* * H A P P Y - B I R T H D A Y * *

HAPPY 10th BIRTHDAY
darling daughter DANA
from your DAD
and ALEXIA

Lots of groovy love, hugs'n'kisses
XXXXXXXXXXOOOOOOOOOO

Have a fabulous day, and we hope you have a fantastic time
wow, double figures how lovely and grown up is that!!!

Happy Birthday Smelly Bum :O)

"Can we come to your party Dana?"

More Hoha

Here's another piccy of Hoha - Alexia and I took him for a nice walk when we were in Rotorua (Rotoiti lake) with Marie.

He's about 5 years old, but nobody really knows coz he's a stray ;O)

Hoha = Nuisance

Hiya Jess

This is Hoha, which means nuisance in Maori - he was a stray dog thet Alexias mum Marie found and she's looked after him ever since.

He's a cross between a Rotweiler and a Huntaway (NZ working sheep dog), he's a big softy really, although he's very protective over Marie.

Cheetahs

Hiya Dana

You're still doing lions, tigers and cheetahs for your project aye - well the next few blog entries are for you, and Jess if she's interested too :O)

The Cheetah Chase
[click on link/title]

Cheetah Video

The cheetahs were on a starve day - they still chased the rope, remember the 'greyhound winch' that gets dragged for 150m or so to get them to run to stay fit? - but there was no meat on it today.

The cheetahs came back to their feeding compound for food, but didn't get any - they started to get moody - imagine if you weren't fed for the day!! It does them good tho' otherwise they would become lazy, and feeding everyday is bad for their livers!!

Fact - did you know that after a chase and kill the cheetahs have to wait 20 minutes before eating, their bodies are too hot and they pant too much. During that time lions and hyenas come and steal their food in 4 out of 10 hunts, how annoying is that for the cheetah!!!

Cheetah Girl

This girl was dressed like a Cheetah for the day, for fun and as part of the volunteer keepers.

There are alot of volunteers that work with the animals at Orana Park, many of them are retired or semi-retired who want to help the endangered species and have a love for animals. Coz it was the summer holidays there are some school kids that become volunteers too - they get free entry into the zoo if they perform certain chores.

This girl is making people aware of the endangered cheetahs coz she loves them so much - it's also a great way to get a feel of what it would be like to become an animal keeper as she gets to interact with the keepers and gets close ups with the animals.

The Lion Cage

Hiya daughters

This is the lion encounter at Orana Park - yep you're both going in the cage next time we go there - you've gotta be over 140 centimeters tho' - I know Jess is that tall, wot about you tyke, you over 1.4m yet!!

Aren't the lions big - wow. There's 3 castrated (had their bits chopped off, ouch!) males who are brothers and their mum. Coz they have been neutered they are less aggressive and they don't grow manes, that's why they look like females.

I had to laugh when one little boy next to me said to his mum "do the lions ever pee over the people", of course mum was speechless ;O)

The Lion Encounter
[click on link/title for more info]

Lions Eating - (yummy horse meat!)

Woww - they are sooo impatient for their food, they must be hungry aye :0)

No they weren't having a shower, the lady keeper was pouring water over the lions that were laying under the food shoot to try and get them to move so the other lions could get their fair share of the meat.

Tigers at Orana Park

Sendiri and Dumai, Orana’s four-year-old 120kg Tiger brothers

Tigers at Orana Park
[click for more info]

Tiger 2

More Tiger Facts

Tiger & Lion

Hiya Dana - here's the photo's
[click on them to make them big - then right click to save on your computer]

Otters - So Cute, aye

I went to Orana Park today - wow what a lovely day, saw nearly all the animals in their full glory.

This video of the otters was extra special, so I had to get it on the blog straight away - the 5 brothers in their full glory - enjoy all, and especially Dana :O)

There's more coming over the next week... Big cats for Dana's project

Alexia and I are off to Moeraki to Fleur's Restaurant, it's definitely worth the 200km drive to get there - we're celebrating my residency, yey, got the passport back today :O)

Love You J&D

The bugs didn't do that much damage - see I'm still normal, just :O)

My Arm Swelled

Then my arm swelled up huge - so i got some anti-allergy tablets and cream and it went down and turned red then took a wee piccy for you guys.

Don't I whinge on aye - ah well, but the arm all swollen up was impressive, never had an arm that big before - I looked like Popeye the Sailorman ;O)

Bush Bee Sting

Yes Ouch - I got stung under my watch strap while I was driving, I pulled the stinger out, then sucked out the poison, and spat that out too!!

Sandfly Attack

The first day and a half at Karamea was great, sunny=low sandfly numbers.

Then it became overcast, and the swarm from hell came like a cloud of mini demons into the van and onto me. I was eaten alive, aahh - I fought back valiantly, I must have killed half a thousand of the wee buggers over 5 hours.

I nearly retreated back to civilisation - but hung out 1 night with the campervan windows tightly closed. In the morning I broke camp, and ran with tail between my legs. The van had its windows and doors wide open while I drove at 70km/hr to try and blow out the dawn swarm - it worked so headed for home --- until the 'bush bee' stung me near Hanmer Springs - Ouch

Oh yes - at least 50 or so itchy bites on my legs, toes, fingers elbows, knuckles, backs of legs, face boohoo ;O(

Karamea Campsite

[click to get a bigger pic]


This piccy shows the campsite - it's a sandfly heaven aye - and also a human heaven too if you keep out in the open on sunny days, although it does get very hot.

