Big boy

Ben has graduated to riding a 2-wheel bike (no training wheels!). We took the training wheels off about 6 months ago, but have probably only practiced 5 times until last week, when he was riding well enough that I'm confident that he can ride his bike to and from school now (1.2km). He can start off, ride and brake safely all by himself. We've already done a couple of trips up to the shops (they are just across the road from school) which have gone without incident.

Christmas

Our Christmas was long, tiring, but good. It started with Naomi having a sleep-in, so we had a nice relax before having breakfast and opening presents. The kids surprised us by not bugging us about when they were getting to open presents. Later in the day with had the obligatory long, late Christmas lunch with friends. The kids have had fun playing together and Peter has enjoyed helping build another tree house. We will post some photos later when we've downloaded them.

The country comes to town

In late October, we went the the annual A&P show. Apart from seeing the usual horse judging, sheep dog competitions etc...This year there was a professional 'Lumberjack' show, where 2 guys climbed up really tall poles of wood and did some cool stuff with chainsaws. We also watched some 'sheep racing'. And the kids enjoyed getting up close with the baby animals again (well Naomi was a bit frightened by them, as they are still pretty BIG compared to the size of her).

School Gala

In November, Ben's school's PTA ran their first school gala (Kiwi for fete) in 10 years. Each class was resposible for running a stall and there was the usual performances by the school's performing arts groups and local dance schools etc. Ben's class was in charge of the Drinks stall, selling softdrink and juice. Other stalls included a number of 'side show' style games, food stalls and stuff to buy.





Ben's favourite was the 'Cherry-picker ride'.I thought the 'Splat The Rat' game was the best game invented for the day.

Trip to Auckland

While my parents were visiting us we went up to Auckland for a couple of days to show them the sights. The first day included visiting the Museum (to see some of the NZ culture/history stuff and experience the cool volcano/tsunami simulation room) and the Art Gallery (which has a cool interactive kids area). The next day we took a ferry trip to Devonport and walked around North Head (this was the kids 3rd visit, but we discovered some stuff that we'd never seen before) and then a trip up the Skytower when we got back into the city. The final day we visited MOTAT (The museum of Transport and Technology), which is kind of a combination of the Ipswich Railway museum (although covers more transport than just trains) and the Science Centre in Brisbane.

Ben's birthday party

Nearly a month ago, Ben had his 6th birthday party. The party was an adventure theme. Activities included: making parachute army men, a treasure hunt and an obstacle course. The food included: swap sludge, chocolate sinking sand, treasure bags, mossy boulders and monkey cupcakes. And the birthday cake was a Volcano. The boys had great fun and didn't want to leave.

Test kitchen

Next year, we are planning a trip to the South Island where we will be camping for 3 weeks without any electricity and nowhere near any supermarket (except for 4 times where we are moving from one campground to the next). So I've been scanning my recipe books for things to cook that don't contain perishable ingredients and modifying others. So each week for the next few weeks I plan to make a couple of these recipes each week to check for flavour, quantity, able to be cooked in only 1 smallish pot and a frying pan and...whether the family will eat it!

Things I have already discovered...

• you can make white sauce with oil instead of butter or margarine for the fat
• a box of 'no egg' (egg replacement, made for those allergic to eggs) should be all i need for recipes that contain egg eg. fritters.
  

Long term tenant of the 'To Do' list evicted

Today...I cleaned out/organised 2/3 of our large linen cupboard. About a year ago I had managed to organise 2 of the 5 shelves, and had never got around to dealing with the other 3, plus the floor space. With it being wet and windy outside today and in a mood to clean and organise my stuff (as 3 kids at home on holidays makes enough mess for all of us)...I tackled the task. This involved unpacking a bag and 1/2 a box of stuff that hadn't been unpacked since we moved in 1.5 years ago! So now all the shelves and the floor space are looking respectable, although I'd still like to get some baskets/boxes to put some thing in to make them easier to store and access (to make effecient use of the space). Unfortunately that will cost money, so it may be a while before that happens.

