#blog12daysxmas Kiwi Christmas

A very pleasant Christmas!

Mr8 was up at 6am and had opened all his presents by 6.10am. Then he came to see if we were awake! He'd told us the night before that he'd only open one present before breakfast..... Hahahahaha! Yeah right.

Miss4 was still snoozing but he soon changed that.

DH had purchased some model train equipment which was inspected with great interest.  The pyjamas I'd got him were heaved aside in preference for the toys!  Miss4 was much more receptive to clothing though.  In fact, once she'd got some more from her Aunty we were treated to a fashion show whereupon all garments were modelled for us.

Miss4 also got a bike.  She's been asking for one for a long time so we've been stringing her along with respect to Santa bringing one on his sleigh, how was he going to get it down the chimney etc etc.  We left it in the garage, and I put a note on the wrapped up bike helmet explaining Santa had to leave it down there.



The festive table was groaning even though I'd been restrained in my catering.  I didn't count on one of the guests bringing 3 boxes of special cakes and treats for zert so we had waaaaaay too much in the sweet department!  :-)

Miss4 persuaded her Aunties to go with her up to the school to practice riding her bike twice over the period of the day. 

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.

In which I burble about what I did on my holidays

*note this isn't too exciting. Just updating.

We set out for Waikawau Bay a day earlier than planned since we had all the stuff ready to be pack and it seemed silly to hang around.  It's a long drive there so we left after lunch on Sunday and got there just after 5pm.  The camp was chokka with people which was a bit of a disappointment and it took us a while to find a place to pitch the tent.  (In fact, we waited until some folks had packed up and took their spot).  Anyway, we settled in.  Monday dawned a beautiful day.  The morning highlight for DS was the tanker that came to suck out the long drop toilets!

We walked to the top of the hill and looked down onto the beach, then walked down to the beach and looked in rock pools (saw a black sea slug).



The children were agitating to get onto their boogie boards so we did that after lunch. The new togs got christened by the Pacific Ocean! Even DH got into the water which is worthy of mentioning! Unfortunately DD got dumped on her first attempt to board in so that ruined any hope of her having another go - she went and grizzled on the sand. DS however, he had a whale of a time and had a grin from ear to ear the whole time. He could have stayed in much longer but it had clouded over and the drizzle had started.

The weather went downhill after that. The ranger had posted a severe weather warning by Tuesday so after some agonising we decided to pack up and go home. (Queueing for the long drop toilets in the rain contributed some to this decision). By the time we got home we were regretting that decision as it was starting to clear again.  So we executed Holiday Plan B and headed down to Rotorua to stay in our favoured camp ground in a cabin. It turned out to be a better holiday for photographic opportunities anyway. We did some walks, went on the gondalas, sat in some hot pools... the usual.

After dropping DS at a friends house for a week long sleep over we headed back home.  I then went into town to meet (finally) Mim and her family.  It's always neat to meet people you have got to know online.  Actually I can't remember exactly how we "met" but in any case here we are with our other mutual friend Em!



So now it's back to work, back to normal.. well, as normal as one can be until school goes back anyway. And I have a four year old birthday party to organise!  The birthday itself has long gone, but we promised the party for when she was back to daycare with her friends.

Holiday wrapup

The school holidays have gone really fast!  I didn't achieve all the things I had on my list.  In particular, the sewing machine has not been touched which peeves me. 

We went away for a long weekend down to Rotorua.  We usually stay in the Rotorua Thermal Holiday Park which has been very good.  However, this time I thought we'd have a change of  scene and try the Cosy Cottage park. This was a mistake.  There a number of things that were annoying (eg. half a toilet roll for a family of 4 for 3 days) but the biggest one was the flatlet had one room so any adult activities conversation when kids went to bed were not possible.

It was frosty every morning.

We visited Hamurama Springs.  It's well worth a visit and very easy walking.

The spring itself is impressive.  It's the deepest natural spring in the North Island and produces an estimated 4 million litres of crystal clear water per hour. I found it quite moving and would have liked to have stayed longer to enjoy the peacefulness and serenity there.  Unfortunately we were soon joined by a bunch of rowdy walkers so we moved on down the track.

The light wasn't that good for photos - too much contrast, but you can see how clear the water is in this one.

Part of the walk goes through redwood trees.

You note that "baby" also came too.

We also visited the Caterpillar Museum.  I thought it was overpriced but it is an interesting museum.  Mr6 and DH particularly enjoyed it.  Miss3?  Not so much.  "Come on!  Let's go!" she kept saying.  But she did like the play bulldozer.  Even "baby" was discarded for that.

Being married to The Mad Photographer means you get to visit some amazing places.  It also means you get to work on your patience while waiting for him to get the king hit shot!  Patience is something Miss3 is not so good at (especially when it involves long walks in the bush). 

Luckily for the two kids there was a good playground next to Lake Tarawera and opportunity to float some "boats" at the water's edge.

