Easter weekend

Easter weekend is a four day holiday that starts off the two week school term break. Even though we knew the break was coming, Lucas and I had been too busy to try to book a holiday away. And once the break started we just wanted to relax. Luckily we have some friends who are just as last minute in their plans as we are. The Dixons invited us to their bach (holiday house) in Waikawa for the Easter weekend, an hour up the coast. 

First, we got into the spirit of the holiday. That's always a homemade affair in NZ. No dye kits exist so we made up our own Easter egg dyeing with food colouring, rubber bands and a whisk. 

There are also no white eggs in NZ, but they turned out well with brown eggs. 

The Easter bunny set out an egg hunt in the front and back yard in the morning and the girls were ecstatic to do the search. Our front yard is now a construction site (Jess/Adam our landlords are building a garage) so plenty of places to hide them. 

Then it was up the coast. The weather was beautiful and we all spent the morning playing on the beach. The Qs made a footbath in the dry sand and invited us each to come get a treatment. 

Onyx helped us build an epic sand village

Wren challenged us to races down the beach. She can almost beat me in a sprint...

On the way back to Wellington from Waikawa we left early in the morning to catch a boat out to Kāpiti Island. It's a predator free island just off the coast and has been on our NZ bucket list to visit. 

We got to sit and watch this ruru (only NZ owl) watch us. Because it's a predator free island, all the wildlife is unafraid. 

The hike up through the woods led us to the top, looking back over to the mainland island.

We could see the rain storm coming out over the ocean and then it was upon us just as we'd gotten down off the slope. We took shelter in the DOC hut until our boat came to pick us up. Very wet and cold, we were happy to have dry clothes back at the car and a stop for food on the way home.

Last time we had stayed at the Dixon bach, the following day Stu was rushed to the hospital with pneumonia. This time, they went north to Rotorua and Taupō and on their return told us they'd caught Covid. They are now in 7 day isolation so Quinn has been dropping off books for Quincy since they're not allowed out. By now, most of our friends have had it. Just us and the Robertsons left. When school starts up again May 1 there is no mask requirement so I'm sure we'll get it then.