The Frost Family in New Zealand

Weekend fun!

2007-04-22T11:20:00.000+12:00

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

2007-04-21T17:53:00.000+12:00

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

2007-03-10T11:43:00.000+13:00

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

2007-01-01T11:11:00.000+13:00

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

2006-11-12T19:36:00.000+13:00

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

2006-11-05T21:56:00.000+13:00

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!

2006-10-02T20:59:00.000+13:00

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!

Visitors, INXS and a Mayoral welcome

2006-09-29T21:09:00.000+12:00

We had visitors from Longniddry 'pop in' on Sunday. Paul (who I used to get the train to Edinburgh with) and Helen came over, and we spent a really nice Kiwi day with them. We had a bar-b-q lunch (with a few beers) and then went for a walk in Pukekura park. After a drive down the coast we picked up some Fish & Chips for tea, washed down with some cheap(ish) red wine. Doesn't get much better than that!

Us walking in the park

On Tuesday we decided at short notice to go to the INXS concert that came to New Plymouth. In case you've been lost in a time warp (or are older than 50!) INXS have replaced their ex lead via one of these 'pop star' style programmes called (originally) Rock Star INXS. I wasn't expecting an awful lot, but actually they turned out to be surprisingly good.

INXS on stage

Finally, on Thursday night we went to a 'Welcome to the District' function at the Council. It's basically an event to welcome all the new people that have moved to Taranaki in the last year, and was really enjoyable. There was a Maori Kapa haka group, some games for the kids and the Mayor was also greeting everyone and having photo's taken with them.

We met some really nice people including a couple of Scottish families (one of which had a mother in Longniddry!), a woman who had contacted me a while back through this blog (Suki Bishop), a neighbour from 3 doors up the road and a northern English family with funny voices (sorry John!)

Today we made a family movie, which I'll spare you all from seeing and are gearing up to a 'year at the council' party for the guys I work with, which we are having on Sunday (after the half marathon). So by the time Monday comes round, I think we will need another weekend!

Our weekend

2006-09-17T21:20:00.000+12:00

We had a really great weekend.

On Saturday we went to the Aquatic Centre to go swimming, and I was amazed by the kids progress. Sam was swimming in the deep end with the wave machine on full, and was totally confident. Katherine's swimming is also really good. The lessons must be paying off!

Went for a cycle today, and took a few photos. I also found a video of Sam's first day cycling properly, which you can see here.

Katherine

Sam

Sophie

In the evening, we all put on a family show. Sam and I did Star Wars, and Katherine and mum sang 2 songs, and then told a few stories. We all had lots of fun.

A year down under

2006-09-16T10:21:00.000+12:00

It's now a whole year since we started this blog, and we are approaching our anniversary of arriving in NZ.

Sam decided to try and learn to ride his bike (at last!), and with the added incentive of a new scooter he managed to go from nowhere to riding properly in 3 evenings! That's fantastic news for us, as we can now go for family cycles together. Sam has already fallen off his scooter and hurt his nose on the concrete pavement.

Katherine has volunteered for a few performances at school, which is amazing considering how shy she is. She's singing a song called 'when September ends' with 3 friends in front of the school, and I've recorded her singing a bit of it here.

They are both doing well at school, and Sam's reading is coming on fast. He's in the top reading group, and is the only boy in the group.

I've had a few practice training runs for the half marathon, which have been hard going. Not nearly as hard as the event on 1st October's going to be!

Last weekend we had a 50th birthday party, which Jane thought was fancy dress. We nearly did the 'Bridget Jones' thing, but luckily an hour before we were due to go we realised that it was in fact 'smart casual', so didn't end up looking too silly! On the Sunday we had another birthday party, from 2:00pm in the afternoon. We arrived about 5 minutes late and were suprise to see that most of the food was eaten. After asking, we found that it actually started at 11am, so we were in fact 3 hours and 5 minutes late. (Jane's absent-mindedness is getting very tricky!!)

Last night we had tickets to the rugby in a corporate box, with free drink. We dropped the kids off at Murray's sister (Diane and Grant's), who had volunteered to be 'Supernanny', and went to the game with Murray, Vicky, Jacinta and her son Jamie and Oma (Jancinta and Oma work with me in IT). Jane had quite a lot to drink and got a bit 'tiddly' which was highly amusing for everyone else. She's got a bit of a sore head today though.

