Christmas 2012

We've just had a seriously fun Christmas!


We began celebrating on Christmas Eve, all of us feeling slightly weary and in need of rest after our tramp in the Rimutakas.

Despite his tiredness, Jake decided to go for a 2 hour run in the mountains in the morning, while I made a Christmas cake and a cheesecake and prepared all our barbeque food.

When he got back we all headed down to the waterfront - which was way quieter than usual, with most things shut for Christmas. The weather was hot and humid, so we slowly strolled around, stopping for coffee and ice cream, watching a stingray in the water and playing by the water fountain before we headed back home to get some respite from the sun.

That afternoon /evening we had another family around for a barbeque.

In honour of my Polish roots we made a decision a long time ago to always eat fish on Xmas Eve. Last year we had fish & chips on the beach and this year we were due to have salmon on the barbeque. Unfortunately due to the complete hectic-ness of our lives recently, the salmon didn't get bought, and we had pork, chicken kebabs, sausages and burgers instead. The thought was there though, and we will eat fish next year!

Meanwhile the five kids stripped off and spent hours on our waterslide, while the adults opened beer after beer / wine after wine to keep cool - so much so that Christmas morning was unfortunately a bit hangovery, ooops.

Christmas Day followed the same theme, with temperatures in the 30's again. In fact, according to our local newspaper Wellington hasn't had a Christmas Day this hot since 1934! We had breakfast and presents outside on the deck, the kids were super-excited and squealing, and before long there was wrapping paper everywhere.

After lunch, we decided to head down to the beach to test out Alfie's new present from Molly, a boogie board. So we hopped in the car, cranked up the air conditioning and drove down to Oriental Bay where we found a few Santas kayaking!

Not only that, but someone had put a Christmas tree up on the beach so the whole place looked awesome!

We all jumped straight into the water with the Santas - thank goodness for New Zealand's cool sea temperatures! Jake had a bit of a swim, I had a splash and a paddle, Molly made a sandcastle and Alfie thoroughly enjoyed his new toy.

Unfortunately Jake made a bit of a schoolboy error with the sun cream, and forgot to apply it once he took his t-shirt off. Within a couple of hours he closely resembled a giant lobster rather than the Daniel Craig look he was going for (and 2 days later he's still in a lot of pain, so we're being very careful now never to make that mistake again).

We'd invited some friends over for (another) barbeque on Christmas afternoon/evening, so out came the beer, the wine, the barbeque, the cheesecake - and of course the water slide again! - and we all spent the rest of the day relaxing with good food, plenty of sunshine and good company.

On Boxing Day we opened more presents and headed down to the local park for a bit to play rugby and paddle in the stream to keep our feet cool, and luckily it wasn't too long before the rain came and gave us a massive break in the humidity levels.

We headed home for a bit to get ready to go to our friends' house for a Boxing Day lunch, with Molly and Alfie both starting to bicker and show signs of exhaustion.  Then all of a sudden it was 4 o'clock and we'd missed the lunch! We'd all fallen asleep for a long afternoon nap. Doh! We're really, really sorry Jerry and Katie...

Seeing as there was no way we were going to get the kids to bed early after such a long nap, we rounded off Christmas by going into the city after dark, to see the Telecom Tree lit up at Waitangi Park. It's usually surrounded by outdoor bean bags so you can sit for a while and watch the changing colours, but due to the rain the beanbags weren't there - and neither were any people! Afterwards we went to Midnight Espresso, one of our favourite little places on Cuba Street for a hot chocolate and a very late night for the kids.

So - all over for another year, but what a great time we had! Merry Christmas everyone - we hope you had a good one too!

The Orongorongo Track

This weekend we initiated our kids into the world of overnight tramping, and took them on a 2 day hike in the Rimutaka Ranges (a native forest just a short drive east of Wellington).

We used to go tramping a lot (before kids) and we've been wanting to get back into it for a long while, but when Molly and Alfie were little it was fairly difficult to do. Many people had told us that the Orongorongo Track in the Rimutakas was a great one to start your younger children with, so it was with lots of excitement and a little bit of trepidation that we set off on the track on Saturday morning.

It was a drizzly but warm and muggy morning and the kids were simply BURSTING with excitement to start with. They set off up the track faster than we could have hoped for, holding hands all the way (so cute) and for the first hour or so we made great progress!