Christmas is coming... and has been

 We had Christmas with Granny and Grandpa B while they were here (yes, we'll blog about that one day!), which meant that we had to have a Christmas tree.  This was the most suitable thing growing in our garden, so it got hacked down and plonked in a pot:

 Today, it was time to get the "real" Christmas tree, from the Christmas tree farm.  We were only just in time - there were only half a dozen trees left to choose from.  Here it is, ready for two weeks time:

End of a very busy week

This week has been one of the busiest weeks...apart from all the normal weekly activities, there has been a number of extra Christmas things, as well as extra appointments. Christmas activities have included:

• playgroup Christmas party, and
  
• Kindy family Christmas Dinner.
  

Extra appointments have included:

• dentist appointments for Joanna and Naomi
• Ben's class sharing afternoon (where they share what they've been learning during the term)
• Drs appointment for me
• watching Ben's class performing a kapa haka at Junior school assembly

I'm looking forward to holidays!

Plugged In

As the kids get older the more we are having to interact with kid pop culture. Today I'm particularly thinking about movies. It can be hard to tell from a preview or synopsis if a certain movie is suitable for kids (the 'animation' filter doesn't work these days - 'The Incredibles' being a case in point) or if they content (language/actions/themes) that don't align with a Christian world view. So I have been using the Focus on the Family's 'Plugged In' website to do my research - somebody else has taken the time to watch the movie and compile a report noting all positive elements, spiritual content, violent content, crude or profane language, drug and alcohol content, other negative elements and a general conclusion.

I have found this useful to make a decision about the kids viewing in a number of situations including - DVDs we pick up in the kids sections at the library, movies that are on TV and 'movie nights' the school P&C has run.

A new favourite

Naomi came up with the idea of play hair dressers yesterday...It's the first time my kids have really played it. She dragged out all Joanna's hair stuff from the bathroom and proceeded to put as many clips and headbands in Joanna's hair as she could fit. Then today she has dragged out the hair stuff twice to play the same game. I can see it being a regular activity for the girls from now on.

In the news...

For those you who wonder what Peter's company does, here's a news article that gives you a bit of an idea (written because the founder of the company won an award).

Naomi's party

Naomi had a handful of friends over for a party... she had lots of fun eating cake:

And playing cricket:

Rewind: Naomi's birthday

We've fallen a bit behind in blogging stuff recently... we'll try and catch up over the next week or so!  Anyway, first up, Naomi's birthday, just over a month ago now.  I'll post some stuff about her party, but for now, here's her cake (it's an animated GIF, so click on the picture, and it should cycle through the stages of the cake being made...)

Windy weather

Anybody who knows even a little about NZ would know that Wellington is known as the 'windy city'...well this week you could have mistaken Hamilton for Wellington - it has been really windy all week! Had to take down the outdoor umbrella on the deck this morning as I thought the gusts were going to bend the metal post.

Freebie

I like getting freebies... particularly when they're things that I actually like!  This is what I got yesterday, gratis thanks to Random House NZ:

I have a photo in there (this one, if you're wondering!), so, in exchange for being allowed to use my photo, they offered to give me a copy of the book.

Sunglasses shopping

I am in need of new sunglasses...my current ones are 5 years old and the lenses are all worn and scratched from use every day. The problem is I have been wearing the same model of Oakley's for the past 10 years (I owned another pair for the 5 years before the current pair), and they no longer make my model. And now as mortgage payers/house owners we are a lot poorer than we used to so forking out lots of money for a new pair of sunnies is a big deal.

We thought we might have found some decent ones on a good sale, but I went and tried them on yesterday and I'm not sure...problem is because I have been wearing the same sort for so long, so am so used to how they feel/fit my face that I don't know how much is just because they are different style/shape and how much is wrong shaped frames for my face. (This is one of the reasons I've been putting off finding new glasses for so long!)

About to reach milestone...

200 feedback rating on TradeMe! (currently on 199) This is the number of individual people who have given positive feedback to trading with us (if the same person buys multiple items and leaves feedback for each item, it only counts as 1 feedback towards the 'feedback rating') minus any negative feedback (don't have any).

Birthday party season over

Ben had his 6th birthday party on Saturday, which means I have no more birthday parties to plan until the middle of next year. So I have time to get back to the more normal activities that need to happen during the week, like weeding the veggie garden. Hopefully it will also mean a bit more time to blog. But right now I have to get on with the daily task that doesn't stop for birthday party season or most other events...cooking dinner!

