Wow....

I haven't blogged since June!  Hmmm.

And now it is the end of July. It's been a bit of a stressful month, and while I know it's not been as bad as other people's stresses, I've felt it.

• I had to write a paper for a conference
• I had two abstracts accepted for poster presentations
• I submitted a research proposal to the ethics committee
• I revised (twice) the research proposal for the ethics committee in response to their feedback
• Miss4 got chickenpox
• Mr7 got chickenpox
• Mr7 got nits
• I had a birthday
• I got chickenpox for my birthday
• I applied for the permanent version of my job
• I had an interview for the permanent version of my job
• I was successful in getting the permanent version of my job
• I felted another hat (photos to come when I get some good light and a chance to take it)
• I dyed some wool (ditto)
• We went on holiday

I haven't done a Reading Round up for ages, but then I haven't been doing much in the way of leisure reading, apart from a few audio books.

Our holiday was much needed.

Husband has been processing some of his photos from the holiday - you can see some on his Flickr stream or his website.  Incidentally, if anybody wanted prints of his stuff they should contact him via his website and inquire.

We flew into Christchurch and headed off to Lake Tekapo for two nights. The lodge there was ok, although a little basic and rather noisy.  There was one frying pan in the kitchen and no sharp knives.

Then we went on to Mt Cook where the lodge cost more but was more luxurious and had nicer cooking facilities.  They had had a good dump of snow so we got to do some sledding :)

Then we went to Wanaka to some very budget accommodation.  Luckily only for one night.

We crossed over the Haast pass the next day, missing all the snow and bad weather the eastern coast of the South Island got.  It was gusty and chilly in the pass, but we made it up to Fox to catch a sunset and then went over the hill to stay with friends in Franz for 3 nights.  It was great to pull into their place and see the excited welcome from two girls!

From Franz we went on to Lake Brunner, stopping at a few places on the way, like the Dorothy Falls near Hokitika.  We really should have done a bit more research before we left because we would have liked to have spent more time in the Hokitika area and in fact the West Coast in general.  It reminds me of West Auckland in many ways - less people and more mountains though.

We crossed over the Lewis pass from Lake Brunner to Hanmer Springs to visit the hot pools there. Can't say I found Hanmer particularly interesting.  It's a nice town, and probably good for older children who are interested in mountain biking and hydro slides etc, but for younger ones not so much.  There is a farm park that we went to, but not a lot else.  The walks are mainly through forestry plantations so of little interest to DH.

Finally we drove back to Christchurch, spent the afternoon at Orana Park and flew home.

Back to work today, and all seems to be ticking over there.  It's orientation week so I spent some time in the Hub blowing bubbles and wearing alien eyes on a head band in order to pimp the library to students! 

And that's the update for anyone who is interested.