Bae! Bae! Bae!
Well since the crappy cricket of the last diary entry, it turns out that they're going to rip up the turf and replace it all. At a huge cost. To the taxpayer. That's me, I'm the damn taxpayer here. Not only do I get crabbed off at the crappy pitch, but now I have to fix it! Oh well.
It was Sarah's birthday the week before last. Everyone came over on Thursday and we had the traditional takeaways and Guinness cake. Last Saturday Mary came over to look after the kiddies, while Sarah and I went to see the Gannets. We got there with 25+ minutes to spare so we went next door to get a coffee. It took them SO long to make us two coffees, it was mental. SArah actually left to go and get us some seats on the tractor/trailer, while I kept waiting. Eventually after I was about to ask for my money back we got our coffees. The only thing was at least they were very good coffees!
Sarah had secured us a seat on the tractor/trailers right up the front which was good. There were 3 tractors, each with 2 trailers. Each trailer had at least 20 people, so there was about 120 people heading off! We though it might not be too busy, we were quite wrong.
Off we set and man oh man, it was so super bumpy! Much bumpier than we were expecting. We got stuck/bogged heaps of times, by the time we got to the first Gannet colony we'd gotten off and on about 10 times. The bumps had shaken us around but we'd made it! We got off and were told we had an hour and twenty minutes to walk up to the main Gannet colony. Off up the hill we started and it was quite a hike, more than we both thought it was going to be after having read the brochure! It was a good 25+ minute walk to the top and we were both puffed out when we got there, but we were rewarded with a huge flock of Gannets.
Who Jesus Lordie on a bike, reeked like there was no tomorrow. They freaking stink. Badly. Attacking your nostrils badly. But they were cool. More kept landing all the time and they'd fight each other about who was supposed to be nesting where etc. Sarah got some really great photos. I took a photo of a sign that said "Once a Gannet is old enough to flies to Australia". Pretty much like most human Kiwis I thought and laughed to myself at my hilarious joke. Once we'd seen them lots and taken heaps of photos, we walked back down to the DOC hut where we had our lunch that I'd packed. Though it was quite a power eating of lunch because our time was almost up! Then we headed back on the tractors, thankfully only getting bogged/stuck a few times on the return trip. I heard people talking to the driver and the driver said the waves had washed heaps and heaps of the sand away and that it's not usually anywhere near as bad as we'd had it with all the getting on and getting off, getting stuck etc. Which makes sense, because we did feel a little rushed at the end stop, with only 5 minutes to eat our lunch.
Once we left the Gannets we drove to our hotel, the flash new "Porters" in Havelock North. It was really nice, very flash and clean though it didn't have a pool or a spa or any of those sorts of things. Prehaps not the best choice for a getaway, but then the only really nice place I can think of with a pool etc is in Taupo.
7:30pm we set off to Craggy Range for dinner. It was really nice, we sat outside for a while watching the sun go down and the last of the paragliders. Once it got too cold we moved inside where we had our main, a big hunk of beef still on the bone. It was cut up (badly!) in front of us and was very tasty.
Next morning I was shocked awake when the TV went off at 9:30. Sarah had set the alarm so that we wouldn't forget to wake up and check out and I'm glad she did, I was sure I'd wake up around 7am like I do every morning. Nope, fast asleep in a coma when it went off! We managed to check out on time, get some breakfast at a local cafe being having to return to see our lovely children and take them over again. Alas!
Beth (and Theo!) started at Kindy last week. Beth hasn't been too sure of the whole thing, every morning she says how she doesn't want to go etc etc, but once she gets there she soon forgets about not wanting to go and gets right into her "work" of activities. Theo is going as well, though he goes into the little baby room.
Theo's doing great, he's really starting to walk about the place unprompted. He still prefers to crawl, but I think he's starting to see that walking is kinda useful and it is what everyone else is doing it. But this morning he's been walking all over the house, happy as larry. So I think the panic is over. He's had his X-Ray but they're just sending someone to our house for the followup, I'm sure if they'd found something to be worried about they'd have asked us to go to the hospital.
The Bae situation is getting hilarious/scary. We bought Theo another Bae a couple of weeks ago, it's the same size and material, but a different colour. New Bae was introduced once night after he'd gone to sleep, old Bae was taken out and new Bae was put in it's place. He didn't seem to mind until the morning when I found up standing up, holding the size of his cot and looking at new Bae like it was some sort of alien creature. He wasn't impressed at all, but I just said "Good Morning Theo! Good Morning Bae!" and gave Bae a big cuddle and then Theo went "Oh yup that must be Bae" and he was happy. Beth knew something was up "That's not Bae that's a different colour" but Theo didn't care.
While Theo had his old Bae again, Sarah then cut up new Bae into "Mini Bae" and "Midi Bae". Theo loves Midi Bae, it's 1/4 the size of regular Bae. But Mini Bae was a really hard sell, he wasn't having any of this tiny-little-square-of-Bae-passed-off-as-real-Bae stuff. It look lots and lots of talking to Mini Bae, rubbing it, saying hi to it etc for him to suddenly decide that yes, Mini Bae was also Bae. So that makes takes him places easier, we can just give him Mini Bae and he's happy. It gives him the comfort and protection that he wants, but is small and portable and able to be taken places. Unlike taking a full sized Bae everywhere, which wasn't practical.
Art Deco weekend this weekend and it's pissing with rain. Feel a bit bad for all the Art Deco people, but they crab me off with their getting in my way when I'm walking in town, their total inability to drive at more than 20km/h anywhere and of course the stupid clothes.
Right, I finally feel caught up. As always I'm sure I've missed lots but I'll come back and edit it when I remember.