A blog entry from Maya, by Maya

It is fun in new zealand I like the plants and the rain! I like the fire at home but we never use it. And I like the Silver ferns. And school is fun we do lots of fun at school. Sumtims we walk to school and I walk on my own from the Dairy and on. This year Im torning 8 and I am 7 now. And I like going Bird woching we found 11 or 12 Birds I think 11. I made an new friend here name is Imogen and Shania. We play on the ropes.

(Dictated to Penny) This photo was taken at Cornwall Park one Sunday. I got a new dress and we went to a park. The trees were so big we could hide in the roots and the roots were so big we could climb and sit on them. They were as big as Max, my brother, the little one in the photo.

(Dictated) This photo was taken by me and it was so windy I nearly blew away. And it is at the top of One Tree Hill. And we could see the whole town. And it was so beautiful. And we saw the sea in the distance. The hill was so high you could die if you fall off it. But luckily there was grass but you could still maybe die.

(Dictated) This is a picture of my brother dressed as a mother. Between a mother and a fairy! With glasses on. I dressed my brother and I put my mommy's shoes on his feet. And he had makeup in his little pink handbag. And his favourite colour is pink. My favourite colour is red. And blue. And purple. And pink. Dark pink.

(Dictated) This is a photo of us - me and my dad and my brother and Franco our friend - and my dad is holding everybody and everybody is so heavy especially Franco. And my brother is pulling a funny face for the camera. And he always pulls a funny face whenever he sees a camera. And it's so funny. Sometimes I do it too. We are my friend Franco's house and they just came from South Africa, same as us. And today Franco moved house again. And his new house is pretty, he has a garage and an attic and he has a nice garden and his house is so pretty, it looks like an old-fashioned house.

These are the orchids in Franco's garden at his old house and they look so pretty and when it was Franco's dad Francois's birthday we had a chocolate mousse cake that my mommy made that we put one of these on and I like the big leaves and I was wearing my daddy's glasses.