We are back into term time. Tom has gone back to school and will be studying for IGCSE's and Joe is back at Parnell kindergarten. It is some kind of preparation for real school as this photo shows.
The kindys here are often situated next to a reserve which is the case with Joe's. The children often want to take a detour through it, and yesterday we had a whirlwind tour of the reserve.

The weater is hot, sunny and humid and in the shade are many creatures. Some of them bite!

The archetypal kiwi summer

The kiwi lifestyle has often been talked about and after 8 years I think I can now say that it has become familiar to us this summer. We rented a bach recently near Tutukaka. For those who may not know, 'the bach' is a New Zealand holiday home which is very simple, usually near the beach. The origin of the word 'bach' comes from bachelor, due to the simplicity of the lifestyle; consumption of barbecued food, beer, and a wooden shack to sleep in. The simple pleasures of whiling away hours at the beach, looking at the sea life, even doing some anachronistic sunbathing.
If I had to leave NZ I would really miss the native New Zealand trees. These extraordinary coastal flax plants were just back from beach at Woolleys Bay.

I don't know what type of flax this is. Actually I'm not sure it is a flax. I havn't found it on the internet where I have only found two types of NZ flax. The flower stalks are at least 3 metres tall. Actually it looks more like a succulent.

Being buried is one of the things Joe loves to do on the beach. Here he is on the beach at Matapouri Bay, one of the biggest beaches in the Whangarei area, which boasts about 100 beaches.

Tutukaka

This summer we have spent quite a lot of time lazing around not doing much. We did get our ourselves organised enough to travel up to Northland twice and stay at Tutukaka.

This is the second bach we stayed at in a kiwi sanctuary in the hills. It was extraordinarily peaceful at the bach. Unusually, the weather was windless and once or twice I stopped, asking for silence from my people, and listened for a distant sound of traffic. There was nothing!

This is the nearest beach, opposite Ngunguru school and facing the sandbar on the river mouth.

Kayaking around Limestone Island, Whangerei Harbour

We enjoyed an early evening kayak around a limestone island with Sharon and Mark who we hired the kayaks from. Lime used to be quarried for cement, and the ruins of the lime kilns are still on the island.

Xmas Day 2008

One of the strange things about Christmas in New Zealand is that all the symbols of the traditional Christmas from winter in the Northern hemisphere survive as strongly as they do in the old country. Santa Claus wrapped up with boots, hat and thick overcoat, the reindeer, sleigh, holly, mistletoe, everything. Being in the Southern hemisphere, as we are, there is no snow here, and it is mid summer, so we are wearing shorts, bikinis (Anita that is, not me) and the like.
The temperature is in the 20's; eating outside is the norm, and although the sea is still fairly cold we've been swimming at Tutukaka in the sea, as well as in our next door neighbour's pool, which they have lent to us whle they are away.


A cold lunch on Christmas day of delicious New Zealand smoked salmon was had on the deck, and the Drunken duck, a Chinese recipe was saved for the evening.

Trains

Duncan is a favourite of Joe's trains and is known to get a wee bit angry at times. One of his characteristics is too sway on the track, known as 'Rocking and Rolling'.

Weta

The Weta is one of the strange creatures that only lives in New Zealand.
It is an ancient species which hasn't evolved much in the last 100 million years and has seen the dinosaurs come and go.
It lives in dark places in the forest and sheds it's exoskeleten repeatedly as it grows too big for it, which can often be found. This one is however a complete but dead weta.
There are many species of weta, some small, some huge, but they are all nocturnal.

Trip to Auckland Museum

It was a wet Saturday and Joe and dad decided to pay a visit to the museum. Joe loves the museum and has some particular favourite rooms. One is the volcano room. We had to wait for a while in the car until 10.00am which was when it opened.


Joe outside Auckland War memorial museum waiting for it to open.


Prow of a very long Maori canoe.



There is a great collection of Micronesian and Polynesian carving which Dad (Ken) was very keen on when he was here in 2002, and he did quite a few drawings of these small carved figures during several visits to the museum.


Once in Joe's favourite room we were able to see this cast of one of the incinerated victims from Pompeii and a drawing of the earth with Magma inside the earth bursting up in the form of volcanoes.

Some Lego vehicles

Isn't lego great! We are all pretty keen at making vehicles with lego, and here are a few which have been made recently. I find it quite funny putting the wrong size wheels onto a vehicle which otherwise seems well proportioned. The wheels can be too small or too big, the humourous effect is the same.

The fish shop

Joe has used fish from a game called 'Let's Go Fishing' and a toy woodworking bench to create a fish shop. He is quite keen on buying and selling fish.

Should have posted this photo last Halloween 2008 but didn't get round to it. It is now a family tradition to carve a pumpkin every year and this is what it looked like for 2008. He's got a toothy grin this time due to a tea candle placed inside. Joe adores this tradition.

Club Champs

This weekend we have had club champs at College Rifles. I took a few photos of the open competition and Emma Rodgers and Kevin Dennerly-Minturn played, both winning their respective singles as well as combining in the mixed.

Image gathering around Auckland

I've been rumaging around Auckland city looking for unsuspecting people to photograph and buildings of interest. A few weeks ago I found this gem in a pedestrianised street off Queen Street.
It has been made into a pub which sells Belgian beer, which made it even more interesting for me.


I included it in a painting by compositing it onto the edge of a park (urban park 2)
raising it up onto a plinth so that it towers above the figure walking past.

Christmas Day 2007

After a seafood bbq, pavlova and chocolate pudding we were all a bit tired so it was time for photos on the bed.

New website

I am building a new website but it is going slowly as the method I was using to build it has become unusable. That was 'Freewebs' who are also hosting the site. There is a problem there too in that it is too slow to load.

I will find another software means of building and updating the site but in the meantime it is on hold. However once it is going properly it will be called matthewjamescarter.com

Double portrait started

Matthew has been working on big double portrait of Mandy & Desi
have a look at it here:
Paintings

They have gone off travelling now for a week to learn how to surf.

Amanda and Desi arrive in New Zealand

Amanda and Desi arrived in Auckland 7 hours apart from each other on different flights. One at nearly midnight and the other at 7am. Both arrived safely and got over the jet lag very quickly. Here they are with Joe in the Winter Garden in Auckland Domain.

Halloween

Anita bought a pumpkin to carve for Halloween. It was quite difficult to do and resulted in Matthew's assistance. Here is the finished result which is a very friendly pumpkin!

Joe has a hair cut

We decided that Joe looked far too much like Albert Einstein and needed a hair cut. This is Joe before he had his hair cut up a tree in Cornwall Park.

Kotaro

Here is a new painting I've started of Kotaro Suzuki, who is staying with us for some months. He spent a lot of time learning one of Bach's preludes and I thought it would be good to see as a painting.

College Rifles Badminton Hall.
I've got to prepare a speech for the AGM coming up in November and I find the best time to write it is 4 am.