On the way home we visited the Maungatautari Ecological Island.  It is well worth the visit.  The view at the gate was amazing the day we were there.  I could even see Mt Ruapehu.

During the walk we saw takahe, hihi, kaka and yellow crowned kakariki.  I was impressed with the work that is being done there.  Definitely going back.  But not to climb the forest canopy viewing tower again.  Once was enough of that one! *shudder*

Hodge podge

My blog seems to be mostly about books these days - sorry.

Just for a change, here is a shout out for the MAGS Roarbotix Team who won the New Zealand Vex Robotics National Championship 3 weeks ago.  They are now off to Dallas, Texas in the US to represent New Zealand tomorrow!  You can track the progress of the team via their blog.  Mitchell, the driver of the robot in the nationals is the son of one of our friends.  Please pop over and give them some comment love - I am sure they would love some support from back home while they are over there.  It's really exciting to see these young guys pursuing robotics, and being a household of geeks we think stuff like this is cool. Tim is a keen robot fan.

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January Blogosphere Book Circle Review
The bolter : Idina Sackville-- the woman who scandalised 1920s society and became White mischief's infamous seductress / Frances Osborne. London : Virago, 2008.
ISBN: 9781844084814

Synopsis
On Friday 25th May, 1934, a forty-one-year-old woman walked into the lobby of Claridge's Hotel to meet the nineteen-year-old son whose face she did not know. Fifteen years earlier, as the First World War ended, Idina Sackville shocked high society by leaving his multimillionaire father to run off to Africa with a near penniless man. An inspiration for Nancy Mitford's character The Bolter, painted by William Orpen, and photographed by Cecil Beaton, Sackville went on to divorce a total of five times, yet died with a picture of her first love by her bed. Her struggle to reinvent her life with each new marriage left one husband murdered and branded her the 'high priestess' of White Mischief's bed-hopping Happy Valley in Kenya. Sackville's life was so scandalous that it was kept a secret from her great-granddaughter Frances Osborne. Now, Osborne tells the moving tale of betrayal and heartbreak behind Sackville's road to scandal and return, painting a dazzling portrait of high society in the early twentieth century. ~from the blurb

I did enjoy this book.  I know some of the book circle group found it boring, but I found it easy to read; the historical side of things always appeals to me.  I really couldn't relate to the lifestyle portrayed in the book though!  Wow is all I can say! :-P
I did feel sorry for Idina - she obviously was born in the wrong era and her upbringing must have heavily influenced her attitudes towards a whole bunch of things.  These days she would have been some sort of politician I'm sure!  She appears to have been a feisty number on the outside but with a terrible need to be loved/worshipped. It's clear she was looking for "something" that would be fulfilling and never really found it.  As a mum I found it so hard to understand how she could abandon her sons and have so little to do with bringing up her daughter but as other book circle members have pointed out, the connection between parents and kids in those days in that class was very distant.
I probably wouldn't recommend it to anyone who didn't like to read about historical time periods or biographies.  There is a lot of detail about various family members and important people of the day which I found reasonably interesting but others found less than diverting!  But that's ok. :) 

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Easter Camping
We spent the Easter weekend camping at Otamure Bay.  Friends on Facebook will have already seen these photos.

The weather was great, some cloud and a shower or two but mostly sunny and warm.  The kids had a grand time playing in the sand and sea and generally pottering around.  The photographic options weren't so good for Rod but he did take some photos.  We went with some friends of ours who have children a similar age and this turned out to be a good thing for the mothers since they mostly entertained themselves together. :-)

The campsite was very busy with fishermen, people attending a motorbike rally next door and of course, the likes of us on a family holiday.  Unfortunately this meant queues for the toilets and the single shower (cold) and that wasn't especially fun.  It's a lovely spot, but perhaps not one we'll be going back to.

I've had a few days off work this week and today I'm *gasp* even going to do some scrapbooking!

Summer days

Been playing with my sewing machine.  Made some shorts for daycare for Missy Moo.  It was windy this day...

Went up to Omaha and stayed in a friend's bach for a couple of nights.  Lovely beach, lots of expensive boats and baches full of young, slim and beautiful people.  We felt just a tad out of place! ;-)  I decided the Oratia Farmers Market is just as good, if not better, than the Matakana one which had way too many people for my comfort.

Watching someone load their boat onto the trailer.

The simple bach we stayed in.

Views of the beach.



I've been making some pages for the Southern Cross Kids Camp drive that Trina's doing.  They are very easy to do and rather addictive.  I did 36.  I would have liked to do more, but they needed to get posted off today.

Missy Moo is three tomorrow so I need to bake a cake.  I've been given instructions - it must be PINK with PINK candles.  I think I can work with that brief.

