Long nights

The lights got put outside this year on the little tree next to Kaj's room. The night begins so early these days that I feel rushed to try and spend anytime at all out in the sun, just doing anything to have some blue sky and wind. The mist on the window is because our house doesn't dry out much at this time of year as it seems to rain ALL the time.

Holiday

We live on a island but too bad its cold. Anyway, we had some presents to open this morning and there were some stockings too. Kaj and Eski both got new kites and so we went out this afternoon almost-dark to the beach for a test flight. The blue French military kite looked so lovely hovering over the water and then it was wet. At home again and there was some napping and now dinner time. Damn it gets dark early!

Winter in the North

The pond is frozen and deceptivly looking shallow in the morning sun. We all got up late this morning because the electric company shut off the power last night to do some pole replacements while we slept, thus since our lives revolve around electric power we were unable to charge our batterys till later.

Long ride back to Lopez from Piha...

This is a photo of my friend christopher in Sydney going for a snorkel at clovelly beach.
It took us 3 days total time but only 2 days by calandar to travel from Piha to Lopez via car, plane, train, car, fery boat. Wilmot, good to speak with you today and i think you may be my only reader. spent the morning rearranging my studio in the living room and then doing some paingting until I suddnely realized I had to take the truck full of trash and an old dryer to the island soild waste centre this cold afternoon , that done and rushing home to help Eski cook a dish for his school potluck and other homework assignments, breathe, eat.

kaj finds bugs

here is Kaj the Moana playing with a bug that had crawled its way on to Lauriew iBook some time this afternoon. Kaj is doing a photography class in school so many photos of the bug are taken.

Bushwalk and mussels on the beach

What a day this was! We went on a bush walk up through the Waitakere ranges to a remote beach that to get to we had a rough climb down a cliff with three rope sections to help us down the tight spots. After we got down to the hot sand we gathered a few sticks of wood for a fire our friends and there friend Jim had started. Then Jim showed us this cave that is only open at low tide whence we proceed to make our way through and out the other end where the rocks meet the west coast of New ealand. We swim across some rocks to another cave in to which the Maoris used to use as a hide away from fighting tribes due to the fact it is almost inaccessible at the most of times. On our way back we harvested a bucket of mussels for a nice cook on the beach, the boys both tried a bite but decide the texture was just too disgusting and ate crackers and avocados instead.

Piha, The Gap

Here I am surfing The Gap at Piha beach on a low tide. The ride is excellent because the wave is trapped in the small canyon and can only continue forward and not out sideways.
Kaj gets a rough ride and ends up with a rock rash
Eski stayed at home but Laurie came out for a ride as well.

Piha Beach

Kaj Eski and Laurie are here with me in Nz at Piha beach about an hour west of Auckland. Laurie and I are finished working on the job we came for so yesterday we all went for a surf, very nice. Today after visiting a friends house that actually has internet we are going into town, I have a doctors appointment and we have errands to do. I am getting shots for my upcoming job shoot in Africa and India for 10 weeks. We are going to try and see a film and maybe get some christmas shopping in as well.