..Even more Mangawhai!

We've been here for quite a while!

We spent 3 full days scrubbing the house with various harmful substances, turning it a glorious pink colour which we then painted over on Thursday. By Friday you could barely tell it was ever red - we'll attach pictoral evidence of this! Tuesday night I made homemade lemonade with Josh which was hard work - a full bag of home grown lemons turned up for us to squeeze and zest! On Wednesday evening we went to Chris' life group which was a good laugh as ever, and on Thursday night enjoyed another spa. The last coat of paint went on on Friday, followed by a spot of tent errecting and lawn mowing before Youth Group, which was great fun.

Suprisingly the Perkinsons had managed to line up another job for us, painting Char and Phill's fence on Saturday (Char didnt hear about the red incident until after she'd agreed!) so we went home with them after youth with 'just a quick' stop at the Chambers to watch cricket on their Sky. We met their turtle called Gladstone (after an english cricketer who Phill thinks looks like a turtle..he is slightly cricket mad) and enjoyed Billy's official 'comfiest night of the trip so far'. In the morning Char showed us how to work their amazing milkshake maker before setting off to work (Phill had a cricket match!). I spent the next 5 or 6 hours convincing Billy to keep painting rather than go make another milkshake. Fence painting went relatively smoothly, though we were glad there were no more ladders involved. Char returned at lunchtime, suprised to find Billy had cut down one of her trees, though apparently Phill always cuts things down without asking her! In the evening we made tasty homemade pizzas, watched a film and ate popcorn. We booked tickets to a Hurricanes vs Chiefs rugby match in Wellington which we're looking forward too.

Today we went to Church with Char and Phill and came back to the Perkinsons where we'll be staying until Thursday when we'll get a lift back down to Auckland (fingers crossed!). We've booked a surf lesson for tommorow which is exciting, though i'm already convinced i'll be awful!

The attached pictures are : The repaired house, the view, the weta bug we found one teatime, me doing some work (honest!), Billy riding the Perkinsons horse called Black, Billy enjoying his second Bennetts ice cream (though not of the day he'd like to add)

Lots of love,

Rosie and Billy

xxx

Evening All =)

Sorry for not updating in a while - as you may have guessed from the previous picture - we've been pretty busy with the white spirit for the past 48 hours.
Prior to that we had a great weekend with the Perkinsons and lots of other new friends. On Saturday Billy played cricket (they lost, but he says he wasn't so bad (he caught someone out and it was an amazing catch he says)) and then met the rest of us at a friends pool where we had a picnic lunch and spent the afternoon. In the evening I went to a girly night at Megan's house - chick flicks, popcorn and pyjamas galore. Billy and Phil enjoyed a 'far superior' film back home which involved lots of explosions and fighting as far as I could tell.
On Sunday we went to Church in Mangawhai which was really interesting - very different from CofE and lots of fun. Afterwards we had a yummy lunch with Megan at the deli where everyone congregates after church. In the afternoon we went to a friend's pool again and had another hot spa (everyone seems to have them here!)
Monday we were getting on well with the painting and had done a first coat of white on two sides. We'd just started painting the bargeboard red when the aforementioned disaster occurred! Since then we've mostly been sanding, scrubbing, sleeping, eating and spa-ing (its fixed!) (in that order)
Lots of love from two ever-so-slightly-paint-splotched backpackers.
Rosie and Billy
xxx

Oops!

As Dad says: A picture speaks a thousand words.

No mean comments.

x

Photos!

Will update again this evening (your morning) but thought i'd put some photos up now.

These are: Billy on Mangawhai Heads beach, butterflies ( you can hold them as they've just hatched out and are still drying their wings), butterfly pupa, Billy and I at swimming sports, the beach we went to on the hayride and josh in the car.

More Mangawhai

We've been here for a few days now but time seems to have gone really quickly. We've sanded down the barge board at the top of the house, given it an undercoat and filled it (or attempted to) and yesterday Billy sanded down the rest of the end wall. Nothing too disastrous seems to have happened, and we'll post a picture for your critical viewing once we're done.
On Thursday we went into Mangawhai to a yummy chocolate factory, and managed to eat most of the box we bought on the way home - the box is still pretty though! They also had an ice cream parlour and Chris treated us to a cone, which was lovely. Billy sampled the traditional 'Hokey Pokey' (like butterscotch as far as i could tell) which he declared very tasty indeed. In the afternoon we went to Taylor's swimming sports (gala!) which was really good fun - they had music, lots of shouting, pretty bunting and more crucially for Billy, hot dogs. In the evening our task was to get the kids to bed, which was achieved only slightly behind schedule with the help of various coaxing devices.

