Winery and fun on the deck

Another Saturday on Waiheke. We went to a winery for lunch. The grapes are pretty well ready for harvesting. Alexander then played on the deck in his tent and with all sorts of water. After all the rain earlier in the week, it was great to have a nice sunny day.

Very Rainy Day!

Today was the rainiest day in my life. Something like 25 cm (10 in) of rain fell, generally buckets at a time. The wind was also gale force. Unfortunately, today was a day I had to go into the office and then take a bus to pick up our car that was having some rework done. Everytime I stuck my nose out of the door, I was drenched from head to toe (I also was wearing a suit for the first time since arrival for a reasons I'll talk about later). We knew New Zealand was not always sunny, but this is ridiculous. It was even worse farther north from us.

Little Oneroa Beach

Just beside the main town is a little beach/playground called Little Oneroa Beach, that is perhaps the best on the island. Lots of kids and places to explore.

Crisis on Waiheke

We had a crisis today, after a very nice day at the beach. We lost Mickey! You can see Mickey in practically every picture of Alexander on the blog: they are inseparable. But when it came to bedtime tonight, Mickey was not to be found. Out went Mike with a flashlight in a Recovery Mission. First stop was the "Cat's Tango", where we had a late lunch (I have complained about this place before, but it is much better now that they have given up table service and you order food and drink at the bar, which is very common here). Turns out that the bar is hopping late on Saturday night, so Mike had to shine his flashlight under a number of occupied tables (getting some strange looks in the meantime). Just as he was ready to give up, Mickey was spotted on the floor by a plant near our table. Alexander seemed to easily believe that Mickey spent the evening in the bar and was ready for a good night's sleep.

Day at home

Not everyday is an outing to the park or beach. Some days are quiet days at home. Of course, with a 3 year old (almost!), things are never too quiet.

Outing of Ilona and Alexander

Today was a beautiful day, and Ilona took a ton of pictures with Alexander and pictures in the area around our house. Alexander had a great day playing on construction machinery, at the playground, and at the beach. Even Mickey had a relaxing day.

Visitors!

Today was supposed to be the day of the Onetangi Beach Races (horse racing along the beach) but the winds were too high so they have delayed them to April 1. We had invited a number of people from the university to visit us, and many of them decided to come over anyway. Between splashing around the beach, having lunch at our house, then a hiking expedition to Stoney Batter, we had a great day. Thanks to Jorgen Tind for some of these photos.

Visit to the Island Nurse

We took Alexander to the Island Nurse to check up on his shots and to get some advice on the local child-care options. Very nice and professional woman, but the office is ... very island.

Another day at the beach

It's a little cloudy, but the beach is still fine.

Local Historical Museum

The island of Waiheke has a local history museum. It is a cluttered collection of items, mainly from the early 20th century through WWII, but some of it is quite interesting. Some of this looks like our house (I think I have mentioned some of the elderly items that have retired to our rental). Ilona, who works in a museum in Pittsburgh, sees some possibilities there.



After our museum visit, we went off to one of the wineries, and enjoyed the tasting there far more than normal. Often, the tasting is either rushed or pompous (or both) but at Christensen Estate the tasting (done by Mrs. Christensen, I think) was relaxed and informal. We ended up buying a number of their delicious "Feather White" wines. (The cow skeleton is from a farm nearby).

New car and Trip to Stony Batter

Lots of new things happening to us. We finally got a car (a Mitsubishi Legnum wagon) after getting by with a rental followed by a loaner from the car dealer. Used cars are plentiful here, since many are imported from Japan. Used car dealers seem the same the world around. After waiting two weeks for them to prep the car, about half of what they were to do (including the all-important WOF (Warrenty of Fitness)) has not been done. Sigh...

We went on a long walk today, out to Stony Batter, the site of some WWII gun emplacements. New Zealand was worried about a Japanese invasion, so they placed some large guns in strategic positions to cover the entrances to Auckland. Stony Batter has the remains of the emplacements, linked by tunnels which can be toured using flashlights. It is a beautiful area, and I think the soldiers assigned to this duty had it pretty easy (at least compared to my uncle who was sent to Hong Kong and ended up spending the war as a POW under the Japanese). It was a long walk for Alexander, and hence a longer walk for us who had to carry him back.