Scavenger Hunt 2013 Final

I can not believe that September is here already and more over the fact that the hunt has now finished!!

Life has been hard the past 6 weeks and I feel like I have disappeared totally off the radar.
Blogging has sadly taken a very distant back seat, but then so has most things if it doesn't come into the day to day running of life. However things are easing and I feel like I am getting on top again, so here's hoping things can start over and bloom towards the end of the year.

I have still been searching for my remaining scavenger hunt items but they have just not managed to make it up on the computer.
Seeing as today is the official last day of the hunt then today is the day they have to be completed.
Have I managed them all, yes I think I have, and I will be the first to admit that I have had to use a substitute item for 1 of them too.

Without further delay here are the remaining items that I had yet to post about, all be it a short quick description of the item, usually I would give each item its own post but life is just not playing that way at present, so I am doing the best I can!
I have written out the scavenger hunt list. Those items already found during the summer/winter I have linked too, those being shown for the first time today are completed below.

#1 - Open Air Market
The local Farmer's Market on a Sunday morning is always worth a visit.

#2 - Theatre for performing arts

#3 - City Hall, Capitol or similar Civic Building
Would you believe Hamilton does not have a City Hall or Capitol. So I give you our Court House.

#4 Airplane

#5 A Sunset
Of all the ones to have not completed yet this was a weird one as the sun has been setting everyday of the hunt and I have just not remembered to get a shot.
On the night I successfully got a shot I also got a picture of the reflection in the window of a neighbour's window, I just loved how it looked.

#6 - Someone or something taking a nap

#7 - A sign that is intentionally or unintentionally funny
I still love this sign as we have both children and cats, and believe me sometimes I really do want to get rid of the children and keep the cats!!

#8 - A tower

#9 - A photo with someone or something that is clearly out of place
This was a difficult one for me, I just never seemed to see anything that I felt was not meant to be!
Until I saw this entrance way into the local park.....beautiful archway however not sure who thought to grow daffodils on the top of it!

#10 - A bench that is outside

#11 - An animal in a zoo, aquarium or nature reserve

#12 - A cloud in the shape of something
I have to admit defeat on this item and bring in the substitute card....!
Instead I give you a sundial

This dial had many sides to it. Each side measuring a different aspect.
East and west vertical dial. North vertical dial, a south equatorial dial and even a polar dial.
I think you could have this sundial at sea and navigate the world, although bags not being the one to try that!

#13 - A fence

#14 - A stained glass object or mosaic

#15 - A fire truck or police car

#16 - A windmill

#17 - Candles

#18 - Your local pub/bar, coffee house or tea shop
There is just one place in Hamilton that I love to go for my hot chocolates and that is Scott's Epicurean. They do the best I have found in the whole city and the reason why? They use a chocolate syrup that they have created by melting chocolate and adding sugar etc to. It is divine and well worth a visit.

#19 - A fisherman
Usually something like this would be easy to find, wander down by the estuary at the caravan or wander along the Waikato River but alas it was not meant to be.
My son and I raided all their story books to find a fisherman but alas this was not meant to be either!
Finally I remembered that in my computer game 'Sims' (which I had been playing a lot whilst recovering) I had the ability to make them fish in the pond, so as a last resort that is what I offer up as a picture of a fisherman...!

#20 - A dinosaur

#21 - A photograph of you with an artistic tool or craft supply
Now do I take a picture of the computer, my ever faithful craft tool or do I use my pen and paper! How about some stickers I have to decorate things with?? So many choices but I finally went with a picture of me with my cross stitching

This stitching is a slow, very slow work in progress, but I love picking it up and just doing a little bit every now and then.

Conclusion

I was hanging out for this hunt this year, I was ready for it on June 1 and I got all the family involved.

My first item to find was #11 'an animal in the zoo' as we visited Auckland Zoo on June 1 and we didn't even know what was on the hunt list at that point! Something made me take several pictures that day as I had a feeling an animal would be on the list.

My favorite item for the hunt was #4 an airplane as we got to hang around the observation area at Auckland airport, something that we use to do a lot when the boys were little and it was fun to see their faces again watching the planes come and go. Something we haven't done for over 6 years now because we moved towns.

My hardest item was probably the one several people will admit defeat to and that was #12 a cloud in a shape! I searched and searched the sky but with no luck. Seems winter skies in New Zealand just don't play well with finding shapes in the clouds!

Thank you Rinda for running this awesome scavenger hunt for us once again. As always it has been a pleasure, if what sometimes frustrating, but always a pleasure and I so hope you run it again next year as myself and the family need this to get us through the winter months here in New Zealand.

Scavenger Hunt # 6 - Someone or Something Napping

Like many other people in this hunt who have animals in the house there is just no excuse as to why this was a difficult item to obtain?

