Spring 2008

It has finally started to warm up a bit after a rather wet and cold winter. Various views of our garden, Hagley Park and punting on the River Avon! This place is more english than England sometimes.

Volley ball at Sumner

Gareth and Wayne in action at the beach! At least we are saved from tight speedos and crop tops!! I gather the sand got absolutely everywhere! Beth not quite so impressed just read a book!!

Sking again!!

You all know how much we enjoy our skiing. We had an absolutely fantastic day with friends Brad and Sue skiing at Round Hill, Lake Tekapo late September. We were lucky enough to have a late snow fall the day before and conditions were great, powder snow, brilliant sunshine and very few people about (200-300 others at the most).

We had a picnic lunch on the snow andgot some great views of Mount Cook over the lake. Beth and Gareth's skiing has come on a lot this winter. I will be struggling to keep up very soon!

Korean Dance

Beth has been learning Korean Dance at school this year and performed at a few cultural events around the city with her school friends. It is very elegant and looks very colourful. She is with her friends Eva, Lauren and Wendy in the photos above. They were dancing at the Korean Society Day in the city centre a couple of weeks back and they looked fabulous!

The great game of cricket!

Cricket! Gareths passion at the moment is cricket and he is likely to be found practicing at the nets in the park, playing in a match, watching it on Sky or playing it on the play station!! If all of those are not possible he will talk about it!

Karate

Karate has become quite a feature of our lives in the last 3 months. Beth and I both go twice a week. I am a little slower on the uptake with my stiffer joints (!)but we are both enjoying it and the club members are a good bunch. Beth is well on her way to her yellow belt and whilst I am getting a lot of encouragement from Sensai Trevor I think it could be a while before I get there too!

New house!

We are slowly getting settled in our new house. It has been a very hectic couple of weeks, not helped by some truly awful weather. It has pretty much rained solidly for the last 3 weeks!Aparently the worst Winter weather for 10 years. Fortunately for us we don't live in the flood areas. A lot of folk have been evacuated and towns cut off.

This house is a lot warmer and has a proper heating system. We are in a very quiet cul de sac, up a little lane and there is a field over the back fence with a stream running through. Our neighbours seem very friendly and the ones opposite (who come from Rochdale originally!) had us over for a drink last weekend. There are a lot of cats around so Otto & Molly are also getting a social life!!

As there has also been an incredible amount of snow we hope we will be able to get up to the ski fields over the next weeks. Spring is on the way though with Camelias and daffodils out in the lane. Hope you are all enjoying your Summer over there!

minus 5

This photo was taken when we were in the Minus 5 Bar in Queenstown so thought I would add it to the Blog as we are all in it, have our eyes open (despite the flash) and are all smiling- a rare occurence!!

Moving.

We have had a great holiday and now have to set to and pack all our belongings again as we are moving house next weekend. We will have been in NZ almost a year and decided that we would move to get a slightly bigger place in a quieter location. A lot of our stuff is still in boxes and has never been unpacked. It makes you realise how little you actually need to be comfortable and happy. We will e-mail you all our new address once we are settled. I hope you are enjoying our photos and news. At least you have the choice to look or not! And it is fun putting it together even if not many folk have the time to view it.

The last year has had its ups and downs. We are amazed a year has gone by and at the same time feel we have packed a lot in. The kids are half way through this school year now and have both had good half way reports. They have done well adjusting to new schools and making new friends, but like us adults they miss their Kenilworth friends.

We are visiting the UK just after Christmas for 3 weeks. Hope we will have the chance to catch up with some of you. Bet you all have a lot of news too!

Reflections.

Just had to post these photographs as we could not believe how perfect the reflections were.

Time to chill out!

This was a novelty! This drinks bar is made entirely of ice. The seats, bar, sculptures and even the glasses- Gareth decided to eat his! You are given a thick warm coat to wear and a vodka cocktail to drink - Yum Yum!

The Shotover Jet

If any of you make it over to visit us here in NZ then a jet boat ride is a must. Bit of an adrenalin fix! We could hear these boats from the cottage in the Shotover River Gorge below. Very spectacular place- yes I know yet another piece of stunning scenery! Used in the Lord of the Rings- end of the Fellowship of the Ring when they are paddling in the canoes for those who are Tolkien fans. (In fact a lot of the Lord of the Rings was filmed near Queenstown and the local businesses are still making the most of the connection!)

A walk in the snow!

We had a day resting from skiing and had a walk from Arrowtown to get these wonderful views over the town and valley. Not sure the kids enjoyed it as much as Wayne and I did! It was pretty slippy underfoot.

Arrowtown

10 mins from where we stayed is the old gold mining town of Arrowtown. Some pretty neat shops and cafes. Panning for gold in the river is a popular tourist activity- bit too cold for that this holiday!!

Skiing!!

For the first time the kids had the stamina to ski all day and not need picking up too often!