Strawberry season...

Is here... this is today's haul:

Strange chooks...

Yesterday we got 3 eggs.  Two of them were normal size ("large" as they'd be called in the supermarket).  One of them was tiny... smaller than any chicken egg I've ever seen before.  We've had soft-shelled eggs, slightly mis-shaped eggs, but never anything like this.  We're yet to crack it open and see if it has a miniature yolk as well!

Trying to get life in order

This last quarter of the year always seems so crazy, busy and I always feel like I'm one of those circus performers frantically trying to keep all the plates spinning on the sticks!

Naomi moved into a big bed on the weekend, which involved not just setting up a new bed (for Ben, not her), but Naomi and Ben swapping rooms, which meant swapping over all their stuff too! This still isn't completely finished as some of the stuff that Naomi had in her old room was actually baby stuff that we aren't using any more anyway and need to get rid of (either selling or giving away).

Which brings me to the two towers (each 4 huggies nappy boxes tall) of clothes the Ben and Naomi have grown out of which need selling.

I am also in the process of organising Ben's 6th birthday party - it's an adventurer theme. I got the invitations out yesterday and have 19 days until the party!

My parents arrive in 10 days to stay with us, which involves the usual tidying/reorganising to fit and extra 2 adults in the house (ie. moving the 2 towers of clothes boxes).

Auckland Half Marathon 2011

Auckland turned on another beautiful day for marathon day this year - perfect sunshine, light breezes, temperatures that would have got up to the high teens by late morning.  I was only doing the half this year - I haven't got nearly enough work in to consider doing the full.
After some horror stories of people missing the start because the ferries across to Devonport were too full to transport everyone, I decided to be safe and get one of the earlier ferries - ended up on the 4:30am one.  Seems like a bit of a silly time to go for a cruise on the harbour really.  I then ended up sitting around for a couple of hours in Devonport ferry terminal until it was race time.
The race itself was more crowded than I would really like - 7000+ runners means it was always busy and you had to weave in and out a little bit the whole way.  The North Shore section of the race is really quite hilly - more than I remember from the full last year (that part of the course is the same).  The second half of the race showed that I hadn't really done enough miles - I had intended to be able to kick on a little, but didn't really have much energy left.  Oh well.  1hr48-ish will have to do for this year.  It's a PB by somewhere around 5min, so I can't really complain!

Strange sleeping

Joanna sometimes has a sleep in the afternoon, sometimes she just plays during rest time.  Sometimes she plays for a bit first, and then ends up sleeping in some really weird positions: Sleeping Super-Hero:

Yes, she really was fast asleep, standing up like this:

New rail...

Just got around to putting up a new rail above the stove - for hanging a handful of implements and oil bottles.  I reckon it looks pretty good - let's see how functional it is.

Ice skating report...

Mel mentioned the other day that we were going to go ice skating... the kids were really excited at the idea, but had no idea what it was really like.  They discovered that it's actually kind of hard!  Mel went for a spin around the rink first to make sure she could stay upright before taking Ben round.  Ben really struggled to stay upright, spending most of the time hanging onto Mel with his feet sliding all over the place.  Joanna wasn't a whole lot better, although she didn't thrash around quite as much as Ben.  With a little bit of practise, Ben was getting slightly better, although he still hadn't quite worked out how to effectively propel himself forwards.

I managed to stay upright going round by myself, so took Joanna round as well - which worked fine until we were about 2m from the edge, when I sprawled on the ice with Joanna next to me.
They both enjoyed the experience - I think it was a little different from what they were expecting though - not quite as easy as gliding along effortlessly!

4 Seasons

One of the things we like about Hamilton compared to Brisbane is that each season lasts its traditional 3 month period. We get warm summer, autumn which get cooler and the leaves change colour and fall off the tress, winter which is cold and wet and spring where the sun gets warmer, the bare trees grow new leaves and the flowers bloom.

The one problem I have is with clothing in spring and autumn. As the weather is changing either cooler or warmer, some days are suitable for shorts and t-shirts, some days long shirts and pants are needed. Which means for at least a couple of months in each of the seasons the kids need both summer and winter clothes at hand. Which makes for messy drawers and regular weather checks in the morning so the kids make suitable clothing choices for the day.

We're going ice skating...OUTSIDE!

