Author: Rachel M

The traffic in Auckland is horrendous on days the volcano does not erupt. When it goes, cars will be useless and evacuation will need to be on foot. But where are the hundreds of thousands of evacuees going to sleep? Have they thought about that? There’s no such thing as a volcanic-ash-safe tent. Maybe there’s…

It is really hot today and I have resorted to using a damp face washer to keep myself cool. I don’t understand why people like hot climates. When it’s cold, it’s quite easy to add another layer and presto, you feel warm. But when it’s hot, there’s only so many layers you can take off…

I’m still breastfeeding Elizabeth but would like to wean her in the not-too-distant future. She’ll be two on New Year’s Eve and two is a good age to stop. The World Health Organisation recommends breastfeeding until two or beyond and the first two years of their lives is the most dangerous in terms of childhood…

We have a sandpit! Ben spent the weekend digging: Then it rained and rained and created a pond: This morning I put in the sand and now we have two happy children: It could probably do with a little more sand but they don’t seem to mind.

There was a Mag. 5.7 near Wellington last night. It was 40km west of Wellington and 60km deep which is a reasonable distance away and depth compared to the Christchurch quakes, yet it still caused some minor damage. The brand new (< 5 years old) Meridian building is reported to have lost some louvres which…

It has been quite hot in Auckland the past couple of days and yesterday I was thinking of having a whinge about it and feeling sad about no longer living in a cold climate until I checked Metservice and discovered that it was actually hotter in Christchurch. It’s not actually that bad anyway. We get…

The Auckland city council recently decided to keep secret a list of some 4000 buildings in Auckland that are seismically risky. They thought it would create panic in the streets to release this information. They want to give the owners of said buildings the chance to get their own engineer’s reports first which is all…

Today we took the kids to the Whangaparaoa narrow gauge railway which was created by train enthusiast Ted Pointon. What initially began as a hobby has become a lovely park with a cool miniature train ride, animals, playgrounds and forest walks. It’s a fabulous find for us as it’s only 20 minutes north of our home…

Elizabeth just said: “1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10” Elizabeth is a great little talker. She can basically say everything and she does but her hopeless parents don’t always understand her. She understands everything we say though. She loves Daniel’s kindergarten and it has become a real battle getting her out of there.…

Our neighbourhood has turned into a rubbish tip. For one weekend each year, residents of the North Shore can dump their rubbish on the footpath and have it collected the following week. Rubbish can include fridges, washing machines, sofas, old carpets, broken toys, etc. Each area gets a turn and the entire North Shore is…

On my dog walk this morning I found a small path leading away from the road. I followed it and this is what I found: Thick forest in the middle of suburbia all just 2 minutes from our house! Auckland has lots of pockets like this. Why did the early settlers arrive in Christchurch and…

Daniel’s kindy had their annual fun run fundraiser today. Daniel proudly completely 5 laps. Some photos: All the children received ice-creams at the end, including younger siblings.

We didn’t go exploring last weekend because we had some cleaning up to do. Our spare bedroom has been our unpacking/storage room and our first visitor arrived last night to sleep in it so we spent the weekend making it look like a bedroom again. Our visitor is a PhD student of Ben’s who fled…

Daniel has attended three kindys this year. That’s a lot for child with a working diagnosis of ASD. He has taken all the moving and changes with ease and has settled into the latest kindy without any problems. I asked him yesterday which of the three kindys he liked the best and he replied: “the…

We are almost through all the unpacking. Just a couple of boxes left thank goodness. I feel very much at home in this house. It’s the sort of house I’ve always wanted to live in and it’s nice living in it. We’ve had some safety issues to deal with though. The stairs leading to our…

I just adore our new house. It’s my *perfect* home with all the timber, sarked ceilings and enormous round windows. It has such a lovely feel to it and I feel very safe here. Earthquake-safe that is. I never felt safe in our house in Christchurch, hence the need to sleep in a caravan. I…

We have moved into our new house and absolutely love it. This post however is going to be a rant about trying to connect a phone line. I signed up with Slingshot as our phone and broadband provider last week asking to be connected on the 31st October. They came out on the day to…

This was our last day in Leigh so we wanted to make the most of it. This morning we went to the Brick Bay winery for their 2km sculpture trail. This is a gentle walk through forests and fields, past lakes and streams all the while enjoying a dotting of artistic sculptures which were very…

This is a truly lovely place. Bliss. The lovely sea views, the peace and quiet, the lush greenery, the perfect ambient temperature and a dishwasher after three months without = very relaxing holiday.  Taking the boys out for a walk. The dogs got some exercise too. Preparing for a bbq lunch on our deck. I…

We are officially homeless and it feels great. Except of course that we have a roof over our heads and beds to sleep in. We left our Point Chevalier rental yesterday after a hectic day of packing and cleaning which was not easy with two children. I made the mistake of cleaning the bathroom early…