in Gore, a beautiful home on a hill with a glass room over looking the Mataura River. Stunning! Martin and Sarah have two gorgeous girls that our kids connect really well with. Tegan and Meri are great girls. From the moment we walk in their door the kids play, giggle, run around, imagine, squeal and have a great time together. We will miss them! After a wonderful meal of homemade pizza and chocolate cake we shared what our lives were like before NZ. They talked about coming to Canada to stay with us. I really hope they do. We will miss the Murrells.
Saturday began with a much needed sleep in. However, my friend Katie lent us PlayStation Singstar and I was awoken by Chad Kruger belting out "ARE WE HAVING FUN YET, YET, YET.... (It was Dano singing and I was not impressed). We had a fantastic time with Katie's Singstar! The Red Wings game took precedence from noon until 3pm. We listened to the game on the computer through speakers. I de-moulded windows while we listened, Dano and the kids laid around the living room and listened to every moment. Too bad the Penguins beat the Wings.
We left for Dunedin at 4pm to get to Carisbrook Stadium to see the All Blacks(New Zealand's national rugby team) play France. Shelly and Phil Taylor bought tickets for us and we met outside the stadium. The crowd was interesting and the game was too. There are many things I do not understand about rugby, but I do know that I would watch those men do almost anything as long as they wore their shorty shorts and tight t-shirts! The All Blacks lost 27 - 22, but it was exciting!



Reena and Sambo arrive next weekend and our preparation begins! It is getting hard to remained focused on school and work lately. Even Sammer has started saying things like, I wish I could not got to school today and do something else. I know how he feels because I have made a mental list of things we have not done yet, the Rail Trail, Stewart Island, Doubtful Sound... I would much rather be out biking over viaducts or tramping through the most southern island instead of going to school each day. We do have a few things planned when Mom and Dad are here. We will have lots to post about when they get here! Stay tuned!

Until next time,
Samantha

June already...

Man, our time here is flying by! We spent last weekend at a holiday home near Dunedin in a place called Taieri Mouth. It is along the Southern Scenic Route and right on the ocean. Dan spoke at a church a while back and a couple in the congregation approached him and offered their holiday home. We took them up on their offer and spent a winter weekend at the ocean. It was spectacular! We taught the kids to play Bonanza and they picked it up really quickly. We had a fantastic weekend!




This past weekend we went to a party for a girl that works at Camp Columba. The kids brought our Wii and the kids played games while the adults chatted. We left the party to drive to Queenstown because the kids had two hockey games Saturday. The weather was supposed to wintery so we thought we would head up the night before. The drive to Queenstown is breathtaking during the day, but at night with the moon light kissing the snow capped mountains...amazing! We stayed at Lakeland Holiday park in a bunkhouse. In the morning we opened the drapes to see a giant snow covered mountain out the sliding glass door. I will certainly miss the New Zealand scenery! The kids lost both games but they played well. Abby even had a shot on net. The drive home was just as beautiful with clouds and snow against the mountains. I hope you enjoy the pictures.



Until next time,
Samantha

80 days and counting

I have to say that the fact we are only 80 days from departing New Zealand is a little bit unsettling(80 days is based on an August 12th departure - not confirmed but very likely). 80 days is not a very long time and we are all starting to realize that this great adventure is soon to be over. There are still a few things that we hope to experience before we leave so we will have a busy last few weeks.

We have some good news about Samantha's teaching position. Until this past Friday, Samantha was still slated to teach at Grand Bend Public School. The first round of transfers had not resulted in her being moved. Friday afternoon, Saturday morning for us, Samantha received an email that informed her she would be teaching Junior Kindergarten and Kindergarten at Tilbury Area Public School. This was her first choice from the postings this round. She gets to work for her favourite principal, Ken Gregory and gets to work with an old friend, Cheryl Chinnick who is the other Kindergarten teacher in the school. Samantha is very excited about working with the JK/K kids. She has enjoyed dipping her toe in the secondary school environment but has decided that elementary school is where she wants to be. She will now have taught every grade in elementary school.

It is the thick of the hockey season here. Last weekend I played in the Senior Non-checking round in Gore. The kids were away with friends and Samantha dutifully sat in the stands and cheered on her groom. Then this weekend the kids had two games on Sunday in Dunedin. We departed home at 7:15 a.m. for a 9:15 game and then a 2:30 p.m. game. The team won their first game but played really poorly, very sloppy and no jump. Thankfully after a couple of hours off, they played much better but lost. The Open Grade(full contact) team had two games immediately following the kids' second game. I don't normally play Open Grade because Samantha is afraid that I may break some ribs or get a concussion or get in a fight but she graciously agreed to stick around and I would play the first one. Then she agreed after the first one, with numb toes and a cold nose, that I may as well the second on since we were there. Samantha has froze through 12 hockey games over the last three weekends, which included 3 games on Mother's Day, and for that she gets my vote for wife of the year.

Below are some pictures from this weekend's hockey and from a wedding that we attended last weekend. Hope you enjoy them.

Mother's Day weekend

We left Friday afternoon for Dunedin. Dano had a hockey tournament to play so we arranged to stay at a holiday home in Purakanui which is near Dunedin. The holiday home was amazing with a gorgeous view. We hope to book this home and take Mom and Dad there when they are here.


Dano played 6 games of hockey in two days. That is a lot of time spent in a cold arena. The kids were so good, they hung in there with me. During one of Dan's games the kids skated on the rink beside the ice Dan was playing on. During the 5th game the kids and I went to Moana Pool and played in the wave pool and went on the water slides. We had a good weekend, even with hours spent in a arena.



We are in the midst of making plans for our return to Canada. I have been applying for jobs and should find out soon about where I will be placed. Housing is something that we are trying to sort out. If there is anyone that knows of a rental home with 3 bedrooms in the Chatham Kent area, Aug 1st, we would really appreciate your help.


Did I mention it was a lot of hockey this weekend?
Until next time,

Samantha