Northern New Zealand with a Baby.

So we stayed at the rented house in Mangonui (Maori for big shark) for the rest of the trip. Babe and I spent a lot of time at Cooper's Beach, usually with E, her husband and kids during the day. Then sometimes in the evening Babe and I would walk the path through the bush and go for an evening swim before her bedtime.

Babe was just starting to walk unassisted when we left for New Zealand but by mid-trip she had completely abandoned crawling. And within a few beach trips she figured out how much fun it was to walk on the beach and by the end of our stay she was running fearlessly into the waves and chasing seagulls on the sand.

And I even screwed up the courage to drive the twisty back road down to the village one day for a little shopping and some fish and chips at the Mangonui Fish Shop with Babe. It wasn't that daredevil of me considering I was able to avoid the main road and all but two intersections. Before we left E kept reminding me to keep myself in the center of the road (on my side of the line) and I'd be fine - which we were.

On the beach after a swim.

Despite not being able to do all the adventurous things I'd normally do on a trip we had a great time just hanging out on the beach and relaxing. And considering her baby was born the day I arrived E did amazingly well at getting out of the house herself. We even walked up the Rangikapiti Pa (Woot! I remembered the spelling of it!!!). Pa were Maori defensive forts on hilltops in northern New Zealand.

Looking down on Cooper's Beach.

The pa in the background.

Photo courtesy: Dumb and Dumber

I also experienced another first-time-mommy right of passage. I cut my kid's hair myself and fucked it up. I figured it couldn't be that hard because all I had to do was shave a tiny bit off of her bangs to keep them out of her eyes. And she sits so still at the salon...Well, she wriggled all over the place and I cut her bangs too short. Now she looks ridiculous. The length of her bangs combined with the totally annoying screaming sound she makes in the car reminds me of Jim Carrey in Dumb and Dumber.

Anyway, we came back to Auckland the day before we were due to fly out and I still really wanted to see the other coast and get some black sand for my travel jar. (Each time I travel to a new place I fill a Mason jar with trinkets I collected on the trip.)  So the morning of our last day we piled everyone in the cars (we couldn't fit three car seats in one car) and drove the 45 minutes to Piha Beach (location of the Piha Rescue T.V. show) for some black sand and the best burger and fries (hot chips) I have ever had in my life!

Once again Babe loved the beach although it was far too rough to go swimming. She was so happy she actually just lay down at one point and snuggled the sand. It got everywhere. It was still in her hair and eyelashes when we got back to Vancouver.

Babe hugging the beach.

The girls waiting for their hot chips.

It was also awesome to see another ocean/sea/body of water - the Tasman Sea. After our trip to Piha it was time to go back to E's place, throw our stuff in the car and head for the airport. I'll update you on flying home with Babe in the next post. For now I've got a still slightly jet-lagged baby to tend to.