Eli's NZ surfing video 2011, Opunake Boardriders Club

 Saturday is surf day. Izaak, our surfing conscientious objector.

Nana Jeanne made it all the way out to our beach!









Surf's up dude.

Logan ready to catch some waves.


Shelley taking a break this Saturday but most days she is in the thick of it all. Peter the intrepid photographer and occasional novice surfer. Thanks to Pop-pop he gets to be in a picture this time.

Eli put this little movie together with some clips from our Saturday morning surfing expeditions.

Kiwi-isms, a public service announcement, version 2.0, the answers

In an effort to make things a bit more exciting AND interactive instead of just giving you the meanings of these kiwi-isms I would encourage you out there to fill in what you think these mean...no cheating please. Answers will be available in approximately one week. Thank you for your support. (Oh by the way for those wise guys out there this is Peter's idea NOT Shelley's!)

"chilly bin" cooler to keep food cold
"cuppa" as in a cup of tea or coffee
"crook" not feeling well, sick
"gridiron" american football
"good on ya" congratulations

"Invictus" the book review. And you guessed it, it is better than the movie.

I just finished "Invictus" the book upon which the movie is based. It was a quick read and made me want to rush out and read a Nelson Mandela biography. It focused much more on him and his path rather than just the South African Rugby World Cup victory. A behind the scenes look on how he got his enemies to not only change their minds but to trust and admire him while coming over to his way of thinking. For those who are not aware of the story, Nelson Mandela had been imprisoned for many years during that time he realized the way to accomplish his goals was to no longer be the leader of the terrorist wing of the ANC but to learn how to be the leader for all the disparate black groups and eventually the leader for all South Africans. It is one thing to unite South Africa politically, and to end apartheid but he realized he needed to create South Africans. Imagine a magic alchemy of direct, pragmatism and philosophical idealism. He uses the idea of sport as unifying people, the Springboks-South Africa's Rugby Team-to start the process of socio-cultural unification. The author uses input from many of the protagonists of the time which does much to inform the reader of what they thought of Mandela during this tumultuous time. Anyways the book is an easy way to get a flavor for the man and the times.