Camping at Whites Bay

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At the end of January we decided to have a short camping holiday with our friends Graeme and Sue. He headed over to Blenheim and camped at Whites Bay - a DOC camping ground in a quiet secluded bay in the Marlborough. We had a nice relaxing time swimming in the sea, flying the kite and going for walks. We managed to recharge our batteries ready to return to school in early February.

Hay Making

In early December, our friends Raewyn and Bruce asked for some extra pairs of hands to help take in the hay at their uncle's small farm in the Moutere. They have a small herd of cattle which are being raised for beef and have a few paddocks which they grow as hay for the cattle in the winter. A farmer from a neighbouring farm brought along the baler and baled the hay. We had had a spell of really good, hot dry weather so the hay was perfect. The bales where easy to lift and a few other members of the Harvey family came along with an assortments of vehicles and trailers to transport the hay to the hay loft. It did really take me back to my childhood days when we used to help with the haymaking at Cromlix. We all had a great time. It just took a couple of hours (350 bales, all counted!) then we all had a beer and tucked into a scrumptious picnic which Raewyn had prepared in the afternoon. A great way to spend a sunny summer evening - we certainly all slept well that night!

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Findlay's Cycling

At the beginning of November Findlay joined a cycling club in Nelson. He had been enjoying doing circuits around the house (everyday after school!) so when we saw an advert for the club we decided to give it a go. He has had a great time. They meet once a week on a Sunday at the cycle track in Nelson. It is a round cycle track with banked corners which goes around the edge of the rugby pitch! He is really enjoying the racing and so far has done very well. They have speed races, handicapped races, Le Mans start races, time trials as well as teaching the kids the skills of cycle racing. He has done very well and has managed to win one race each week. The photos were taken at the Kart racing circuit not the cycle circuit where they met one week to do some distance racing. Looks like we are going to have to start saving for a new bike for his next birthday!
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Kahurangi Point & Lighthouse

In early December Tom headed away for a few days with his work colleagues from across the Nelson Marlborough Conservancy for a "meeting' at Kahurangi Point. To get to Kahurangi Point is, to say the least a bit of a mission. From Nelson drive around 2 hours to Pakawau, in Golden Bay,(where our friend Claire lives) then 50km down a single lane gravel road until it stops, fording 2 rivers on the way - 4 wheel drive vehicle compulsory. From there walk about 5 km along the beach, cross the Big River (yes that's its name) then a further 40 minutes down the beach to the lighthouse keepers house. Rather than carrying all our gear and food down to the house we took two quad bikes, and to get the quad bikes and ourselves over the Big River we took a raft, and, of course, to get the raft to the river we took a 4 wheel drive ute - parking ut up well above the high water mark. The meeting proved to be more of a pre Chrismas social event and a history lesson about the lighthouse, the keepers and community that lived there in the remote part of the north west coast of the South Island, than a meeting - although we did discuss business for 1/2 a day and do a heap of chores around the lighthouse keepers house.

The weather was superb for such an exposed and isolated site - we were very fortunate. It was a great experience to get to such a remote site, with good food, good company and more than a beer or two to go around.

Mt Luna, Kahurangi National Park

Earlier on in the year Tom had discussed the idea of doing a multi day tramp with welshman
Simon Baldwin (Findlays teachers husband). We had thought about the Heaphy Track but time off and logistics didn't work out, so over a beer and a few maps we opted for a three day trip trip to bag the 1630m. summit of Mt Luna in the souther part of Kahurangi National Park.

On Friday lunchtime we headed off to the start of the tramp at the Rolling Riving junction (also the eastern start point of the Wangapeka Track). We had read in the local paper the previous day that the Nelson tramping club were also planning to do a similar trip starting on the Saturday morning so we opted for a 5 hour walk on the Friday afternoon / evening to get a day ahead of them and avoid some poor weather forecasted for Saturday evening.

After the first 2 hours we crossed Kiwi Creek and headed uphill on a well benched track to the 6 bunk Kiwi Saddle Hut arriving around 8.00pm.
The next morning the mist soon cleared and we headed west up to the bushedge then on to the southern top of Mt Luna before heading to the summit and reaching the top about 11.30.
After a leisurly lunch we descended down Stone Creek to join the Wangapeka track at Stone Hut. Another leisurly stop and a cup of tea, then off for a few hours down the track to the historic Cecil Kings hut for the night.
Sunday started off wet as we headed back along the track to our start point at the Rolling River junction.

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Aunt Mary's visit in October

We are enjoying our long summer holidays (school doesn't go back until the 7th February) so I have time to catch up with lots of things including this blog site!

