Masterton and New Plymouth

January 15, 2019 Dylan Leave a comment

I know I haven’t posted in a while but we have been extremely busy with the festive season as you will soon see.

We arrived at our grounds in Masterton and the site/sight that met our eyes was hideous, unbelievable not to mention preposterous. I mean, we knew it was going to be a gravel pit but not to this extent. All it was was shingle, broken glass and tumble weed!!!! It was something out of a cowboy movie!

We setup on those odious new grounds (our usual grounds had been trashed to mud by a Circus in the rain) then went for a lovely short bike ride around Henley lake, which was so nice I had to do it again with my friend Tiwai, which is unusual for me as biking is not exactly at the top of my favorite things to do list.

The weekend was super-hot. Heat radiated of the shingle and sunlight caught the disturbed dust (which believe me was everywhere).

Poor Daddy soaking up the heat in his black magic costume. Where did all the grass go?

Saturday afternoon we went to the swimming pools with a bunch of rowdy Gypsy kids, we stayed there with almost three hours playing and having a blast!

Sunday night after pack-down we moved on to the Masterton golf course with Simone, Tiwai and Lettie.

The next morning after a quick play with Tiwai and Lettie we said goodbye and headed to the Pukaha / Mt Bruce wildlife sanctuary.

The Mt Bruce sanctuary has New Zealands only white kiwi held in captivity and a number of other rare and endangered species including the amazing Kokako! I thoroughly suggest a visit.

Next stop Waverly beach where we worked on our art projects “Food for thought”.

Standing on an 80,000 year old Totara tree stump, buried by a volcanic lahar. These had us puzzled for a while until we worked out how they came to be here. They are rooted into rock below the tide line on the beach as well as exposed sticking out of the cliffs.

We then moved on to New Plymouth to have dinner and Movie night at Mums friend Peggys house.

New Plymouth was a hot, fun, successful fair topped off with our traditional boat ride at the festival of light.

Beautiful waterfall at festival of light.

Tongaparutu / the three sisters, was our next destination.

The arch a year ago, before it collapsed. Such a change!

Glad I wasn’t standing under there when it collapsed!

After resting for a few days and enjoying the beach we headed all the way up to Auckland to spend another mini Christmas with my cousins, Auntie Ellie and Uncle Mat.

We squeezed Mim into their Point Chev driveway and made merry for three days.

We high-tailed back down to Raglan for set-up on Christmas day. Bring on Christmas number Three.

Bye!

Extravanganza, front

Wellington

December 21, 2018 Dylan 1 Comment

It’s hard to believe that Mum and Dad actually had a life before I came along, but they did, a whole 32 years of adventure! Evidence of this arrived in the form of their old friend Anna from England. She came to their wedding and joined them on their month long honeymoon around the south island 18 years ago. Anna arrived right in the middle of our circus training. After we had finished it was hugs all round. She has come to travel with us as long as it suits her.

Waitangi park is a a great place to be set up for the Extravaganza, right next to Te papa, the supermarket and Circa Theater, where we went to see “Puss in boots” the pantomime after set up. I’d never seen a pantomime before but I loved it. It was hilarious and amazing at the same time!

Usually the Wellington weather is a bit of a gamble , this time we got lucky. My Auntie Robbie (Mums sister) and my cousins Jaan and Delishia joined us on Saturday. Sweet Delishia loves helping in our shop!

Bike Rave? What’s a Bike rave? Evidently it’s a thing! Dad and I were tired on Saturday night but he managed to talk us both into dressing up and joining 12 other Gypsies on our bikes. We rode down-town to Bicycle junction( a shop that organised the Bike rave) to meet up with more than 120 other ravers, all on funked up bikes! These included a tricycle sound system pumping out awesome music, bikes lit up with fairy lights, tall bikes, short bikes, long bikes, rickshaws and much more. We dominated the streets of Wellington, stopping at the rainbow pedestrian crossing on Cuba street and holding up the traffic for blocks. No one seemed to mind. We partied there for 10 minutes then moved on to rave at another intersection. We toured the streets and back alleys of Wellington while pedestrians shouted encouragement, waved, clapped and took photos.

So that was a Bike Rave! Next year we will definitely be back with more decorated and funked up bikes. It was the highlight of the weekend! Here is a pro video which does justice to the occasion.

