That's a Wrap on 2022

Looking Back at Year End

So that was 2022 huh? The year's gone by fast. So fast I've hardly updated my blog lately. That may also be because Dad has been writing his book though. But that means it's the perfect time to look back on what we've been up to through the year.

We started the year enjoying the last summer holidays, with beach trips and boat rides. We took the ferry to Motuihe Island and had a great day exploring the ruins and beaches. In fact, it was ferry ferry nice.

And of course we visited a whole bunch of beaches, including mine and William's first visit to Piha Beach. This is us moments before a wave came in and drenched us both. We weren't smiling so much after that. Mum and Dad were though, grrr.

The biggest news of the year was us buying and moving into our new house. That was after two annoying lockdowns (one near the end of 2021 and one at the beginning of 2022) made it hard for us to look at places. But luckily everything turned out great. You can see the before and after photos below: before we moved in, and after we moved in, with empty boxes galore!

The house is much bigger than our old one - more rooms, more space, more playing areas... but less grass and less fruit trees. Hopefully one day we can plant some trees of our own. Mum's already started a cool vege patch with lettuce, beans and tomatoes. Which should keep her busy gardening and not busy falling down stairs (which she did a couple of months after moving in and had to be on crutches).

Of course we got another year older, and had our first birthdays in the new house. Two delicious cakes with chocolate and lollies. I could eat that for dinner every night.

In the middle of the year we went away for a short holiday, down to Waitomo Caves and Taupo. The first couple of nights we stayed in this cool farmhouse surrounded by fields and animals. It was super misty in the mornings. We also visited the Waitomo Caves, seeing all the cool cave formations and glowworms, plus going on the underground boat ride.

After that we met up with Grandma and Grandad to spend a couple of nights in Taupo. We visited Puzzling World to see all the great optical illusions and try to beat the maze (which we didn't), plus we had another boat trip across Lake Taupo. I don't know what it is about Taupo but it seems like every time we come here, someone gets sick. Last time it was Dad, this time it was Mum, but luckily it was just on the last day.

There were lots of first times for new things in the new house, like trick or treating at Halloween. We didn't really know what to expect from the neighbourhood, but we got all dressed up anyway and Mum took us out - and it was so worth it! We scored huge piles of chocolate and lollies, enough to keep us going for days afterwards (well, it was when we were forced to not eat them all that night anyway).

Boo! Here's us set to scare the street as a fairy and a cat... sorry, I mean as a vampire and a zombie.

And who could forget our first Christmas in the new house. Christmas Day was at our place again this year, which meant plenty of time playing with all the new goodies.

But while the house is new and the tree is different (we finally got a real one this year), the list of things William and me want is still as long as ever. You can see our lists in the vid below, but something went crazy wrong when Dad filmed it. It looks like we were in the middle of an earthquake, calmly reading our lists!

Just in case you get shaky-eye syndrome from trying to watch the video, these are the lists we're reading, complete with our awesome festive drawings. William's is on the left with the Christmas trees and what looks like a Christmas bomb; mine's on the right with the traditional Christmas tree, presents, Rudolph and, er, light sabre. For when Santa visits the Death Star maybe...

That's about it. There's probably loads of other stuff too, but I can't remember everything. I'm too busy looking forward to all the fun I'm going to have on these long, lazy weeks of school holidays!

Moving Up in the World

From crowded house to the big house

Ever since I was born I've only ever lived in one house. It was a nice brick house with a big garden and lots of fruit trees on Newstead Avenue.

I learned to speak and walk there. I practiced my bike-riding across the lawn there. And when William came along, we explored the nature trail together, and collected guavas from the tree together.

It was a great house. But as we got bigger, the house seemed smaller. All the stuff we had was filling it up. It was time to get something bigger.

We sold our house really fast. It was up for sale less than a week before it sold, and Mum and Dad were over the moon with how much money they got for it.

But then the search for a new house started. Or at least, it should have, except that the whole country went into lockdown right then, and we couldn't get out to look at any houses.

Finally, months later, we could start our search, and boy did it take ages. But skip ahead six months and we're about to move into the big new house we've bought. This is us walking into our new home the very first time as owners.

Moving everything you own is a big job. Apparently. William and me were at school on moving day. But packing up everything you have into boxes, then unpacking them again at the other end, creates a mountain of empty boxes. A mountain just perfect for playing in...

So that's our house moving adventure. We've lost our garden and our nature trail and our amazing grapefruit tree, but we've gained a big house with tons of space for us all to keep on growing in.

Let's Get Quizzicle

Taking the Family Quiz

In our family there's some obvious things everyone knows about others. Like that Dad enjoys reading books which need dice. And Mum is crazy about animals.

But there are some things about the other people in our family which we didn't know. So Dad decided to test us to see if we knew - or could work them out. He came up with a bunch of facts about different family members and asked William and me who each was for.

How well did we do? Watch the video to find out.

