The beach

Monday was a national holiday. Lucas' new boss Andre invited us to visit his house up north in the furthest suburb, Paraparaumu. He likes it because it's sunnier and warmer than Wellington, and has a nice beach. The large expanse of beach so reminded me of the Oregon Coast. And the out-of-the-rain-shadow effect reminded me of Hood River. We drove along the edge of the ocean and it looked so much like driving through the Columbia River Gorge. As you can tell, my head is still in Oregon.

Andre's house was lovely with plum, olive, cherry and orange trees. We sat and had coffee and the girls played on a rusty swingset they found among the weeds. We hit the beach on the way home. In Wellington only the heartiest of souls is out swimming so we expected the same in Paraparaumu.

This is the typical progression when it comes to Wren and Quinn without a change of clothes at the beach:

"Okay, pants off, you can go in up to your shirts"





"getting quite wet and sandy now..."



"you can go in but try to keep your underwear dry..."



"okay, I give up, have at it"



This close to Antarctica, I was surprised that the water was warmer than in Oregon. But I suppose it's all about the currents...

The way that they get the boats out of the water was genius. Not a pier, but a giant tractor.