There is currently and outdoor ice skating rink in the city. It is something that I've seen in movies and magazines and have always thought it would be a cool thing to do (the outdoor ice skating thing - I've done a lot of ice skating indoors). The kids have never been ice skating. So we thought it would be a great family activity - something we would never get to do in Brisbane and probably will never get to do again (this is a one-off thing that the council has set up for the duration of the world cup).

(It has been slammed by locals and others as the council wasting rate payers money, I probably agree, but will still take the opportunity for a possibly once in a lifetime experience)

Cookie cutter produce

While preserving our harvest of leeks this morning, I was pondering the nature of modern recipe books. When fruits and vegetables are listed in the ingredients of most recipes, in most recipe book, they simple just list a number - not a weight. But anyone who has grown their own fruit or veggies know that they can come in a variety of sizes...For example leeks (seeing as that is what I was dealing with at the time), the only way I've seen leeks listed in a recipe is by number eg. 2 leeks, finely chopped. However you can have tall leeks, short leeks, fat leeks, skinny leeks so that the amount of chopped leek you have could vary greatly. Which got me thinking...have modern recipe writers succumb to the supermarket 'cookie cutter' approach to fruit and veggies, where they demand they are produced to look all the same size, colour and shape. Or are they just lazy and can't be bothered working out more specifically how much of a fruit or veggies is required (by working out a weight).

Obviously I realise that recipes should be used a guide and there is room in any recipe to make adjustments and variations based on personal preferences. But for those who are culinarily challenged and like to be able to follow a step by step recipe and have the finished product look the same as the picture, a more specific measure would be helpful/reduce stress.

Good news!

After fearing I had not earnt enough (marking QCS papers) to pay for our flights to Brisbane...I got paid this week and it was enough to pay for the flights with about $200AUD left over. (That's after tax, so I'll still also get another $200 after I fill out my tax return next year)

Zoned out

My brain feels like it has used up all it 'data' and is on slowed down speed this morning. Not much getting done.

Got him finally!

Home-made muesli

We've been making our own muesli for a couple of years now... and always wondered how it compares cost-wise with normal cereal... so the last time I made some, I measured out exactly how much I use (rather than just "a bit"!).  So, here's the recipe (along with how much each item costs us):

• 700g oats (~$2)
• 130g pumpkin seeds ($1.67)
• 150g sunflower seeds ($0.89)
• 130g cashew nuts ($2.52)
• 65g coconut flakes ($0.58)
• 200g maple syrup ($1.33) (you can also use honey)

That gets mixed together, then baked on a baking tray for ~40min @ 150C, until it's all nice and golden.  You need to stir it every 10min or so.  Once it's dried out in the oven, it made ~1.15kg of muesli, and cost ~$9.  Served with home-made yoghurt, it's yum!  That's roughly the same price as the very cheapest muesli you can get in the supermarket, and it's certainly a lot nicer than that!  We do mix up the ingredients a little to vary things sometimes.

Simple, but effective...

Borrowed a paper plane making book from the library yesterday. It is amazing how putting a few folds in a piece of paper can create such excitement and enthusiasm (and not just for the kids). We made a couple last night after dinner with Ben. Then this morning we have had the book out again with some school friends...the boys of all ages were really into it (the only older girl wasn't interested).

Scary...

Cleaned the bathroom mirror this morning...Just got a fright when I went in there to wash my hands - I could see myself clearly!

(the kids seem to delight in spreading toothpaste gunk - from toothbrushes - all over the mirror)

School holidays may be interesting

I checked the weather forecast this morning and it is forecast to rain for the whole two weeks basically.

It was raining this morning, so we stayed home and I sewed the bunting for Naomi's party - it was great to be able to get it out of the way. And with the weather forecast in mind, we went to the park this afternoon to run off some energy while it wasn't raining - although it was pretty windy, cloudy and a little cool.

My other defence against total madness due to wet holidays is that I have organised some of the kids friends to either come here to play or go to their houses to play, so even if they are stuck inside the whole time, there is a chance for a change of scenery/play mates.

Feeling productive and on top of things....kind of!