After hauling ass over the Rimataka’s we stopped at Featherstons lovely Book cafe, which we had discovered last year. I walked out with a supermarket bag full of scrumptious books and a warm cozy feeling.

We decided to have a couple of days peace and quiet at a new destination; Mt Holdsworth D.O.C camp, close to Masterton. Our bubbly friend Anna joined us there. Tues after school work we walked up to view point, then came home and watched a movie and went to bed. We had some crazy weather at Mt Holdsworth, hail, thunder, heavy rain, burning sunshine, sometimes all at once!

Wednesday we decided to start socializing again so we sped into town truck n’all to pick up a yummy fudgey slice then made our way through the suburbs to Nana and Pa’s lovely house. We had lunch then Nana and I made Belgium biscuits. I’ve made them before but not by my Great grandmothers recipe. They tasted amazing! Thanks Nana! Afterwards Nana and Pa dropped me off at my Auntie Carolyns and Uncle Des’s house which had recently been completed. All of my relatives in Masterton are on my Dads side, so we usually have an early mini Christmas and this year was no different.

Thursday morning Auntie Carolys and I went op-shopping at Savemart. I love op-shopping and this time I got a particularly good score, including a funky costume for Cupa-dupa (if you keep following my blog you will know what Cupa-dupa is sooner or later).

I’d been wanting to bake a cherry pie for a while now, so Christmas dinner was the perfect opportunity. Nana and Pa arrived and after a quick(not so quick) fashion show of my op-shop bought clothes, we had a delicious Christmas dinner, finishing off with my perfect cherry pie. Then it was present time. Mum and Dad are saving their presents to us for actual Christmas but I got a cute notebook and an amazing Anabell Langbein cook book.

Thanks Nana, Pa, Carolyn and Des! So that was our first mini Christmas of the year. Usually we have a few since our family is spread out in the North Island.

Well that was a lovely little week with the family. And an amazing cherry pie!

Tomorrow set up, this weekend Masterton. Bye!

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Greymouth to Nelson

December 5, 2018 Dylan 1 Comment

Greymouth (as usual) lived up to its name. The weekend loomed rainy and grey and we were grumpy and tired. The silver lining was…….. Pizza and movie night, featuring the greatest showman!!!!! On Saturday night there was a break in the weather and we scoffed pizza and snuggled down in the bean bags to watch the movie. We left the grounds Sunday night and booted it all the way up to Murchison, arriving late and falling exhausted into bed.

Monday morning Dad drove the truck up to Nelson for its C.O.F, which it failed. Mean while Mum the boys and I speed to Mot (Motueka), I was out of the car before it had even stopped “Bye Mum” off for a sleep over at one of my best friends Jasmines house.

I spent a beautiful three days at my beloved Steiner school, reconnecting with my class and mt amazing teacher Margot, bliss! Mean while poor Daddy underwent a two and a half hour operation in Nelson hospital to remove his nasal polyps, bulbous fatty things that grew on the inside of his sinus’s. The nice surgeon minced them up and sucked them out his nose, poor Daddy!

Friday we setup in Nelson on new grounds, ready for a pumping Extravaganza. Not! Every year when we are in Nelson there is so much going on that our fair always seems abandoned. We did a half Circus without Dad as he was convalescing, just the pole, hoop and trapeze it went well considering the boys refused to practice our new little show. It was a bit of a betting game but in the end it was successful and fun.

On Saturday night 41 dressed up wild Gypsies made their way across Nelson to the State cinema to watch Bohemian rhapsody, including me! The movie was super inspiring, but also sad that someone with such talent and personality was so alone, sad and had such a hard life.

Monday morning Mum had to drive me quick smart back to school for another 3 days, you’ve got to take opportunities when they come around and “Make the best of it!”. (Our family motto). Luckily for me I get the best of both worlds, I love road life and school life and I know I will see all my friends and school mates in the winter.

Wednesday night we drove to Graham valley with a new C.O.F. The next morning it was off to Cherryland!!! We go to Cherryland in Blenheim every year to load up on cherries at an excellent price. This year we got three buckets and ate as much as we could while picking them. Yum!