A pretty good score I think. And we enjoyed doing it so much Dad said he'd do a round two sometime. He'll need to make it more tricky if he wants to catch out these two family quizzing champions though.

Ferry Ferry Nice

Sea, Sand and Skippers on Motuihe Island

It's not every week you get a free $100 voucher to spend on going out and having fun. So when Mum won one through some sort of competition, we knew we had to make the most of it.

Great, we thought, we'll go to Tiritiri Matangi. Mum and Dad have wanted to take us there for ages!

...except it's fully booked. Darn. Oh well, Motuihe Island will do just as well. We drove into the city and hopped on a ferry to take us out past other islands and a bunch of ships. Luckily there was hardly any wind, so it wasn't anything like as rough as the last time we went on a boat. No being sick this time for poor little William!

The sun was out and it was beautiful weather as we stepped off onto the island. There's lots of walking tracks, so we wandered about for a while, listening to all the birds (and Dad doing bad impressions of birds).

There's amazing views out across the water from some of the high points. After lunch we went to the beach for a swim, and the water was so warm, we stayed in for ages. William especially loved the beach because he found so much sea glass; he's collected a bagful to take home to make some artwork out of.

There were also some cool ruins we would have loved to explore, except they all had signs saying they were in danger of collapsing. They probably wouldn't have survived two kids rushing about everywhere between them.

When it was time to take the ferry back home, me and William obviously impressed the skipper so much with our nautical knowledge and seafaring abilities, that he let us captain the ferry for a while. We sure do look the part with our cool sunglasses and relaxed vibe.

It was another great day out in this super-hot summer - and all it cost us was the price of an ice-cream on the island. Bargain! As for Tiritiri Matangi, we'll get there one day.

Coast to Coast

Holiday Fun From East to West

The sun’s still out, and so are we. With just a few days left until we go back to school, we need to pack as much in as we can. This time our day trips would take us from the east coast near our house, to the west coast across the other side of Auckland.

The weather forecast for the long weekend of Waitangi Day unfortunately said it was going to rain most of the time. So first thing Saturday morning, “let's get out early and do a coastal walk” said Mum and Dad. The tide was also going to be quite high at about the time we’d be doing the walk, but “we'll stay dry” said Mum and Dad.

Half an hour later, well let's see how that worked out...

We were scrambling over rocks and along the narrow causeways as the waves crashed over us. And this was the result. You probably can't see from the photo just how completely soaked we are. Every time we took a step our shoes sloshed with water from half the ocean.

Luckily our west coast adventure had a bit more sun and a bit less risk of being swept out to sea by waves. On a beautiful sunny day we took a drive out to Bethell’s Beach. This was the first time William and I had been to a real surf beach and we just loved it - jumping over the waves and trying to body surf in. Even when we started shivering from cold, we didn’t want to leave the water.

There was also a massive cave there which we explored all the way to the back. It was dark and a little bit spooky right at the back. Some of the rocks nearby had some amazing rock pools too, and we had a great time watching the big waves crash over the rocks, showering us with spray.

But whether it was soaked on the east coast or sunny on the west coast, we loved our summer holiday adventures.

Summer Stunner

Holiday Fun in the Sun

Thank goodness that's over! Bye bye lockdown - hello summer! Sometimes I thought we'd never get here, but after all the ups and downs of 2021, we've finally finished our years at school and work, and can enjoy some fun in the holiday sun.

Don't let my lack of updates fool you into thinking we haven't been doing anything - far from it! It's been such an amazing sunny summer that we've been out and about a lot. How sunny has it been? Just check out the sky in this picture.

That’s me in my Darth Vader t-shirt I’ve been wearing almost every day. Even though it’s at least two sizes too small for me now. I’ve become obsessed with Star Wars since Dad started showing me the movies. You’d think I was Ollie-Wan Kenobi.

Since it's been so hot, and we live so close to beaches, it would be crazy not to go for some swims. So we've spent a few days at the beach, making sandcastles, exploring rock pools, and of course splashing in the waves.

See, there I am again. Different day, same t-shirt.

There's a first time for everything, and this summer was my first time doing kayaking. We all went up to Puhoi to paddle down the river in two-person kayaks. I paired up with Dad, but actually Mum was the better kayaker - Dad paddled straight into the bank right after we set off.

It was a lot of fun, but because it was so hot we had to cool off with a delicious drink at the pub across the road afterwards. Then it was on to Wenderholm for another lovely swim.

No Darth Vader t-shirt this time, but only because it can’t be used as togs.

We've packed plenty in so far, but even though we'll be back in school again soon, summer's only half over. There's a lot more fun in the sun to be had yet - so may the force be with you!

Staying Busy While Staying Home

More Lockdown Creativity

It's another month of lockdown. Another month of home schooling, home working, home everything. Like the last couple of months, we haven't exactly been busy going out doing things, but we have been busy being creative. So while there's no exciting pics of places we've been to share, why not share some more examples of our lockdown artwork?