Yesterday, Peter and I had a list of things we wanted to get done around the house/garden:

• weed the strawberry patch (if you didn't know it was a strawberry patch, you would have just assumed it was a large patch of weeds - couldn't see any strawberry plants for all the weeds)
• mulch the strawberries, raspberries and garlic
• plant the potatoes (that I had bought before going to Brisbane and had sprout about 10cm long on them!)
• oil the deck f
  urniture (table and chairs hadn't been oiled for at least 12 months)
• replace the toilet tap (it was old and stuck, we couldn't turn it off)
• make a batch of coconut ice cream

The amazing thing is, that unlike our usual Saturday to-do lists where we only get 1/2 the stuff done...we got all of it done! Plus we had extra time to do a couple of extra things - I planted some seeds in the garden (carrots, beetroot, rocket, parsley and chives) and Peter

started constructing the Ikea wall mounted clothes airer that I'd brought back from Brisbane.

I still have things to do like making the bunting for Naomi's birthday party, writing kids church Christmas program, organising advent calendar, working out what I'm going to do to celebrate my 30th Birthday...

Athletics athlete

Last night I went and checked out one of the local Athletics clubs. They have a club meet every Wednesday night which is a combination of competition and training. I am going to join for the season as I feel I need a goal/motivation/direction to my gym sessions, plus I will enjoy getting back into some competitive sport. Most the people there are either a lot younger or older than me, but I had been warned by a friend that this was the case.

School production

On Tuesday, Ben performed in his first school production. The production was titled 'Stories of Aotearoa' and was a collection of Maori legends (the equivalent of Aboriginal Dreamtime stories). The way it was put together reminded me of the Opening Ceremony to the 2000 Sydney Olympics...an overarching story line which linked the individual stories/performances together.

Ben did very well and enjoyed the experience heaps. His class did a dance to a song entitled 'Cheeky little fantail'. He has a reasonable sense of rhythm so was able to perform the right dance moves at the right time and in the right order. I thought it was very cute when the turned around and wiggled their bottoms/fantails every time the phrase 'Cheeky little fantail' was sung in the song.

You can go here to see more photos.

Brown bread ice cream made

The ice cream tastes almost like cheese cake mixture and the crispy bread bits are just like having biscuit crumbs in the ice cream...We are really looking forward to trying this one!

Here's the recipe, if you are interested.

Pumpkin Ice cream made!

There is 2L of pumpkin ice cream now sitting in the freezer. We all had a taste at breakfast (licking the churn bowl and blade) and everybody liked it. It doesn't have a particularly strong pumpkin flavour - it might be because the type of pumpkin I used isn't particularly strong or it might suppose to be like that.

Using leftovers/surplus

On the topic of ice cream, the two flavours I'm in the process of making are both because I have ingredients that need using...pumpkin and bread.

The pumpkins that we stored from autumn are coming to the end of their shelf life, so need using really soon and if you're having trouble imagining pumpkin ice cream, think american pumpkin pie type flavour.

And we always have bread crusts floating around, about 1/2 end up being chook food and about 1/2 get made into bread crumbs. And there is only so many dinners you can put breadcrumbs in, around or on top. So when I came across a recipe for brown bread ice cream, I just had to give it a go.

How many flavours?

Yesterday, I borrowed my friend's ice cream maker again. We have 4 x 2L ice cream tubs plus a 1L ice cream tub to fill...and an endless possibility of flavours. So far I am in the process of making pumpkin ice cream and brown bread ice cream. We are thinking of making the coconut ice cream I made last summer again and I will not get away with not making a batch of peanut butter ice cream!

Chinese fish and chips?

One of the things we noticed when we first moved over here, and haven't yet commented on (I don't think) was how you don't get fish and chips quite like you do in Australia.  In Oz, your local fish and chippie generally sells fish and chips, burgers, potato fritters etc and not much more.  Here in NZ, it seems that every fish and chip shop is also a Chinese takeaway (they do seem to be mostly Chinese owned for some reason).  So, our local fish and chippie has a special on currently: you can get $3 of chips for free with your sweet and sour pork.  Dunno about you, but I still find that kind of weird.

My favourite part of a MasterChef series

Is the trips away.

When I travel, one of the things I really like to do is to eat. To try the local produce, the local cuisine, to visit the original source of some of my favourite products. And I love to be able to bring some of the produce and ideas home and try and recreate some of the food I have experienced. A lot of my best travel memories are associated with food/drinks and I have made some great discoveries.