Cherries and all we drove to Picton and boarded the Bluebridge ferry at 2pm(with about 10 other gypsy trucks and buses), sailing smoothly all the way to Wellington. We arrived later that scheduled at 6pm with luckily no cherry red mishaps. Ahhh, windy Wellington, its good to be back. We stayed the night with about 15 other gypsies at Lyall bay.

A fun and interesting couple of weeks. It was great to see my friends and class mates again and sad to say goodbye,but for me the Extravaganza lifestyle outclasses school any day. Tomorrow setup, this weekend Wellington. Bye!

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Wanaka the West coast and the Copeland track.

November 24, 2018 Dylan 2 Comments

“3, 2, 1, Go!” I race frantically up the wall like a spider(I hate spiders!) gripping the handholds with white knuckles. I smash the top button only moments before Lettie hits her button on the other side of me. Leaping off the wall and abseiling down is my favorite part!

My amazing Godmother Sunny Sky and her daughter Indigo took my brothers, Tiwai, Lettie and I to the Wanaka clip and climb on Friday. It was so much fun! After that we retired to the hot pools at the hotel Sunny was staying at. The rest of the day was spent eating chocolate cake and watching a movie. My ideal day!

An average weekend, very social and busy, with my good friend Mia and her Mum staying in a tent behind our truck. Fish n chips on the beach. By Sunday afternoon I was peopled out and couldn’t bear talking to anyone any more! The rest of the afternoon was spent in hibernation.

Sea spray, rugged rocky coastline, deep green forest, winding twisty roads. The stunning scenic west coast. At one part we sped over some bumps and almost left the ground. We stopped to check for damage, luckily only one cup smashed.

We drove on to the Copeland valley. One of the Gypsies friends brothers has a farm which he kindly let us park on in order to be in close proximity to the Copeland track entrance. There would be too many house trucks to fit in the car park.

The Copeland track is a 7 hour walk up the Copeland valley to some amazing natural hot pools. We packed our backpacks (and yes I did carry one) and went to bed early, ready for the long walk tomorrow.

All the Gypsies that are going on the walk arrived last night. There was 13 of us in total. As usual we dressed up extravagantly! Tutus, headdresses, elf ears, parasols and more tutus. Did I mention tutus? We started walking around 10am Tutus and all!

At the pace we were walking we got there in less than 6 hours, giving us more than enough time to soak in the amazing natural hot pools, have dinner and soak some more(under the stars and moon until 11 pm)!

Ok, I’m going to press pause for a minute and explain the scenery. It was the most beautiful walk I have ever been on and that’s saying something! Imagine every shade of green you know in one immense rolling rain forest. Did you know that green is the most peaceful colour on the human eyes, and it’s my favorite. As you look higher up, forest gives way to sheer cliff faces and the rugged beauty of the mountain tops iced with snow. What a stunning cake it would be!

There’s some cool swing bridges, this one crosses Shiels creek.

O.K back to the hot pools. After a fulfilling sleep we jumped back into the hot pools. The only problem in this beautiful place is the sand fly’s, the one handicap that’s stopped fancy apartments, hotels and houses being built all along the west coast.

We managed to walk out in 5 hours. Bye bye hot pools. We got back to the truck and drove to Franz Josef to park at our friends house and have dinner with them and their kids, Scarlet and Tom. It’s great to catch up and play with them every year.

The next morning we played some more then sped off to Greymouth, stopping in Hokitika for some much needed school work, but ended up staying until dinner time and past because Mum and Dad had a massive blow out. We finally left at 8 pm and arrived in Greymouth at 9 o’clock at night! They said sorry and that was it. Everything was back to normal again.

“Whew!’ what an exhausting, fun and exciting week! Tomorrow setup, this weekend Greymouth. Bye!

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Queenstown

November 22, 2018 Dylan Leave a comment

Rain, rain, rain, sunshine, rain. sunshine, rain, rain, rain! Make up your mind Queenstown! This kind of weather did not bring the crowds. Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning were completely rained out. Sunday afternoon we managed to get in our circus and magic shows and a few people turned up with the better weather. It seems like every time the Extravaganza comes to Queenstown we get rained on but supposedly the week before was the hottest spring week Queenstown had ever had!

