You’re not crazy. I absolutely took a break from blogging and now I’m trying to backdate blog posts, so… sorry for any confusion. 

It was a combination of factors. One - I couldn’t get the stupid blog site to work well on my iPad. (That’s been solved). Two - there was sort of a mess of nonsense with the rental house that was incredibly frustrating and made me in a sour mood. I didn’t feel like sharing about a blocked pipe in the yard, leaking roof, exploding water filter, and broken dishwasher. Talking about it just made me mad. Fortunately, they’ve all been solved now. 

So yeah, that’s why there weren’t posts and now BOOM there are.

 The other big stop in Auckland was to Martha’s Backyard - the American store! 

We were able to buy a few things that we’d been missing. It was nice to have a taste of home, but also a really funny experience. The front of the store was Dawn dish soap, Crest toothpaste, Tide detergent, and people’s favorite deodorant sticks. There were a ton of junk food items and lots of Mexican foods and candies as well. I bought 6 cans of Rotel so I can make some decent chili this winter.

Photos from Armageddon

Vecna!

 

We went to Armageddon - a Sci Fi Convention - in Auckland with some expat friends and their kids (they are from Canada and South Africa. We had a lot of fun and got to Jamie Campbell Bower who played Vecna in Stranger Things. 

We also visited Kelly Tarlton’s which is the aquarium in Auckland. It was really cool and we got to see tuatara there. These are reptiles that look like lizards but aren’t because they split off before lizards. They are the only extant members of the order Rhynchocephalia. They are REALLY cool and there is a whole podcast about them. I highly recommend listening to it!

 

 Gas is expensive - $3.23 NZD/ litre. That’s $12.23 NZD/ gallon or $7.20 USD per gallon! 

My e-bike is seeming like a wiser and wiser purchase.

 It was cold enough to get a fire started today! I love the campfire feel. Also, you better believe that the kids and I roasted marshmallows. 

We were sitting at the table when there was a sudden loud pop and then a rush of water. I walked into the kitchen to find water gushing out from under the cabinet. Turns out that the water filter burst. We had to use every towel we own to get it all mopped up. Thank goodness for that dryer…

 Oh, and the roof is still leaking so we have pots catching the drips. Life isn’t always peaches no matter where you live.

 So the roof of our rental is leaking…

A lot of things are different now that we live in NZ but we still love to play board games as a family. :)

 We went to the lake with friends to celebrate Quinn’s birthday. It was beautiful!

We did an American thing and bought a dryer. Honestly, Chris and I have actually both loved line drying our clothes, but Clark and I both wear uniforms and have 3 sets to get us through the week and there has been a noticeable shift in how long it takes to line dry clothes on a cloudy or wet day. We decided to buy one during their Easter sale so we'd be set up well for the winter (rainy/ gloomy skies season here). It's a heat pump dryer so very energy efficient and doesn't need venting. We just empty a canister of water after the load finishes. We'll still line dry things when we are able to save energy but it's nice to know we won't be stressing about getting a uniform dry in time. (Tumbled dry soft towels are a bonus…)

Starlight movie theater opened in Taupo! The girls and I went to see the Super Mario movie and Clark and Chris saw Project Hail Mary. The photo was before the other 8 people showed up for the movie. It was a lot of fun and we hope to support this local business again soon!

I made a million fiejoa and kumara (like sweet potatoes) muffins for the kids to take to school for their last day of term 1.  They tuned out great! And I was able to use like 50 feijoa from our tree.