I must say, I hadn't expected the upward climb as all our Wellingtonian friends had told us it was a flat track. As a very hilly city, "flat" obviously means something very different to the people of Wellington! But it wasn't too steep really, it just undulated gently up and down - with a couple of short, steeper parts in places.

After a while the cloud melted away and the sun came out, warming us up and tiring Alfie out. We soon had to revert to giving out jelly beans every kilometre, counting all the 23 bridges, and singing Christmas songs at the top of our voices to keep him going (much to the amusement/horror of the other trampers we passed).



Some friends had taken their children on the Orongorongo Track a few months ago and had taken 4.5 hours to get to the hut. We'd expected a similar timing as our children are roughly the same ages.

So we were amazed to find ourselves completing the entire 6.4 kms in just 2 hours and 40 minutes! (In hindsight, we were perhaps a little harsh on the kids as we had only allowed them one 5 minute stop in the entire walk).

The next major excitement came when we first spotted our hut in a clearing in the woods. The Department of Conservation own and maintain hundreds of huts, cabins and lodges throughout New Zealand and all the ones we've stayed in so far have been great. This one was no exception. Turere Lodge was in a simply amazing setting by the river - the view from our bedroom window was like something I normally couldn't afford to pay for in a hotel!

After dumping our backpacks and wolfing down some lunch, we spent the rest of the afternoon paddling around in the river. Despite the now-very-warm day, the water was * freezing * cold but the kids managed to while away the whole afternoon wading up and down.

The hut has brilliant cooking facilities - a fully equipped kitchen and a barbeque outside, so you only have to carry your food and sleeping bags. We had a late-ish dinner as the sun went down and then we all crashed out and fell asleep by 9 o'clock.

Lucky we were early to bed, because Alfie woke up several times in the night scared because he didn't know where he was, and by ten to seven we were all awake and ready to get started on Day 2.

We had breakfast and some leisurely mugs of hot chocolate at the hut and then set off on the 6.4 km hike back. Day 2 was similar to Day 1 with some river paddling and jelly beans featuring highly, apart from the fact that it was now 28 degrees and there was no cloud. The weather, the lack of sleep, and the fact that the kids were still tired from the previous day's walking made it much harder on the way back. But despite allowing a 10 minute lunch stop this time (!), we made it out in 2 hours 30 minutes, faster than the way in!

We've all returned home very tired today - especially Molly and Alfie - but we had the most fun we've had in ages!

For anyone thinking of tramping with children,  we say GO FOR IT! The tramping is relatively easy and the DOC huts are perfect. Just don't forget your jelly beans!

End of Year Chaos

Our lives have been ridiculously full lately. 

Full of Christmas planning, Christmas shopping, parties, concerts, school functions, the village fair, social events...etc, etc, etc. 

The local outdoor swimming pool is now open for the season, so we’ve been hanging out there a bit, enjoying the weather. 

We’ve put the Christmas tree up, decorated the house, written letters to Santa – and visited him at the local mall too.

It’s not all been kids’ stuff though. We went to our friend’s 40^th party last week, which was a lot of fun, and we also held our annual Christmas drinks party at home at the weekend (we always try to hold one wherever in the world we are).

We had a great day on Sunday supporting Jake on his new ocean swimming hobby –the kids spent all afternoon collecting pipi shells and jellyfish (luckily not stingers!) on the beach, while the adults relaxed with a beer and strawberries – it was all great until Jake whipped off his wetsuit and revealed his speedos (it kind of ruined the relaxed moment ;)

Not so special was when I was stung last week by an Australian Paper Wasp. Typical that I managed to survive a year in Central Australia without getting bitten or stung by anything, and then I move back to NZ and an Aussie insect gets me! 

Within 24 hours my entire upper arm had swelled up to double its normal size and it itched and burnt like crazy all at the same time. Since my weekend was so packed I had to make do with a mild antihistamine from the pharmacy rather than getting to the doctor’s for something stronger – it made the torture last a little longer, but it’s slightly less inflamed today so at least I’m finally on the mend.

On top of all this we also have two very tired children – as I think all Kiwi kids are at the moment. Not only are they completely worn out from all the extra goings-on at this time of year, but sleep has become a big issue in our household and it feels like we’ve regressed a few years!

Gone are our pleasant evenings where the kids are in bed asleep by 7pm. Thanks to the warm, muggy nights and the late sun, our children aren’t managing to get to sleep until 9pm ish – but even though they’re not able to get to sleep they’re actually extremely tired which means our evenings are spent dealing with tantrums and meltdowns and tears and other such behaviour. Grrrrrr!!!