The silver lining was, it gave us a chance to catch up with all the people we knew. Because it was so quiet in the weekend we stayed open another day on Monday in the hope we could all make some money. But of course everyone was at school and work. Very few people came until after school. I busted out my magic show.

Monday morning I took Tiwai and Lette into town to Odyssey (I explained Odessey in my last post), it was to finally get out on our own. We had a slow get-away on Tuesday morning because Dad was taking all the Extravaganza rubbish and recycling to drop off. Poor Kathleena, one of our beloved Gypsies(tarot reader) had lost her friend and fur baby Monty whom she had since he was a puppy.

She was so sad I felt terrible for her. She had a big wake for him on Monday night and was no where to be seen on Tuesday morning. She usually manages the rubbish and recycle.

Tuesday afternoon saw us back at 12 mile delta. Mum and Dad made us go on an exhausting 2 hour walk to Bobs cove, beautiful but we were too tired.

If your tired enough schist is comfortable enough.

Wednesday morning was the usual school-work followed by a mission to Queenstown to pick up our broken computer(hence the irregular posts lately) and reinstall a dance pole, neither were ready. We filled in the afternoon training at the pole studio and getting chips and Yonder , one of Queenstowns many bars. They forgot our order. Mum got very hangry! Finally at 5.30pm the pole was ready to be picked up and reinstalled. We left Queenstown at 7pm with no computer, Raha would have to bring that over on Saturday. We drove over the Crown range to Albert town campground and fell straight to sleep.

Thursday morning school work was followed by a very interesting subject… it involved making and baking 30 polymer clay fish, cutting 20 tringle nets(pieces of cloth) and drawing and cutting out 15 cardboard boats! The last piece of the puzzle was to draw the board. We had made our own game. A good game to teach the boys number groups. Roll the dice, pick up that number of fish. Trade 3 fish for a net, 3 nets for a boat. When all the boats are taken the one with the most boats wins.Around three o’clock we whizzed over to our friend Trudy’s house. She lives in a beautiful straw bale house with grass on the roof and amazing high ceilings. I love her house almost as much as I love her. She baked a delicious quince cake.

After a fun filled 3 hours we moved on to my friend Vanessa’s house for dinner and a play. We parked the truck outside so that night I got to have a sleepover with her. Yay!…”Tick, tock, tick, tock!” “Yawn.” “Tick, tock,tick,tock.” “Grrrrrr!” Unfortunately she has a very loud clock right above my bed, so at midnight I crept out of the bed, down the stairs to the door and…Uh oh! The door’s locked! The key is in the lock but it’s stuck! I jiggle it around a bit and finally it comes loose. I step outside and of course it just had to be pouring with rain! Into the rain I go, getting drenched(slight exaggeration) in the process. The truck’s just down the street and of course it’s locked too. I bash on the door, it takes several tries and finally Dad comes to the door. I get into bed and fall asleep before my head hits the pillow. What an exhausting night!

There was some strange weather that week. Next weekend Wanaka. Bye!

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Invercargill

November 21, 2018 Dylan Leave a comment

The Gypsy bakers have baked yet another delicious delicacy to sell on Saturday! Lemon cupcakes filled with lemon curd(as you can see I love lemons).

Last year in Invercargill we had two 30 degree days, sooo hot and sunny! But unfortunately this year the weekend was cold and overcast. I just hoped it wouldn’t rain on the boys birthday party on Saturday night, yet as Murphys law abides it did rain but only slightly.

The boys had a pirate themed party so the entire fair dressed up as Halloween pirates. That night we played lots of rowdy party games and ate junk food. Then it was cake time and the boys eyes nearly popped out of their heads when they saw what I had created!

I am so proud of them. After the party the silent disco started. My favorite! I danced with my head phones on until midnight. So much fun!!

Monday morning saw us tired but happy heading for Queenstown. We stopped in Winton to search for Minnie Deans grave. Minnie Dean is the only woman to have ever been hung in New Zealand. Her crime was infanticide. Times were tough and Minnie Dean started taking in unwanted children for money. Eventually she was caught, in her back yard were found three tiny bodies. Gruesome!

That night we arrived late and even more tired at 12 mile delta just past Queenstown. After schooling on Tuesday morning the social times began. Our first destination was the pole studio and Raha of course! Raha is Mum’s bestie. We trained and played then tumbled out for dinner at the Bombay palace.

