School Work

All 4 are playing hard here with lots of trees to climb.

Kindergarten/!st Grade in New Zealand
When the tide is out in front of our house you can walk on the lava rock.
The rocks have small pools that catch lots of interesting sea creatures.
We took the Abscal's kayak out for a spin.
The biologist and the boys enjoyed sea anemones and shellfish caught in the pools.

Anna reading into the microphone with her class presenting flags of the world at school assembly.
This is taken on the walk to school...what a view.
Claire down on the shore next to our house.
Phillip had a great week at school camp in Auckland but it is good to have him back.
Claire took this beautiful photo of Anna after her kayak ride with daddy Saturday.

The kids have been busy finishing up this quarter this week. We are all looking forward to a 2 week break for the kids starting Friday. Hopefully Uncle Rus will be here to see us soon. We are hosting a Poetry Party with the Anglican pastor couple Friday so we have been in our literary modes. Lynn is studying his questions for the Internal Medicine recertification exam in Sydney Australia in a few weeks. The Auburn game last weekend was the only game broadcast in NZ and we were very excited to watch it. In the end it was a close loss which has it'sm own heart break. Our UT fan friends are in mourning too. It could be a long fall.....spring here. We are marching on through work and school and fellowship. Welcome back to the Nichols who should be starting their return flight from Spain today. We miss everyone.

For Mom

The fog this morning reminded me of our Smoky Mountain East Tennessee Home.

My mom had a special request to see some photos of Lynn and I on the blog. I think she was worried I had left him some where. We have admitted that this has been one of if not the single roughest season of our marriage with the move from our comfortable life, the pressures of working here, the lack of family support here, the overwhelming volume of need here, and the over-riding physical and emotional drain of it all. With that said, we are being more intentional about communicating how much we love each other and listening to the burdons, laughs, and triumphs of each day. There is a sweetness to commitment that rides through wavy unchartered waters in a relationship. I love you no matter what, in sickness and in health, for better or worse, in West Knoxville or Green Acres. Photos are compliments of Claire who took some of them when we were horsing around. You can pray for us in this area.....not the horsing around but the communicating.

Whangarei Christian Fellowship

Miguel praying....church
Worship....church
Vanessa (below) teaching Sunday school during the sermon.
The teaching of the word.....church
The after-church potluck for the Abascals. Community Fellowship...church

Andrew is at the ping-pong table in the back of the church.

Our friends the Abascals leave for a month long furlough in California tomorrow. We thought we would put some pictures of the church on our web page for their family and friends to see along with you guys.

Spring is Sprung

Andrew and the beautiful girls are beside the budding Wisteria vine on the porch. My friend Rene was hospitalized twice last week and we tried to help her navigate the rocky healthcare system here. As a thank you, she cut Andrew and Claire's hair and straightened the girls hair for picture day last week. We also got a beautiful chocolate cake as well as her desire for her and Brooke to go to church with us. She is a beautiful person and I am so glad we ended up meeting her through the school.
Andrew is a panda bear at the park after last rugby game.

Phillip with Rugby mates speaking at school assembly. Rugby ended this week. The Allblacks won the tri-nation (superbowl) last night.

This is a great treehouse in the back yard of the Abascal's home. They soon leave for California for a month so we are having a post church potluck lunch for them today.
Look closely. Phillip in black is swingin' out over the stream on a rope swing. The boys his age from church had a sleepover at the Abascals. Phillip had to borrow my shoes for a twilight hike up one of the mountains with headlamps. My shoes were really too small for him!!!

Anna, of course in pink, tried the swing too. Beautiful tweens from church (Zara, Naomi, Claire, and Lanah) had a slumber party where they sang praise, laughed, and had fun.
With spring, dolphins have been in the bay next to the house (see dots next to sailboat). We have heard the Orca have come too but haven't got lucky enough to see them yet.
Phillip had a sleepover with his rugby mates. He unfortunately was the first asleep and awoke with permanent marker "tatooes" on his face. The four boys eventually all had decorated their faces for the last rugby game. Phillip got most of it off but you could still faintly see "Hillbilly" written across the forehead but unfortunately it didn't show in the photo. He has really enjoyed his rugby teammates and we were all sad to see the season end.

