Christmas 2011

What can we say? That was a completely and utterly fabulous Christmas!

The sun shone for days on end and the temperature climbed up for us (although at 24 degrees centigrade it was still 20 degrees less than last year!). But enough to spend most of the last few days outdoors having the kind of Kiwi Christmas we’ve really missed while we’ve been away over the last few years.

First off, Jake was desperate to re-instate his tradition of surfing at Christmas, so on Xmas Eve we packed the board in the car and drove over to Lyall Bay where, in true tradition, the water was almost flat as a pancake and unsurfable. This follows a pattern – the same thing always happens every year, but at least this year he didn’t make us wake up at 6am to do it. Instead, we spent half a day pottering about in the waves and lazing in the sun – bliss! It was also probably a good thing, since Jake managed to fall under a train a couple of days ago (but that’s another story altogether!) and I’m not sure that surfing would have been a good idea in his current condition.

We followed this up with a potter around Breaker Bay, one of our favourite beaches in Wellington, where we spent a lot of time over the winter – it’s such an absolutely stunning place. Unfortunately this time we were left rather red faced when we discovered that unbeknown to us, it is actually a nudist beach. Over the last 6 months the winter weather has been somewhat cooler, thus preventing much nudism from taking place, so we had never realised before. But this time the crowds were out – which was a little difficult to explain to the kids and a little uncomfortable for us! 

To round off the day we followed one of my family traditions and celebrated Wigilia (a Polish Christmas celebration) with fish and chips on the beach at Seatoun. Wigilia demands that no red meat is eaten, and as a child I grew up on fish every Christmas Eve. This seemed like a pretty good way of adapting the tradition!

For Christmas Day, Jake managed to build our new barbeque (despite train injuries) and our Christmas lunch was a fantastic traditional kiwi concoction of steak, sausages, kebabs and pavlova followed by a lazy afternoon with some new friends - lots of sunshine, more pavlova, beer, wine and water play (depending on your age).

Yesterday we hung out on Raumati Beach where a couple of kids had just been out fishing and brought back a baby tiger shark – yikes! Everyone had a little stroke of its fins, but we got out of the water pretty fast after that!

The whole Christmas period followed this same pattern – lots of beaches were visited, shells and stones collected, crabs and starfish were poked, and in between we hung out in the garden drinking wine, playing music, opening presents, playing with presents, etc etc. And it’s not all over yet so I better get back to it....bye for now!

Summertime...

So it’s summer and it’s the school holidays and it’s nearly Christmas, and this is what our lives are looking like these days...

The kids are loving lots of bike trips and I am loving the fact that we frequently end up at the local cafe!

Molly walked straight in today and placed my order at the counter without even checking with me what I wanted. She got it right of course. Oops, perhaps we have been going a little bit too often....? 

The Pohutakawa trees are starting to bloom (New Zealand's Christmas tree), the agapanthus are starting to bloom, the garden is blooming, Wellington is blooming, and despite our children's best efforts to strip all flower beds bare and fill up all our vases, cups and jars with their pickings, there's still plenty of colour everywhere.

The evenings are long and sunny, and the kids are allowed to stay up later than usual chasing bubbles on the deck, chalk drawing Christmas tree pictures all over the driveway, eating chocolate and watching Christmas movies.

We’re making use of all the beautiful walking tracks near our house...(and it's incredibly handy that the cafe is nearby afterwards!) 

And we've been swimming as much as we can. At the last count I think as a family we've been in five different swimming pools in the last week. We've even visited the outdoor swimming pool a few times (it’s not quite the same as Alice Springs though – brrr!)... 

The End of the School Year

Following two or three weeks of sheer excitement and plenty of fun, Molly’s school finished for the year today. It feels like a big milestone....

(For those in the UK: the NZ school year runs from January to December, with the long summer holidays running from Christmas until February).

What a year! She began 2011 with her first day at Primary School back in Alice Springs, and is finishing up her first full year in Wellington. It’s amazing to see how far she’s come.

Things she does now which she couldn’t do at the beginning of the year: she can read books, write stories & letters, make up poetry and do simple maths.

She often goes for playdates at her friends’ houses (without a parent); she’s performed in concerts (very many of them!); she knows all about the local and world news, and all about the environment & planet Earth.

She can sew/embroider, she can sing along to many pop songs word-perfect, she follows the every move of Dan Carter, understands what advertising is and has a firm grip on New Zealand politics.

Way to go, little Molly!

Christmas is here already

We have to admit it. This year we have completely abandoned our usual principle of “Christmas does not start until the 3^rd week of December”.

