friends of russell

this pic is from anzac day. spent most of the time in the rsa chatting with rhona, auntie em and baden...baden (the far right) manages the appartment that i stayed alone for a week and then with rhona. he was great living next too, we enjoyed early (heh well not ealry) morning tea and an evening glass of wine every now and again.


here is one of seti doing karaoke. this guy can sing AND dance. he is always fun to be around and spent many hours hanging out and chatting on his porch


this is my evil twin (rhona) and i


gary michelle and i at the pub



gary and seb pulling russell gang signd ;)

anzac day

Anzac day is on the 25th April and celebrated in New Zealand and Ausie. It marks the anniversary of the first major military action fought by Australian and New Zealand forces during the First World War. ANZAC stands for Australian and New Zealand Army Corps. ANZAC day is very important here and i was lucky enough to get invited to a dawn service in Rawhiti. Rawhiti lost the most men per capita in NZ and was hosting a dawn service at a Maori marae. a marae (more-eye) is the meeting house in a maori village. here is a photo before the dawn service...i woke up very early and had morning tea with rhona and michelle. i was still feeling a bit ick from the night before and the first thing offered to us at the RSA (veterans association) was a glass of rum and milk. the anzac soldiers drank this in the AM to stay warm. heh had one sip and then felt like i was going to die the entire bus ride on the typical unsealed curvey NZ roads!!!so yeah this is a pic of rawhiti (ra-fi-tee)


The service is preformed first in the Maori language by a priest then one of the ANZAC soldiers thanked the village for inviting us over as well as gave a bit of a speech about ANZAC day. it was a gorgeous service. after we all get in line and are welcomed by the town people in rawhiti. kia ora (hello) is exchanged between everyone along with kisses on cheeks or nose presses (a greeting in the maori culture)

after greeting each other there was a hangi. usually veggies and meat roasted in the ground, but this one was more breakfast orientated. i had an asparagus, cream cheese roll up and fell in love! i think i ate all of them myself...

This lil dude is situated on the top of the Marae. It's on the top and called "tekoteko", or carved figure. Its at the very top of the roof and is the entrance to the marae. it represents the ancestors head. from there two poles extend downward and represent arms welcoming people in.

After the service i thought i was going to zonk out! st pic is of..... but baden (owner of the apt i was renting) talked me into watching the anzac parade in russell...after the parade i slept for an hour then met up with rhona to go eat eat eat at the RSA. they had a bufett and cheap cheap drinks! there was music and some vets playing guitars and singing. definitely not a thing i could get to see while on the kiwi experience ;)

russell rewind

alrighty, so once i stopped working at the gables i spent a lot of time with friends....doing, well, a whole lot of nothing! well not really we went out over to Paihia for Dylans bday. there is a photo of us two. see that hat he is wearing? i crocheted it! heh...which is why i am NOT a professional hat maker!

after realizing there was no way of me convincing a friend to go to the otherside of northland with me...i took a bus tour to the east coast of the northland. known as the hokianga harbor or the kauri coast.the view is gorgeous of the harbor and sand dunes. from there we went to see one of the oldest and largest kauri trees left in NZ. the tree, tane mahuta, is 51.1 m high with a trunk colume of 244.5 m...pretty insane

one tuesday we went up to matauri bay (if gary, seb, or rhona is reading this and i messed up on the bay name....tell me por favor!) we drove up and played in the tide pools. found heaps of craps and sea stars. rhona and i tried to go in for a dip...but too cold. then headed to monganui for some fush and chups. oh, for those who didnt hear, i now am a fish eater....yum. it was a great lil day trip to get out of town well village for a day.

ahhh there is also a pic of me and ami sam. ami sam is related to seb who worked in the gables. he is in a picture from my last entry i believe...we wouls go hang out at the local school and play basketball, netball, and i introduced them to horse! heh they loved that game...

k feeling lazy so here are sum ups of pics:

1. seb (kictchenhand), me, bernard (frenchi chef who know s running gables with his partner -->) megan (ausie head waitress etc...) hmmm now cant remember if its megan then bernard or vice versa, either way you get it

2. on the ferry home from paihia after celebrating dylan's bday. nope no dylan in theis photo, he didnt make it past 9 30 that night!

3. seb (german chef) rhona (scotish) and gary (irish chef) and i went on a drive up north on their day off (me everyday isa day off!!!)

a bit more sailing

soooo here are photos of another sailing trip i took. i clmbed up the mass 9i think hthats what its called) and nearly freaked out! was a bit scary but fun. we had a lunch stop over on an island (thats what the other pic is of) and then continued to sail. it started to rain tho! which i thought was fun, i put on bright yellow rain pants andmy rain coat and went up to help the deck hands!!! a true sailor... haha

fun i finally figured out how to change the font and colours etc....

so to catch up on the photos i have here...the other day i went on a boat tour of the bay of islands. there are over 10 islands over here and everything is quite stunning. the tour i took also functions as a goods delivery for families living on the isolated islands. there's one photo of a man on the end of a pier, yep he lives on a farming island and is waiting for a delivery. it was a full day tour, me and about 60 60year olds! heh still made for a nice tour. tomorrow im going sailing, lets hope there are some younger folks there too!

one of the bigger sites to see or famous i suppose is the "hole in the rock" it is massive, our boat went through it, and carefully too, the swell was quite massive. we had an island lay over and i hiked up to the top of the hill and man, the view was a amazing. its been a great stay up here in the bay of islands...just a few more explorations here and then im off to the south!

its raining its pouring

so last week on thursday we had heaps of rain up here...as you can see in the photo.
it poured for about 2 days non stop and flooded in the street behind the gables. the town was playing and kayaking in the streets! we lost power for nearly a full day, but made the most of it. the owners of the gables were in town (nicks parents)so we all had a nice candle light dinner (thanks to bernard the frechie chef) and a few bottles of wine! woke up the next morning with a bit of a headache, but the storm had passed and ever since the weather has pretty much cleared up...good thing to because ive got some sailing and kayaking adventures booked...yep yep more photos to come

cape reinga crusaders

a few weekends ago i headed up to cape reinga with the staff at the gables, nick. bernard. and megan. its a 3 hour drive north. this is where the tasman sea and pacific ocean collide. its was magnificent! on the tip is an 800 yr old pohutukawa tree. and its roots, as the maoris believe, hide the entrance to the underworld, where the spirits of the dead leave the earth. its quite a beautiful site. before gettin to the cape we hit up some intense sand dunes. larger than any i have seen...heh one hill (nearly a mountain) almost got the best of nme. nick and i found it easier to climb up by crawling, although my thighs definitely were sore the next day....