Conor & Ildica's Place

New Year 2014 at Castle Hill

Tue, 07 Jan 2014 16:32:08 +1200

The Castle Hill Basin this summer so far is the greenest we’ve seen it, and the unsettled weather continued right through our New Year break with continual strong winds (up to severe gale for long periods resulting in quite a bit of windfall in the village, Thomas Bush, etc.). However, it was a relaxing break, and we managed to get a great overnight camp in with the kids to the sinkhole above the village on Leith Hill.

One thing I've had my eye on for a long time (it's been beckoning to me while I've been lounging in the afternoon sun on the verandah at The Doug) is a trip up to the tarns at the head of Waterfall Creek in the Craigieburn Range. Ildica & I biked along the Hogs Back Track, stashed the bikes behind a beech tree or two, and headed off up the hill. A great day out, with about 1300m of ascent overall over about 8 hours. Surprised ourselves by not feeling too stiff the day after either!

Bigger map here...

Where is everybody?

Sun, 01 Sep 2013 18:11:00 +1200

Three skifields in one weekend, Cheeseman on Friday, Porters on Saturday, and a fantastic day at Broken River on Sunday. Everybody’s got the hang of the rope-tows now, and with only about 50 people at BR (and at any one time, probably half of them were sitting on the Palmer Lodge deck enjoying a BR lager in the sun), it felt like we had the place to ourselves. I bumped into an old colleague from SunGard days who’s been a member at BR since he was a nipper, so he gave us a bit of a guided tour. Couldn’t have been a better day out! BR had a RiderX competition the day before, so the kids were enjoying trying out the competition track.

Miscellaneous Chch photos

Wed, 14 Aug 2013 14:21:17 +1200

Cub Camp at Raincliff

Mon, 05 Aug 2013 15:30:00 +1200

A weekend camp at Raincliff in South Canterbury included snow tubing at Tekapo Springs, a campfire, a visit to a Maori rock art site, a walk up Mt John at Tekapo, and Maori kite-making. Fun all round.

June 2013 storm

Tue, 25 Jun 2013 15:10:10 +1200

A funny feeling of déjà vu, given we had a big dump of snow in June last year too. Sadly we didn’t get to be snowed in this year, but the kids were desperate to get up and play in the snow, so once the road over Porters Pass was open, we headed up to the winter playground.

An aurora, a sunrise and some toadstools

Thu, 06 Jun 2013 13:53:01 +1200

A brief mention on the Aurora Australis Facebook page about potential visibility of an aurora from Christchurch's Port Hills was enough to send me up to the top of the hill at short notice on a dark Saturday night. While it was difficult to identify as an aurora with the naked eye, my camera had other ideas.

I also got up early the following morning to enjoy watching a beautiful sunrise looking the other way along Lyttelton Harbour before wandering up from Gebbies Pass to Packhorse Hut on Kaituna Saddle. The toadstools bursting out everywhere in the pine forest were very impressive.

Finished woodshed & first ascent of Leith Hill

Fri, 24 May 2013 13:53:26 +1200

With help once more from Richard & Karen, we got the basic framework of the new woodshed finished one weekend, and another weekend saw the roof framework in place with the roofing tin on, with a little bit of tidying up of roof flashings the final touch. Gives us about 6m² storage on one side and 4m² on the other side (which we’ll also use for undercover bike storage when we don’t have too much wood). The new woodshed really complements the style of the house and it was nice to use a fair amount of left over material (the roofing tin, barge cap flashings, etc).

Ruairi & I also made a first ascent of Leith Hill west of the village, on a beautiful autumn day.

Olympia Invitational Rhythmic Gymnastics

Sun, 05 May 2013 17:30:00 +1200

Evie's first rhythmic gym competition in 2 years (couple of earthquakes have disrupted things for us a bit), and she had a ball. Placed third out of twenty girls over three routines (free, rope and ribbon), and a little trophy for her endeavours! She was a little nervous last week, but it didn't show over the weekend at all.

Beautiful leotards by Ildica!

Full album here.

Summer here and there

Sun, 28 Apr 2013 17:39:00 +1200

Looking after bunnies for friends, biking the Hogs Back Track, helping on a work party on the Dracophyllum Flat Track extension, swimming in Broken River, and stopping to smell the flowers...