This is a treasure map of a desert island I did for a school task. Follow the red dotted line to find the treasure!

The next two are William's. One weekend when we went for a walk along Browns Bay beach, we saw the principal of our school - Mr Johnstone. That's what William's drawn in the first picture below. Mr Johnstone's on the left and we're all on the right.

His favourite TV show to watch right now is Spongebob Squarepants, so that's what you see in the second picture. All the white blobs are bubbles underwater.

Lastly, a couple more drawings from our school tasks. On the left is one of mine - I had to come up with an invention that would help people, so I created a flying taxi. I've marked the rocket boosters at the bottom and jet thrusters at the side.

The one on the right is William's - it's all about recycling. He's used his own spelling for the words, but if you read them out loud they do all pretty much make sense.

It's nearly been 3 months of lockdown now, but the signs are becoming more positive. The days are warmer, the sun's out longer, and maybe, just maybe, we'll be back to normal again real soon...

Arts, Crafts and Healthy Hearts

Keeping Busy During Coronavirus

The days sure can be long and boring when you're stuck at home. We can't visit any people, can't go any new places, can't even get any new books to read from the library. But keeping busy keeps the crazy away, so here's what we've been up to recently.

Exercising is fine as long as we keep our distance from people, so we've been out for beach walks and bike rides. Other times we just had to entertain ourselves at home, like we did with creating this daisy chain (or should that be 'Bailey chain'?). Though the look on Bailey's face seems to say "Take this stupid thing off me."

But it hasn't all been fun and games, because in between we've had to do our schoolwork. Mum and Dad kept us pretty busy focusing on getting through all our tasks each week. And there were a lot of tasks to do.

Here's a couple of examples of my artwork. The one on the left is based on one of those weird artists who draw funny-shaped eyes and noses coming out the side of your face. On the right is a drawing I did when we had to do something about a dragon that helped people. This dragon cast a spell which created the first human!

And from those great pieces of artwork to a couple of William's scribbles. One of the weeks we were in lockdown was Maori Language Week, so William's drawn some things about what his mountain and river are, which city and school are his. At the bottom is his Year Zero teacher, Mrs Frost.

He told me the drawing on the right is a house coming alive at night, which actually isn't too bad. The stars look good. Not sure what the rumpled pink thing in the middle is though; maybe the garage door.

So we've been exercising our bodies and our minds as much as we can, but I'm crossing all my fingers that this lockdown is finished soon!

The Lockdown Lowdown II

Keeping busy during Coronavirus

Life's full of surprises. Sometimes they're good surprises, like when you wake up on Christmas morning and race out to the tree to see whether Santa's been. But sometimes they're not so good surprises, like suddenly going into lockdown again.

We had to go through this all last year - twice! William and I shared a bedroom while Mum and Dad turned William's room into an office. It was fun for a while, but like all not so good surprises, you very soon want things to go back to normal.

But unfortunately, Coronavirus is back and that means we're back in lockdown. No shared bedrooms this time, but it does mean a repeat of doing schoolwork online and trying to keep things fun.

So here's some creative examples of how we've been keeping busy. One of William's school tasks was turning rubbish from around the house into something cool, and you can see what we came up with on the left above - a cool robot!

Because it's still winter, the weather hasn't been that great, and we can't always go outside to play. So Mum and Dad turned our lounge into an awesome fort, with a couch, chairs and tons of blankets turned into the walls of our mighty fortress. Well, it was mighty on the outside and soft and warm on the inside, after we moved in a bunch of our cuddly toys as well.

William and me are always up for a baking challenge. A lot of the time "baking" actually means "doing one small thing and then hanging around to lick the bowl and mixer". But William did seem to be helping Mum out with making some shortbread biscuits above - and I was right there afterwards to help eat them.

Other school activities had us going outside for some creative activities, like the one on the right above where Mum and William combined a bunch of leaves from the garden to make a shape. Can you guess what it is?

These Are a Few of Our Favourite Things

Toys, Books and Shows

If you asked me today if I wanted to watch a cartoon for babies, or read a book with four words per page, or play with cuddly toys, I'd say "No, I've moved on from those now!" Actually that's not quite true, because I do still love my cuddly toys, but you get what I mean.

I'm growing up so fast that the things I liked a few months ago are too little for me now. And since it's been a whole couple of years since I last recorded what my current favourite things are, I thought it was time to do it again. But this time with a difference - we'd record William's too.

So watch the video for a summary of mine and William's favourite things to play with, read and watch. But because you can't see our favourite shows, we've drawn pictures for each of them above. Mine are a couple of oddly-shaped characters from Pokemon. William's is the mean kid Horrid Henry (he copied it from a picture, but it's not a bad job).

Dad thinks we should also do a list of our least-favourite things, like tidying my room for me and stopping incessant chattering for William. But he's just being silly. We're far too busy reading, watching and playing to waste time making a nonsense list like that.