Taiaroa House: Visiting My Host Family

Right now I'm visiting my host family, a family that I met through "Operation Friendship" a year ago. They live on the Otago Penninsula, about 30 minutes out of downtown Dunedin. I took the bus to get here (man, bus fares are high here!): Broad Bay.

My mom's name is Kat, she's an artist, writer and full-time mom. Her daughters are Arihana (17 years old, great at piano, going to art school next year ), Mackenzie (16 years old, great artist, still in high school, but excited to go to art school maybe), and Zach (12, taller than me almost). Gary (Kat's husband) is home sporadically, and is really nice. They have so many pets/animals: Mango the dog, Space Rocket the cat, another cat (nameless by memory right now), two rats, and four chickens (new!).

That's Mango in the backyard with some of the chickens (I think those are George and Ginger). In the background is Kat's beautiful studio, where we all go to draw and paint. I made a map of the North East Valley, I'll post it soon.

This is where Kat paints, she has beautiful paintings (I had a few of her blocks in my dorm room, now they're around my room at home). She's working on a painting of cows that's really nice, she also writes short stories.

The Otago Penninsula is so much more beautiful than pictures can capture, but this picture and the next were taken from Kat's porch. It was a beautiful, clear day today. That's the other side of the Penninsula: Port Chalmers.

A bit of a block with the power lines, but you can see the silhouette of the hills. I took these pictures really quickly with Kat's camera. Now I'm uploading them upstairs on their home computer.

I can hear the sounds of pots and pans, Kat's voice, dinner, from upstairs. Hana's piano playing fills the stairwell, a song from Amelie. It makes me think about my family (hi mom and dad, sam and ryan, miss you guys).

The inside of Kat's house is all art, white planks, beautiful pictures. The road to get here is incredibly curvy and without gates. Their house is like a magic cottage on a beautiful hill, I love visiting them.

This is Mackenzie (Mac) with her rat Moki. I french braided Mac's hair today.

The girls doing a little art in the window, as the sun sets.

Well, thought it might be nice to have a few pictures. Hopefully there will be some of the flat up soon. Have to go help with dinner, it's been a wonderful day. Tomorrow, work starts.

Love to all of you.

Cheers,

Abi