Did you notice?

I've changed the width of the posts... I thought it was just too narrow! If this gives you problems (i.e. you must have a smaller monitor than our 22" widescreen!) let me know (replace "AT" in the email address appropriately!) and I might change it back.

Labour Day weekend - Day 3

Day three of our weekend started with us enjoying a nice big sleep-in as the kids slept in until 8am (although Joanna had woken up during the early hours of the morning requiring some muti for whatever reason). We all enjoyed some Pronutro for brekky again, this time outside in some warm sunshine :) (the weather had greatly improved).
After packing all our stuff back into the car we took a drive up Bluff Hill (in Napier), and then drove up Te Mata Peak again (that's what Ben is on top of in the photo). Unlike the previous day, the weather was absolutely beautiful up the top! Nice and sunny, no wind, blue skies. There was plenty of snow on the Kaweka Range... probably from the day before. Because the weather was so nice up the top, we hung around for a while and Ben made friends with a couple of other young children (siblings) so was entertained talking to them which meant we got to sit and relax for a while.
We then visited one of the wineries that had been closed the day before, Te Mata Estate. It was dead quiet especially after always having other people around at the wineries we went to the day before. We did find a nice red (something which had been alluding us, even though Hawke's Bay is supposed to be known especially for it's Cab Sav), it was a variety we have never heard of - had a very summery feel to it.
As the weather was so great we decided we would gather supplies to have a picnic for lunch down along the beach. So we stopped at the Te Mata Cheese Factory and bought some creamy blue cheese (after I had tasted 3 different Bries and 3 different Blues - it was $2 for tasting which was refunded on purchase and I knew I was going to be purchasing something, so I thought it made sense to try them out for taste and then decide on something, instead of just trying to decide based on the description on the packaging), then went to the supermarket and picked up some ham and bread rolls. Then, taking a scenic road along the river, we ended up finding a nice grassy spot at the beach on the coast at Te Awanga to relax and soak up some sunshine.
It was then time to start the long drive back... stop at Waipunga Falls to wriggle again... arriving at Taupo mid/late afternoon (the 1/2way point for the drive). We went and visited the Craters of the Moon, a thermal area operated by the Department of Conservation. According to our Lonely Planet (the essential travel companion - that gave us quite a few good suggestions for things to do, places to eat and places to stay back in 2006 and has been dusted off now) this was supposed to be a free activity (well it obviously was at the time it was published), well, now it costs $5/adult, $2/child (5-12yrs) or $12 for family. Anyway, we had to go in as we had been telling Ben about it on the drive and he was raring to go. It wasn't overly exciting, but it did fill in the time before dinner, which was fish and chips on shores of Lake Taupo. Then ice creams at Maccas, with a real Douglas DC3 plane in the playground :)
We started to head home again, still enjoying the fabulous weather and making comments that it felt like summer and got home at 9:30pm.



We really enjoyed the weekend away and felt like we had been away for longer than just 3 days (in a good way). We now have to decide on the destination/activities for the next long weekend we will be around for - Waitangi Day, at the end of January (is kind of like the NZ equivalent of Australia Day)