But despite all this, I must quote some excerpts from their school reports, which they both received this week and made us very proud.

Alfie:

“Alfie is an active participant in both group and mat time and has been a pleasure to teach. He particularly enjoys construction and ball games. Alfie is progressing through the reading programme and....he is currently reading emergent level books. Alfie’s passion for learning is evident when he engages in physical activities.” 

(Note the recurring theme of active and physical for Alfie!)

Molly:

“Molly is a quiet, helpful and considerate student who always makes responsible choices. She is reading accurately, at a level that surpasses the expected level for her time at school. Molly takes pride in the standard of her written work, checking the success criteria before handing it in. Molly has produced some detailed artwork this year and her art has been used as a model for others on occasion. It has been a joy teaching Molly this year."

(Awwww, well done Molly! x) 

Concert Season

It’s a crazy time of year.

Over the last week we’ve had daily Christmas/birthday/end of year/leaving parties to go to (in fact often it's been more than one a day) and our children have been in so many concerts and performances that the muscles around my mouth are aching from smiling so much and my hands are sore from clapping! 

Molly’s school Christmas concert last week was beautiful - 140 children all dressed up, dancing and singing. Molly had spent the morning sleeping off the last of her various viruses and was clearly still a little bit sleepy during the concert, but she desperately wanted to be there and she really did give it her absolute best effort, despite still not having much energy.

Alfie’s pre-school Christmas celebration the next day was fun and I LOVED it. He had the very important job of holding up a cardboard box racing car during one of the songs – the kids had made up their own version of The Twelve Days of Christmas, which went something like this: 

“On the first day of Christmas, Santa gave to me....ten skateboards flipping, nine spidermen climbing, eight racing cars, seven Dora glasses, six watches ticking, five toy snakes.....four fairies dancing, three teddy bears, two unicorns and a bath tub full of chocolate”. Cute!

Molly also had her ballet concert last week, in which she was AMAZING and such a joy to watch. The theme was modern music/dance in the 21st Century, and I think she really enjoyed performing to something a bit fun and different.

At the end of the show the girls in her class were all presented with their Grade 1 certificates (she passed!) which was a very special and proud moment for her (and us too).

And today she's had her end of year gymnastics display. The older girls in her gym club were amazing, and I actually felt like I was watching real Olympic gymnastics!

But Molly's group are the youngest in the club - so they did a basic forward roll, backward roll, handstand routine to the Chariots of Fire theme tune. Very cute!

Triathlon Man - and a lot of viruses

It’s been a really tough couple of weeks in the Hughes-Downing household.

First, Alfie came down with Croup. On day 3 I woke up to find him struggling to breathe, so I rushed him into the doctor’s to be told we’d got him just in the nick of time and if I’d left it until the evening he’d probably be in hospital on a nebuliser.

Thanks to steroids, he made a relatively quick recovery at home .

On the day he started feeling better, Molly came home from school with a fever and sore throat and then on Day 4 she woke up unable to walk or use her legs at all.

Cue some serious panic from me.

Thank goodness for New Zealand’s “Healthline”, which means we have trained nurses at the end of the phone 24/7 any day of the year. One phone call later and a few questions from the nurse and I was told to get her straight down to the emergency after hours doctor.

Here came the problem: we are a one-car family and Jake was at the other end of the city, with the car, doing his first Triathlon and therefore not answering his mobile phone (why I even tried it I have no idea, but my brain wasn’t working too well that morning). Instead, I called a couple of friends to see if they could take us but it was 7.30am on a Sunday morning and unsurprisingly I got no replies from anyone.

One very expensive taxi ride later, and she was diagnosed with a combination of influenza, bronchitis, laryngitis and a mystery virus which had affected her muscles. That's a lot of bugs for such a little girl! 

Two visits to the doctor later and we finally got the antibiotics we needed to get her back on track. Yesterday she even managed to get dressed and we got her outside in the garden for a bit. I’m hoping she might even get back to school tomorrow (she’s had a whole week off already). 

Oh - and for those who are wondering.... Jake really enjoyed the triathlon, completed it much faster than he'd hoped for, and managed to come first in his age group/category! (I shouldn't really point this part out, but I can't resist: he was actually the only person in his age group/category!)