January has been a mad month for us down here – we’ve had house guests (Gosh! No, really? We’d never have guessed!) and with the kids off school and summertime in full swing I’ve been transformed into some sort of manic tour guide, children’s entertainer, hyperactive hostess and dogsbody chauffeur. This might explain the facial tic and the teeth marks in my tongue (from biting it).
But in my deranged-Pollyanna moments I do appreciate though how nice it is to have the chance to spend some time with my kids gallivanting about the countryside doing all the sort of things that we never get around to doing as we are usually up to our necks in work and routine life. We also get to pity the tourists because they come here where it is lovely and then have to go home again. We don’t! We live here! Of course, gallivanting would be much more fun if it weren’t for the 50% of my car occupants who get travel sick, but we just need to buy in Phenergan by the gallon and have buckets at the ready.
So, for all of those readers (do I have any left? I post so sporadically these days, sorry! Mostly I’m meandering around Ravelry and playing with my new spindles – photos to come soon, I promise!) I thought I’d give you a quick gallop through things-to-do in the Bay of Islands with small children once they’ve stopped puking all over the car…
If you are here on New Year’s day there is the Highland Games in Waipu, just south of Whangarei – we finally made it there this year and it was a lovely day with Scottish country dancing, crossed swords and kilts flying. There was also a huge parade with loads of pipers and everyone in tartan.
The children were obsessed with the bouncy castle and the baby highland cattle.
Ahhhh – aren’t they sweet? Tasty too! (the cattle, obviously. I don’t make a habit of biting my children. Well, not now that they can bite back.)
We took our visitors to see the glow-worms. This involves a guided tour into a damp cave where the guide tells you about the life cycle of the glow-worms, their habitat and so on. Then, on the way out, they turn the torch on to show you what else lives in the caves…
There’s a reason they don’t show you the wetas until you are about to leave! “Come and stand in this dark wet cave with hundreds of huge spidery bugs above your head…”
You can also feed your children to the eels if you are so inclined (how many times can you hear “Are we there yet?” before wanting to throw them out of the car at speed?)
At this time of year Northland is covered in pohutakawa trees in full bloom, known as the Christmas tree of the North (because of the red flowers, green leaves and silver buds), they are particularly common along the beaches
And for the culture vultures amongst us, there is a spot of history at the Kerikeri Stone Store and Kemp House, the first stone building and the first mission house in New Zealand. You can even take a steam boat trip up the inlet and wave hello to Chile (unfortunately not visible even on a clear day) on the Eliza Hobson:
And, once you tire of endless
