Father’s Day in NZ was celebrated this weekend, and Jeremiah chose a family beach day for the occasion. It’s a simple equation: Sand + Water = Kid Happiness. Hours of it. Add in a bit of shell fish collecting and some good home brew beer, and you get Daddy happiness too. We invited our friends along for the day to Le Bons Bay, on the south end of the Banks Peninsula, and enjoyed a stellar spring day at the ocean.

It’s amazing the amount of gear we haul out for a day at the beach. “It’s easier to pack for a backpacking trip!” Jeremiah remarked the night before, as we surveyed our various piles on the living room floor. Mommy and Daddy work like a well-oiled engine though, synchronized team work that assured an early start to catch the 8:00 a.m. low tide for mussel gathering.

The windy roads were too much for Milo’s stomach and he left his oatmeal at the side of the road, but all that was quickly forgotten when his feet touched the sand. I love doing sand sculptures, reminiscent of the colossal sand creatures Uncle Stewart made at the Cape Cod beach when we were kids. Milo’s choice of the day was a bear. We brought along the garden shovel for digging clams and it happens to be just the right tool for mounding big heaps of sand for sculptures. The future’s looking ever bigger and better for sand creations!

The sand was perfect for building. Even Naomi’s caresses didn’t cause the bear much damage.

Bravo Hunter, a paua has been captured! it’s really not that cold out, Jeremiah’s just coming back up to temp after his dip in the ocean.  Ian’s cast comes off this week, then he might take part in the mussel collecting on future expeditions. 

It’s really barbaric what we did to that poor paua. First it was examined minutely by dozens of little fingers, next it was unceremoniously shucked from its beautiful shell, then it was mashed with a knife hilt for tenderization, followed by a quick fry in bacon grease and consumption by humans.  We hoped its thinking bit stopped thinking early on in that process. 

The kids are surprisingly fond of mussels. It’s amazing what Milo will eat when following his peers. He popped the first one in his mouth, chomped down, made a grimace, checked William’s progress as he reached greedily for his second slimy morsel, and decided that if William thought them delicious, then they must be worth eating.  The adults had to race the kids to get any.

I started this set of bunny haunches too close to the incoming tide, and didn’t have time to finish the bunny top before it got swamped.

At least our boat was ready before the tide came.  It was positioned perfectly to enjoy the rising waves.

Abandon ship! We’re sinking!

Naomi ate so much sand that I expect I’ll have to warn Justine, who takes care of her when I work, that the diapers might look a wee bit odd tomorrow.

Milo’s face was even grimier. He was stacking driftwood that had been charred in a campfire, then scratched his nose….repeatedly.

Here’s what we’ll all be doing tonight!