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Papamoa / Sundaise

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Oi !Oi! Oi! Punk party! Riley had a punk party to celebrate his ninth birthday. It was Awesome! Punk is is a vicious vulgar society of people who are anarchists.

On the Monday after Papamoa we climbed Mt Maunganui. The veiws from the top are so beautiful. The horizon stretched out before us. On one side is the great wide ocean and on the other the sprawling city of Tauranga.

Top of Mt Manganui

This week we were off to the Sundaise music festival with the whole Extravaganva. Hipsy called up on Monday saying we have to get onto the grounds early because of the forcast for torrential rain. So we went in on Tuesday. It was a quiet rainy week helping set up for the weekends festival. On Friday as the people started arriving the heavens opened and it started to rain hard.That night we went to sleep never expecting what was to come…

It was midnight when Mum and Dad woke us up saying that the river had broken its banks and we have to get to safety! By that time the river was already rushing past our truck. We hopped aboard the adults backs as they took us to Ange and Thornys truck which was safe… for a while. All the other kids went there too, we were all white faced and wide eyes shivering from the shock of it all. Then we evacuated to a hay barn on the other side of the river. So many families were squished into that one barn it was unbelievable, while outside it was raining hard.

We stayed there for about three hours, then the river retreated back into its banks. We were able to go home. When we looked at the clock it was 3am! We had a big toast feed then went to sleep at last.

In the morning we woke up, opened the curtains and looked shell-shocked out the windows at the floods devastation. That was so so so scary.  I have never been in a disaster before.

 

 

 

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Hamilton and beyond.

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Hamilton was a bustling busy hot fair and lots of fun.

After that we went to Opal springs where we soaked in the lovely hot pools. On Tuesday we had an adventure. We walked all the way up to the top of Waiwera falls. My little brothers did the first half of the walk to the waterfall viewing platform. They loved it. I was so proud of them.

Dad and I climbed another 45 minutes to the top of the falls. The Hauraki plains fanned out below us while the waterfall roared in our ears. The walk climbed through dense greenery, over rocky boulders and up winding stairs. It made me so happy to be out in nature again.

We popped by Plumbers point for a night and harvested some more Avocados, then onward  to Memorial park Tauranga where Circus Aotearoa  was set up in their big top. That night we went to the Circus! The acts were so inspiring my hands were sore and red from clapping by the end of it. I decided then and there that I wanted to be in the Circus. Ha ! I already am!  Phew, What a busy week now onto Papamoa.

 

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SPLORE

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Sadly the Rotorua fair was canceled due to heavy rain bogging up the grounds.

So we went to Splore to perform our circus show to the pumping crowds! Splore is a big commercial music festival held at Tepapa-kanga regional park near Auckland. It was such a long queue to get in, we crawled along stopping and starting every few meters. We didn’t mind though, we were having fun in our circus costumes!

We had a bit of a “star-wars” moment, just as the storm troopers/security guards were about to search our truck a lady came striding over to us saying”We have been waiting for you! We have a parking space saved. We need to get you off the road. We will have to skip the security check!” This saved Dad from having to use his “Jedi powers”. Our contraband was safely smuggled in, chiefly our two Chihuahuas among other things….

The camp area was a ten minute walk from the festival stages, so it was nice and peaceful. The moment we parked up for the night it started raining. We woke up to 16,000 feet(8000 people) squelching through a sea of mud. I thought it was a little bit too muddy and crowded. For such a big festival the kids area was surprisingly small, just one little tent. But still it was fun making badges.

Dad went mud sliding in the lucky star zone and came out looking like a mud monster, so we went and washed off in the sea.

That night I danced on the lucky star stage, it rocked!

In the end we did not perform at Splore. We literally could not find a flat place that was not mud!

MIM gets a helping hand out!

That week we went to Te Aroha and met our cousins at the holiday park where there is an amazing adventure playground and a gigantic flying fox.

Oh my! I almost forgot about the pools. They have three pools, a small hot pool a small cold kids pool, and a big deep cold pool.

Next we go to Hamilton!

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Taupo

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“Who farted” I asked as we drove through Rotorua on our way to Taupo for a two day Extravaganza without Mum.

Set up and pack down was hard without Mum but Dad, the boys and I battled through it together. I ran the shop for dad while he made lunch and did jobs.

Unfortunately we could not do any circus shows because Mum was not there. So the boys got to relax and play all weekend while I did two magic shows each day. In one of my magic shows I stuffed up and forgot to pack the ribbon box, I’ll make sure not to do that again!

Adorable! Tiwai and Lette’s new kitten is soooo cute. Her name is Baba Kittylitter/Shadow. She is black allover and very small and sweet.