It’s just impossible not to get into the spirit now we have a 5 and 3 year old.

Christmas cookies have been baked. 

Letters to Santa have already been written and left by the fireplace.

The kids have both already had their school Xmas concerts.

There's no longer much school work going on - the last couple of weeks are all about trips to the park, fun swimming sessions, Christmas movies, school picnics etc. Even better - no more homework! (oops, I shouldn't really say that, but it's a huge bonus not to have to fit in a reader, spelling, news preparation etc etc every night at the moment).

Presents have been purchased (well, not all - sorry Jake!).

All our cards have been written & posted, and lots of cards and presents have started to arrive from all over the world (thanks everyone!).

The Christmas CD has been retrieved from storage and has already been played too many times.

Alfie has sat on Santa’s knee and advised him of the importance of having a Bey Blade in his stocking this year. 

And the tree went up yesterday.

(The alien was Molly's prize in a dancing competition at the local village fair this weekend, and is now an important member of the family). 

Happy Christmas everyone!

The Weekend

We all got a bit of a fright this weekend when a 5.7 magnitude earthquake rocked Wellington. We’ve been in a few mag 3 and 4’s over the years but never anything as big as this one. According to official reports it was the biggest one to hit Wellington in 45 years. Never mind the timeline - it was seriously scarey.

Once we’d climbed out from underneath the beds and got the kids back to sleep, the wedding wine came out – sorry guys, but we needed to open a bottle to steady our still-shaking hands. Will replace it before the big day we promise!

Meanwhile, Jake continues with his torturous 3 hour runs up the mountains each weekend, always returning to the house begging for food and massages. While he was out yesterday there was a very special moment when I discovered Molly and Alfie had gone upstairs to sit quietly together by the window while Molly taught Alfie how to sew. So cute.

Other excitement this weekend included Molly’s ballet concert. She was simply awesome in her role as “Molly” from the movie Annie – well done Molly! (And well done to Alfie for sitting up the front so nicely with the other kids and giving your sister the biggest clapping in the world).

Nature

As Jake left for work the other day we heard a big shriek - “Wendy, get out here NOW!!!” .

So I rushed out to the garden and I too stopped still in fright!

With life in Alice Springs still fresh in our minds, Jake and I had stumbled across something on the garden path which we believed to be a baby snake.

Holding the kids back, I gathered my thoughts together and reminded myself that New Zealand has no snakes. There are no snakes here. Snakes do not appear on garden paths in Wellington. It cannot be a snake.

And no. It wasn’t a snake – it was a giant worm! Like, a ridiculously giant worm, probably a good 30 to 40 cms long.

And stripey.

How I’ve managed to not see this type of creature before I don’t know, because I’ve since discovered that giant worms are not uncommon in NZ and there’s even one which lives in North Auckland that grows to 4 ft 6 inches – nearly as big as me, now there’s a good reason not to move back to Mairangi Bay!  

Wellington: Blown Away

We’re starting to get used to Wellington’s unpredictable weather now – one minute you get a stretch of sunny days and you think “ah..... I love springtime”:  you spend all day outside, apply the suncream, keep a supply of beer in the fridge, start thinking about getting out the barbeque and camping equipment, etc, etc.

Then all of a sudden, in line with our new and controversial city signage, the wind and rain start and you have a couple of days when you wonder if you dreamt it all. It’s during those times that we desperately miss Auckland, but we’ve said it before: you can’t beat Wellington on a good day!

Life at the moment is ticking along well though. Alfie’s in constant rehearsals for his first ever Christmas concert  (“I am a pohutakawa tree, la la la la la”), Molly’s in constant rehearsals for her third ever Christmas concert (“Aotearoa Christmas, celebrations in the sun, la la la”), and then Molly’s in even more rehearsals for her first ballet concert (“It’s a hard knock life for us....”). So it’s a very musical household at the moment.

Except for me – my lovely piano hasn’t been touched for weeks due to excess commitments to other stuff like wedding planning, Christmas planning, holiday planning, work planning. (Note to self: must make time to bash out a bit of Sinatra tonight after Zumba).

Meanwhile Jake’s still in training for his mountain endurance race, which the organisers have just brought forward by 8 months (bad planning!). He is now running up and down the mountains for 3 hours at a time each weekend, spurred on by the knowledge that he’ll have a support team ready when he gets home who are more than happy to supply fresh muffins and smoothies and foot massages. The novelty will wear off soon I’m sure...

A Copper Skink (we think)

After coming home from school today and eating about 3 kilos of lemon cake, Molly and Alfie found a sleeping moth on the couch and decided to make it their pet.