“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you!” Today is Wednesday and it is the boys proper birthday. Presents, pancakes and a gorgeous 4 hour walk around Mt Creighton loop track (A.K.A Sam summers hut track). We find nature grounds us after every frenzied fun filled weekend.

\Now its trick or treat time! Oh yeah, have I said the boys birthday is on Halloween? Awesome! Guess what their birthday theme will be for the rest of their lives?

We invited ourselves to go trick or treating with my friend Mia. I was nervous about meeting all of her friends, but it turns out I knew all of them anyway. Lake Hayes is prone to migrant trick or treaters from all over Queenstown. The spooky decorations let the hordes of sugar crazed trick or treaters know which houses had lollies. My brothers got so scared at one particularly spooky house that they ran down the path scattering their lollies in the process! From then on they were super timid about knocking. I meanwhile was off in the neighborhood gathering a massive haul of sweets, my Mum’s worst nightmare!

Thursday greeted us with school-work. “Yay.” In the afternoon Raha took the boys and I for their birthday treat, The Odessy sensory maze. Odessy is not really a maze, it’s a series of rooms filled with a-maze-ing things you can touch, hear, smell, see and overall enjoy. My favorite room was filled with balloons far over my head. Even if a person was right in front of you , you wouldn’t be able to see them and the very loud rustling of the balloons masked any small sounds. Perfect for hide and seek!

That night we sneaked onto the grounds at warren park. We put up our awning ready for 100km/hr winds and torrential rain.

What an awesome fun-filled week! Bring on the weekend! (just not the rain or the wind!) Bye!

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Dunedin

November 1, 2018 Dylan 2 Comments

“Crunch! Crash! Kaboom!” Ok I am exaggerating a bit but there was definitely a crunch involved when Dad backed into a bus on George street, one of the busiest streets in Dunedin! When he was backing into a car park a bus nosed in right behind him. He backed up and suddenly smashed into a massive bus, crushing the button that opens the doors. But it gets worse, with the doors stuck open the bus couldn’t drive so it was stuck in the middle of the road on George at 3 o’clock, end of school time in a university city! Intense right?! And our new car was damaged! Oh well, its just life!

A while ago I came up with an idea for a business and now it shall be brought to life! The Gypsy bakers! Lettie and I baked a scrumptious carrot cake ready to sell on Saturday. As part of my schooling I worked out the cost of making a carrot cake. Believe it or not its $20 including icing.

At 7.30 pm Friday night a T.V crew came from the Project, channel 3, to film the Extravaganza in action for 15 seconds. It seems like a short amount of time but when your doing it it feels even shorter! 30 minutes of preparation, 15 seconds live and then it was over as fast as it began.

The weekend was Labour weekend so we had a three day fair with nice unremarkable weather. All in all the weekend was better than last year. The Gypsy bakers was a stunning success, we completely sold out. As tradition goes Jonas put on a cheese fondue for all the Gypsies. Yum yum!

Tuesday morning Dad was fixing the car so Mum the boys and I hopped into Simone’s bus and wound our way to the quaint charming port town of Port Chalmers. We ate lunch at a cute cafe with Simone, Tiwai and Lettie. It started to drizzle a bit as we climbed the steep streets to get a view of the town. We finally got to the lookout and saw the whole of Port Chalmers spread out in front of us, it was strange watching the modern barges come too and fro while the quaint old town seemed to be stuck in the past (in a good way), full of beautiful old churches and art galleries. I would fully suggest a visit! Then we got a text from Dad saying he had fixed the car and it was time to go. That night we stayed at Saint Kilda again.

In the weekend a guy came to our shop saying he had 6000 crystals and 400 bonsai trees. A bonsai tree is a form of Japanese art; they plant a seed in a small container to produce small trees that mimic the shape and scale of full size trees, creating a mini lifelike landscape.He also gave us his address and said we can visit him when ever we like, after buying over $100 dollars worth of crystals! So Wednesday we navigated the steep roads of Dunedin to the given address. But all we found was a row of rundown flats none of which could possibly hold 6000 crystals let alone 400 Bonsai trees!