We got up early on Friday morning and went into Josh and Dani's school to be parent helpers in the Year 1 class. After some sticking and gluing we did some reading with the kids which was good fun. Back home we did some filling and house tidying until 5.30 when our lift to the 'Hay Ride' arrived. We were unsure as to what exactly the activity entailed but as everyone else was going we decided it couldn't be too unpleasant. We arrived on the farm to find 3 trucks filled with hay bales. The trucks took us down to an amazing beach hidden in the forest where Billy swam, I chatted and we all played silly games. We then got another truck ride back to the farm and some food.
Today Billy has gone to play cricket, and the rest of us might be going bodyboarding down the giant sand dune. Should be good!
Lots of love,
Rosie and Billy
xxx

Evening All =)

We've been having a great time - now in Mangawhai. Forgot to add on the last post that i'd lost my glasses on the dolphin tour, from now on lifes gonna be a whole lot more blurry!

We're staying with our first HelpX hosts (volunteer in exchange for food and a bed) - the lovely Perkinsons- and our task this week is to paint their house (!!!) Before I left Dad said he'd pay me not to paint his house, but fingers crossed we wont be so bad. Today we washed and sprayed to kill the moss, and tommorow we get started with sanding down. In the afternoon we went to Mangawhai Head beach which was gorgeous and Billy went for a swim. We walked back up the hill for ice creams and chocolate. I had a chocolate fish (which is apparantly a nz legend according to the guide) and something that looked like a twister but dissapointingly didnt have the yummy middle bit - but it was still good! This evening we went to a bible discussion group which was good, and then had a go in the spa pool (hot tub in english!) Billy managed to leave his clothes outside whilst we were in the spa, attracting a cockroach into his pants. The dance he did when he put them back on was priceless but unfortunately the smell lingers.

See you soon,

Lots of love,

Rosie and Billy

xxx



I thought that I would attempt to write something of interest despite my poor english skills, and rosie has promised not to change it this time! What Rosie hasn't told you is the about the fantastic view from our helpx's house, (she can be forgiven though seeing as she can't actually see it). Out of one window, (if it wasn't for the electricity line), it looks like a scene from Avatar, and out the front it looks like a scene from Lord of the Rings! Its amazing, tomorrow I plan to work while listening to a bit of Howard Shore.



Thats all folks,

lots of love

Billy and Rosie

xxx

Got some nice photos but they refuse to upload - will try again later. Night!
xx

Dolphin Bonanza

Title by Billy Brown. Text by Rosie Tasker.

Good Evening =)

We thought we'd update tonight as we have thousands of pictures from today and need someone to share them with! We spent the morning on a large yellow jet boat whizzing around the islands in search of dolphins. We found quite a lot, but we couldn't swim with them as they had babies which was sad (though the babies were very cute!) We saw some penguins too =) Billy took advantage of taking a swim without the dolphins, however, and enjoyed a special jet engine whirlpool.. very funny to watch! We stopped for lunch on a lovely island and took advantage of FREE (supposedly!) kayaking. Managed not to fall out both with each other and the kayak, which was a pleasant surprise. Billy used the BBQ lunch as an excuse to catch up on all of the meat eating he's been missing out on and ate more than the double rations he could claim. In the afternoon we boarded the yacht and after a quick diving demonstration from Billy attempted to sail back, with limited success. The moment I took the helm a gust came, just my luck! Although we weren't allowed to go hunting for dolphins some came and found us, which was great. We arrived back at the hostel around 6pm after a quick wander around Russell (Billy took the opportunity to have yet another swim, with shags this time.(the bird, he'd like to add)) and a fish and chip supper.

Attached is some of the hundreds of photos we took!

Lots of love,

Billy and Rosie

xxx

Bay of Islands =)

Quick update as we've only got 9 minutes remaining on this computer. Sorry i didnt get to reply to everyones emails, messages etc yet - but reading them did make me laugh. Very glad everyone seems to be getting on so well without us!

At the moment we're staying in Paihia in the Bay of Islands which is lovely. Today we went biking (on our free bikes!) and found a lovely bay where we swam and sunbathed (and burnt our feet - somehow they got forgotten!) for a few hours. Cooking for ourselves has been interesting, but we're getting a taste of Uni life early, so thats good. So far we have had pasta and more pasta, though the mothers will be pleased we've also eaten some carrots and apples and dried apricots (wallys favourite =))

Tommorow we've booked an wonderfully expensive tour out into the bay. We leave at 8 (eek!) for a morning of dolphin watching and swimming and in the afternoon we take to a 50ft America Cup winning yacht for a potter. Should be good!