Last October, Tom's Aunt Mary from Edinburgh paid us a visit. She was on a cruise with the Holland America Line which started in Auckland, cruised around NZ then over to Tasmania, Melsbourne and finally Sydney. The ship was docking in Picton for a day which is about 2 hours drive from here but what Aunt Mary decided to do was leave the ship in Wellington the day before it was due in Picton, and fly over here to Nelson, stay the night with us, then we would take her back to the ship the next day.

Tom and I had both arranged to take the day off work and the boys stayed off school. We had a lovely time although the weather was a bit chilly. We took Aunt Mary to the Gardens of the World near Richmond then headed back to Picton on the scenic route via the Nelson Lakes.
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It was lovely having some time with Aunt Mary and catching up with some of the family news.

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Having travelled all the way down to Dunedin for the soccer tournament we decided to stay on a few days after it finished and have a bit of a holiday. While the weather for the football was awful the weather at the end of the week was great and we had a lovely break. We visited the Cadbury's chocolate factory and climbed the steepest street in the Southern Hemisphere. It doesn't look very steep in the photograph but it is really! And no its not called Findlays Road - that was on the way home!

More soccer!

Even before the winter Saturday soccer season ended, training started for national soccer championships. The trials to select the top 15 players in each age grade for the Nelson area had taken place in June and Niall was selected to play as one of the top 15. The 14th Grade, South Island tournament this year was in Dunedin and Nelson were defending the title they had won last season (13th Grade) in Queenstown. As the boys are getting older the competition is getting tougher. There were less teams in the competition this year than in previous years but this meant that the real elite players were concentrated in fewer teams. This also meant the standard of football was higher and great to watch. Unfortunately the pressure of defending their title proved too much for the Nelson team and although they won 5 (out of 6) of their games, they were beaten by the team from Christchurch so came runners-up this year. The weather was very mixed from sunny warm days to sleet and snow on the final day. We had a good time though and stayed on in Dundedin for a few more days. Dunedin is 2 days driving from here so it was good to have a bit of a holiday too.

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Richmond Athletic

Another season over and Saturday soccer has come to an end. Niall's team had a bit of a mixed season, eventually finishing 8th in their league. This didn't really reflect their effort and ability as they had a few unlucky loses at the end of the season but they weren't too dissapointed. It was a good group of lads. Niall and his friend Eric were the youngest with some of the team off to University at the end of the year. At last we will be able to have a lie in on a Saturday - no more 7.30am rises! Yahoo!

Junior Soccer Legend

Findlay's 7th Birthday

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Lunar Eclipse

Last night we watched the most amazing lunar eclipse in the skies above Nelson. This was the first total lunar eclipse or "blood moon" since July 2000. A lunar eclipse occurs whenever the Moon passes through some portion of the Earth's shadow. This can occur only when the Sun, Earth, and Moon are aligned exactly, or very closely so, with the Earth in the middle. Hence, the Moon is always full during a lunar eclipse.

Soccer Champs!

On Saturday 21st July Findlay's soccer team took part in a 7th Grade soccer festival in Nelson. They had a great time. It was a pretty exhausting morning - 5 games of 15 minutes, some without a rest between so they were all pretty tired by the end. Their results were a bit mixed - won 2, drew 2 and lost the last one which was a shame. If they had drawn the last game they would have got into the semi- finals but by that time they were all exhausted so it was maybe as well that they didn't. Their coach - Shannon, is only 16 but is pretty committed to the team and does his best to control eight 7 year olds. All the boys got a certificate and even Tom won the Spectator of the Day certificate and a voucher for a free cheese burger at MacDonalds!

Winter holiday 07

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Le Tour de Rabbit Island

It's the last day of the school winter break and we have another brilliantly clear winters day. Since returning from our week at Raumati Beach the weather has been beautiful - cold in the morning and night (with temperatures down to -2c. degrees) but beautiful sunny and bright during the day. There is heaps of snow on the high mountains in Kahurangi National Park, to the west of Nelson and a dusting on the tops of Mt Starveall and Rintoul, (below), about 10km behind our house.

We watched the first real mountain stage of the Tour de France all morning, (for 4 hours) then after lunch and inspired by the Tour, we loaded up the van and headed out to Rabbit Island. With our bikes unloaded we headed for the safe and relatively quiet gravel roads to the west of the island. We have all had a bit of a cold / cough over the past few weeks, so some good fresh air and exercise was well received. Findlay loves getting out on his bike and is becoming a good confident rider. Tom recorded the afternoon with a new camera his work had bought, so he used the trip to familiarise himself with it. However it was simply "just point and shoot"!

Back to school for Fiona, Niall and Findlay tomorrow.