Labour Day weekend - Day 2

We woke up to cloudy, bleak, windy weather. Peter thought it would still warm up (this area is the warmest, sunniest part of NZ after all!). So he wore shorts. Silly boy. We drove down to Hastings (only about 15min away) and had breakfast at a place called Bay Espresso cafe (they roast their own coffee). The food was great and the coffee was too! They even had a box of toys there, so the kids were kept entertained while we made a more detailed itinerary for the day and got to sit and relax a little bit. We bought some coffee beans to take home before we left and then went to the Hastings Farmer's Markets at the showgrounds. It was bigger than the Farmer's Markets we have been to in Hamilton and Cambridge, but still not as big as we thought it would have been based on the way it is advertised/people talk about it. There was a range of locally produced stuff we tasted including: cheese, sheep's milk, cakes, and meat products. I actually felt quite stuffed by the end, seen as we had just had breakfast! There wasn't as much fresh fruit and veg as we thought there might have been, although we did get some asparagus (it's in season so there is stacks of it being sold at all the markets) and some amazingly nice tasting apples (Pacific Rose variety). The weather hadn't got any better and it was very cold walking around (apparently the maximum temperature for the day was 11.8C. With pretty strong winds. We call that cold anyway.)We then drove on to Havelock North to start our tour of the wineries. We stopped at Prenzel (a distillery we had discovered in Marlborough when we did our South Island holiday in 2006) on the way to buy some schnapps and creme. We got off to a bit of a false start at the wineries as the first two we tried weren't open yet (most don't open until 10am on a Sunday, but these didn't open till 11am). So the first we actually go to taste at was Craggy Range Winery. It has a pretty impressive entrance and a nice lake out the front with ducks (we saw some cute fluffy ducklings), but it felt a bit snobbish. They charge a tasting fee which is refunded if you purchase something. They did have nice toilets (actually most of the wineries have nice toilets). Tasting was a bit tricky, trying to keep track of the kids especially as Ben really wanted to go back outside to see the ducks (even though it was freezing cold with the wind and I wanted to stay inside as much as possible).
We had a bit of time to kill before lunch so decided to take the drive up Te Mata Peak (that's it above, viewed from Craggy Range winery) to freeze our butts off. The view wasn't too bad even though it was overcast and the drive up and down was very interesting too (see the video - coming soon!).
It was on to Sileni Estate for more wine tasting and lunch. They had some nice wine and also had some wine on sale at a price we were happier with, so we got a few bottles there. We had lunch at the restaurant, our original idea (when we were planning before the weekend) was to be able to dine and sit outside in the sun looking out over the vineyard, but with the cold weather we had already decided on our way that we really wanted to sit indoors where it was warm. Unfortunately there were no spare tables indoors, so we had to sit in their alfresco dining area (courtyard style thing) which did have the plastic weather walls down and heaters on so it wasn't too bad. The food was great - we ate beetroot rissoto and a blue cheese, bacon, potato and sage pizza. The sun came out fleetingly after we had finished lunch so we were able to take some photos of the sculptures that they had out in their gardens.
After lunch we visited Trinity Hill vineyard, they had quite a few nice wines at a good price so we got a few and then made our way across the road to Te Awa for more wine tasting and purchasing. Ben found some other young boys to play with outside for a little bit, so that kept him entertained. We had had enough wine tasting by then and so headed for home with a quick stop at Silky Oak Chocolate factory to get some special afternoon tea.
The next stop and purchase was possibly the most exciting for us for the day. Napier has a Macpac store and we have been wanting to get a shade attachment and raincover (would be silly to try going bushwalking in NZ without one) for our 2nd kid-carrying backpack (that we got about 2 weeks after moving here). You can only purchase these from Macpac stores and there isn't one in Hamilton (or in Brisbane) and the mailorder warehouse never have any in stock, so we had been hanging out to get one. Well, the Napier store had 3 on the shelf, so it was a quick dash in and dash out on the way back to the backpackers for dinner.
And then bed - we were all pretty tired by then!

Labour Day weekend - Day 1

As promised, a slightly more detailed summary of what we got up to over the weekend... along with some photos! The idea was to go somewhere a little further than we could get to on a normal weekend, so Hawke's Bay was the destination (google it if you want to know exactly where it is!).
To get the most out of the weekend we decided to make it an early start on Saturday morning and left home at 5am to start the 4hr drive to Hawke's Bay (which also meant the kids would be asleep for approx 1/2 the drive). Our first stop was Huka Falls (near Taupo) for breakfast. The falls weren't quite as impressive as I thought they would be, but were nice none the less. I had cooked apple and cinnamon pancakes on the Friday to have for breakfast, but it didn't quite fill us up so we made a stop at Macca's for a round of hashbrowns on the way out of town.

We then stopped at Waipunga Falls for a look and to give the kids a break from sitting in the car. Our overall summary of the drive was that everything looked green and it was nice scenery, but we also thought that some of it looks as nice as it does because it is different scenery for us, so in a couple of years time we might not think it anything special.