When we got back to pick up the kids, they were all dressed up and put on a show which they had been practicing all night. It was really fun, and capped off a great night.

This weekend we are off for our first cycle together, and perhaps to the zoo. I'll try and catch up on photo's, which we have been a bit lazy about recently.

Love to all.

Help required for a worthy cause

2006-09-08T19:54:00.000+12:00

The House for Karen project was founded in memory of Karen Van Dillen, and aims to provide a holiday home by the beach as a haven for families suffering with cancer.

Last weekend, heartless thieves broke into the finished house, and stole tens of thousands of dollars of donated equipment.

Following this incident, I've decided to do the New Plymouth Daily News Half Marathon on 1st October to help raise money for this fund. I've also managed to convince a lot of the people I work with to join me, so we have entered a team of 8 in the event.

We aim to raise $1,000 NZ dollars. Please donate if you read this - every little helps. Also feel free to forward this blog entry to anyone else you feel might be interested. Just click on the little envelope below.

Our fundraising page is here : http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/npdcit/

A quiet, cold August

2006-08-26T15:13:00.000+12:00

Augusts nearly over, and no sign yet of coming out of Winter. The weather seems fine most weekdays at the moment, although it rains most weekends!

The first few weeks we really spent recovering from our trip overseas. It's amazing how much time it takes to recover - about 2 full weeks before we were feeling normal again.

Sam's rugby team won the under 7's league, dispite him being mostly absent from the team. Katherine won player of the day in her last netball game, so she was really pleased with herself. We took ourselves out to dinner last weekend to celebrate.

Last week, the surfboard I bought on TradeMe arrived, so I'm ready for a summer season of surfing. Might even start going out on my lunchbreaks if the weather is nice - how cool would that be? :D

Around the world in 20 days - part V - Home again

2006-07-24T17:25:00.000+12:00

We decided to get to LA airport very early, after quite a lot of rushed experiences at previous airports. The goal was to get an early checkin and then spend some time relaxing, and browsing the shops.

However, when we got through security checks we found that there was a sum total of three shops, as the terminals are all kept totally seperate. So we had a three hour wait with pretty much nothing to do. Another nail in LA's coffin.

Not a bad journey - the kids both slept for 8-10 hours, Sophie was pretty good and Jane and I didn't have too bad a time either.

So finally, after 8 flights, several bus journeys, a train trip and a lot of driving we are back home. Around the world in 20 days - eat your heart out Phileas Fog!

Around the world in 20 days - part IV- Los Angeles

2006-07-24T16:52:00.000+12:00

We arrived in LA after yet another 12+ hour flight and were all getting pretty knackered by this point. After a lengthy wait to get through immigration, another lengthy wait for our baggage, a length wait for the bus, and an hours bus journey to the hotel we were all pretty shattered.

To find at this point that we had a single room with two double beds and no 'crib' was only slightly upsetting, particularly since they couldn't move us till the following day and had no cribs available. We made do, but were just about ready to leave the hotel the next day.

However, we managed to get into a suite the next day, and things got a lot better. We went to a water park, which was slightly dissapointing because there was no shade whatsoever, which given that the temperature in LA was also in the high 30's / low 40's (with high humidity) the week we were there, was really not ideal. However we still had a good day.

Trying to keep cool at the water park

The next day we went to Disneyland, and lasted from 8am till 5pm, which was pretty good going considering the time difference and jet lag we were suffering from. The kids were very exited to meet Mickey, Minnie, Goofie and Donald - much more so than we expected.

It's Mickey!

On the Thursday we drove to Long Beach and visited the 'aquariam of the pacific' as well as going on a Blue Whale safari, which we sort of expected to be a dissapointment. However, we actually got to see three blue whales, which was an absolutely amazing and humbling experience. Katherine even said it was more amazing than going to Disneyland.

The blue whale takes a dive

We finished off our LA experience on Friday with a visit to Venice beach, including the famous muscle beach. It took ages to get there in the busy LA traffic, and was a real dissapointment due to it being pretty run down and seedy. Muscle beach had two fat old blokes working out, and an old lady in a polka dot outfit - not quite what we were expecting to see!