See you soon,

Lots of love,

Rosie and Billy

xxx

Photos!

Whoops, forgot some photos.

These ones are: View from the Sky Tower, the Sky Tower, view from the train station and Billy underwater (luckily the camera bag held out!)

And in separate news : I got an offer from Saint Andrews. Rather pleased =)

Enjoy!

Leave us a message!

Auckland Part Two.

We've been in Auckland for a few days now.

Wednesday we wandered round the town centre, bought Billy a new phone (for 6x the price it would have been in the UK!) and went to the Auckland museum, which was really interesting. Billy loved all of the stuffed birds and beetles in the natural history section, and we learnt about Maori traditions too. We enjoyed the 'Maori experience' performance from the outside, 50 quid for 15 minutes seemed a bit steep! We were surprised everyone came out alive after all of the wailing and shouting that had been going on. In the evening Richard lent us his car (we weren't sure it was a great idea, but then he'd never seen the state of our cars!) and we drove down to Mission Bay, which was a nice beach and restaurant area. 

Thursday - we visited the Sky Tower in the centre of Auckland. They didn't let you take the stairs, which was a shame, but we enjoyed the views from the top.. and the faces of the people who were mad enough to bungy jump from it! After a yummy Thai lunch we headed back to the Roxburghs were we'd promised to meet the kids from school. We played games, ate donuts and swam in the pool. We even took to the trampoline for a game of 'Ninja' which we paid for through extensive mosquito bites! In the evening we were picked up by Justin who took us back to their lovely new house near the beach in Howick.

Today has been pretty laid back. We woke up latish, and wandered into the town to take a look around. We bought supplies for our trip to the north tomorrow and ate pies for lunch on a bench with an amazing panoramic view. This afternoon we went with Alex's niece Gina to a friends house for a swim which was lovely, apart from the fact Billy broke another phone (don't tell his parents!). The waterproof bag turned out to not be very waterproof at all. Very annoying! Tonight I think we're having a meal and a go in the spa (fingers crossed!). Should be good!

Lots of love

xxx

And they're off!

'One down, one to go!' was apparently my brothers comment as the Browns picked me up and bundled me into the car early on Sunday morning (he has two sisters, in case you didn't guess or know!) We said our last goodbyes' to Billys family over Crispy Kremes, and were on our way.

Flying emirates was like using a wholly different mode of transport to Easyjet - no queues, lots of free food, and thankfully no orange coats in sight. In flight entertainment contained a wide variety of options to keep us occupied and Billy soon learnt the lesson not to take me on at Battleships ever again. Our stopover in Dubai was brief and involved running through a seemingly endless terminal where everything looked the same - most disorientating! - to join the queue for our next flight. Our company for the next flight was a mother and daughter who perhaps should have booked first class, as they both seemed to rather enjoy stretching out - Billy had legs in his lap/face for most of the journey! Billy watched Cars and Dumbo, according to him because he didn't want to upset the little girl, but I have my doubts. We enjoyed another glorious stopover in Singapore and settled back down for another 7 hours of the same. My seat seemed to like falling apart whenever I wanted to recline, but eventually we got to sleep. Brisbane was a welcome stop, however it was here that we discovered our first loss of the trip - Billy's phone, which had been lost with surprising speed even for him. We eventually arrived, after yet more Friends episodes in Auckland at around 2pm (or 3am home time!). Propping ourselves up on caffeine tablets we took the shuttle to the Roxburghs. We were surprised by the temperature and humidity, a big change from grey old England! We'd no sooner had a glass of water and a sit down than Billy managed to volunteer himself to be part of the Meadowbank Misfits cricket team for the evening, reasoning we needed to try to stay up anyway! Cricket whites were sadly lacking from our packing list, but luckily no one else on the team had any either. The score was 144 runs to 99 after 14 overs, and we returned victorious. Despite a lack of practice and the fact it was 5.30am for us, Billy managed to get in a few decent bowls and catches, surprising both himself and me! We returned home for yummy quiche, salad and tomato bread with watermelon for afters - a pleasant change from wonderful airplane food! We crashed out at 9 ish and woke up around 7.30 this morning, when I started writing this blog =) Not sure we're entirely adapted yet - but seem to be getting there!

Plan for today is to have a wander around Auckland and get silly Billy a new phone.

Hope you enjoyed our first, rather in depth, update. I've attached some of the cricket pictures! Oh, and Billy 'enjoying' his earliest subway ever (I think it was around 4am!)

See you soon!

xxx