Our first winery stop was in the Esk Valley at Esk Valley Vineyard - apparently they are the only winery in NZ to grow Verdelho at the moment (we didn't think it tasted that nice - compared to the Aussie stuff we've had, so didn't get any). To use up the time before going to the backpackers for lunch/rest time we visited Mission Estate winery (very nice buildings - the old mission, as the name would imply!), and Church Road Estate (nice garden but it is right on top of a busy road, so we wouldn't choose to eat there, plus we weren't impressed with any of their wine we tasted). Both these wineries are located on the edge of Napier. We had booked a double room at Wally's Backpackers in Napier town (cheaper than getting a cabin at a caravan park). It was a nice backpackers - modern kitchen/dining, big lounge area, fairly quiet. After rest time we took a walk around town to look at/take photos of the famed Art Deco architecture.

We tried to find a fish and chip joint for dinner, but didn't find any along Marine Parade (the main drag along the coast), so we ended up driving around trying to find one. We eventually ended up finding one near the harbour - it wasn't all that good, and we had to huddle outside of it to stay out of the rain, which had been showering on and off all day.
After that, it was back to Wallys to get to bed. The kids went to sleep and slept uneventfully all night (even with a bit of noise from talking and car doors opening and closing at about 11pm).
And that was Day 1 - there are plenty of photos up on flickr now if you want to skip ahead to Days 2 and 3 before we've finished writing about them!

Toilet Training - Day 1

The start of toilet training went pretty well today. Ben did a number of wees in the potty and a poo, so his sticker chart has lots of stickers on it (so many that they have covered up the whole thing nearly - it was suppose to last a week - so I'll need to make a new one for tomorrow!). He did have 2 accidents - the first was my fault for spending too long talking on the computer and the 2nd was when he was engrossed in watching a 'Peppa Pig' DVD while I was cooking dinner (despite me asking/reminding him every 5 min about going to the potty when he needed to do a wee). We also survived spending the whole day at home. I'll see how tomorrow goes.

Toilet training...

I have decided to start toilet training Ben tomorrow. I think the time is right:
a) I'm feeling settled enough that I'm not stressing all the time
b) There is no travel/holidays for the next 6 weeks
c) I don't have too many daily commitments yet, so is easy to stay home all day for a couple of days
d) Ben is turning 3 next month so it should work
e) I'm sick of changing poo nappies for a boy who is too lazy to let me know when he's done one

I've drawn up the sticker chart, bought the stickers, explained what's happening to Ben. No doubt I'll let you know how it goes.

Lost and found...

About 1.5 years ago a piece from one of Ben's wooden puzzles went missing. A few weeks later another piece from the same puzzle went missing. At the time we searched high and low for the pieces and couldn't find them anywhere - so we concluded they had accidentally been thrown in the rubbish bin (as we had recently thrown out some cardboard boxes Ben had been playing with). Well today I found both of them!.. in an open packet of nappies that had been passed onto us about 2 years ago, that I have only just started using since we moved into this house. My conclusion as to how they came to be there is that Ben must have posted them there at some time during his play and then forgotten about where he'd put them.

Back to work...

We got back from a long weekend in Hawke's Bay last night. Yesterday was Labour Day, so we had 3 days away... and we managed to pack in an impressive amount of stuff. We have a lot of photos to sort through and a lot of stuff to write about - I think we'll have to do it over 3 installments! But for now, this is just a note to say we're back and still alive. It feels like we've been away for ages, even if it has only been 3 days. I think that's a good thing.

Seed raising update #2

The spring onions have started to sprout! Peter checked on them when he got up this morning and came and found me to report they had sprouted overnight. A few more spinach seeds have also sprouted, now I'm just waiting to see if I've been successful with the Zucchini seeds (no visible action there, but germination time on the packet was 7-10 days).

Comments please...

When Peter and I started this blog, we were intending for it to be a fluid medium. I guess it's major function is for us to let our friends and family know what we have been up to/thinking about, but we don't want it to feel like we are telling this all to a big black hole. So please comment on our posts - it can be words of encouragement, advice, seeing the funny side in our problems, asking questions about what we've written etc. Although we might be starting to settle in to life here (kind of), building friendships is going to take a while longer, so our Aussie friends are still a really important part of our everyday support structure. So let us know you're out there.

