Monday, 28 September 2009

Back to reality...

After enjoying a nice warm 2 weeks in Brisbane, I'm now back to cool, rainy Hamilton. I plan do a few posts (including photos) of our time away in the next few days.

Sunday, 27 September 2009

A new tradition...

While Mel's away, I get to trash my shoes. Last year it was on Mt Pirongia, this year on my bike. I went for a ride yesterday afternoon to Pukete Farm Park, just to see what it was like and see what's there... lots of little mountain bike trails is what's there. And we've had a bit of rain recently, so the result is lots of mud. Which means lots of fun...
I didn't get all that dirty really, but dirty enough.

Tuesday, 22 September 2009

Tramping Taranaki style

Seen as Mel's away, I figured I could get out and do a harder walk/climb than I could do with the kids. My original idea had been to do the Tongariro Alpine Crossing or something similar, but Mark, the friend from work that I was going with has already done that walk a couple of times so was keen for something different. So I figured Taranaki was a suitable option. Taranaki itself is 2518m high and is certainly mountaineering/ice climbing at this time of year. The walk up to Syme Hut on top of Fantham's Peak at 1962m is a more achievable goal.
So, we borrowed crampons and ice axes from another colleague and headed off nice and early Saturday morning. The walk was listed as only taking 3.5hr, but that would probably have been based on a summer day-walk rather than spring with an overnight pack, so we wanted to leave plenty of time. The weather forecast said that a little rain and wind could be expected in the morning, but should clear by the afternoon, followed by a clear night and morning, and then a change for the worse on Sunday afternoon. When we arrived at Dawson Falls Visitor Centre (900m) it was drizzling, but not windy. We hung around there for a little waiting to try and work out if the forecast was actually going to hold true or not - and eventually decided that it was clearing slightly and we'd go.
The first part of the walk is through thick mossy forest. As you get higher, the vegetation thins out to gradually lower bushes, followed by alpine grass. Higher still, and we started hitting snow and the grass gave way to occasional bits of moss. The crampons went on and we started the fun part - getting up very steep and slippery icy slopes. It didn't take too long before we were emerging from the cloud and getting fantastic views of Taranaki's main peak, along with views out over half of the North Island, still blanketed in cloud. It's probably just as well we couldn't see too far down either - slipping on the snow could have resulted in a pretty nasty fall. We made it to the top shortly after lunch time and found the hut relatively free of snow and ice. Another group of 4 that we'd seen below us on the snow arrived soon after.
The afternoon and evening was spent going outside to take some photos and then coming back into the hut to try and warm up again - there was a breeze of around 30-40km/h blowing, which made it decidedly cold outside. Sunset was spectacular out to the Tasman Sea, with the mountain casting a huge triangular shadow over the North Island. I attempted some star trail photos after dinner, but the intense cold meant my batteries didn't last the distance. I had a thermometer probe hanging out the window of the hut, and it said it was down around -4C outside, but it certainly felt a lot colder than that. Inside the hut was a balmy -1C overnight (no heating in DOC huts above the tree line!), but we managed to sleep well enough.
At first light most of the hut emptied out to enjoy the spectacular sunrise and the brisk air. Well, the sunrise anyway, the icy air was just a shock to the system. We had a relaxing breakfast before packing up and heading down the mountain. It was a perfectly clear day, so there was no problem seeing just how far there was to fall if we slipped... very far indeed. That made the icy walk a slow and steady affair - we didn't want to take any risks. After making it off the ice, it was just a whole lot of steps and track to get down - all straightforward.
So, a fantastic experience and beautiful mountain. And my legs are still really sore today...
(More photos at flickr as usual)

Sunday, 13 September 2009

SA 32 - NZ 29

Wow. What a finish. I was at the deciding Tr-Nations rugby game last night - and finally got to see the Springboks win a game! The previous times I've watched the Boks live have been in Brisbane, where they play decidedly hopelessly for some unknown reason.
Anyway, the Bok lineout was good as usual, the scrum was very good (except for the first couple) and Frans Steyn kicking penalties from around 60m was simply stunning. The All Blacks didn't sit down and give up though - they kept on coming back. And the crowd was right into it at the finish - very very noisy indeed. A big contrast to the rather boring Aussie rugby crowds!

Monday, 7 September 2009

Ministry while being a full-time mum

It's a topic that I've been thinking about recently. What can I do, how can I do it, who with, where to find time to do it etc. Last week I read the series on Nicole's blog about 'Missional Motherhood' and on Sunday the sermon at church also touched on the subject (it was on Isaiah 58).

