Life is not measured ....

Yesterday the snow, today the beach

We've had a fantastic weekend - yesterday we had a picnic in the snow, today ice cream at the beach.

photos - today at the beach

posted by Sharon, Ben, Louise and Daniel @ 9:40 am 3 comments

The snow has arrived

Last Saturday we were sat on the balcony 18degC, enjoying a beer with friends from across the road. On Monday Ben came home from work with two inches of snow on the car. Lyttelton is a good few degrees warmer than the city so we only had a few flakes but the port hills surrounding us got a good dusting. On Wednesday we jumped in the car and went up the gondola to watch a beautiful sunset over the port and the city.



The ski field closest to us, Mt Hutt, opened last weekend so we bought snow chains and headed for the mountains yesterday. Less than two hours from Christchurch and a fairly scary steep drive for the last 10kms and there we were on the slopes. The sun was shining, there was loads of snow and we all remembered how to ski – you don’t get better than this. Back in town after a great afternoon, we pitched up at the Mexican restaurant, South of the Border, that we discovered a few weeks ago and finished of the day treating ourselves to a nice big glass of Sangria and the kids charmed the waitresses and enjoyed quesadillas followed by ice cream.

photos - fun in the snow

This past week in Lyttelton has been the Festival of Lights, all the public buildings and many of the houses are all lit up and there are various events on through the week and it finished off on Friday with a street party. The main street in town was pedestrianised and filled with stalls. We watched the parade of the snow queen, listened to the live music and watched some amazing acts of juggling, fire breathing and gymnastics. It was bitterly cold but dry and mulled wine kept us adults warm. We walked back up the road and watched the fireworks from the balcony.

Since starting this blog entry, we've had another weekend where we've been able to get out into the mountains - this time for some sledging, snowmen making and a picnic! Photos included in the link above.

posted by Sharon, Ben, Louise and Daniel @ 11:37 pm 1 comments

Wet and Windy on the West Coast

Yesterday was a bank holiday here – the Queen’s birthday – not sure why NZ get this and the UK doesn’t but it meant that we were able to head off to the West Coast for the weekend. It was a bit of a last minute decision but there are some good deals going on motorhomes at the moment and we figured that the kids would have fun in the van regardless of the weather (winter officially started here on the 1st June and I guess most sensible families leave this sort of thing until the summer …I can hear the return comments already!)

Getting the van turned out to test our humour. The hire centre is over on the other side of the city towards the airport, Ben left work a bit early, we threw a few bits together and drove across town, arriving at around 4:30pm, plenty of time to get sorted and drive part way (or so the plan went at that stage). The hire place is quite amazing, from the number of vans they obviously do a good trade, it was very well organised and within 30 minutes we’d been shown round our van and given a demo of the snow chains (hopefully a precaution rather than a necessity on this trip). We had just started to load up when they realised that actually a mistake had been made and this particular van was not meant to be on the road. So out came the second van, a different model so we went through the same process, got the paperwork sorted and loaded in our gear. Off we went. We got about 300m before discovering that third gear was knackered. We limped back to the hire centre. It was now 7:30pm. Simon, the chap who had been sorting us out was by this time in his car and ready to go home, I suppose he could have shot off but to give him his credit, he stuck with us. At this point we called it quits for the evening and went back home. The kids didn’t moan once, we kept our sense of humour intact and the next day when we returned we made sure that the manager knew that despite the mechanical faults, Simon had done everything he could (my time in RM Services coming out I think). Saturday morning and we were able to get away without any further incident.

We drove from Christchurch through Arthur’s Pass, to the West Coast. A 3 1/2 hour drive through the Canterbury plains, past the ski fields (including Broken River where we stopped and had a picnic a couple of weeks ago – see the photos), through the mountains and on to the west coast. We were staying at a camp site in a place called Rapahoe – small, friendly and right in the beach. The west coast is known for being quite rugged and wet – we saw both from the inside of the van as the rain pelted down and the sea swelled and crashed against the rocks. On Sunday we drove a bit further up the coast, to a place called Punakaiki, which is best known for the pancake rocks and blow holes. For any of you planning to come out to NZ, they are definitely worth a visit.

www.punakaiki.co.nz

In the last couple of weeks, Ben has been busy at work, he’s off up to Auckland next week and loving the challenges and the company. He keeps threatening to do an update here … keep on the look out but for now you’ll have to do with me. I’m now involved in the board of trustees for the school and helping out with funding applications. I continue to help out in Daniel’s class on a Wednesday morning and last Friday went to Science Alive with Louise and the rest of her class. I’m still undecided about working.

Louise and Daniel wrote to their teachers and school friends at Longcot and Fernham and when we got back home yesterday were absolutely thrilled to receive a great big envelope each with letters in return from each and every one of their class. Daniel had a lovely letter from Miss Harris. They both told us it made them feel very special and they have taken them into their classes at Lyttelton Main. Louise’s class is just starting a topic on Europe so she’s looking forward to sharing with her class here some of the differences and the many similarities.

Enjoy the photos and keep the emails coming.

Broken River photos
Rapahoe and Punakaiki photos

posted by Sharon, Ben, Louise and Daniel @ 5:22 am 4 comments