Seed raising update #1

After starting to get impatient about nothing visible happening with my seeds and starting to stress about if they were getting too much/too little water, I have good news. This morning I noticed that 2 of my spinach seeds have started to sprout!

cooking with gas...

I get to cook over the weekend - I don't usually get home in time during the week to be able to cook. So I take the opportunity over the weekend to cook stuff that I like to cook. We also got a gas bottle during our trip to Bunnings yesterday, so I thought it was time for a barbecue. And this country is pretty civilized - all the supermarkets stock boerewors! So, here's dinner:

South Africans among you would recognize that bag of chips next to the BBQ... the supermarket down the road from us stocks Nik-Naks as well. Ahhh... bliss. :)

Veggie garden - Finally...

After planning to have a veggie garden at our last 2 houses, we have actually acted on our plans this time and are committing to making it a reality this time. There are a number of factors which have prompted this including:

• Availability of water - water in NZ is not an issue (well not at the moment), the water restrictions/lack of natural rainfall to water the garden was on of the drawbacks to us starting a veggie garden in Brisbane (having to bucket water when pregnant or the busyness of babies is not encouraging). The Waikato gets reasonable rainfall and is known for it's fertile soil.
• Budget -The price of veggies in NZ supermarkets is a bit more expensive than Australia and there is no Rocklea Markets equivalent to get cheap fruit and veg from, so any saving we make by growing some of our vegies ourselves is an insentive
• The availability of produce - because of NZ's small size and southerly location, the availability and cost of various fruit and vegies is very dependant on seasonal availability. So I will have to plan my meals around vegies that are in season, so a might as well grow some of them myself.
• Reducing our Carbon footprint - now don't be scared that I'm turning into at fanatical Greenie or anything. Just with what I've been reading lately about simple ways to reduce our impact of the environment, I have been thinking that I may as well do what I can where I can (taking care of the world God has given us, like he comanded us to do). So as far as growing the vegies contribute to this, I'm reducing the food miles of our vegies - not transport invovled except for carrying them from the garden bed into the kitchen; by only growing vegies on a small scale I will be able to use more environmentally friendly ways to water and feed the plants than what the majority of commercial growers use. I'm sure there is others, but I can't think of any right now (although I plan to post sometime later what other things I'm consiously doing to reduce our Carbon footprint).

Anyway back to the actual construction and planting of the vegie patch. With the help of some photos I'll show you the progress so far...

This is the original state of the garden bed (patch of weeds would be a better description) - bottom right corner of photo:
It's under the kitchen window and that is our front door to the left and we are also planning to get an outdoor table for the concrete there to eat outside during the long, sunny, summer evenings.


Then with a combined effort from Peter, Ben and I we dug out all the weeds and removed all the small garden ornaments we found in the process (which were found buried under the surface):





After a trip to the local Bunnings (well actually there is only 1 Bunnings in Hamilton), we started on adding a wooden border to the garden. This is so we can build up the bed a bit with a bag of compost and so the kids don't accidently drive their bikes into it and squash all the plants. We didn't buy enough stakes to support it so it will have to be finished after yet another trip to Bunnings (we had to make an extra trip this morning to buy nails to secure the planks to the stakes).


You might be asking yourself what we are going to plant in it. Well I am venturing out into the area of 'seed raising'. Whenever I've bought herbs to plant at home I've always bought the little ones in the punnets, half because I'm impatient and half because I feel there is more room for failure trying to grow from seed. Whenever we planted seeds to grow at school for various things, mine used to frequently fail to sprout, so I don't have much confidence in my seed raising ability. But it is a lot cheaper to buy a packet of seeds than to buy seedling, especially for vegies where you need to replant as you use it eg. Shallots. So I've started small with Zucchini, Shallots and Spinach planted in the egg carton sitting on our kitchen window sill waiting for them to sprout (that takes 7-10 days so I have a little wait)I'll keep you updated on progress.

