Thursday 10th March
Beautiful today - roasting in fact

Drove to Tauranga and had some lunch in Wharf Street and had a walk along the strand.

Louis playing water polo match tonight. In fact he's just found out he's playing two matches, one after the other. He's not best pleased about that. Tired after our trip I think! It ended up that he played really well. They didn't win but put up a brave fight. He's only been playing for a few weeks so is still learning the tactics but he's a good strong swimmer and doesn't get intimidated which is just as well as the second team they played were 17 and 18 year olds and super fit. It was like something out of a comedy film when we saw them coming in, in comparison to Louis team who are 14ish. Several of Louis' team are surf lifesavers and they played really well. Their 2 goals were scored by 2 of the girls in the team. We had to laugh. On the way there Louis was saying he'll never manage two matches because he'll be exhausted and if you see how much swimming and sculling they have to do I could well believe it. Imagine how surprised we were when we found him and his friend shooting hoops on the basketball court in between matches. They also had to scale a 15ft fence to get in?

There's a real emphasis on swimming in the area and the National surf lifesaving competition is held just down the road from Mike's. While we've been here, there was a very sad occurrence. Hamish, one of the surf lifesavers had been on duty in the morning and in the afternoon he was enjoying being with his friends on the beach. A wave washed him off the rocks. His body was retrieved the following day. He was just 17!

Friday 11th March
Overcast today

Waire Falls today.

Waire Falls with a drop of 153 metres is the highest in North Island. A nice walk to the lookout through trees with moss covered boulders and fern lined gullies then up a rather steep staircase. Took about 1.5hrs. Not really anywhere to eat our lunch so drove to the Mount and had our picnic on the beach before picking Mike and the kids up from school in time for Daisy's waterpolo match at 4pm. This will be our last session so she went all out to make it a good one.

Louis went to stay at his friend Cyprus house and we abandoned the traditional Friday night pizza and movie and had curry instead and a movie of course. An Indian woman from the community had gone into Gills kindergarten and made butter chicken curry and chapati for them all at lunch time and there was some left so that's what we had and it was delicious.

Saturday 12th March

We took Daisy and Louis to the swimming baths for their waterpolo practice this morning and had a swim in the pool with them before and after. Then later in the afternoon we walked down to the beach. Mike was showing us these endemic shellfish, a type of clam, called tuatua which you can scoop up by the handful along the waterline. We were going to take a couple home to put on the BBQ but unfortunately there's a ban on eating the shellfish at the moment as they're contaminated. But it's fun to watch the seagulls pick them up and drop them from a height to break them open. The fishermen also use them for bait. Got home and had BBQ for tea and chiminea burning on the patio. Lovely evening

Sunday 13th March
A very happy birthday Kevin. Hope you had a great time celebrating x x

When we've been here in the past and the children were younger we used to schedule a visit to Branns Farm where there is a water slide consisting of a sheet of heavy duty plastic laid on the sloping ground ending in a dug out area. There's a barrel of water and a hose and tap. The idea is you pour the water down the slope, with some washing up liquid if you have any to speed it up, then jump on and slide down. Now I don't have good memories of this slide as one time when it looked a lot of fun, I joined in but didn't stop at the bottom. Instead, I flew over the hedge! much to the amusement of Sam and the kids. Being wiser now we didn't go on this slide but did watch a family enjoying themselves there. There's also a stream with tyre inertubes which you can use to float down. Sadly the kids have outgrown these wonders but it was good to see some people still enjoying them.

Louis is due to go to camp in a couple of weeks and the camp challenge is to light a fire with matches without paper or firelighters and by gathering your own wood. So with the challenge set we gave it a try. Mike had brought a saw so we could saw fallen branches but starting it from scratch was quite difficult. Now as you know I love nothing better than a fire but I would usually have firelighters and a gas lighter so it was interesting to watch Mike teach the kids (and me) how to do it from scratch. Little bits of dry wood and bark with a little wigwam of twigs then bigger twigs around it. I think a total of 5 matches were used which I think was pretty good. The fire was soon blazing in the pit then we had to wait for it to die down so we could BBQ over the top. It was delicious. Soon after the BBQ it was time to head off as Daisy had basketball practice at 5 but we did have time to gather some walnuts which had fallen from the trees.

We had another lovely day and finished the evening eating fajitas and drinking wine!!

Monday 14th March

Gills off work today as her back and neck have been giving her trouble. Hope it soon gets better. We did a nice 8.5 mile walk along the beach and reserve and it was great as it wasn't too hot. Just hot enough. When we got back to the house the sun was cracking the flags so sat on the patio until time to collect the kids from school.

Daisy made some yummy chocolate brownies then we went for fish and chips at the beach. The surf lifesaving club were down there practising. It was amazing to watch them. They're all just kids and doing life saving in the surf using kayaks and speed boats flying through the air, picking people up from the sea in the blink of an eye.

Tuesday 15th March
Gill still not too good and Mike and Louis have the beginnings of cold and sore throats so they all stayed off today. We dropped Gill at the hot pools while we walked round the base track at the Mount. The kids were trundling down to the beach here and there and they had great fun on the rope swing too. And of course Mike couldn't miss out on having a turn too. We met up with Gill at the hot pools after our walk. There's 3 different pools of different depths and temperatures. Really nice. Unfortunately I forgot the camera :(

Lovely BBQ for tea and Daisy spent the evening filling in an application form for @@#@ at her school. She's only 11 but with Mike and Gill to support and inspire her, I'm sure she'll do a great job if she gets the position and if not it's been a good experience. Louis (14) has a job on the estate mowing lawns. He also delivers leaflets twice a month and is saving his wages for a hoverboard.

Wednesday 16th March

Mooched around today with a little walk over to Moturiki Island (leisure island)
located just off Mount Maunganui beach, connected by a man made land bridge. In 1991 it was turned into Leisure Island - a water park with swimming pools, bumper boats and hydro slide, but closed in 1991 and equipment was removed. We took a picnic lunch and were amused to see a little mouse keep popping out by Sam's feet to steal the bread crumbs he'd dropped.

BBQ tea and the last story reading of the holiday

Thursday 17th March
No sunshine this morning. Rather grey out there after lots of rain last night. We packed this morning ready for leaving on the 5pm bus then went to the Bluebiyou for a scrummy lunch complete with a cocktail and glass of wine.

Mike came home with Louis and Daisy at 3.30 but Gill was running a fundraising event for kindergarten so we said our goodbyes to her this morning.

It's been great to see the family and they've really pulled out the stops to make sure we've enjoyed our holiday to the full which we certainly have. So a great big THANK YOU to Mike, Gill Louis and Daisy for a fabulous time.

Mike and the kids ran us to the bus and waited until we set off for the airport with lots of wonderful hugs and kisses for us to take away with us

5pm and were off and its still raining