So I get really excited when I watch the episodes where the MasterChef contestants are doing just that. I feel like jumping on a plane and going somewhere myself. Unfortunately both money and season of life prevent me from doing that. But at the start of next year, we have planned a trip to the north part of the South Island of NZ, so I'm going to concentrate my excitement of the MasterChef contestants experience into researching opportunities to have some great food and wine experiences on our holiday. We have already specifically planned to spend a couple of nights in the Marlborough region, as well as a day in Wellington and I have also suggested we drive home on a slightly different route so that we can visit the Wairarapa region too. We are planning to camp the whole time (to both save money, as well as to be able to stay in some pretty amazing natural places), so hopefully I can find some great food to glam up the camping experience a bit, as well as some produce that we can bring home to enjoy over the following months.

What I've been doing this morning...

Making decorations for Naomi's birthday party. We did all the thinking about theme, food, cake and decorations before I went to Brisbane, so I've been able to come home and just run with the plans. The theme is 'Garden Party' (kind of like a 'Party in the Park' but at home because October still has a frequent possibility of rain, so having it at home minimises logistics of wet weather plans). So this morning I cut out a whole lot of cloth triangles to make bunting. The cloth is scrap material I got from somebody on 'Free cycle' just after Naomi was born, so the decorations have cost nothing so far.

Shared lunch

It was shared lunch at kindy today. But from the food that was brought to share, it was more like a lunch party - sausage rolls, chips, marshmallows, cake, pizza and a stack of fairy bread etc.

The surprise for me was that the teachers sang 'grace' in Maori before we were allowed to start eating. And it sounds like they sing it with the kids during normal kindy sessions as I noticed a number of the morning kindy kids singing along too. This is something that you totally wouldn't find in a government run/public kindy in Australia (if there is such a thing - there isn't in Queensland).

Out of it

I've only been gone for 3 weeks, but I feel totally out of the loop at both school and kindy...

• School has a 'production' on next Tuesday night. All the year 0-1 classes are involved which means I have to find Ben some black pants and shirt to wear (they are dressing up as fantails - the bird, not the lolly...don't think you get the lolly here)
• Kindy has swapped mat time from the last thing before home time to earlier in the afternoon, so we don't get to see what the do and my first impression from our first afternoon back is that it makes the end of kindy very messy and the last 30 minutes is a bit of a waste of time.

Holiday at Dicky Beach

This morning, I got around to downloading the photos from our holiday, so now I can start to blog.

The first week we went up to Dicky Beach with my parents for a nice beach holiday. The kids had stacks of fun playing in the sand and water each day. They especially liked playing in the 'creek' that flows out next to the flag area (for those of you who are familiar with Dicky Beach). I enjoyed being able to sit in the warm sun while watching them, playing with them, and reading.

Other things we did were: go for a walk along the beach; play at the park; eat fish and chips (which costs twice the price it does in NZ); and have a couple of swims in the heated swimming pool (part of the apartment complex we were staying in). It was a really nice relaxing time for us all...I wish I was back there this week!

Changing seasons

Being away for 3 weeks means that things that progress a little each day have made a bit of a 'jump'. Things I've noticed since being back have been:

• the sun has swung around significantly to the east/west now, not so far north as it is over winter;
• the sage plants have a stack of new leaves (so obviously it has warmed up enough for the plants to decide to come alive again)
• a stack of weeds have appeared in my strawberry patch (again, an indication that the weather is getting warmer/sunnier)

This is not to say that all the aspects of winter have left us yet - we had frost this morning (although it was only a light one).

Beach holidays

I think I've worked out why I find them so relaxing...It's because they have such a routine to them that I don't have to think/organise much throughout the day. Beach holiday goes something like this:

1. wake up and eat breakfast
2. get ready to go to beach
3. sit on the beach for the rest of the morning (swim if I want to)
4. back to accomodation for lunch
5. rest time
6. do some easy outside activity - go to park or go for walk along the beach or go for a swim in the pool
7. bath, dinner, kids in bed
8. relax and go to sleep
9. Repeat the next day!