Phillip is such a natural athlete and continues to amaze us. Next week he will be at school camp in Auckland all week. It is the equivalent of the 5th grade Washington DC trip. By the way, the sports complex has netball courts in the background that will soon be changed into hardcourt TENNIS!! :ast night we went to Ruakaka beach to have dinner with my friend Viv and her fiance John. The beach is beautiful and we look forward to showing Uncle Rus some of these sights soon. He arrived in Wellington last Monday and we are all excited.

Cross Country Running

By Claire
Hello everyone!Over about the past month I have been training for the Cross Country [a race that you run.] On a Friday a couple weeks ago I ran the race that they did at school and came in 2nd place [for the girls], I was very nervous and ended up doing pretty good! Since I came in 2nd place at school I got to go to barge park which is a park that you can play in and is where they held the big Cross Country. Last Friday was a very challeging day running in lots of mud, also falling in mud standing back up and then in less than 20 seconds falling in mud again. That is when the tears started to fall. I still have the scratches that the fall gave me. I ended up coming in 41 place out of about 100 and something people! My mom said that it did't matter what place I ended up getting but, that I actually got up and completed the race. My friends Maddie and Chloe came 24 and 25 in their race. Phillip came in the big 21st place in his race! We all 4 came in the top 50 in all of our races!!!

Quintessential Kiwi

(Dawn) Our close Kensington neighbors, The Hatmakers, are doing a school report (Abbie's) on New Zealand and asked about food items because they have to bring one in for the class to try. It got me thinking about what is quintessential New Zealand food, fun, etc. I have include some pics from the last week to try to bring to life some of what we think would characterize New Zealand. For food, I told her that classically like England it would be Fish and Chips (AKA French Fries) like Long John Silvers/Captain Ds. They do eat kiwi fruit a lot too but they have a golden kiwi variety that is a Nichols' favorite. Also, like the American hotdog they have their own version of cookout and ballpark food called a sausage which is thicker and unique ground lamb. It is placed sideways on white bread with grilled onions and their version of ketchup. At the Northland crosscountry meet Friday every school was selling them and I included a picture of Whangarei Heads tent cooking them up in what is called a "Sausage sizzle". The crosscountry meet was a lot of fun and we were so proud of Phillip and Claire who both fell in the mud and yet got up hurting and finished the race in the top 1/4. The barefoot and muddy feet from the race would characterize life here as shoes are often not worn at school. Stores will ask you to take off muddy shoes and come in barefoot. Always go to someone's home with good clean socks because you are expected to remove shoes upon entry.

We had another Birthday Party this week. Our neighbor with the lamb, Leo turned 6 and we had a great time at the New Zealand version of Chucky Cheese. The parties have all played a game called "Pass the Parcel" where music is played and when the music stops whoever is holding the gift gets to unwrap one of the many layers the present is wrapped in. Each layer has a small gift like a piece of candy. The parcel (package) goes round again and again until the final lucky person gets to unwrap the last layer and finds the party favor.

I included the neighbors baby lamb with Anna feeding it. It was a triplet. Most sheep have twins and if they have 3 lambs the smallest one loses out. This little one was brought to our neighborhood to be hand fed. We hear it bleating all the time and have become very attached. Many of you know that I am not a huge dog fan but I am now a big fan of the baby lamb so watch out Kensington.

Also, a tractor is a necessity to put your boat in the water. Even million dollar homes have a tractor sitting in the driveway for the boat. I wonder what the folks at Tellico would think?

Sand Surfing is also big fun. We went to Ocean beach which is just 5 minutes from our house. The kids had a great time sliding down the dune with the Abascal kids (Californian pastor's family).

We even saw Whangarei Heads school principal, Lil Ogle, who took a minute out of her beach walk to slide down on one of the boards. You get a supportive community feel here.

Another major difference is that they are crazy for rugby (the Allblacks at Allblacks.com) instead of American football. Any SEC football games on homemade DVD's will be welcome (particularly the Auburn/UT game!) Send to 51 Stuart Rd. McCleod Bay RD4, Whangarei, NZ.