rachel.blog

Category: Auckland

  • Rock star and Kauri trees

    Daniel’s school had a “dress-up as a rockstar/popstar” day last week. Daniel dressed up and made an appropriate amount of noise throughout the day. Ben’s Mum has been with us this past week so we thought we’d better do something touristy. Today we took her to the Kauri Glen Reserve which is a large, forested…

  • I want to ride my bike…..

    I want to ride my bike with my two-year-old sitting in her seat on the back. She loves it. I love it. I want to ride my bike to save money on petrol. I want to ride my bike to reduce my greenhouse gas emissions. I want to ride my bike to help prevent depression…

  • The Art Gallery

    Yesterday Ben looked after the children so that I could go with a friend to the Degas to Dali exhibition on at the Auckland Art Gallery. It was wonderful. The Art Gallery itself is a beautiful French Chateau-style building, originally designed by Melbourne-based architects and opened in 1887. It has just recently undergone some extensive…

  • School is back

    Daniel returned to school this week and is very happy to be back and to see his Korean girlfriends again. His teacher is Australian and yesterday he was suddenly quite excited and began flapping his hands and asked me, “If you’re Australian and Mrs Price is Australian, when you were 5 and she was 5…

  • The Chelsea Sugar Refinery

    Before Mike left on Monday, we visited the Chelsea Sugar Refinery in Birkenhead. The refinery is a huge pinky-orange building, visible from all over Auckland in an imposing position over-looking the harbour. There’s a sketch of it on all the Chelsea sugar packets so I’ve long wanted to visit it up close. It also lives…

  • Map of New Zealand

  • Poo and morons at the helm

    Elizabeth pooed on the back terrace the other day and she grabbed my arm and took me outside to see it. Then she pointed at her poo and said, “I did a dog-poo”. Ben’s Dad came to visit last weekend and he’s just left this afternoon for Christchurch. He’s off to see Christchurch as an…

  • I need…

    Elizabeth has discovered the word “need”, as in “I need an Easter Egg”.  Today she reached her hand into the pocket of Ben’s trousers (where he keeps his wallet) and said, “I need wallet”. We weren’t expecting this to happen for at least another twelve years.  Be afraid, be very afraid. Ben took Daniel to…

  • Muriwai

    We took Pee-Nang to see the gannet colony at Muriwai today. It’s on the west coast of Auckland about 30 minutes’ drive by car from our house. I love the west coast for its ruggedness, vegetation and interesting geology. The gannet colony is fascinating with hundreds of birds nesting high on the cliffs. We visited…

  • Zeki’s grave and photos

    We buried Zeki in our back yard and planted a fern on the grave. Daniel helped us and was very interested in the process.   He does not seem bothered by the fact Zeki is gone and never coming back. Zeki’s grave I thought I’d take the opportunity to post some photos of our garden…

  • Lies, damned lies and statistics

    My mathematician husband often likes to use mathematics against me. For instance, he often says things like: I’m much more likely to die in a car crash than an earthquake or volcanic eruption. So what are the statistics? According to the Auckland Regional Council civil defence management page, there’s a 5% chance over any 50…