Maybe we were all trying to be ultra amazing and find something else a sleep to catch a quick picture of?
Yet when all else fails we resort to our original plan and capture that ultimate picture of our own little 4 legged friend a sleep somewhere in the house!

I give you our 2 cats enjoying our bed in the morning because that is where the sun streams in nice and warm.

They are on the same bed at the same time, just that Barney had managed to snuggle on the bed before I managed to pull the blanket back over!

Scavenger Hunt # 20 - Dinosaurs

Since the start of the hunt I have seen many posts from the other participants on their dinosaurs.
The family knew to be on the look out for them too as I was never really sure where they were going to pop up?

Finally those good ol dinos popped up in the last place I ever expected.......my cousin's bathroom.
Yep there I was minding my own business, as one does in a bathroom and I gazed across the room to the bath tub and there on parade, just waiting for me were the dinosaurs.....

I had great pleasure in informing the family that I had successfully found the dinosaurs for the hunt.
Yea go me.

Scavenger Hunt #13 - A Fence

How can this be so difficult to achieve when every house on our street has a fence?
Instead I choose a picture of a fence in another street just round the corner from me!

A nice brand spanking new fence

Scavenger Hunt #16 - A Windmill

I wish I understood why we get ideas in our head and then won't accept anything different?
The Summer Scavenger Hunt that Rinda is holding is a perfect example of such a thing.
I loved receiving the list from her at the beginning of June and was amazed at the instant pictures that appeared in my mind as to what I wanted to picture for each item.

Ok so some of them I had nothing from the very beginning and I have had to think a little about them but for the most I was doing alright, well I thought I was doing alright until such time as I had to actually find the said item I had pictured in my mind and then my luck got lost!

For the most part this is what I thought of when I imagined a windmill

Thanks to Channel 4 for showing Thomas the Tank Engine every morning during the school holidays and thanks to my husband for the fact we have a wonderful machine that allows us to pause live tv so I was able, much to the amusement of my children, run around the house like a headless chicken trying to find the camera so I could get a shot of the pause screen on the tv, all in the name of a Scavenger Hunt!!

I wish I understood why there is a lack of windmills looking like this here in New Zealand? I mean come on, doesn't anyone want the old fashion way of milling flour anymore? Obviously not.

This made me think of other places that usually have windmills.......maybe as ornaments in the garden, so off to the garden center I raced.
Yea right, cause people in New Zealand are obsessed with windmills in their gardens as ornaments.....NOT!
And yes before you ask I was going to sneakily snap a picture of an ornament in a garden centre and not buy anything!

"But your honour, it was the power of the scavenger hunt I was doing, it does obsessive things to your brain and body during the months of June thru September!"

I wandered all over this garden center, under the guidance that I was happily looking at all the beautiful plants that could adorn my garden. Alas a windmill did not come to hand.
I tried back in the gift area, as there seemed to be no ornaments in the outdoor area. There was however a beautiful sundial, it was impressive too, but sadly a garden center person was unpacking items just near by and even though I am sure they would have taken no notice of me quickly snapping a picture or two of this beautiful item, I was not taking the risk of them telling me 'sorry no pictures allowed' when I had yet to still locate a windmill!
And then suddenly something caught my eye, right over by the checkout.
Was it a windmill? Was it what I needed? Of course it was, it was just not the style I had been looking for.

Just to prove they classed them as windmills!

The pictures are not the greatest as they were taken very sneakily and very fast but finally I have found a windmill as required for item #16.
I wish I had been able to set the shot up nicer, although I did play with the red and white ones in the first picture to make them stand in the vase they were displayed in much better so I got a lot more of the heads in the shot. Anyone watching must have thought I was OCD the way I was trying to arrange the display of kids plastic toys.

This is after all a Scavenger Hunt and we will go to great lengths to obtain that one shot so we can complete the hunt successfully, well anyone with OCD will.

Happy hunting guys

Yesterday or Was That Last Week?

Even though I am sat at home not doing too much for July, the days can sometimes pass by very quickly.

Last week I decided that as I had nothing else to do then I would update myself with my scavenger hunt finds and see what else was needed and give it some thought as to how and where I would find such items.

#1 open air market - now this has to be easy, there is the farmer's market and another local market held every other weekend just down the road, just need to actually remember to attend one of them!

#6 someone or something taking a nap - come on I have 2 cats in the house, they do nothing but nap, just need to once again remember to get the camera out and take a picture!

#13 a fence - nice one outside my house or the house next to us or the one next to that or even the other 30 in the street!

And so the list goes on.
Of course the 1 item that everyone is having fun with is item 12 a cloud in the shape of something.

So I went outside to see what I could see;
I spy with my little eye.....

Not a cloud in the sky!
Hang on it is meant to be winter, aren't there meant to be clouds with the sun just barely shining through, perfect for shapes in the sky?

