Weekend fun!

Having a relaxed weekend after our busy holiday last week. Sam and I got invited to go quad biking on the beach by Paul Ward, who does some work with us at the council, and races modified class stock cars for a hobby. It took a while to get used to the bike - it does up to 100km/h, so it's a bit of a beast. Had a few scary moments, but managed not to kill myself! Have attached a few videos - click on the links below.

Dad quadbiking

Sam quadbiking



Sam going full pelt!





Paul showing us how its done!

All in all, fantastic fun - thanks Paul!

Holiday in South Island

We decided to take a break in Easter, and head down to the South Island. It was our first real holiday since moving to New Zealand, and we had a fabulous time.

After driving to Wellington we took the Interislander ferry, and arrived at Picton in the evening. The crossing was pretty calm, and as we were sitting having a drink Sam shouted "I just saw a whale" pointing out of the window. None of us really believed him until we looked out and saw it's blowhole spewing out air. What a great sighting!! After arriving in Picton we spent a lovely day lunching, playing mini-golf and playing on the playground. We stayed overnight at the Yacht Club, which was rather posh, but the only place we could book over the break. There was an outdoor swimming pool, which the kids really enjoyed in the morning (being Sam's birthday).


View from the ferry

Sam getting his cake

The next day we had a lazy day around Picton, played mini-golf (again!!) and went for a drive around the coast before arriving in our second motel. Compared to the first night the accomodation was rather chintzy and basic but we coped.

View from around the coast

On day 3 we headed to Kaikoura, and stopped off at the Montana vinyard for lunch, which was (hic) lovely. We stayed overnight at a nunnery, which has been converted to a guest house, before heading off whale watching the next day. Jane went off with Sam and Katherine for the trip and I took Sophie on a tramp around the coast, which was very enjoyable. The others saw three huge Sperm Whales and Jane even managed to get some clear photos! Wonders will never cease! There were albatross and dolphins, but they were too fast for Jane to catch on film.

('kai'- to eat, 'koura' - crayfish!)

The tail, of a whale!

The next part of our journey was off to Hanmer Springs to visit the thermal hotpools, and we spent a really relaxing day bathing at the various hotpools (with waterslides for the little and big kids). Then we were off to the Buller Gorge to cross New Zealands longest swingbridge. We all crossed the bridge on foot and then came back via flying fox, which was great fun but rather challenging for Jane who's afraid of heights. None of the kids were too bothered by the big drop down to the river churning below the bridge (which was seethrough), even Sophie.

Jane's not terrified, honest!

Our cabin in Hanmer

The final part of our journey was a stay in Mapua, on the edge of the Abel Tasman national park. It was a really stunning location, and we went up the coast to see the lovely golden sand that the area is famous for. Then it was back to Picton for the morning ferry. On our way we took a short detour to the 'Honest Lawyer', voted the best pub in NZ. Good beer at last.

Mapua Harbour

The Abel Tasman

A decent pub - at last!

The End of Summer

Summer is officially over here, and finally we have been having some nice weather. The last month or so has been fabulous, and we don't have the really hot nights that bothered us last year either.

The last few months have been pretty busy.

In February I went to a conference at Australia's Gold Coast. I took a few days off and went to visit Dave, Lyn and Jen (my brother, his wife and sister in law) in Sydney. They had rented a place next to Palm beach overlooking the sea with some really fantastic views. Sydney was really amazing, although its a pretty busy place. I particularly enjoyed taking the Manly ferry into town and getting a brilliant view of the Opera House and Sydney skyline. I also met up with Alan Baxter and his wife Halinka. He's an old friend from school that I've not seen in a long time, and had a really pleasant afternoon down near Bondai beach. Alan is a fitness and martial arts instructor, an author and keeps a very amusing blog, whilst his wife is an artist, so they are a pretty talented couple! The conference itself went really well, but that's work stuff! The hotel I stayed at was nice though, and Jane somehow managed to cope with 3 kids for a week.

Jane and I decided to start a health kick, and have been doing well so far. We both have cut out alchohol (mostly!), eating healthy and excersing several times a week. We are also trying to cut the stress in our lives by doing less stuff, so we are not rushing about all the time (not easy with 3 kids!). We also have had the new kitchen floor tiled now, and have finished building our second deck and had our Spa pool installed.

Dave and Lyn came to visit us last weekend, and we had a really busy weekend (and obviously failed most of the above for a few days!). We went out on Chaddy's Charters, which is a boat tour of the local islands and seal colony, and gave them a general tour of the area. We also had a nice lunch at Wa-iti, and Dave and I went to play Golf -I'm not going to say who won. :(


Dave on the boat



Sam Catching a fish!