After that failed venture we went Op shopping. I absolutely adore Op shopping, you never know what you might find, unfortunately it gives me a terrible headache and makes me starving! By the time we had visited at least 10 Op shops my head was pounding and my stomach was shouting at the top of it’s lungs! (can a stomach have lungs?). Salvation came when we found the starfish, a lovely cafe on the waterfront. We ate a delicious lunch (even though it was 3 o’clock) and went back home to watch a documentary and chill out.

Thursday morning and as usual we jotted out some school work then hit the road to Invercargill and my Aunt and Uncle, Sheryll and Pete’s house.

We arrived at 4 pm and since I was due to make the boys birthday cake I set to work at once, and kept on working until midnight. I was asleep before I hit the pillow! But the cake was a masterpiece.

All in all it was a pretty unexciting but still fun week. Tomorrow setup for hopefully a sunny weekend in Invercargill. Bye!

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Oamaru

October 24, 2018 Dylan 2 Comments

I’m sick sick sick! I hate being sick especially with a nasty cough. It’s Friday, its setup and we are being buffeted by strange weather from all sides, from hail to rain to wind and even sunshine. Perfect whackey weather for an interview with Donna Demente in her grain-store gallery. It was like looking into another world.

Yet another reason to ban plastic bags!(Did you watch the video?)

The weekend was a windy one and I became more sick than ever! I had endured that cough for five weeks but never as bad as it was that weekend. Saturday I was too sick for shows and had to stay inside in bed. No fun at all! I did get to go out that night for a gypsy romp to the steam punk train. The train is a retired locomotive jacked up on some rocks as if about to take off. When you slide two dollars into the slot the train shoots out jets of “steam” (dry ice) and fire from the chimney. All us gypsy kids go sit up on the roof of the train while the gypsies slide coin after coin into the slot. It was rather entertaining! Afterwards we visited the Little blue penguins. They are sooooo adorable! Sunday I was still too sick for our circus but I managed to perform the magic show. That night we packed up and left for All day bay. What a weekend!

It was Monday and I had a bad case of Mondayitis. As we all know Monday is our grumpy day. After some school work many of the Gypsies arrived. All day bay is a Gypsy favorite, so with all the Gypsy kids here we set about building our fort. That night we had a relaxing fire on the beach. The next day followed almost exactly the same; schoolwork, fun, and relaxing on the beach.

Our tattered wicker laundry basket goes up.

Wednesday saw us practicing our shows, doing school work and a mad dash for the Evansdale cheese factory before it closed. We feasted on smoked Brie and venison salami. We met up with Simone, Tiwai and Lettie. I traveled the rest of the way to Dunedin with them.

Thursday morning mum and I got up very early and drove into central city to do a radio interview with the Breeze radio station. We were nervous and excited! The interview went very well and we were able to expound on the awesomeness of the Extravaganza.

That afternoon we relocated to St kilda by the beach. Dads phobia of sand got a little out of hand! After a big clean up we all hopped in the car and spent the rest of the day at the settlers museum. Looking at the old [phones and technology was almost alien. Technology has advanced so much over the years.

My favorite part was dressing up in an old fashioned hoop dress. It made me realize how hard it would have been to get around the place especially with all that mud in the old days! Life for the early settlers looked challenging and exciting with all the big technological advancements happening.

Friday morning we drove to the Oval for setup. Another varied fun week. Bye!

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Timaru

October 16, 2018 Dylan 1 Comment

Have you ever tried to get dry grass out of your clothes, while in the middle of a fully fledged grass fight? its hard! When we arrived at the grounds Thursday we found a field full of dry cut grass. perfect for grass fights, but a night mare in your clothes and house!! Then it rained and the grass became even more sticky! no more grass fights for us.

OK time for the weather report. You are here with Dylan Daisy Ashton, for Saturday we have sunshine, sunshine and more sunshine not to mention an extra helping of busy. As for Sunday we have sunny weather yet not quite so busy. As you can see the weekend was a blast, apart from the fact that Tiwai and Lettie aren’t coming until Oamaru!!!!!!!!!!! I know that’s only next weekend, buts it’s too long to wait!

