Mairangi Notes #25 — 2026.10.02

MHJ

my mairangi

Issue

#25

2026.10.02

Yussi's Note

Spring forward, longer evenings

The first week of the school holidays began with an hour's difference. Daylight saving, which runs for more than half the year, started in the early hours of Sunday. Our bodies were getting up an hour early, but on the clock it looked like any other day. The kids can feel the days stretching longer than the clock says, and they're making the most of their evenings running around the backyard.

Main Story

Little 15 Mins · 2026.10.02.

Evenings with StoryPress

Evenings with StoryPress: watching five-year-old Jin learn through sounds, spelling, stories and play as part of our everyday evening routine.

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Lunch Box

MON

Lunchbox for the holidays

The school holidays don't set you completely free from lunchboxes. If you sign up for a full-day holiday programme, you have to send morning tea and lunch, and this week Jin went to the holiday programme at her dance school three times.
For once, she asked for bread instead of rice. So I packed a ham and cheese sandwich, Nutella roll-ups, fruit and some snacks.

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Campus Notes

TUE

Busy as a bee

It's been a week of many things racing towards the finish line. I wrapped up the Discussion chapter of my thesis on Monday, and had a supervision meeting just yesterday. Today an assignment is due, and our group presentation is well under way, so yesterday I finished colouring the comic strip I'd taken on. There are so many tabs open in my head at once that I feel busy even when I'm sitting still.
October is the month my thesis and classes all come to an end. My last block course is this month too. The days I thought would never come are almost here, and at the same time, orientation and my first semester of first year flash past as if they were yesterday.

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English with Jin

This Week's Expression

“Help me with the small one.”

Jin has been spending more time on StoryPress lately. She now manages the word-order puzzles she used to find tricky, sounding them out and getting them right on her own, and she enjoys the mazes and colouring in the Playground corner. Yesterday she was finishing her day's lesson on my laptop and colouring in when she suddenly said, "Mum, help me with the small one." She wanted to colour the tiny sections of an acorn cap and was finding it hard. The little one who used to ask for help by saying "Can I help you?" now comes to me with a more accurate sentence.

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Local Guide

🔦

Immersive Experience

Night at Auckland Museum: Top Secret

Sat 3, Sun 4, Wed 7, Fri 9 and Sat 10 Oct, 6.30pm - 9pm · $40, $45 at the door
The museum goes dark and families explore three floors of galleries by torchlight, meeting live performers and completing activities to fill a Mission Passport and protect a professor's secret formula. There's a theatre show with life-size dinosaurs in the Auditorium to finish. Bring a torch. Book online to save $5 on door prices.
📍 Auckland Museum, Auckland Domain, Parnell, Auckland 1010

🧩

Expo

The Auckland Brick Show 2026

Sat 3 Oct, 9am - 4pm and Sun 4 Oct, 8am - 4pm · $10.10, family pass (four tickets) $28.26, under 3s free
Auckland's biggest LEGO show fills the St Johns netball centre with hundreds of builds by fans from around the country and beyond. Kids can join treasure hunts and competitions, get building in the play zone and meet Emmet from The LEGO Movie. Book the family pass ahead. All ages.
📍 Auckland Netball Centre, 7 Allison Ferguson Drive, St Johns, Auckland 1072

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From the Archive

Life in Aotearoa

Back-to-School Shopping

Schools in New Zealand start the new academic year in early February. M is moving up to intermediate school, and H will be in Year 6.

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www.mhj.nz · Mairangi Bay, Auckland, New Zealand

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