The park at night


Works been busy this week, and I've finally got the big contract I'm working on agreed (it's been about 6 months of negotiation) so had a little celebration yesterday. Sam had his school swimming show yesterday, which was entertaining to watch.

Not much else to report for now. Looking forward to Dave and Lyn coming back to visit next weekend, and lot's of love to Mary and Kenny who are getting baby Kirsty christened today.

Happy New Year

It's been a fairly quiet Christmas over here, partly because work has been so busy, and partly because of all the things going on in the house.


Jane had her 40th birthday in December, and we rented a double decker bus to take us to a restaurant down the coast, which was a lot of fun. We even had a sound system, karaoke mikes and champagne on the journey, so you can imagine the state Jane got into!






Christmas day we went to Mary and Andrew's for lunch after present opening in the morning. Jane was pretty adventurous and cooked a whole Salmon for our contribution to the festive feast. We had a very nice day, and Santa was extremely good to us all.



On New Years Eve we went for a picnic at Pukekura Park during the day, and went on a rowing boat. The temperature was around 22 degrees which was nice for a change, as it has been really horrible weather recently. By late afternoon the clouds came over and we got caught in a thunderstorm with hail pelting down, so its pretty amazing how quickly the weather can change. We played boardgames in the evening, and all stayed up till 12:00pm.



I took a short video of the kids playing on the slides at the park, which you can see here. It's amazing how much they have all grown in the last few months.

NZ telly was pretty disappointing last night as there was not a single programme which mentioned the change of year at 12:00pm. Not like the big build up shows you get in the UK with 'Auld Lang Syne', pipers and fireworks. We kept wondering if we had got the date wrong!


Anyway, happy New Year to everyone reading this. We've made the usual resolutions to get fit, stop drinking etc, but doubt we will stick to them! Hope you all have a great 2007.

Triathlon and sports day

This weekend we have had the world cup triathlon in New Plymouth again. On Friday, they had the weet-bix 'tryathlon' for kids, in which Katherine entered the team event as a cyclist. The conditions were really hard with high winds, and Katherine managed to complete the 5km circuit which was great going. The kids both had sports day as well, and Sam won the year one sprint final - what a sporting family!




On Saturday we went to the speedway in Stratford to watch my friend Paul in the 'modified class' Taranaki championship and the start of season fireworks. Unfortunately, Paul didn't win but we had a great night all the same!



This Sunday we went to a triathlon party for the world cup event, which was really fantastic, and got really close up to the action. NZ didn't get on the podium, but the free wine and food certainly made up for it!

Weekend camping

Jane's over in the UK at the moment with Sophie, so I've been a 'single parent' the last two weeks. It's been pretty hard work having a job and looking after two kids, but I've really enjoyed the experience so far. In particular getting more involved with what they are doing at school has been a real eye opener.

I decided to take them on their first camping trip this weekend, so we packed up the tent on Friday and went off to the campsite at Oakura beach, which is about 15km out of town. The weather was absolutely fantastic and we had a really great time, although nobody got much sleep. The view out of the tent made it all worthwhile though!



The rest of the weekend has been pretty relaxed. We watched the fireworks from the deck last night, and today has been just spent doing chores around the house and a bit of shopping.

Next weekend is going to be pretty exciting. Katherine has entered as part of a team in the junior 'tryathlon', which is being held as part of the world triathlon event in New Plymouth next Friday. She is doing the 5km cycle leg, and had a successful practice last week. Apparently it is a huge event, so should be great fun. On Saturday we have been invited to a hospitality event (with kids games etc) to watch the real event. Not sure if I'll be entering the race, or just enjoying the free booze and watching from the balcony! Hmmm........

Everything hurts!

We had a really busy weekend. On Saturday I took the kids bowling whilst Jane got the food prepared for our 'year at the council' party for the IT team (what a fantastic wife!)

Sunday morning I got up for the New Plymouth half marathon, which started at 8:00am (after the clocks going forward, so it was pretty early!). It was absolutely tipping it down, so we all got totally soaked. I ran the first leg, which ended up being over half distance (around 11km) and mostly uphill so found it quite tough going. The rest of the team (Joe, Judy, Sandra, Andrew, Jacinta, Danica and Coreen) all did really well, and we raised $1,100 for charity, so thanks to everyone that contributed. Special thanks as well to our 'support crew' Andrew Leusink, who provided champagne at the end (as well as during the race for a few of the walkers!)



Sunday afternoon was spent celebrating my first year at work with the guys I work with. It was a great afternoon, and the rain held off enough to allow us to stay outside (just!). Needless to say, my head was easily a match for my sore legs this morning!