Kindy

After me worrying that getting Ben into a kindy for next year might not happen, it looks like it might actually be possible. It is like many things that we thought would be almost the same as Australia, but are finding out that although they might be described as 'similar' there is a lot of difference to them. The waiting lists for NZ kindy are in age order so it doesn't matter when you put your child's name on the waiting list, it get slotted in where they fit according to their birthday. So depending on the popularity of the particular kindy (ie. the length of their waiting list) determines when you get a spot. One of the kindies I rang said that there probably wouldn't be a place for him until he was 3yrs 6mnths, another said he would probably be offered a place when he turns 3yrs 3mnths. An underlying reason why it works this way (compared to Queensland anyway) is that in NZ children can start attending school as soon as they turn 5. It doesn't matter what time of year it is, the day after they turn 5 they can turn up at Primary school and start. So as you will have guessed this is the reason why Kindies have a number of free places occuring throughout the year and so places are offered to the next child on the waiting list all through out the year.
The other difference that I didn't expect was kindy here is mainly sessional. ie. the children attend either a morning or an afternoon session. There are a few kindies that offer full day programs, but I have been told that this is changing (becoming more common as the needs/demands of families change). I much prefer a full day program as I feel like when you take out the time for drop-off and pick-up there isn't much time left for me to get stuff done if it is only a 1/2 day session. I have only found one kindy which offers a full day program and they have closed their waiting list for now (because they are so popular), so it looks like I will have to get used to the sessional way of life.
So next step for me is to take the time to go and look at the kindies and put Ben's name on some waiting lists.

My impression of NZ gyms...

Before I chose a gym to join, I did a tour of a selection of them and I just wanted to share my over all impression. NZ gyms seem to be stuck in a time-warp where gyms were all about men, sweat, hard work and pain. Two out of the 3 gyms I visited were located in shells of factory buildings, with no effort to improve the aesthetics of the interior. The equipment also looked like it was purchased in the 80s with those grotesque vinyl colours (for the weights machines).

As you will have worked out from my previous post about joining a gym, I've chosen the only 1 that wasn't like that. TLC is like what I'm used to - carpets, modern machines, and nice changing facilities (they are actually individual rooms with shower and toilet and you can even borrow a hair-straightener from reception!).

Fleas be gone...

When I first got back from Oz to our new house I got a few bites and just thought it must have been midges or mosquitoes as the windows don't have screens. But I kept getting more and they were always where clothing was covering and the bites were in little clusters. A day or so later I saw a little black thing in Joanna's hair (easy to see when she has such white blonde hair), not having ever had pets I didn't know exactly what a flea looked like, so just mentioned my suspicion to Peter. A day or so later I found another one while Peter was home and he confirmed that yes it was a flea. So we rang the property manager and the pest guy came out today and sprayed the carpets. So hopefully that is the last we see (or feel) of the fleas. (The weird thing about it all was I was the only one that was getting bitten, I haven't found a single bite on either of the kids and Peter only got bitten once!)

I have a gym membership!

After going and checking out all the gyms on Friday, I went and signed up with one this morning. It's called TLC and it is in the suburb of Flagstaff which is a 5min drive (and is quicker to get to than Workout from Kenmore as there is no silly Moggill Rd style peak hour traffic to deal with). It is a fairly small gym, but I think that also makes it feel like they actually care about you more as they get to know you a bit. It has a creche that runs 2 morning sessions 9-10.30am and 10.45am-12.15pm. I have to book the kids in to the days I want them in creche as there is a limit on the number of kids they can have in a session, but I can make them permanent bookings, so I don't have to ring up each week. They get funding for it through the government which means that there is 1 fully qualified Early Childhood Teacher there and they actually run a program during the session (my impression is it is run more like a kindy style thing than just free-play the whole time). I think Ben is going to really enjoy it and I am looking forward to him having the experience. I am also looking forward to being able to have a break from the kids (without it being Peter that has to look after them) and also to get back into some exercise. My energy and stress levels have been suffering from my lack of exercise. I'm going to go for my first workout tomorrow morning.

And finally... some video.

