"Good water, good life; poor water, poor life; no water, no life" Sir Peter Blake


Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Puppets!

One of the many wonderful things that happen in the weekends in the Viaduct are the Workshops on the Waterfront.  This weekend was "Make & Take Puppets" which is exactly what we did.  Thank you ladies for the amazing display of all sorts of stuff that the kids could use.  I actually went along to make one for myself!

They run every Sunday and often work with the Sustainable Coastlines crew too which has fabulous workshops for the kids with upcycling and re-using rubbish that has been collected from the shore.





Monday, March 25, 2013

Rudder Cleaning, Viaduct Harbour

The drum rudders fantastic as we can remove the rudders entirely from the drum and clean them on the dock.  Being underwater all the time, they are just like the hulls and have a little build up of growth that has to be removed from time to time...just like mowing our lawns!  The drums can also be removed for inspection and cleaning.

Blake and his helper (Craig) enjoyed being 'big' and cleaning the rudders so they were all "smooooth" again.






Tuesday, March 19, 2013

February Fun Birthdays!

I cannot believe this month has come around so quickly again!  It was only 1 year ago that we launched Mazuran on the 10th February 2012!

We have had a month of boat anniversaries and birthday anniversaries to which we have shared and enjoyed with many of our friends and family.  It certainly has been a great summer this year!


The fireworks off the sky tower were appropriate for February I thought, even though I think it was actually for Chinese New Year.  I enjoyed it anyway and assumed someone had arranged it for us especially!

Craig was the first to enjoy his special day on the 7th February.  We had his dad, Paul come away on the boat with us so his birthday cake was a small mini-muffin that I had made all the guys at Team NZ for morning tea!  (I also made rum balls but they all disappeared quickly!)

"Happy Birthday Daddy!"

On the 10th of February it was 1 year since we launched Mazuran!

Next was Blake, our Valentines boy on the 14th February, who was 4 years old.  I cannot believe how fast those years have gone, but we've certainly done a lot in the past 4 years looking back!  We went to visit Great Nanny, which was lovely as always.  She got Blake a spiderman buggy which zoomed all over her axminster carpet....

Perfect present Nanny!!! Thank you for the Spiderman car!

Always fantastic to have parcels arrive from Nanna in Australia!

Granny & Grandad gave the kids puppets, and squishy face things that the kids used as puppet 'food'...

Happy Birthday Blake!!

He finally got to put all of the race track together at Poppa Steves, and we had it zoooomin!

Then was our mermaid princess, Freya, who turned 6 years old on the 22nd February. The day before she had got a lovely card and sticker from the Tepid Baths who were delighted at Freya's swimming.  They know she wants to be a mermaid!

Freya receiving her mermaid card & sticker from her teacher - a lovely gesture!

We had a lovely dinner at her Poppa Steve and Nana Jackie's, to which her Great Nanny and Great Gran also were able to share with us.  Poppa Steve made the mermaid cake which was a great hit! - even the older generation ate the 'blue' icing!  Nice to have all the generations all together - very rare and special times.  Freya wanted to make some pink cupcakes to take to the party which was a huge success also.

Freya wanted to make 'Pinkalicious Cupcakes' herself, so she and Blake had great fun making them!

Freya's birthday cake, made especially for her by Poppa Steve!

"Happy 6th Birthday Freya!!!"

From left; Nanny Taylor, Freya, me & Great Gran 

Next was my birthday on the 28th and it was a lovely day that I spent reading my book on the deck!  We went for walk around the Viaduct in the evening which was lovely and relaxing too!  A lovely day as I decided NOT to do any dishes!!!  I even managed to receive a muffin from Craig as my cake but I did have to cut it into four!

Happy birthday to me, happy birthday to me! (haha, my muffin is bigger!)

Phew, February is over for the year and kids are all very excited about their birthdays next year already!




Monday, March 18, 2013

Unitary Plan Designers, Viaduct Events Centre

While the good ol' councilors were doing their 'thing' inside the Viaduct Events Centre, they just needed to look outside to see the new designers of the future.  Blake with the sand.... (that's all you need right??), and Freya with some pink stuff, totally at ease with gluing and making stuff to propose to the mayor when he gets free from eating oysters inside!

Apart from the political side, it was great for the kids to play with so much more than we have on board Mazuran so my dad and I just sat and watched as they designed their 'Future Auckland' sculptures.  The Youth Town Marquee had so many goodies, it was hard to stop creating!

Blake very much enjoying himself with sand....

Milk anyone? 

 One of the many tables with loads of goodies... and I didn't take a photo of the floor!


Pinkalicious! 

" Oops, I have a leak....."

"Ok, leak fixed, I'm done.." 

Freya making sure she has her copyright sorted 

 "The Curtained Amphitheature" by Freya Nickalls

The urban designer with her masterpiece

A bonus from there was the super long straws that we used then to have a well earned drink afterwards!  Although they were large, they produced a science problem, which we then solved with cutting the straw shorter.  We then discussed how heights of hoses produce problems when pumping water!  There is always something we can learn about practically!

Ready, set, go!

Poppa Steve helping with the long straw problem.

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

One Nights Escape

With the sniff of autumn in the air we decided that we would escape for the weekend after Craig finished work on Saturday afternoon.  The NZ weather has been kind to us all, but unfortunately with no rain since Christmas there are areas in serious need of water, and now are officially declared 'drought zones'.  This means water restrictions are applied as the lakes and rivers (NZ stock for water) is the lowest for many years.
The sun escaping the day - silhouettes of the Silo Park, Auckland City

Heading out Auckland Harbour, the kids enjoying the bumpy ferry wakes!

We left the Viaduct at about 7pm and headed out towards Islington Bay, Rangitoto.  The kids had had an afternoon sleep earlier in the day so they were wide awake with our adventure.  As the wind was dying out we decided to motor and arrived to what looked like a xmas tree of lights.  Many boats in there, as it's a favourite friday or saturday night spot for many, close to the city if the weather changes, and very sheltered in most directions.  We anchored with plenty of room, as the wind was forecast to rotate 180deg, to which it did by morning.  Fortunately it was only about 10knots so it was a very welcome cooling down to the cockpit.  Kids in the water once again, then we decided to head out to Rakino Island and the Noises, and collected some shelfish for dinner.

Shelfish for dinner... yum! 

mmmmm.....

The kids went for their first 'snorkel' using their goggles and flippers.  They were super excited to see the bottom but got so exhausted they just about fell asleep in the dinghy returning to the boat!

Mazuran enjoying being on anchor.

A well exhausted Blake after doing his first snorkel!

After deciding at 4pm we had start heading back to the city we hoisted the sails (Blake help hoist the main), and spotted two ships, one carrying cargo, and the other carrying human cargo.. quite neat to see.

Blake hoisting the mainsail

Ship racing -  They just about fit together as a jig-saw

Rangitoto Island, Hauraki Gulf

 At the Candy Stick (Rangitoto Light) we saw a line of wind coming down the harbour, and went from 7knots of breeze to 20-25knots!!! We furled in the jib a bit and had a great sail back to the Viaduct doing about 8.5 - 9knots on the wind!

Heading back up Auckland Harbour, nice flat water and a good breeze meant a great sail!

After tying up the boat, we attacked the kina we had collected, and had a seafood dinner.  A lovely end to a night and day away!

Kids watching Craig trying to pull the kina off the bottom of the tub!