After having a wizz on the scooters around the car-park we wizzed to the Timaru public pool. CODE BROWN! CODE BROWN! Someone had POOPED in kids pools. How embarrassing for them! Luckily there was another shallow pool so our time wasn’t wasted. “Time flies when your having fun”, unfortunately for me it went too fast, the pool was a ball!

We left Timaru going in the opposite direction of Oamaru our next fair. Back tracking to Gerildine and Peskies park-over property, a beautiful peaceful backyard garden. One of our favorites. That night we watched a documentary on a tribe in the Amazon. Very interesting.

The next day was a peaceful one full of school work, Lego, training our circus show and having a nap time. Perfect before a late night at Peter Aldous’s Observatory. It was incredible! The ratio of how big we are, how big our planet is, how big our solar system is, and how big our Universe is, is mind blowing!

Wednesday we finished some school work and sped (with the slight hiccup of Dallas puking) to Fairlie for the best pies in New Zealand. Those are the only pies I will eat anywhere.

Finally! Back to the blissfulness of hot pools. We had been away from hot pools for too long! Tekapo hot pools were the perfect place to start. It was luxurious on our sore bodies! We arrived back late and fell asleep.

My brothers have been acting terrible lately. They take turns at tantrums over everything, especially school work. Feeling deflated we drove to Omarau but the thought of Tiwai and Lettie arriving kept me going.

Tiwai and Lettie arrived! Finally!!! And in time for dinner with us! I am one happy girl!!!

On that high note, bye!

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Ashburton

October 9, 2018 Dylan 1 Comment

Oh no! Here they come! Nerf guns in hand, four little boys chase me around the house. What is wrong with me? I have been reduced to playing with little boys! Four of them!!!!! On Friday night we visited Dan and Nicole’s house for dinner. They are Mum and Dads friends from when they had a life before kids. They have two little boys my brothers age, they all get along very well. Unfortunately for me, it was pure torture!

We had a great weekend, sunny on Saturday and a bit cloudy on Sunday. Everything went smoothly. We watched the B.F.G on Saturday night, projected onto the stage outdoors, it was awesome!

Monday morning and yet again we forgot about Monday grumpy’s. But you can’t be grumpy for long when you go shopping for toys! It was another shopping Monday though this one was a lot more enjoyable. We went to the Warehouse for toys, Warehouse stationary for school equipment and Farmers for three new scooters! Best of all was the Book Barn in Chertsey. An entire barn full of books! Row upon row tempting me, teasing me! So when I came out I was laden with books of every kind. It was book heaven! After that we moved on to a park over property with two strangely friendly sheep. They even tried to get into our truck.

We stayed a night there then sped to Peel forest campground to school, play and relax. I even got to bake my first ever carrot cake. It was (as usual) delicious! The next morning was spent preparing for our walk. The plan was to climb “Little” Mt Peel / Huatekerekere(1311m). At one o’clock we started walking , our dogs being baby-sat by a gypsy (thanks Yani). From the car-park we looked up and saw the most massive mountain. That could not possibly be our destination!…But it was (Dad knew it, but he kept it to himself). After an agonizing FOUR hours we made it to the top! It was definitely worth it!

The view was so incredible, I can’t find the words to describe it.

Looking out over the world makes your soul soar and your mind clear. Usually I would fly up a track like that, but I was just recovering from a nasty cough and we hadn’t done many missions over winter, so it was a bit more challenging for me than it might have been. I was really proud of my brothers, they flew up the track making it look easy.

After a beautiful sunset, darkness fell and with it came the lights of every town from Christchurch to Timaru. You would expect dark patches between the bright lights of the towns, in their place was the flashing strobe lights of hundreds of irrigation machines working until dawn, A man made wonder. The shelter was in the perfect position to get the best out of the sunrise. Light flooded over the land, one by one extinguishing the lights of the night.

The walk down was a breeze. Literally! A hint of summer haunted the cool spring air. Summer is coming! Back at the truck we unpacked and drove to the new grounds in Timaru. Getting there on Thursday night made for an easy setup on Friday.

Bye!

gypsygirl

Masterton and New Plymouth

Wellington

Greymouth to Nelson

Wanaka the West coast and the Copeland track.

Queenstown

Invercargill

Dunedin

Oamaru

Timaru

Ashburton

A New Zealand travel blog By Dylan Daisy