A beautiful Autumn

(written by Tamara)

Howzit friends? 

We've often heard people say "howzit" when passing by. It's apparently South African and Kiwi. It's quite a funny expression we think and we still can't quite bring ourselves to say it :P 

February and March were mostly filled with normal life stuff: work, church, walks, home keeping and gardening (we've planted a little garden in the front, three citrus trees in the back, and an autumn veggie garden), bible study, hosting or bring meals to people, and play group. It seemed like we were all sick quite a bit too. I currently have a cold as I write this, but for the most part we've been pretty well this past month. I unfortunately had to work a lot of weekends at the hospital, which wasn't my favorite but was OK. We did get away for a day trip at the beginning of March to Raglan (the closest beach to us). It was a beautiful day and Stephen and I took turns getting into the water. Ralph has been pretty nervous and tearful at the beach for the past 4-5 months sadly, so he did not want to go in (although we got his toes wet), but he did enjoy the sand and the fish and chips for lunch :) Stephen has also been pretty busy with work prepping for his field work that he did at the end of March and then doing follow up lab work. We also became members at our church, Hakanui Reformed Church, in March which was exciting. 

Digging the front garden

Eating fish and chips at the beach

April has been more fun with a few hikes and public holidays. At the beginning of April we did a hike in the Hakarimata region (Kauri Look Track). It was a lovely view from the top but a LOT of steps to get up and down. Ralph did the first 1/3 or 1/2 on foot before going into the backpack carrier. It was a really lovely view from the top! My legs, especially calves, were sore for days afterward though :D 

View from the top of the hike

Ralph walking up the stairs

Some of the kauri trees were HUGE! 

Ralph and I also went to a digger and car museum with a friends from church and her two little ones. It was really fun :)

Ralph and his friend at the digger museum

Stephen got Friday, Monday and Tuesday off for Easter which was really nice and I only had to work the Saturday PM shift (2:45-11:15 PM) that weekend. It was a busy weekend but lovely. Friday, after our Good Friday Service at church, we went to our Italian/Scottish friends house for the day; we had delicious faccacia for lunch then made homemade pasta, which we ate for dinner :) Ralph wouldn't have a nap so he was EXHAUSTED and feel asleep soon after leaving. Saturday was a beautiful day and we spent the morning walking around Lake Kainui with some friends then having a picnic lunch. Sunday afternoon we went to our friend's house for a bible study and delicious kababs. I made a Pavlova for dessert. There is a long debate on weather Pavs come from Australia or New Zealand, but my Kiwi friends still ate my Australian Pav :P  Monday morning we went for a walk at a gully and Tuesday we went to the Waikato Museum. Both afternoons we cleaned and did jobs around the house, which was lovely to have Stephen's help! 

My pavlova

Ralph asleep in the car after playing hard all afternoon

It was a beautiful day at the lake on Saturday

Easter family picture

Family picture on our walk on Easter Monday

Yesterday was another beautiful day so we went to Sanctuary Mountain and hiked. It has a huge pest-proof fence, resulting in a lot of native birds and beautiful old growth forest. After lunch, Ralph fell asleep in the carrier so in total we ended up walking 9 kilometres. I'm 29 weeks pregnant so I was pretty exhausted at the end, but don't feel too sore today. 

NZ robin we saw in the sanctuary, one of four native birds we saw that were new to us!

Family picture after Ralph woke up from his nap

A view up into the canopy of the beautiful forest we hiked through; the birds were so loud!

We're very thankful to God we've had such lovely autumn weather! On Friday our friend Landi from church wanted practice taking maternity pictures and asked if we'd be her models, which we agreed to. She took us to a beautiful spot by the river at sunset and did a great job with the photos; see below for a couple of preview ones! Afterwards, our friends watched Ralph for us so S and I could have a long overdue dinner date :) 

That's all for now. We hope this finds you well, friends. God bless!

-Tamara