Squelch squelch splash

Ah, the sounds of tramping on Mt Pirongia. I just got back from a trip up to Pahautea Hut on Pirongia. The weather forecast was for pretty atrocious weather - wind, rain, hail, thunder etc. But hey, it couldn't be that bad, could it? Well, it wasn't - I survived perfectly adequately.

I decided to try going up a way I hadn't been up before - the Tahuanui track. It was a nice enough track - very muddy up the top, but that's kind of expected: this is Pirongia after all, and it has been raining for months now. As we got higher, we got more exposed to the wind - which was pretty ferocious at times. Finally, we made it to the hut to try and warm up. Some chicken biryani was soon bubbling away and warming us up.

After a good night's sleep, the hut was still standing, despite being thoroughly shaken in the wind and massive amount of rain (I'm guessing 200mm of rain fell overnight - there was a sink outside that was filled up that much - and there's no other way for water to get into it... it really was raining!). After some coffee and porridge, we got walking, and the weather got back to raining. By the time we got to the top, it was hailing again, along with wind gusts that must have been getting up around 80km/hr. With the temperature being somewhere well below 10C, it was certainly cold! The track had turned into a stream by this point, so there was plenty of splashing all the way down. I managed to get down only falling over 3 times, which isn't bad considering how wet and slippery it was.

All up, a good trip - it was nice to get out into the bush again! Next time I go there, I think Naomi might be with me for her Dad-and-daughter tramping trip... hopefully the weather's a little better then!

Why does it always rain on me?

It seems to have been raining for months here... we had a wet June (~220mm), followed by a relatively dry July (~56mm), and then a wet August ~165mm). And September has, so far, been wet (~70mm in the first 12 days). I'm looking forward to summer arriving sometime... and dryer weather to go with it.

Party review

I had meant to do another post soon after Joanna's Birthday, reviewing how various things went (in case you need any ideas for kids birthday parties, or also just a reference for me next time).

Highlights:

• The kids really enjoyed the dinosaur dress-ups and cave (made out of a few large boxes taped together, which they could crawl into play, plus draw on/put stickers on to decorate it). It was a good activity for them all to do while everybody was arriving - and they all enthusiastically played dinosaur roll playing games.

• Having kids all sit up to table to eat, really cut down on the mess on the floor (especially as it was wet and rainy and we all had to stay indoors) - it also creates another 'activity' to add variety to the party.

• The favourite food for both the adults and kids was the 'dinosaur bones' - pretzel sticks that had been dipped in white chocolate and then put in the fridge to set. The second favourite was the 'teradactyl wings' for the adults (chicken nibbles covered in marinade and then baked) and the 'dinosaur eggs' for the kids (small balls of ice cream rolled in hundreds and thousands).

Would change next time:

• Except for my kids, none of the other kids like fizzy drink (ages ranging from 2 - 7).

• Eating time took a lot longer than I allocated, so I ran out of time for any games/stories. Not so much of a problem for a 3yr old party, but will have to factor this in for Ben's party as he will expect/want some games.

Complicated

Trying to complete our Aussie tax returns - our financial lives are complicated and the ATO makes it even more confusing.

Accepting defeat...

I've called a roofing specialist to come and find the source of our leaking roof problem. (Hopefully it doesn't result in a leaky bank account!)

Going to Aussie

I am making our annual trip back to Aussie (that is how NZ's refer to Australia) in September. I'll be back with the kids for 4 weeks (1 week I will be marking QCS papers - it pays for the airfares), and Peter will be back for 2 weeks. So now that Joanna's birthday is past, this is another thing that I now need to spend time planning for and packing for. We are looking forward to enjoying some nice warm weather and sunshine!

Turf cutting

Now that preparation Joanna's birthday/party is over and the weather here is turning more towards spring (warmer, sunnier days)...I have managed to get out in the yard the last couple of afternoons to prepare for spring planting (which is what I will want to get into when we get back from Oz). At this stage, this means creating some new garden beds, so I actually have space to plant stuff. So each afternoon I have removed the turf from a 3m x 0.85m area, to convert into veggie garden beds. It takes me about 1 hour to cut the turf for a bed this size. I think I want to make one more bed, which will mean a total of 4, plus the existing garden bed along the fence line that was already there when we moved in.

New couch = making money

We got a new couch (modern look, leather, 3 seater) last week for free! We had been talking about how it would be nice to get a different one as our old one didn't fit nicely with the shape of our new lounge room(the chaise part just cut the room in two). So thanks to Freecycle we have a suitable couch for free (although we wouldn't have chosen the colour if we'd been buying it), and thanks to TradeMe we were able to sell our other one for a price we were very happy with!

Joanna's 3rd Birthday

Joanna turned 3 last Thursday. Thursday was just the usual family affair - opening presents before breakfast, special dinner and birthday cake for dessert. Joanna was really excited when she came out and saw her presents on the couch. And she showed a lot of appreciation for all her presents.

On Saturday morning, she had her 'Dinosaur Dance Party'. She 'loved' the decorations and all the kids had fun at the party. Playing dinosaur games (dressed up with the dinosaur tails I made), going in the dinosaur cave (including torches to use in the 'dark' cave), and doing the dinosaur egg craft. They also ate lots of yummy food - Bronto bites (meatballs), teradactyl wings (marinated chicken wings), dinosaur bones (pretzel stick covered in white chocolate), chocolate sinking mud (chocolate custard), dinosaur jelly cups, dinosaur eggs (ice-cream balls rolled in hundreds and thousands), and of course the dinosaur cake!

Waikato Cultural Centre

The Stadium! Ben and I had some father-son time enjoying a game of rugby. Waikato ended up losing (to Taranaki, 33-23), but that's just because the ref sin-binned two of the Waikato players just as they were coming back into the game. Or maybe I'm just being a one-eyed local :)

Ben enjoyed the game - he liked the bull (Taranaki mascot) and the cow (Waikato mascot) best.

And I think Waikato Stadium two-thirds empty makes more noise than Suncorp Stadium with 50000 watching a rugby game - have a listen to the video: that's the boo-ing and cow-bells as Taranaki line up a kick.

One other weird thing - Waikato have a guy up in a cherry-picker, just outside the stadium, revving a chainsaw. Just because.