Today I remembered that I had this post to write and thought I would once again, while I had the time, check outside to see if I was going to be in luck with #12?

I spy with my little eye.....

True winter skies full of fog!
Which means that by lunchtime we will have blue skies again with not a cloud in the sky as the sun will have burnt away the fog.

Hopefully by September I might get to see a cloud?

Scavenger Hunt # 14 - Stained Glass Object

At the beginning of June, my cousin kindly gave our family a darling little girl to swoon over.

Whilst visiting them all at the birthing centre I happened to notice the beautiful stain glass around the door.

So last week, the boys and I paid the centre another visit, but this time we only got as far as the door!

Scavenger Hunt # 10 - Outside Bench

It seems nowadays that everywhere you turn there is a bench to sit down on, well that is until you have to take a picture of one for a project you are completing, like the Scavenger Hunt! Then suddenly they all up and walk away!

We have a new building opening this week at the hospital and they very kindly put some new benches outside.

I thought they looked very smart indeed.

Hunt Catch Up

1 month down and already the pictures are coming in thick and fast over at Rinda's place for this years Summer Scavenger Hunt

I have started off really well, I have 6 out of 21 with another 2 to post about.

#2 Peforming Arts Theatre

#15 A Fire truck

#11 Animal in a Zoo

Further animal in the zoo

 

#4 Airplane

#17 Candles

My favorite picture so far has to be the Tower as I went to so much trouble to capture it.

#8 A Tower

I have pictures for #10 - outside bench and also #14 - Stained glass object, hopefully they will get posted sometime this week.
Like many others the weather is not playing nice to obtain #12 - cloud shape, but I know we have several more months to go so no worries there yet!
Luckily winter is not getting in the way of any of the pictures this year, last year I do remember having no chance of finding a bride as people just don't have outside weddings in winter here! Although I must say I can't remember seeing too many windmills here but I think a trip to the wind farm on the far away hills may be called for.

I am not on instagram or flicker, so all my pictures can only be found here on my blog, but I have given them all the same label 'treasure hunt 2013' so you should be able to find all the related posts to catch up on all my finds.

Hope the hunt is going well for you, thanks for stopping by.

Scavenger Hunt # 17 - Candles

This month our youngest turned 8.
Yep we no longer have little people, they are growing up. Ok not big boys yet but definitely getting there.

So I was very lucky that he had a birthday cake last weekend at his little gathering of friends to celebrate his birthday.

Worked in well with this years scavenger hunt.
Happy scavenger hunting to you all.

Scavenger Hunt # 15 - A Fire Truck or Police Car

I honestly thought that the picture I would show you here would be of a Police car!
They are everywhere and unless I wanted to hang around the local supermarket at lunchtime when the local fire truck rocked on up so the firemen could buy their lunch, then I was convinced it would be a Police car.

So imagine my surprise when we stopped at the motorway rest area to pee on our way home from Auckland, to have Ben run up to me to tell me they had spotted a fire truck in the petrol station across the car park!
(Just to clarify something here....we were driving in 2 cars, thus why they had seen something that I hadn't!)

I raced to my car, grabbed the camera and ran across the parking lot to snap a quick picture before they disappeared. The family stood back by our cars (100m away) trying to act like they didn't know this mad woman running around taking a quick picture of a fire truck in a petrol station!
I mean why miss an opportunity when it is right there in front of you.

However as I walked into the study tonight to write some blog posts, I passed the unit where the boys leave all their built Lego and low and behold there was a fire truck....

So I was safe all along, just didn't look under my nose!!

Scavenger Hunt # 4 - An Airplane

1 of our most favouritist places in Auckland is the airport.
When we lived there we regularly visited the place to just watch the planes take off and land.
They have 2 awesome viewing areas just pass the airport and if the planes are landing the correct end it feels like they are coming in right in front of you, they are low and slow as they make the final 400m to the runway.

sadly these were taking off this end this day!

With 2 little boys it was so easy to while away 2 hours of easy cheap entertainment sitting and watching alsorts of planes arriving. (Actually I loved it as much as they did!)

So when I saw # 4 on the list I knew we had to make a quick, ok hour long, stop off at the airport on our way out of town heading home. Good job the airport is south and that was the way we were heading!
Only down side was that the planes were taking off over the viewing area this particular day and that can make for challenging pictures as they are going so fast and so high so quickly!

So even though I achieved the picture I required for the hunt, we had some fun shots too.....

 The perfect shot, although this was about picture number 12 and after countless planes taking off!

 Just to be on the safe side an extra shot

 As we were so far away and they were flying really really fast having just taken off, sometimes you missed!

 Totally missed!!

Or just not quick enough!

We all had super fun at the airport and it brought back some fun memories.
Really glad we got to stop and have some family fun.