Of course first off a home had to be made for it. So I gave them an old Indian takeaway box which they took into the garden and filled with leaves and sticks, and then all of a sudden I realised Alfie had been bottom up on the deck for a long while staring at something.

I went to investigate and found a little lizard peeping out from between two planks on our deck.

It wasn’t very long ago at all that our desert dwelling children thought nothing of sunbathing lizards, but having not seen one for 6 months now the novelty is back on again. They proceeded to spend the best part of two hours sitting on the deck watching it and willing it to come out.

Alfie put a dish of water out, then went around the house collecting dead flies and moths and put them in a pile next to the dish.

Meanwhile, not knowing so much about lizards in NZ, I got on the phone to our handy contact at the Department of Conservation to find out more information. The comedy master himself advised me that because they are a protected species I was to call the police.

Telephone in hand, I was poised and ready to call 111 when a Skype message popped up on the computer:

ha ha ha ha ha

NO

not really.

Yeah, funny Jake.

 As he is clearly unable to advise on any native wildlife, despite working for such a prestigious Government department, I did my own research. Using his own organisation’s website. It was a Copper Skink. I think.

Mt Kau Kau

I thought it was about time I posted about Mt Kau Kau.

It’s one of our regular haunts here in Wellington – there’s a kids playpark at the base which we absolutely fully utilise to the max and there's a very lovely little cafe at the bottom too. 

When we're feeling more active, I love walking up it - I take my iPod and completely switch off from everything, which is a really lovely feeling these days (despite the occasional rather dubious track which has somehow made its way onto my playlist, eg Pants by Lenny Henry??). 

Meanwhile, Jake runs up and down it several times a week as part of his mountain endurance training something-or-other......to be honest, I’m not exactly sure what it is he’s doing. All I know is him and his friend are constantly running up and down mountains in preparation for some ultra marathon next year, and that it also involves much purchasing of sports gels, power drinks and new shoes.

It’s not actually a very high mountain. In fact we often wonder whether we should be referring to it as a hill or a mountain? (What’s the actual definition of a hill, I wonder?) Anyway, Kau Kau is just 445 metres above sea level, but it’s pretty steep and rocky and muddy so it’s quite a challenging walk/run. 

Having said that, the kids have managed the climb twice now (although Alfie’s efforts were rather pathetic and involved a lot of carrying) and when I'm on my own I can get up to the top within half an hour.

At the top you get brilliant views of the city, the harbour, the wind farm, and the numerous mountain ranges which surround Wellington. On clear days we can also see right across to snow-capped mountains in the South Island. 

Beware anyone who visits us in Wellington and is looking for a relaxing time - we WILL be taking you up Kau Kau!

Wedding Clothes

This weekend (in amongst a billion and one other things), we’ve been hunting for wedding outfits.

Buying for the bride is supposed to be the hardest bit, isn’t it? Except today we spent FOREVER looking for Jake’s trousers. Seriously. What is it with this skinny fit trend? Whoever invented it really didn’t have Jake’s best interests at heart!

Buying Molly’s outfit is going to be lots of fun, and we had a great time looking at accessories today.

Clothing for Alfie has been left as Jake’s responsibility – I did see him looking at some very cute shirts in Pumpkin Patch, but I have serious reservations about the jeans idea Jake!

As for myself, thanks to my lovely Granny back in the UK who has offered to buy my wedding dress, I tried on some completely gorgeous things today, although of course it’s all top secret so I can’t possibly post any pictures here.

Instead I’ve posted some pictures of beautiful Wellington city which I took as I was walking from shop to shop trying on dresses.......until I suddenly came across the rest of my family eating upside down ice creams on the waterfront! 

Makara Beach

Recently, Makara Beach has become one of our favourite secret places to hang out in Wellington. It’s so hidden away from the rest of the city and it feels wild and isolated and just “west coasty”.

On Sunday morning we said to the kids “What do you want to do today?” and their reply was absolutely, most definitely, Makara Beach.

So, despite Jake’s dislike of winding roads, we headed out west with big buckets (to collect stuff in), ready for some pottering around and wading in the rock pools.

There are always paua shells, pumice stones, screw shells and other pretty things to collect, and there are always water snails, barnacles and other interesting things to find in the warm rock pools.

I’m actually very pleased I have two small children because I love exploring and collecting bits and pieces but I’d never get away with doing all this stuff otherwise!

This particular visit was extra special because the weather has warmed up enough now to paddle and lie in the sun (desperately trying not to fall asleep!).

The Busiest Ever Day in Wellington

I thought my last post was going to be the very last Rugby World Cup related post on this blog, but no..... it’s not all over yet!