Us at Venice beach

We had a quiet day shopping in 40+ degree heat on Saturday, before heading to the airport in the evening for the last leg of our trip. Overall we had an amazing experience in LA, but I don't think we will rush back, due to the massive overcrowding, smog, heat and generally unfriendly reception we received.

Around the world in 20 days - part III - Scotland

2006-07-24T12:52:00.000+12:00

On Saturday 8th July we flew up to Scotland to spend some time in Aviemore with Jane's mum and dad. We stayed at a holiday cottage, which was fantastic and really relaxing.

For my birthday we went to Landmark outdoor activity centre, and had a really great day, followed by an evening meal at a really good Italian Resteraunt. Of course, I also got to watch the Wimbledon mens final, and the world cup final. Pretty good day, eh?

Me enjoying my birthday at Landmark

On the monday we went and fed Jane's shopping withdrawl sypmtoms with a trip to an out of town shopping centre in Inverness, and then headed to Edinburgh by train on Tuesday.

We stayed at Mary's and Kenny's (Jane's sister and husband) house in Aberlady whilst in Edinburgh, and had a really great time visiting friends as well as spending some quality time with Mary and Kenny. Katherine spent some time with her old school friends, Rachael, Emma and Kirsten and was quite sad when we left.

Around the world in 20 days - part II - England

2006-07-15T20:29:00.000+12:00

We arrived in London on Monday 3rd July after a 13 hour flight and were picked up at the airport by my brother Dave and sister-in-law Lyn. We went to stay at their 'mansion house' in Reigate for four days.

We pretty much spent the first day recovering from the flight, although I popped over to see mum and dad for a pint at lunchtime. Dave's got a new car, an open top jag, which is really smart, so I enjoyed the trip round the M25 for once!

Most of the week we spent with family, in particular visiting mum and dad. We managed to see pretty much all of the southern family and had a really great week. On the Thursday we went to Chessington World of Adventures, which was great for the kids (especially the big kids!)

Around the world in 20 days - part I - Singapore

2006-07-14T20:01:00.000+12:00

On Saturday 1st July we left New Plymouth for our visit to the UK. We had decided that it made sense to break the journey up with a stopover at Singapore on the way over and LA on the way home, so its been a bit of a world tour.

Anyway, we left New Plymouth on Saturday morning and got on a plane bound for Auckland where we were due to transfer to Singapore. To cut a long story short, Jane's trip to the shops coupled with my inability to fill out departure forms quickly ended with us on a 'final call' and being last passangers on the plane.

After a short sleep, I got up at 4:30am to take the kids out for a walk since everyone was awake. We managed to watch the end of Brazil - France in a MacDonalds, which was the only place open for breakfast. Singapore was really busy, since so many Singaporeans are mad on football.

Once Jane finally managed to rouse herself, we went for breakfast in town, then had a swim in the hotel pool.

Us in the pool

Singapore was totally amazing - the sheer number of posh designer shops blew us away, although there was not many that we could afford to shop in! We had one of the best Indian meals we have ever had down by the waterfront, although the temperature was so hot that we were all sweating buckets. We then went down to the famous Raffles hotel (after the Raffles mall of course!) for the obligatory photo with the doorman. We also went to a Singapore market where they had all manner of strange and exotic foodstuffs.

Raffles Doorman

Dont know what it is dad, but it stinks!

Back to the hotel for another swim, we then had a meal before leaving for the airport. Needless to say, by the time we got to the terminal we were all absolutely knackered so sleep on the next flight was not a problem for (everyone except Sophie unfortunately).

Trade me, rain, monkey bars and a netball victory

2006-06-18T21:20:00.000+12:00

Jane bought a childrens playground on trademe this week, including a good set of monkey bars, which Katherine has been wanting for a LONG time. A bargain at $180, with the only snag being that I had to pick it up from Hamilton on Saturday.

It's actually amazing how big trademe is here in NZ. It's sort of like eBay in the UK, except that most of the population have used it at one time or other to buy something. No wonder it sold for $200 million recently.