Castle Hill Easter Art Weekend

Mon, 01 Apr 2013 17:49:00 +1200

Once again, a great Easter weekend at Castle Hill with the Easter Art Weekend. 40+ exhibitors to the exhibition itself, with Ildica running weaving and beading workshops, Conor helping with a photo trail and sharing prints at the house, and everybody just generally having a great time with a great community.

Summer Cub Activities

Tue, 26 Mar 2013 17:38:00 +1200

Ruairi's been having a lot of fun at Cubs this summer. Couple of "away" activities included sailing with the Mt Pleasant Sea Scouts and getting foamed at the Bottle Lake Rural Fire Service.

Ildica Textiles is back!

Mon, 25 Mar 2013 14:19:00 +1200

Ildica's been building up a selection of stock over the last while, and is now offering selected items for sale on the Felt website.

Marilyn, who's been Ildica's "friend" since uni days, was injured in the Feb 2011 earthquake, breaking her shoulder and suffering a fractured skull. Extensive research led us ultimately to send her by air-ambulance to a reconstructive surgeon in Auckland, with his services even extending to giving her make-up a less '80s' look. She looks exceedingly glamorous now, but still manages to unnerve visitors by appearing in corners of the house where least expected.

North Island Tiki Tour

Sun, 20 Jan 2013 09:15:00 +1200

The plan for this year's summer holiday was to trundle round the lower half of the North Island camping here and there, since neither Ildica nor I had been to Taranaki or Napier. After having a smooth crossing on the Interislander, we spent a couple of nights in Wellington with the Glennie family before heading to the depths of Whanganui River National Park where I was keen to get in to the Bridge To Nowhere.

The Bridge To Nowhere is pretty much all that remains from a failed attempt at creating a settlement in the Mangapurua Catchment near the Whanganui River. After 20 years of trying, the last settlers walked off the land with almost nothing to show for their endeavours after the government refused to keep repairing landslips. The bridge (built in the earlier 1930s) is in great shape. We had a great day trip which included jetboating up the Whanganui River to the Mangapurua Landing before walking in to the bridge for lunch and then canoeing back down the river at our own pace.

While at Raetihi, I'd also hoped to get out along the Tongariro Crossing, but a mix of wild wind and lack of access due to November eruptions at the Te Maari craters put paid to that, so we ended up exploring a little around the lower parts of Tongariro National Park before heading to a beach campground at Oakura near New Plymouth.

Taranaki has a strong reputation as a great surfing location, and having spent a day relaxing watching the surfers, I ended up getting a lesson myself and giving it a go. We also went to the Festival of Lights at Pukekura Park in New Plymouth.

Next stop was Rotorua via the Forgotten World Highway. Memorable spots along the way included Damper Falls (second highest in the North Island) and the self-declared Republic of Whangamomona. Nicky Woolaston had recommended Waiteti Trout Stream Holiday Park in Rotorua and it turned out to be a great spot. The free kayaks on the stream were a particular hit. We went luging, zorbing and shweebing, and enjoyed the Agrodome show too. The Hamurana Springs was also another beautifully peaceful place to visit.

Then it was off to Napier via Huka Falls and L'Arte Cafe in Taupo...

Ildica really enjoyed checking out the Art Deco architecture in Napier, and we all enjoyed a trip out to Cape Kidnappers with Gannet Beach Adventures.

All in all, an awesome trip!

Full album here...

Finished the deck

Sun, 18 Nov 2012 21:32:25 +1200

When Mike & Sheila were out visiting at the end of September, Mike spent a weekend cracking the whip during which time we got the substructure for the deck in place. A couple more days here and there getting the decking planks on, and it looks amazing. Really pleased with the way the left-over log has transformed into a rather nice bench too.

We've seeded the “lawn” too now, so it’ll be interesting to see how that goes given the stoniness of the ground.

Colorado (Rocky Mountains National Park & Eldorado Canyon State Park)

Thu, 15 Nov 2012 14:23:48 +1200

After spending a day and a half at the Trimble offices in Westminster CO, I had another day and a half over the weekend before flying back to NZ. The weather didn’t play ball for my decision to take a trip up to Rocky Mountains National Park, but I still got to see some elk down for the winter in the lower grassy meadows, and some picturesque little towns (Lyons, Estes Park, etc.) on the way to RMNP. Sunday morning I got up early to –9°C and an enjoyable little walk at Eldorado Canyon State Park.