Magnificent Mt Ruapehu

Wow.  What a trip!  While Mel and the kids are away, it's become my tradition to get away to a mountain somewhere for a bit of a walk. The first year it was just Mt Pirongia, the second was Fantham's Peak on Mt Taranaki, and thoroughly miserable weather last year meant that it was "just" Mt Pirongia again.

On the edge of the plateau

This year I had four weekends to choose from, so decided to be adventurous and plan a trip down to Tongariro National Park, with the aim to get up onto Mt Ruapehu for a night, hoping that one of the four weekends would be perfect weather-wise.  At 2797m, it's the North Island's highest peak, although there's actually about half a dozen different peaks above 2700m that are part of the huge bulk of the mountain.  It's also an active volcano, although it hasn't had a major eruption since 1996 - only "little" ones.

Tents in the snow!

Access to the mountain is nice and easy because there's a huge skifield at the base.  We caught the chairlift up as high as you can go (around 2000m altitude) before putting the crampons on and starting the steep climb up towards the summit plateau.  Conditions were perfect - sunshine, a breath of wind and firm (but not too icy) snow underfoot.  It's a fairly long trudge up, with the views getting better and better, although you don't get to see much different.  Once we got to the rim of the summit plateau though, we got to peer across the vast bowl that is the plateau - ringed by the Te Heu Heu ridge, Cathedral Rocks, Dome and Glacier Knob - an absolutely magnificent sight.  By this time we didn't really have time to dig a snow cave (which had been one plan), so we found a hollow that some previous group had dug in the lee of Cathedral Rocks to pitch our tents.  It needed a bit of enlarging to fit the two tents, but the snow wasn't too hard, so that didn't take too long to do.  Once that was done, it was time to get dinner started and get set up for the night - it was decidedly chilly up there and wasn't going to get any warmer once the sun went down!  By the time the sun did go down, the wind was gusting (probably only 30-40km/hr gusts), but with the temperature down around -10C, it was very cold indeed.  Dinner ended up being served in the tents - for some reason nobody felt like sitting outside to eat!

The summit plateau at sunset

Click to see a slightly bigger version!

The night was spent snuggling deep inside a sleeping bag, trying to stay warm, as well as get some sleep with the tent flapping a bit each time the wind blew.  Every gust of wind also brought a gentle sprinkling of snow inside the tent (no, my tent's not really intended to be a mountain tent!).  By the morning, water bottles that were inside the tent right next to sleeping bags were frozen solid, so it must have been cold!
We managed to get a reasonable sleep considering the conditions, and I got up around 6am to get some photos of the dawn.  I intended to just walk around on the plateau taking some photos, but the lure of a view of the crater lake at dawn proved too much, and I ended up sidling up the side of Dome, trying to get a good view.  I managed to get a fantastic view, but then also realised just how icy the slope was - and I hadn't put the crampons on!  Silly boy.  Anyway, I managed to get down safely enough and back to the tent where everyone else was still in their tents.  Not sure why - it was only about -15C.

Fun on top of Dome!

Once I'd made some porridge for breakfast, we all headed up for the top of Dome, where there's an emergency shelter (it's primary purpose is to house seismic monitoring equipment, not shelter) and the best views of the crater lake.  We enjoyed the magnificent view up there before heading back to the tent to get all packed up and ready for the walk down.  The walk down was relatively straightforward, other than getting very hot with the sun in our faces!  We were down shortly after lunch time, and that was that.
There's a full set of photos at flickr, as usual!

It's finally here...

The Rugby World Cup that is.  There's been a lot of flags flying out of car windows the last few days - about an even split between Tongan, Samoan and All Blacks flags.  The Pacific community have certainly been out in force anyway!
(Not that I think that's going to stop the All Blacks hammering the Tongans tonight...)

On our way!

At the airport waiting to board our plane for Brisbane. Got questioned about my checked baggage by security - they were puzzled about the x-ray image...things they couldn't figure out were: my stove top espresso maker (they thought it might be a fishing reel), and the kids scooters. Then had one of our cabin bags searched going through security - they thought there was something unusual in our food, but it was all ok.

Pencil sharpeners on planes?

Does anybody know if you can take pencil sharpeners in your cabin luggage? Or are they considered a prohibited sharp item as they have a removable sharp blade?