Anyway, on the way to Hamilton I saw to young lads hitchhiking, so decided to give them a lift. (I've already been told off by Jane, so don't start mum!). The boys were also off to Hamilton, to pick up a car they had just purchased on trademe! I also picked up a man off to Taumarunui hospital where his girlfriend was in labour, poor geezer!

So, 7 hours later, after spending $125 in petrol and a $50 trailer hire, I returned with the cheap playground set in the pouring rain, totally knackered. Jane had been rushing around with the kids all day, and I'm not sure who was the most tired.

Sunday's been a bit more relaxed. Katherine played in a netball tournament, and the Mangorei Marshmellows have finally won their first game. Thank goodness - Katherine was very pleased with herself. The weather has been pretty awful, so not much else got done, apart from a trip to the Warehouse to buy some room heaters!

Looking forward to coming over to the UK for a few weeks nice weather - ironic eh?

There's a moose loose about this hoose

2006-06-11T20:49:00.000+12:00

We were reading bedtime stories tonight, when Katherine shouted - "THERE'S A MOUSE IN THE LIGHT". Actually it wasn't in the light, but it was in our DVS system, which is a sort of dehumidifier / ventilation system.

Eeek eek (click the picture for a close-up)

Sam suggested using a net to catch the mouse, and so a cunning plan was formed. With a bit of cheese and some tape, the trap was set and the mouse had no chance.

A trap so cunning, its practically curtains for the mouse already.

Sure enough 10 minutes later, a mouse enters the net.

Watch out moosie...

Some quick net handling, and he's out in the cold. Poor mouse - I left him the cheese though!

Rugby

2006-06-11T20:37:00.000+12:00

I went through to Hamilton on Saturday to watch Ireland play the All Blacks. Ireland played a storming game, and it was only in the 70th minute that NZ took the lead, and a lot of people got behind them (myself included) because of how well they played. Had a fantastic time, and the group I went with were a lot of fun. I realised how weird it was though - an Englishman with a Scotland top on and NZ face paint cheering for the Irish! However, I wasn't too upset when NZ got the victory.

2006-06-08T18:13:00.001+12:00

We've been quite busy over the last few weeks, but not really sure whats been taking up all the time. Sophie is still not well, and is waking up several times a night coughing, so its affecting our sleep.

Sophie having her breakfast - no they are not new teeth!

Last weekend was a long one, as the Queens birthday (not that it actually WAS the Queens birthday!) is a public holiday in NZ. We find that quite funny, since its not even celebrated in the UK! (If we ever become NZ citizens, we will need to swear alligence to her Majesty which is even stranger!)

Anyway, my friend Brian from work came round to help us start sorting out the garden, since he's a bit of an expert in hortiwhatitcalled. He made an excellent job of pruning the tree in the front garden, and then demolished the shrubs in rapid time so we can lay a lawn in the front and make a better play area for the kids

Brian 'chainsawing' the tree

On the Saturday night we hosted a dinner party for 10 adults, plus the 3 kids, with the usual Scottish crowd. We did a three course indian meal (the puddin wasn't indian!), which seemed to go down a treat and was a lot of fun, even though we were both rather tired from being up with Sophie overnight.

Sunday I took Jane for a suprise meal out, and we went to the Laughing Budda, which is a really nice Chinese resteraunt in New Plymouth. Had an excellent meal, and it was really good to have some quality time together so we may make it a regular occurance.

On Monday, we went to a Queens birthday party at the Macnaught household, which was a lot of fun. Quite a lot of people dressed up as royalty, and they had a quiz and an award ceremony, along with some fine tucker.

Party at the Macnaughts

This weekend I'm off to watch the All Blacks play Ireland at Rugby in Hamilton, which should be a great experience. Not sure if I'll stay up till 2:30am to watch the first England match in the World Cup, but might still be up anyway!

Oh, and we've changed the look of the blog - let us know if you like it...

Sickness, hiking and camping overnight

2006-05-21T18:50:00.000+12:00

The family have all been a bit sick this week. Katherine and Sam have been ill at the end of last week and this week Jane has had a sickness bug and Sophie seems to have a nasty cold at the moment, which is taking ages to clear up.