As you may remember, we bought a video camera before we left Australia. And if you've been following the blog, you might have been wondering whether we were going to post any videos. Well, I would have liked to, except the software which came with it is so appallingly bad that there has been no way to convert the video into anything useful to be able to upload. I've finally managed to get something to work (not very nicely, but it will have to do!)
The reason for this effort is that I managed to record a performance by a budding young rock star named Benjamin. He has a song-book (one of his colouring-in books) and selected some songs out of it. This one was all about golf. See if you can work out the lyrics. I might post them one day :)
Enjoy!

Bread...

Either its doughy, dry, or non-filling. I'm still in the process of finding a loaf of bread that we like, that is at a reasonable price. We started out with the cheapest loaf and I've been slowly been working my way up the price range. I haven't totally given up, but have had thoughts about getting a second hand bread maker and trying to make it myself (although I don't want a huge initial outlay to then discover I don't have the time or something). The latest loaves I have bought are the 'Signature Range' from Foodtown - I'm hoping they use the same recipe as Woolworths 'Select' bread as this is what we used to buy (Foodtown sells the same 'Homebrand' goods as Woolworths - same packaging).

The wheels on the bike go round and round...

One of the advantages of living in a small town (sorry, city) is that it's quite easy to live close enough to the city to be able to cycle to work. Even the outskirts of Hamilton are less than 10km from the city centre, and being a fairly flat city, it's not that hard to cycle in from anywhere. From our house in Chartwell, it's about 6km to work in the CBD, which makes it about 15 minutes of cycling. Which really isn't a bad commuting time is it?
The obvious question is what to do when it's raining... as it has a habit of doing in this country. Well, I don't really do anything different. Other than that I'll pull a towel and some spare clothes out of my bag when I get there. I really don't mind exercise in the cold (I did wear a jumper that one day that was 1C, but 3C was fine without!) so it's certainly better than cycling in Brisbane where I'd be dripping with sweat by the time I got to uni!
We'll see what summer is like... and then mid-winter next year...
(I think I must have a thing for red bikes as well!)

yay for the weekend!

Living somewhere where I have yet to make adult friends makes me appreciate the time I do get to talk to Peter in the evenings and on the weekend. It is also nice to do things together on the weekend such as going bushwalking like we did today.
We went to Bridal Veil Falls, which is a nice 5min walk to the top of the falls then another 5min down a few flights of steps to the bottom of the falls. With the above average rainfall over the last few months there was plenty of water falling over. Ben got a bit freaked out at the top as it was a big drop down, and also was making comments about it being really noisy and the water going up into the air (ie. the spray). Joanna seemed to enjoy it (her 1st family bush walk) and it was a nice short walk to ease Peter (and especially me) back into carrying heavy packs with us (we have bought a 2nd Macpac Child carrier backpack [a 'Possum' for those interested], so we can carry a kid each). I'm a bit out of fitness too as I haven't been to a gym for over a month now (although I did go and check some out yesterday).

The weather forecast was for morning cloud and then sunny, but the reality turned out to be showery and windy (we are quickly learning that the weather forecast can change numerous times in a 24hr period - they really can't predict what is going to happen with any degree of certainty as the weather is so volatile). Our next planned outing is going to Hawke's Bay for the Labour Day long weekend (in a fortnights time).

So how's the weather?

We knew when we left Brisbane, that Hamilton would be a bit cooler... so what has the weather been like? Well, I've been here a month now, so I can give you a summary. For the month of September, Hamilton had:
- a minimum temperature of 1C (I rode in to work at that temperature. It was cold. Really cold.)
- a maximum temperature of 19C.
- Average minimum of 7C.
- Average maximum of 16C (or was it 17C?)
- 82mm of rain.
Coming from Brisbane and looking at that, you'd think it was really cold and miserable. But it hasn't been really. When the sun is out, it really feels quite warm - even if it is only 15C. The weather is also pretty variable - completely clear days have been rare, as have completely cloudy and rainy days. Which I don't mind!
One of my colleagues commented today about how he's been enjoying it being warm recently. I wouldn't go quite that far, but I haven't been finding it particularly cold!