This is their Tire Swing

Their tire swing is sort of not like our swing. Four people can go on and you can get off whenvever you want and push and push and just get on and it's really fun because you go round and round in circles. When it stops you go in circles. And sometimes if you push a certain amount of time and get on at a certain time you can go right up in the air and it is really fun. While we were on the swing we saw a Duck Boat drive by and go into the water. A Duck Boat is bus that has a picture of duck on it. The special thing about it is that you can go right into the water. It floats like a boat.

Spinner

This is really fun. You go up and then you go down really fast on this round circle thing. And if you are on the side it goes so fast that you can fly right off. I found this Spinner on a playground in Rotorua. If you sit in the middle you don't fall off. I found that out the second time I fell off. Then I was in the middle, my brother pushed me off, that was third time. Then in the middle there was two middles so I let one of the other kids on the other middle and his brother kept pushing him off so he fell off a thousand times I couldn't keep counting. You can sort of see us with the down part is on your left and the up part is on your right. You can sort of see me trying to get back into the middle it's really hard.

the Moa bird

This is what is left of a Moa Bird. It has been extinct for over 500 years. I saw the bones in a cave while we visited the caves in the town of Waitomo. Those stones that you can see were in its stomach because it didn't have teeth. The stones are gizzards. They helped grind up the food. We don't know how the bird got there or how it died. Norm, our guide, thought maybe the bird got hurt and wondered into the cave and died

The Zorb

It was awesome. The Zorb is a giant blue ball with a smaller one inside it. And you can roll straight down or zig zag down a hill or head over heals. We went in the Zorb with water in it. We had to put on our bathing suits. We went straigt down the hill. I was soaking wet. They gave us towels. My dad screamed as we rolled down the hill. Since I was on the side, all of the water was on my head. It was awesome.

Alden flying

This is me flying. It might look like that they are holding me up but they're just making sure that my legs are in the right position. It's just the fan that's blowing me up. I flew for 2 minutes and then after I flew for 2 more minutes. I had to wear this suit and the goggles so that the air would not get in my eyes. The suit help helps you fly because it has holes in the armpit place to make it blow. You have your own clothes on underneath it.

My friends and me and my brother in a tree

I made four friends but you can only see two because the other ones are not with me. These friends are Finn and Rowan. They live in Hawkes Bay, New Zealand which is in the same island as me. There are two islands in New Zealand. We live on the North Island. Hawkes Bay is on the east part of the island. They stayed with us for four days and they were fun. The tree we are in is a Pahutukawa tree. It is a Christmas tree that blooms flowers but it doesn't have flowers because it's not blooming time for it.

A VOLCANO

This is Mount Edgecomb and it is a volcano. It is dormant which means it is resting. I hope it sleeps while I sleep.

I Dug this hole

It is very deep. If I crouched down, nobody can see me. My dad says that most of the beaches in Whakatane are not privately owned. There are many beaches and they are never crowded.

My House in Whakatane

I like it. It doesn't have an upstairs but it does have a pool table in a room where I can sleep if I want to. And in my room it has an exit that if I get sent to my room I can escape and go right back to the kitchen. And it has lots of Tom and Jerry movies. Movies like that.

Answers to some of your questions

Thank you for your pages in the goodbye book.

What is the weather like in Whakatane, New Zealand?
The weather is great. Whenever I go outside it's just hard for me to go back inside because the weather is so great. The weather is hot and sunny. I wear shorts and a t-shirt.

When am I coming home?
I am coming home in August. I will see you in seven months, half a year and one month.

What will I do in New Zealand?
I will go bungy jumping. I will go Zorbing which is going in a ball with another person, doesn't have to be another person, down a hill in a ball, strapped up, and you go round and circles while you are going. You can have water in it and two grown ups can even go in it.

I plan on visiting a volcano that I saw on the flight here in Whakatane from Auckland. It is not active, steam can come out of it but it will never erupt again. I will take a picture of it and will post it later this week.

I will go nine feet up in the air because of a fan.
I will go to school in Wellington. Right now I am getting home-schooled which is fun.
Why are you going to New Zealand?
For a vacation while my mom and dad visit and work in schools here.

Where will I stay?
We are staying in Whacatane until February and then we will live in Wellington.

MY FLIGHT

The trip to New Zealand was awesome but I missed a plane by accident my luggage went to the plane instead but my luggage was on the same plane as me. We don’t know how it was done. So they decided to send us to Australia but we waited for two and a half hours on the runway without the plane moving and it was 1:30 in the morning! Everyone on that plane had to go to a hotel in San Francisco, which is in California, but we didn’t get to choose what hotel it was. The airport chose for you. I got woken up in the middle of the night and my stomach started hurting and we went to the hotel and I have four people in my family and in the hotel room was one bed! So they checked us in first and we went to a different one and they checked all of the other people in and gave us a different room. We were at 251 then we were at 252.

Finally on the plane to New Zealand, we had mini TV screens- our own. And it had Garfield, lots of Simpson’s episodes and movies, video games. It was awesome. I only played my gold DS one time because the mini tv screens were so awesome. And there was a radio and we had a remote that if you slide your credit card through it you use the telephone on the other side of the remote and call anyone. And we had lights and it was awesome.

And now we’re in New Zealand! And I am still in the airport and they had a little Dunkin Donuts and I got a big glazed donut and still I was still hungry I went to McDonalds and surprisingly they had pancakes! (They call them hotcakes).

After McDonalds I went to look for my mom and my brother on my own and I got lost in the airport and then I ran back and asked dad where they are and I was at that room before! I went back and found them. My mom said to go back and find my dad and walk with him all the way back. I was out of breath. And that’s mostly all I can think about for now.

I’m having a real lot of fun in New Zealand. It is awesome.