Once Katherine and Sam got better, they went back to their various sporting activities. Sam continued his teams unbeaten run at rugby, whilst Katherine's team continued their own 'not so good' run at netball! Still, its the taking part that counts.

Katherine in defence

Sam starting to get the hang of things

I took Katherine 'camping' this weekend. We went for a walk at Dawson Falls (at the fot of the mountain), and then stayed overnight at Konini Lodge with Murray from work, and a load of his friends. There was 10 adults, and about 13 kids, so it was a bit of a madhouse. Katherine enjoyed herself, and it was nice to spend some time alone together.

We got back early Sunday morning and had a quiet day. We went for a walk and Katherine and Jane went to the Aquatic Centre for a swim. The weather here continues to get colder, but is still bearable at around 17 degrees during the day. Not looking forward to it getting much colder though!

There's snow on them hills

2006-05-14T17:02:00.000+12:00

Not much to report this week. We are planning to start demolishing the shed in the garden as part of our garden improvements. Sam and Katherine have both been ill this week, but seem to be on the mend now.

Mountain had its first coat of snow yesterday - looks pretty spectacular when its not covered in cloud!

Back to the grindstone

2006-05-09T16:52:00.000+12:00

After our weekend in Rotorua, its been back to work work work.

Sam went back to school and seems to be settling in now, with no more (or at least, not as much) complaining about it. He's also gone back to Rugby, with a few tears the first week, but now wants to play it all the time. He's got an ex international player as a coach, so we are expecting rapid advancement through the junior ranks!

Katherine started netball practice last week for the school team, and was expecting to play her first game today. Unfortunately however, both she and Sam have come down with a sickness bug, so she will have to wait for the next match.

The last few weekends have been really busy, although in a relaxing way. We've been for several walks, had Sam's rugby both weekends. This weekend Katherine and Jane had a girls afternoon and went to the cinema together, whilst me and Sam (with Sophie) went shopping for some rugby boots and played games together.

On Sunday we gave mum breakfast in bed, cards and a lie in for 'Mothers Day' before realising that it is not until next week! D'oh. We also went out for a really nice meal with friends Mary and Andrew (and others) for Mary's birthday. We were nearly very late, however as we needed to rescue a moose, loose about oor hoose! It made good it's escape so we left it until we came back. Sam was off to bed and came back through saying the mouse was in his bed, so the cat was dispatched to corner it. The wee fella decided that running into a container was a far better option than being gobbled up by Spike....so all sorted (until the next time!).

Weekend in Rotorua

2006-04-25T12:47:00.000+12:00

We decided to take advantage of Anzac day, and spend a long weekend in Rotorua. We left on Friday afternoon, and arrived at our Motel just after dark.

There was a Moto-cross event on that weekend, and the bikers were all staying at the same place as us. We were a bit concerned when we arrived that there would be lots of noise, and drag racing up and down outside the room - but everything turned out fine on that front.

On the Saturday we went up the cable car to have a shot on the worlds first concrete luge track, which was great. Sam and I went first, and while the guy was showing me how the brakes work, Sam shot off down the track (luckily the 'scenic' track- which was still fast!) at a furious speed, completely out of control. By the time I caught him he was more than a little frightened! Jane and Katherine went down next, and then Sam and I did a tandem on the Intermediate track, which was quite challenging and heaps of fun. Jane also did the Intermediate track, and I just had to have a shot on the fast track which was incredible.

Jane on the Luge

After a quick trip to the shops (the Rotorua shops were no better than New Plymouth, thank goodness!) we went out for a really nice meal at a stone grill restaurant, where you had to cook the meal yourself on the table.

Jane cooking her own dinner!

The following day, Jane went to the Polynesian Spa (voted one of the top 10 mineral spa's in the world apparently!) for the day, whilst I took the kids to Paradise Valley Springs, where you can feed wild trout in the streams, get in a cage with Lion cubs, and watch them feeding the adult lions. The kids really enjoyed themselves, and Jane had a really relaxing day - nice of me, eh?

Jane goes to the spa

whilst I feed children to the lions!

The final day we had a family swim at the Polynesian spa, before heading home. All in all, a fantastic time.