This week the ABs have been tirelessly continuing to travel around the country for their victory parades, with Wellington’s turn on Wednesday.

When the lunchtime date was announced, my first reaction was that it was a great shame it was during school hours. The kids missed out on watching a lot of the games because many of the most important ones were scheduled late at night – we think to allow people from around the world to be able to watch them. So we were gutted to think that they might miss out on the celebrations as well.

However, Molly’s school quickly sent an email to all parents to say the children would be allowed out of school for this fine moment in history, as did many other schools in Wellington (although I heard one boys school has just given all those who attended the parade a detention).

The media estimates are that over 100,000 people lined the streets of Wellington, despite the crappy weather. This is around half the population of Wellington! To our wee kids this in itself was pretty unforgettable as until recently they lived in a community of only 27,000 (and 2,478 before that!). 

We chose to stand outside The Beehive so we could watch (prime minister) John Key greeting the team, a line up with the sparkly cup, and an unexpected Haka on the steps of Parliament.  

Despite the occasional reminders of being back in London (standing room only on the train, over-crowded streets, etc), the day was pretty phenomenal. WELL DONE THE ALL BLACKS!!!

Go the All Blacks!

What an ending to six and a half weeks of rugby mania. NZ won the RWC2011. Bloody brilliant!

Wellington was host to only a few games, but all the way through there’s been so much going on in the city with bands playing on the waterfront, special kids’ rugby activities at the museum, people of all nationalities walking around town, painted faces, flags EVERYWHERE you look, and there’s been a real buzz in the air for six weeks.

The whole season has been fantastic, and I’ll be very surprised if it doesn’t form a big chunk of the kids’ earliest memories once they grow up.

After a very long afternoon nap today, the final tonight was the first match Alfie actually managed to watch, as he’s always fallen asleep too early for all the others. Having now seen for himself what real rugby is (as opposed to his usual rough & tumble with his mates in the playground), Alfie’s now decided he wants to be an All Black (and a clown) when he grows up and Molly’s going to come and watch him train every day. She is, however, worried that he might hurt himself and asked many times tonight “whoever invented rugby Mum, why did they make it so rough?”

Anyway, congratulations NZ – what a great tournament and a great final! We feel very proud and privileged to have made you our home. 

Alice in Wonderland

The weather forecast today was a cold & wet one, so I decided a day into the city was in order – the kids just love going on the train and I had also planned to take them to the Alice In Wonderland exhibition and Te Papa, the national museum which we all love so much.

But those weathermen often get things wrong (although you've got to hand it to them - it must be quite challenging to get it right in a city like Wellington) and instead we had a glorious, warm and sunny day.

We did pop in to Wonderland where Molly got to play at being Queen of Hearts, Alfie played flamingo croquet (he was surprisingly good, although it took me a while to work out which angle to stand at to protect my ankles from wayward balls) and we all celebrated our "unbirthdays" with some cake decorating.

But for most of the day, we just wandered around the waterfront feeding birds, looking at the sculptures, playing rugby at the Fanzone and exploring.

Ah Wellington.... you can’t beat it on a good day!

A few days at the beach

Well, that was just what the doctor ordered!

A huge big thank you to Fiona, for the loan of her family bach on the Kapiti Coast. We had the best few days ever, and it reminded us of everything we love about New Zealand. 

It was also very nice having Jake back in the family again – he’s finally back from the world of rugby (although he did insist on watching the Wales-France game on Saturday night).

So – we taught the kids how to play cricket, we ate all our meals outdoors, we watched movies (lots of them), we pottered around on the beach, we collected shells (of course!), we built sandcastles, we sat for hours in the local cafe, we read newspapers from cover to cover, we ate well and we drank beer - in the daytime!

It was a very wonderful few days, and I just can’t wait to do it all again!

Girls Day Out

So that's week 1 of school holidays over already - it went so quickly! 

We’ve had a really lovely time this week. While Alfie was at pre-school on Wednesday (he gets shorter holidays) I took Molly for a day out in the city. 

We went on the train, watched The Smurfs at the cinema, then met Jake for lunch, where he treated us to a pie at a nearby cafe – then declared he’d forgotten his wallet (luckily I was present with my credit card).

Afterwards, Molly and I decided to continue the glamour of our big city trip by spending a girlie afternoon wandering around the shops looking at sparkly things. Molly, at the grand age of 5, has now decided that her favourite pastime is looking around Diva and Lush. 

When we got home Alfie continued our day of pampering and hosted a lovely tea party for us on the deck. Awesome hospitality Alfie – thank you!