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For NCEA read A levels and GCSEs. 

It has been an intense study and exam period in this house of late.

Last week the results came out for Joe and Eleanor. None of this letter in the post or going down to the school to see the results. It is now all online off course.

Anyway we are a happy family. Joseph passed level 1 NCEA (or is that past?). He did well in his exams, passing all bar one having done rather less well than that in the mocks! So well done to Joe, we are very pleased.

Eleanor passed level 3 with excellence-a great achievement. This puts her in the top 3% or so of candidates. She also achieved excellence in English  and German-a new way of presenting results this year. She earned enough points to be accepted for her conjoint degree at Auckland-Law and BA-doing German, politics and philosophy. Lots of work, many years and lots of costs ahead.

Well done Eleanor. we are very proud of you.

Here’s to them.

Saturday involved a return to swinging on home soil.

I played golf in New Zealand for the first time in about 4 years I think. I played with Murray, a much better piayer than me, at Manor Park. In recent years I have played rarely and it would seem overseas. It make me sound like a jet setter.

Anyway, having come to the realisation that my clubs are rubbish, I borrowed his spare set, as I have done whenever I have played recently. I have played reasonably well on previous occasions, better than usual, when playing with other people’s ‘hand-me-downs’, so I continued the trend. Anyway, I continued to unable to putt throughout the afternoon, but after  a few holes the irons were swinging well and the 5 wood working well off the tee. I broke 100-good for me, and had a good time.

I am sure I will be out there again. I think we will be off to Karori next. May need to invest in some clubs. My current set are the same age as Eleanor, and are not nearly as good as she is!

This summer we have been on the road. I am not sure that the car will be able to manage another one.

We left Wellington on the 27th in the early hours to go to Rotorua first for the unveiling ceremony for Stacy.

From there we spent a few days in Raglan, centre of the surf dude culture. I passed us by really. However, the house was good, we read books, ran and enjoyed the beach and videos. We also played a new game that has become a family winner- Balderdash. It is a board version of ‘Call my bluff’.

From there we travelled north and spent most of our time in the Bay of Islands. We stayed in good accommodation, with resident chucks, sheep and alpacas.  The weather was good though we did allow Isaac to be very sunburned! Terrible parents. We found a good beach where the boogie boards were out. Matauri bay is where the Rainbow Warrior wreck has been sunk to act as a diving interest.

We revisited the ‘Cream Trip’ around the Bay of Islands-17 years later. It was still good. The children enjoyed the ‘boom netting’ as well as the dolphins. Sara loved the dolphins.

We of course went to Waitangi where the treaty was signed between the British and Maori in 1840.

We went to Cape Reinga. Beautiful scenery. Sara enjoyed watching me injury myself on the huge sand dunes. The idea is to surf the dunes. I tried to dive onto the board and race down the dune. I missed and landed on my face sending painful shudders through my body. Sara enjoyed my pain and the vision of me covered in sand. It was another reminder of the aging body attached to the mind of a stupid youth.

Out accommodation at Pukenui was poor to say the least. We left after one night instead of three and drove south in the pouring rain. Hamilton has never looked so appealing.

I seem to have a habit of putting a Chritmas tree on the blog, and I did come come across one in full bloom up north, which was a surprise.

So here is one from across the way.