Through these and my general thinking, I've realised that what I need to be doing is making a bigger effort with the people I have contact with already on a day to day basis. In particular the children that Ben has made friends with (at Playgroup and Kindy) and their families - both getting to know them better and making them a part of my everyday life. I don't need to organise particularly special activities/events, just try to include them in everyday events such as going down to the local park or coming over for a morning coffee.

I've also been challenged by a chapter in Kent and Barbara Hughes book Disciplines of a Godly Family about family ministry - (although I own the book, I haven't got around to reading it yet, so I'm working from Nicole's summary). In particular about 'keeping an open house', making our house a place where our children like to be and feel comfortable inviting friends over (and who also will feel comfortable being here), so I can get to know their friends more and therefore we can do ministry together as a family. I haven't had much experience of seeing this modeled when I was a child - I don't remember going over to friends houses much or having friends at my house much - so it doesn't tend to come instinctively to me.

To put these thoughts into practice, I'm going to attempt to invite some of the kids and mothers that Ben has made friends with at Playgroup and Kindy over to our house during the coming school holidays (as I'm back in Oz for the next fortnight and therefore school holidays start when we get back). And obviously hopefully continue from there into the next term - although the birth of number 3 will put a bit of a speed bump in there somewhere.

Clean car...

Washed the car for the first time in at least 4 months today. It's just too cold to do it over winter, plus it rains so much during that time that you don't really need to. But today was a really nice warm day (it got to 17 or 18C without any real breeze) - I got out in shorts and shirt to do it! - and the car looked grotty as we haven't really had much rain for a little while. The kids enjoyed helping - anything that involves playing with water is exciting.

Friday, 4 September 2009

Story time...

One of our local cafes/winebars 'Zinc cafe' has recently started running a kids story time once a month. I took the kids for the first time today, I think today was a bit crazier than normal as they had the author Diana Neild come (organised by the Poppies bookstore - a couple of doors down) and read her two children's books 'Piggety-Wiggety Jiggity Jig' and 'Piggety-Wiggety Jiggity Jig - Goes to Dad's cafe'. Ben and Joanna enjoyed it - there was balloons, opportunity to dress-up with pigs ears, plus the cafe had specially made pig cookies instead of gingerbread men to sell today.

Art work...

I haven't put up any of the kids craft or art work for a while, so here is a couple:

This first one Ben did at kindy using old cotton reels dipped in paint...


This next one is one Joanna did at kindy...

Wednesday, 2 September 2009

The new 5th Wiggle!

Recently Ben has got into doing the actions to the Wiggles songs. He's been studying them for so long, he doesn't need a DVD playing to copy them, just the CD with the music and off he goes!

Woohoo!

I got my cast off my arm today. I went to the doctor to see if it would be OK to get it off a bit earlier than it was supposed to, and he said it should be OK. So it got taken off and I had it X-rayed again to make sure it was healed. The X-rays looked good, so I'm now cast-free! My elbow is pretty stiff and a little sore, as is my wrist. Hopefully that will ease over the next week or two - I'll go and see a physio soon to make sure I know what to do.

Mother Duck went out one day...

I'm getting to that stage of pregnancy that I'm starting to notice myself waddling instead of walking. Especially today - my back is pretty sore this afternoon and the only way to stop it hurting quite so much was to walk with a very pronounced waddle!

Squeeky clean...


I have employed a cleaner - one of the girls from church who helped out the other week for the inspection. I'm just getting her to vacuum the whole house and clean the bathroom once a fortnight. These are the things I struggle to get done, especially at the moment (ie. being pregnant) as doing it makes my back sore (if it isn't already from doing something else) and Peter can't do any of it with his broken arm.

I also find getting somebody in to do those 2 areas, motivates me too, to:
a) tidy the house - as the floor needs to be free of toys and stuff so that she can vacuum it.
b) clean other parts of the house - as my list of areas to clean is smaller and also they look dirtier/messier when the other parts are nice and clean.

Tuesday, 1 September 2009

One year anniversary

It's now been exactly a year since we moved from Brisbane to Hamilton. So, we thought it might be worth reflecting on how the year's been. What have we done in the year?
The Good
The Bad
  • Breaking an arm isn't the best experience. But hey, it could have been far worse.
  • Moving to a new city and country means missing friends and family. We miss you guys.