Happy New Year.. I do hope that you all had a safe and happy Christmas. Did Father Christmas visit you with lots of nice presents ? I expect he did. How very exciting. Now you're back at school all ready to do some hard work.
I can't believe it has been such a long time since I last wrote to you telling you about our adventures. We have done so much it is actually hard for me to think back to the beginning when we first arrived in New Zealand back in November.
First of all let's get those brains of yours working and see how you get on speaking some Moari, which is the language some of the locals speak over here....
Before you start, you need to know that in New Zealand a "wh" is pronounced "f".
So a placed we visited called whanagerai is pronounced "fong-a-ray"
Kia Ora- hello, goodbye, have a safe journey
Haere Mai-Welcome
Whanau-family
Whare-house
Hangi- feast
Hongi- a welcome gesture. Pressing of the noses. Very similar to an Eskimo kiss.Waka-a means of transport, bus, car, boat.
The Moari people were the original people that lived and farmed the land of New Zealand.
Most people here speak English but there are a few Moari people and families that speak the old language. They are very proud of their ancestors and where they came from.
In a town called Rotoura we had a very special evening where we learnt a lot about the Moari culture.
We heard the Moari's sing in their language which was beautiful and they also did the huka. Did any of you see that when New Zealand were in the final of the rugby world cup?
We also had a traditional Moari meal which is cooked in a really hot pit under the ground. Here we had sweet potatoes, chicken, lamb, veggies. It was so yummy. Mrs Maynard had 2 MASSIVE dinners and even managed a pudding. She had a very full and sore tummy afterwards though.
Here I am with some Maori people.
The drawing on their faces are markings which tell people which tribe they belong too. They are a little bit like tattoos.
Over here in New Zealand we are 13hrs ahead. This is a big time difference. When you are all waking up in the morning at 7 o'clock we over here had our day, lunch, dinner and winding down the day, as it is 8 o'clock in the evening.
The money here is called New Zealand Dollars.
Since being here Mrs Maynard and Tim have hired a car to travel around the country. It has been really fun meaning that we have done lots of long journeys. These are fun apart from when Mrs Maynard sings along to the radio. That just hurts my ears!
We did park next to a rather funny Nemo car one day. Do you like it?
In our car we have travelled all the way up to the north of the North Island down to the middle and along to the east coast.
Here I am with Mrs Maynard at the most eastern point of new zealand. This is the point which always sees the sunshine rise first in the world, how cool is that! This lighthouse tells all the incoming boats out at sea that they are nearing land.
New Zealand is made up of 2 islands. You can catch a ferry across from one island to another but we decided to fly from Auckland to Christchurch.
We again hired another car and this time did a massive loop of the South Island.
New Zealand has some wonderful walks that we have all done, allowing us to see some beautiful sights. We have walked up volcanos, to glaciers, through forests and along the coast line. We have done lots of exercise meaning that we have nice strong legs now.
Here are a few photos of us doing various walks.
The lake above is called Lake Tekapo and it really is the brilliant blue you can see in the picture.
On one of the walks we had to catch a boat over to the starting point. I was a little cheeky and had a go at pretending to drive it while the captain wasn't looking.
Our Christmas was quite different, as like you I am used to the weather being cold over the Christmas period. Over here it is the opposite. When it is Summer in England it is winter here and vice versa. So our Christmas was with everyone wearing shorts and T-shirts and the sun being very hot.
Instead of the traditional roast turkey dinner most people have a BBQ as it's too hot to cook in the kitchen.
Apart from the stunning scenery New Zealand is also well known for being a country that does lots of extreme sports. We even saw father Christmas having a go at a bungy jump.
One of the popular sports is mountain biking. Tim decided to have a go but on the way down had a little accident, fell off and has broken his collar bone, which is just in front of his shoulder.
Mrs Maynard was very glad he was wearing his helmet and even the doctors in the hospital said he was very lucky as when he fell off his bike he landed on his head and if he wasn't wearing it he could have seriously hurt himself.
Tim is just having to wear a sling to support his arm and shoulder. It will take 6-8wks to heal.
Mrs Maynard is having to be really strong as she now has to carry Tim's bag as well as her own.
How many of you like to eat burgers? Mrs Maynard and Tim ate in a very popular burger restaurant called Ferg Burger.
Just look at the size of the one Mrs Maynard ate. It was actually the size of her head. She made a real mess eating it but it did look very yummy. Do you think you could have eaten on this big?
One day Mrs Maynard and Tim hired a bike so we could cycle around town. It wasn't your normal bike as it had 2 seats and 2 set of pedals. Does anyone know the name of this kind of bike?
It's called a tandem and is really quite tricky to ride as you both have to pedal at exactly the same time. It was good fun though and the day was spent mostly laughing.
We fly tomorrow over to Central America which will take 2 days and 3 different flights.
Our first county in Central America is a very small place called El Salvador.
Mrs Maynard is thinking that she should have taken part in your Spanish lessons that you have with Ms Peake as they only speak Spanish over there and she doesn't know any at all part from Hola. So this could be an interesting next 8 weeks.
I look forward to filling you in on our next adventures soon.
Lots of love
Buster xx