On Monday Mum came back from NZ summer pole camp, it was so exciting! She was all pumped and muscly! She brought chocolate mice, cats and frogs with her. They are so delicious!

After Taupo we met up with family at Whakamaru reserve alongside a dam on the Waikato river.

Uncle Brent, Auntie Daniela and my cousins Dominic (5 years old) and Samantha(2 years old) camped next to our truck. We dug paddling pools and made mountains.

We shifted a lot of sand! Dominic and the twins had a blast. Cute little Samantha adored me, She loved my love heart sun glasses.

DIGGING THE RAIN!

Later that week we went to the Waikete thermal valley hot pools and soaked while it bucketed cats and dogs on us. Very relaxing!

Also there we went for a short walk to the biggest up-welling of boiling hot water in the country.

Next comes Rotorua famous for its stinky stench!

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Tauranga

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We arrived at Plummers point reserve near Tauranga late and exhausted.

Mum wanted to hide but I wanted to go see Tiwai and Lette because they have been away for weeks. I won and got to meet them down the road at the wharf for an awesome and refreshing swim.

We were parked next to towering Avocardo trees and Tangelo trees dripping with fruit which we harvested and made sweet juice from the Tangelos.

We collected a huge fish bin of Avocardos for all the hungry Gypsies.

We did a three day Extravaganza at Memorial park Tauranga. It was awesome because we were parked right next to the Mega slide the biggest inflatable water slide in NZ!

Image result for mega slide nz

Performing in the blazing heat was challenging because it made my hoop slippery. That week the time came for Mum to leave for the New Zealand summer pole camp in Queenstown. I was sad when she left but hoped she would have a great time.

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The Auckland region

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We spent three weeks in the Auckland region it was very hot , busy and tiring!

Did you know that a third of the country live in Auckland? That would be 1.5 million, a lot of people huh?

We spent three days at Shelly beach on the Kaipara harbor, where the Great white sharks go to breed. So Mum was a bit nervous swimming.

 

We went fishing off the wharf with our Christmas fishing rods and caught 6 Kawai. Tasty!

Next we moved off to Matakana. We set up at the stables where there were lots of beautiful horses and a great playground!

It was the first weekend that was hot enough to enjoy our new Christmas swimming pool. Also Koco had her birthday party.

Following Matakana we went to Te Ari which is where the festival called Shipwrecked is held. Some other Gypsies went there too. The center piece off the site is a large timber boat hull upturned to make a shelter and sound shell for the piano positioned beneath it.

We also went swimming in the warm man made lake. It was really quite relaxing after our busy weekend.

Next it was off to Orewa where we were interviewed for the Rodney times, they did a good article on us which we hoped would promote the Extravaganza.

Gulf Harbor was that weeks hangout with a stingray to pat and snapper and king-fish to feed.

On Tuesday we caught the ferry to Auckland city where we drove to Kelly Taltons underwater world by shark bus. Later we took a bus to K road and walked down Queen street. We ate in restaurants all day, it was awesome!

Auckland saw the Extravaganza at Blockhouse bay. We set up at Craigavon park which is a lovely dog park with an awesome playground. We did three days of Extravaganza and had a lot of fun dressing up and playing. I had a bad situation with an adult who was not cool at all.       You know, not all adults deserve respect, they don’t just automatically get it just because we are kids. They need to earn it. Some Adults don’t deserve respect.

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Whangamata

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The last four weeks have been a blur of Extravaganzas and adventures. I have been too busy playing and performing to write much. Hence the short posts.

After Waihi beach we moved on to Whangamata. During the week there we went on an amazing kayak into a doughnut shaped island in the sea called Doughnut Island where Flo our pet German jumped off a high cliff into the water! It was scary!!

We set up then went on a small walk to a superb swimming hole where I sucked up my courage and without a moments hesitation bravely jumped into the freezing cold river.

On Saturday my cousins came and we went back to the great swimming hole it was so much fun.

A pram full of Chihuahuas
with my cousins Lotte and Elsa
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Raglan

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In Raglan we had to set up on  Christmas day. When the work was done we had a Gypsy Christmas and an extravaganza secret Santa. It was lots of fun!

We stayed at Te Aroha on our way to Waihi beach. In english Te Aroha translates to place of love.

Te Aroha is a cute town with some nice things to do and great metal street sculptures.

 

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New Plymouth

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New Plymouth was a five day fair, three twilight’s and two full days. On our first day there I was part of a radio interview on the student radio station.

On the last day (Sunday night) the festival of light started with a burst of luminous beauty. We went boating on a lit up row boat.

That weekend Ella held her blue birthday party, literally everything was blue!

After that we drove all the way to Whitianga on the Coromandel where we had a mini Christmas with our relatives(Mums side).It was lovely.

 

A New Zealand travel blog By Dylan Daisy