Flat Stanley visits New Zealand

When I came home this morning from shopping for our last minute Christmas grocery needs, I found Flat Stanley waiting patiently outside our front door. (he couldn't reach the knocker)  I brought him in to Allie, who in turn introduced him to Amiri and Arram. The three guys hit it off right away. Not surprising that, Flat Stanley is a likable chap. 

I decided then and there to do a post about Flat Stanley, since he's visiting for a week or three with us. As photogenic as he is, he will really dress up this post.

Flat Stanley arrived in Henderson on the day before Christmas, 2015. Unfortunately, it was raining. Still, the boys made him welcome and he seemed to settle in to our family life easily enough. We soon learned that he had come to us from Las Vegas, Nevada, where it is dry most of the time, so maybe the rain today was a pleasant change for him. We also learned all about Flat Stanley's exciting expedition so far. (he has kept a journal)

Flat Stanley is on a real adventure. He has been sent out to tour the U.S.A and the world until April 1st, 2016. He was sent on his mission by a 2nd Grade boy at a school in Florida. He sent Flat Stanley to a family friend to start him on his way. Then, that family sent him on to a friend of theirs. Each family that Flat Stanley visits will find a friend, somewhere else in the world, to send him on to. Flat Stanley's Florida friend and the rest of his class will learn about all the places he visited when Flat Stanley returns with his completed journal to them. Each family of course, will help him with his journal. 

This post is a special way of helping to teach Flat Stanley's friend back in Florida (and the rest of you as well) a little bit of what it is like to live in a suburb of Auckland, New Zealand. 

So, lets meet Flat Stanley. The jet ride from the west coast of the United States to Auckland, took about twelve hours but Flat Stanley doesn't look a bit tired. Here he is being welcomed by Arram (6) and Amiri (8).

"How do you do, Flat Stanley? Welcome to Aotearoa." (Land of the Long White Cloud)

The very next morning was Christmas Day...Yeeeaahhhhh!  Here is a picture of the boys playing their new air hockey game. Flat Stanley cheered them both on. 

It's an exciting game. Arram is ready to block Amiri's shot.

The next picture is very silly. Amiri and Arram are the proud owners of 5 female guinea pigs. A friend of the boys' mum made costumes for them.  Their mum dressed the 'guinea girls' in their clothes and they had a fashion show. 

As you can see, Flat Stanley enjoyed meeting Squeekers, Popcorn, Blaze, Brownie, and Whiskers. The 'girls' don't usually visit in the living room or 'lounge' as it's called in New Zealand, but this is a special occasion. They were all on their best behaviour.  (NZ spelling)
Blaze did become upset at one point, as you can see, when Brownie nibbled a little on Blaze's feathers.  

The day after Christmas is called 'Boxing Day' in New Zealand and is one of the busiest days of the year for shopping. Every store has after Christmas sales.  

Amiri and Arram found that their Grammy, who has a garden in the back yard, had lots of extra green beans and zucchini. They decided to put up a Boxing Day stand along the sidewalk and become businessmen for a while. Flat Stanley was glad to help. He found out that NZ money is quite different from American money. There are no pennies or nickles at all here. The smallest coin is a 10 cent piece. Then there is a 20 cent coin, a 50 cent coin, a dollar coin and a two dollar coin. There are no paper dollar bills. On Boxing day, one American dollar was worth about $1.40  in New Zealand dollars. 

Zuccchini is called courgette in New Zealand. They sold one bag of beans and one of 'corgette' in about an hour.

To introduce Flat Stanley to New Zealand, the boys thought he might like to see a video of Maori people singing a very popular song. The Maori people were the first people to settle in New Zealand, about 700 years ago. This song is called Poi E. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQLUygS0IAQ

After lunch, the boys's mum announced that it was time to go to the beach. We all piled into the car and headed out. Just two blocks from our house, we came to the boys' school, called Summerland Primary. Grandpa held Flat Stanley up so he could see it and then turned him so he could have his picture taken in front of it. 

Flat Stanley thought the school was nice. He noticed that the steering wheel in this car is on the right side of the car, and then he noticed that you drive on the left side of the road here. Yipes! It was pretty weird.

Here are Flat Stanley and Arram hanging out at Kaitarakihi Beach. Arram is holding Amiri's metal detector. They actually did find a few coins in the sand.
This beach is on Manakau Harbour which opens into the Tasman Sea. It is low tide now. If it were high tide, the water would be much closer to the grass. 

Since Flat Stanley enjoyed the first beach so much, we decided to take him to another one. First, let me tell something about Summerland Primary School and beaches. 

The school has 680 students from Year 1 to Year 6. Those years are like America's Kindergarten to 5th grade. After Year 6, the students have to go to the middle school of their choice. 

At Summerland Primary School, each class room belongs to a 'pod.' A pod is a group of classrooms that share a small, covered courtyard. The courtyard is covered because in the summer, the sun here is very hot and in the winter, it rains a lot.  

Each pod is named after one of the beaches in the area and has a pod color. Amiri and Arram both belonged to classes in the O'Neills Beach pod. Their beach t-shirt color was bright orange.  

Because of this, the boys thought it would be great if Stanley could visit O'Neils Beach. The next pictures are of Flat Stanley exploring this very wild beach. The day we went was warm, but low clouds made it look dreary. It was still lots of fun to explore the cave that is on the beach. It has a large hole in front and a little tiny hole in the back. Take a look.

This is O'Neills Beach. As you can see, it is overcast, but the wind is from the north, so that means it was a warm day.

As we walked along, we spotted a small cave.

Amiri climbed inside for a look around, but there wasn't much to see. O'Neills Beach has some 'black-sand' on it.  Amiri already has some black sand on his knees. 

Here, Arram and his mum are walking in front of a rocky hillside. You can see rocks that have fallen out of the hill. 

There is the mouth of the cave in the distance. Everyone is making a dash for it. 

They are almost there now. That's a big hill behind the cave, itsn't it?

The entrance to the cave. 

Here is Amiri climbing out through the 'back door' of the cave. 

Here is Flat Stanley posing inside the cave. 

Flat Stanley says, "That's the Tasman Sea out there. Australia is on the other side" 

Flat Stanley climbed up into the rocks for a last look around. He sure has had a good time here in New Zealand and especially on O'Neills Beach. 

Flat Stanley will be leaving us soon. He is continuing with his journey of discovery. He is very excited because he has just learned that he will be going to Germany next. 

Bon Voyage Flat Stanley, we'll miss you!                                -djf