Camping Trip to Tawharanui

Over Labour weekend we stayed at Tawharanui Regional Park.  It's a lovely spot.  We had great weather for the Sat/Sun, though Monday was a wet pack up and we've had to dry out the tent in the garage over the last few days.

Missy Moo got some bug that has been going round so she spent a lot of the time being out of sorts and dosed up on Pamol.  Mr 6 had a blast though.  I blobbed around reading books, doing some sketching and enjoying doing nothing in particular.  I could have easily spent a week of it but would have needed a few more books to read.  In my efforts to pack minimalistically I didn't take enough "entertainment" things for me or the kids.  So the Hairy McLary book got a beating!

This is the second time we've used the tent and we're pleased with the way it works for us. In fact, we were pitched a bit further along on a bit of a slope the first night and a flatter site became available the next morning.  So we undid the pegs and dragged the tent down a few metres to the flat. The first night wasn't that great actually because it felt like we were sleeping on a mountain side and there were a bunch of idiots pickling their brains until 3.30am and making lots of noise. A couple of us complained to the ranger and they got sent packing - yay!

Missy Moo discovered my ear plugs in my hand bag.

DH got up every morning to do some sunrise photos and spent every evening doing sunset photos.  He came home with a full memory card and is feeling quite pleased with himself.  You can see some of his efforts on his blog.  We also did a few family rambles.  Missy Moo was happy when we stopped for DH to take photos but wasn't if we were walking and moaned for me to carry her everywhere.

The beach is lovely.  Bikini clad wenches were out in force!  But I wasn't one of them ;-)

Mr 6 made some stone constructions.  This one has 2 chimnies, a hot water cylinder and pipes apparently.


















Missy Moo kept showing me rocks - "Look Mummy!  I found a rock!"  Perhaps my enthusiasm wasn't quite up to her requirements but given their prevalence I wasn't too surprised about her discoveries...




Looking forward to going back with more books, less sickies and for a longer time!!

A holiday in Thames

After spending Wednesday morning filling up our car with gear and kids we set off for Thames.

View Larger Map

DD? Check.

DS? Check.

Kitchen sink? Check.










There was a bit of traffic on the road. We are used to having holidays outside of the school holiday period so there was some muttering about traffic from the driver. ;-)

Still, we made good time and audio-books are an excellent invention for keeping kids (and drivers) amused.










The appearance of clouds as we turned off Highway 2 delighted the Mad Photographer but didn't exactly fill me with joy.















The new tent got set up without getting rained on though. The kids were very excited about it. DS got into his bed as soon as I made it up! We found a leak in our airbed (just what you need to discover) - I'd foolishly lent it to some folks and they'd tried to mend it but not very successfully. So we had to head back into Thames to try and find a replacement. Fortunately the friendly Hammer Hardware folks found me one and even checked to see it had a bung in it ... no. So they opened another one and purloined the bung out of that one.










After the bed acquisition we set off for the Kauaeranga Valley. The autumn colour was lovely in the afternoon light.














We did a couple of short walks around the visitor centre and up further into the valley.

This one included a model dam. The valley was extensively logged for kauri to fuel the booming Thames goldrush in the late 1800's.















We crossed a swing bridge over the Kauaeranga River. DS was very brave - he did stop halfway over and say he didn't want to go any further but after a bit of encouragement he did go on. I hate these bridges. If I hadn't been carrying DD I'd have gone over it with my eye's shut! On the way back we decided to boulder hop over the river instead ;-) Wet feet seemed preferable!














The Billy Goat Falls.
Not the greatest of photos - difficult with the light. The falls are at the top of the picture, in the distance.















When kauri loggers tried to transport kauri over these 180 metre high falls they shattered. Doh. Eventually they built a tramway to transport them.

Another walk we did was to the Wentworth Falls over near Whangamata. You would think with all the stuff we'd brought that I would have put in the back pack for DD, but guess what? I didn't!

So she started off with lots of energy....














but quickly degenerated into lots of "Mummy up" requests...









The falls were nice though.














While Daddy went down to the bottom of the falls to take photos, we stayed at the lookout and amused ourselves with the self-timer and video function on my camera.









We also visited the Broken Hills area which was a thriving goldfield from 1893. By this time DD was over walking.










So the holiday was nice in parts.

On the bad side:

• DS managed to work himself up into puking after a coughing fit one night... all over the bedding.
• DD is scared of moreporks and anything that makes a sound in the night. Everytime they called she said, "No like dat sound" and came running into our bed. Most inconvenient. Especially when Mummy and Daddy had ..uh.. other plans.
• My ankles are a mass of sand fly bites.

On the plus side:

• I got to see my friend S who has moved to Thames.
• We did enjoy some family time and walks together.
• I didn't think of work at all. (Not looking forward to going back tomorrow).
• We had a swim at Miranda.
• I had the best sleep back in my own bed when we came home. ;-) For months I've been waking at 3am-4am and staying awake for awhile so it was nice to have a full night's sleep.