Oops

While taking the rubbish out this evening, I managed to brush the bag against my leg...and there was a bit of glass in there. So... I now have a few stitches in my leg. The cut isn't too deep but was enough to require about eight stitches.

Snow Holiday 2011

Last weekend I took a day off work to make a nice long weekend to go away and enjoy some fun at the snow. We just picked a fairly random weekend after the school holidays, and it happened to be a very good one: the week before was the biggest cold snap of the winter and one of the coldest in years... which means lots of snow! The forecast for Saturday was "cloud, clearing", so we decided
not to hurry down, rather having breakfast at home and getting down to Whakapapa for lunch before heading up the mountain for the afternoon. By the time we got to the village, there were thousands of people around, because of the sunshine and recent snow. The road up the mountain was closed because all the carparks were full, but we were let through to get to Scoria Flat - roughly halfway up the mountain. It's usually a spot where you can fit chains if required, but was being used as a carpark so they could get more people up the mountain. We had lunch there and then caught a shuttle bus up to the top. The weather was perfect, so we got a few toboggan runs in. The sliding area this year was much longer than last year,

and shaped reasonably nicely - it was also faster than last year. We tried to get Ben to go by himself on the toboggan, but the first run he did, he got smashed in the ribs by someone else on an out of control toboggan. So he didn't feel like sliding again by himself. The kids also made a snow man with a carrot nose that had been specially brought all the way from Hamilton!

Sunday morning was fine and cold (got down to -7.6C in the village where we were staying apparently!) so after some breakfast we headed up the mountain again. We were early enough to get a park this time, although we were down in carpark #10, so it was easier to catch the shuttle bus up from there than get the kids to walk up! There was a light breeze blowing, which made it rather icy. After a few toboggan runs

the kids were feeling rather tired - a combination of the cold and not-particularly-good night's sleep. Ben and I went for a little bit of a walk up the other side of Happy Valley to explore, and then it was time for some lunch. Everyone was exhausted, so we just went back down the mountain to have a rest in the cabin. After a rest, we went for a walk down to the stream behind the holiday park (where we had a snowball fight!) and a short walk around the village which we'd never done before.

Monday morning was time to pack up - we'd had a much better night's sleep, so we got packed up and back up the mountain for yet another day of perfect sunshine, this time without any wind. Being a weekday, there were far less people around, so we had some nice quiet runs on the toboggan (this time Ben did go by himself, although he still fell off each time!). Mel was feeling a bit weary after walking back up the hill a few times, so I took all three kids for a walk again. Ben said he would show Joanna how to climb the icy mountain, because he was a big boy! We all managed to fall over and slip a little bit on the way up, but got to a nice spot to look down on the ski slopes. And then Ben decided to keep exploring and then found that he could slide down some of the nice smooth icy stuff on his bottom. Joanna thought that was a grand idea, so she joined in.

And Naomi in the backpack on my back was bouncing up and down, wanting to join in. After that we just had lots of fun climbing ever higher, finding nice spots to slide down on our bottoms! We had a couple of final toboggan runs before heading home (and Ben slid the whole way down by himself, without falling off!).

After lunch, it was time for the drive back home, along with a stop at Over the Moon Dairy in Putaruru to get some yummy cheese... and some rest to recover!

The flickr set has lots more photos, and the videos on there are also pretty funny!

BP#3 Construction Birthday Party

We did this one for Ben's 2nd birthday. The original plan was to have the party at our local park, but it was raining on the day so we had to have it at home instead.

Invitation: Was a photo print of a dumper truck with text on it.

Decorations: We didn't have any as we had planned to have it at the park.

Food: We timed the party for the food to be a brunch meal. The food was pancakes, croissants with ham, cheese, maple syrup and jam for the guest to put on as they liked. We also had some cut up fresh fruit.

Drink: There was milk and juice for the kids and tea and coffee for the adults.

Cake: Was a toy dumper truck filled with edible dirt. This was made with cubes of chocolate cake, scoops of chocolate self saucing pudding and chocolate biscuit crumbs. This is the easiest cake that I have made. Just throw it all in the back and it looked great!

Activity: We had planned to take some diggers and dumper trucks for the kids to play with in the bark chips at the park.

Thankyou gift: Was a small construction vehicle (digger, bulldozer, roller) that the kids could use in their sandpit at home.