Kerikeri, NZ

Kerikeri was our last stop on our New Zealand trip. We almost didn't go up there because there had been a lot of rain, so much that it was flooding up in the Bay of Islands. (Kerikeri is one of the towns in the Bay of Islands.) But we called up our B&B and they said it should be fine; there was no flooding near them and all the main roads were now open. So we decided to risk it, and we are very glad we did. We took these two pictures on our drive up to Kerikeri.

For dinner we ate at a fabulous little place called Jerusalem cafe. We had a sampler platter, and we really enjoyed everything we had.

The next morning we woke up to clear skies, and we were happy we had booked a boat tour. Micah enjoys a quick cup of coffee in our suite before we depart for our day. We started with a boat tour around the Bay of Islands. It ended up being a gorgeous day, and the best part was that we got to see four separate pods of dolphins while we were out on the water. We even got to see some of them jump out of the water. It was amazing!

At the end of our boat trip we got off at Russell, another cute little town on the Bay. We had a fish and chips lunch while we enjoyed sitting outside looking out on the Bay. Next we took a ferry back to Kerikeri, where we did some souvenir shopping (we still had not found much for the boys). Thankfully we found a few things we thought the boys would like, then it was off again. We drove to some glowworm caves we had spotted on our drive up to Kerikeri.

The glowworm caves were very interesting. I was a little freaked out about being underground in the dark, and I was very thankful we were in one of the small caves. It was amazing to see the glowworms. They looked like a miniature version of the milky way.

One of the best things about our stay in Kerikeri was staying in the Lyness suite. It was a wonderfully peaceful retreat after our crazy days, and we really enjoyed getting to know the owners. The property is beautiful, and our room was private and comfortable.

Rotorua, NZ

Because of our delay in Queenstown, we only had one night in Rotorua instead of two. So we tried to pack what we could in our short time there. We walked around some of the geothermal pools and peeked in at the Bath House and Museum before we headed out to our Maori village cultural experience.

We really enjoyed going on the Tamaki Village show. They bussed us to the location of the village, and they entertained us on the bus ride by having us pick a tribe leader. When we got to the village the tribe leaders stood out in front while the Maori warriors came and danced in front of them to see if we were friendly or not. Once we were welcomed into the village we were able to go to different huts to see demonstrations of dances, games, and explanations of the native practices. Then we got to see our dinner cooking in the earth pit. While we waited for our dinner to be ready we went into the meeting house to watch some native dances, and a video on the Maori people. Then it was time to enjoy our wonderful dinner.

Our Chickens

Our chickens are now about 9 weeks old, and they are living in their coop outside. We decided to get three chicks, so that we would start small and see how it goes. Eventually we may get more depending on how this all goes. We also wanted to get three different types of chickens, so we got a Rhode Island Red, Silver Wyandotte, and an Ameraucana. The Ameraucana will lay bluish eggs. Of course they are not old enough to lay eggs just yet. We should be getting eggs at the end of the summer. Right now we are enjoying letting "the girls" out to free range. It is so fun to just watch them explore their new environment, and they love to take dust baths.

Here is our coop. We did some research, and thought about having Micah just build ours, but we figured it would take a while to build it. Then we found someone on Craigslist who was selling kits that we could assemble ourselves, so we went that route. This is a small coop, so it houses our three girls just fine, but we would have to get another coop if we ever wanted to have more than our three. We like this coop because it is very secure, and easy to clean.

Here are the girls. We had fun asking Andrew what we should name the chicks. He picked "Spunky" for the Ameraucana (she is the one at the bottom of the picture). She was the biggest chick, and she loved to try to get out of the container when we had them in the bathroom. He named the Silver Wyandotte (the black and silver one in the middle) "Isis". And we all just called the Rhode Island Red, "Red". The boys are enjoying the chicks. Josiah loves to tell the chicks "bye, bye chicks".

April in Review

Here are some pictures of what we were up to during the month of April. One exciting thing was that we got some chicks. We bought them from someone on Craigslist when they were two weeks old. They stayed in a container in our bathtub until about a couple of weeks ago when they moved outside to their coop. (Pictures of that to come in another post.)

We also had lots of fun celebrating the resurrection of Jesus through our Easter traditions. We dyed eggs, did an egg hunt, easter baskets, and celebrated with friends and family.

We also took the boys to the Seattle Flight Museum and the Woodland Park Zoo.

And here are the chicks at the end of April.