I camped out on the beach and could watch the waves crashing to shore from the van - what wonderful surf aye, the waves were a constant 2-3 metres and the slope on the beach was about 30 degrees staggered in terraces, wonderful

Karamea - Scotts Beach

While at Karamea I went for a wee walk through the bush to a wonderful spot called Scotts Beach [see photo]

Wow it was wonderful and peaceful there - no roads so you had to walk a track for an hour to get there.

Karamea - DOC Site

After the Buller I went to Karamea a small town at 'the end of the road' literally, there was a 5 km dirt track to get to the DOC (Department of Conservation) campsite. It was also the start/end of the Heaphy Track, which is a 3-5 day tramp to the Golden bay area.

The photo shows the bridge which signifies the start/end of the track depending which way round your going.

Buller River

So after the festival I felt I needed to go 'Bush' or 'Walkabout', which means going off into raw nature on my own to have a good think about things. I took my camper van off to the Buller River heading down to the wild West Coast on Jan 1st.

I camped next to the river with the van and enjoyed a peaceful night listening to the sound of babbling waters - the Buller is a beautiful river aye, the Buller Gorge is a natural wonder.

Oh on the way to the festival 2 days earlier, I came across a Buller waterfall, about 5 metres high, and there were these crazy Canadian/American daredevil kayakers that were jumping the falls in stunt kayaks, nuts!!! I had to watch them for hour or two - should have taken photos aye :o(

New Year - Canaan Downs Festival

So what did I do for New Year - I went to the Canaan Downs Festival

[click on the title to go to there website]

After Tauranga I caught a plane to Christchurch, loaded up the van and scooted up to meet my friend Matt who was playing in the 3rd Resistance stage at Canaan Downs. He was billed as Schille.M and was playing a set he'd created on his computer.

The event went well - Midnight went extremely well -
Tom Cosm
[click on name for myspace entry]
- was the main event, and he was awesome, a brilliant act to bring in 2008, his philosophy at present is that all music should be free, so if you like his stuff, go to his website and grab a load - there's some cool tracks!!

Cuddling In the Hammock

Hiya everyone,

We chilled out in Tauranga and enjoyed the families company - John had just built a movable hammock which collapsed occasionally - here we are managing to stay in long enough for a cuddle on a beautiful summers evening,

Love you all lots form Alexia and Stew, XXOO

[rem: click on the photos to get bigger ones! - only if you wanna see our spots!!]

Boris

You may have noticed Boris the dog wandering around - he's a 15 year mongrel jack russely type hound, he's deaf and blind which made recognizing people quite difficult - on the beach he would sometimes walk off with anyone marching past so Melanie would would have to go and fetch him back.

He was a real cutey - the picture shows him on the beach, he loves to dig holes and bark at them, the sort of mindless activity we all fall into every now and then :O)

Kayaking On The Beach

John is passionate about fishing from his kayak - he uses a long line, and additional traces while moving around behind the surf.

We went for a day on the beach - I missed a bit of sunscreen on my belly and it got seriously sunburned, ouch - it peeled wonderfully a few days later!!

The picture shows John and Mark on the first day - I had a go a little later on, but found the surf a little big for my beginner status.

The next day we went on a kayak expedition again into the surf, and I had a great time riding the waves, although crashing was part of the fun - yep some of the tumbles were quite spectacular!!!

The going out was the easy part, it was the coming back to shore which caused the problems :O)

Happy New Year

All the best for the New Year to all the family!! - yep it's champagne ;O)

' SPEECH '

The family made some speeches to celebrate the fact that the whole family was together for Xmas, which hadn't happened for a good many years.

Melanie is renowned for her emotional demeanor and the photo shows her weakest moment in her speech, it was a truly happy/sad moment, Syd was showing his sympathy to his sis as ever ;O)

Family Xmas Meal

Our Xmas dinner was on Xmas eve too - we were spoiled with some lovely food created by Melanie, which included crayfish and an uncooked fish salad of red snapper caught by John from his kayak!! - we ate outside, and the weather was wonderful - yep we also had the multicoloured farting jelly, and the traditional Pavlova (huge meringue).

The picture shows Sydney, Melanie and Alexia who are the kids of Marie the ma - what a handful aye ;O)

Grandmas Pressies

Marie opens her pressies, notice a few bottles of wine from Alexia and myself - she likes the pinot gris, yum :O)

The Pressie Opening

Here we go - time for the dishing out of the pressies.

The way we did it was first the 'elves' give out all the pressies to all involved then a person is picked to open all their pressies at once - yep I was first and a bit flustered coz all the attention was on me and I had to be quick coz the others were waiting to open theirs :o)

Xmas Tree

This was the Martins Xmas tree fully loaded - we had the present opening on Xmas eve

Prank On Grandma

This wee video shows Melanie and Johns home in Tauranga, where Alexia and I spent Xmas 2007. It was a fun family time for all.

We played a prank on Marie (Alexia's mum, grandma to all) - she didn't know that her son Sydney and family (Barbara, Daniel and Sarah) were coming up from Christchurch so that the whole family would be together. Melanie organized that Grandma would be out in her garden near the road when 2 cyclists would drive past (Sydney and Sarah) who would say "good day, how are you doing" and see if Marie would notice that they were her family.

Well the video says it all - and wise old grandma thought she was on to it, but I'm not so sure ;O)