Toko Mouth

Today is Saturday, if you are wondering.  It’s hard to believe that we only have two more full days in New Zealand, unless the ash cloud from Chile has something to say about it.  The group from Harding was supposed to leave Thursday.  Their flight was canceled so now they are supposed to leave tomorrow… so we’ll see.

Today, we went to the Woodrow’s Crib, beach house/ get away/ cabin.  This is not crib as in MTV Cribs.  J  It is about 50 minutes from their house in Dunedin.  It is right at the Toko Mouth.  That is where the Tokomariro River meets the Pacific Ocean, so it’s not far from their front door to the water.  We got to the cabin and unloaded then went for a walk.  As usual for June, we dressed for beach weather.

David, Dad, Mom, and Shirley walking along the Toko Mouth

 

David and LilliAnn lead the way most of the time… they were also often compatriots in getting into trouble.

David leading LilliAnn along the beach.  You can see where the river meets the ocean where the waves are breaking.

 This beach has a lot of really cool rock formations.  In these are fossilized trees.  They mostly show up as circles in the rock.   I think there are three in the following picture.

The adults had fun being silly on the beach.

Mom riding the crocodile and Dad flying down the beach.

Shirley showing LilliAnn how to be eaten by the crocodile.

Can you spot all 6 of us on the beach?

 

At the end of our walk, David picked up some kelp and began trying to crack it like a whip.  Then LilliAnn and Shirley jumped it as he swung it around.  Then at some point, David starting chasing LilliAnn with it.  So of course LilliAnn ran straight into the creek that flows into the ocean.  She hit a hole and fell in the creek.  (The picture makes David look guiltier than he was.)

They do have jump ropes in New Zealand.

David is not quite as guilty of driving LilliAnn into the water as this picture looks.

The aftermath. (I was too busy telling LilliAnn to get her camera out of the water to take pictures while she was in it.)

After LilliAnn was thoroughly soaked, we headed back to the crib.  Mom had thought ahead and brought a change of clothes for LilliAnn.  I did have to give up some socks, since Mom didn’t think to bring any because LilliAnn was going to be wearing gum boots...  I mean her FEET won’t get wet. (I was wearing 4 pairs of socks… I didn’t want my feet to get cold, so it wasn’t a great sacrifice.)  Once back at the cabin we had lunch then played cards before packing up to come back to Dunedin.

Once back in Dunedin, we skyped with the Woodrows’ oldest son who was a good friend of mine from the old Harding Campaigns when I was but a young lass.  It was great getting to meet his wife and kids via the magic of the internets.

This evening we went to the Knotts for dinner.  It was a lot of fun and a lot of laughs.  Dad, Aaron and I have similar senses of humor which is dangerous.  Luckily the others tolerate us pretty well… and they might even share some of that sense of humor too.  LilliAnn is spending the night there.  (This is the same family whose children came with us to the chocolate factory yesterday.)  It was another great day.