An Update

It’s the last day of school holidays today. I never knew that six and a half weeks could go so quickly.

Jake and I have been extremely busy over the last few weeks, so it’s been mostly up to Molly and Alfie to show Nana Jenny the sights of Wellington. We did manage to take her to see a live band performing at Aotea Lagoon one evening and we ate fish & chips while we watched an interesting mix of Burmese and American Wellingtonians (!) playing Country & Western. They did manage to get us up dancing a little and the kids hyped up before bedtime.

The kids have spent the last couple of weeks having great adventures with Nana Jenny while I’ve been at work – swimming in the sea, walking up mountains, playing on the beach, going to the park, plus a whole load of bizarre new garden game inventions which include car tyres, ropes, basketballs, much of my Tupperware and caterpillars (?)

We also managed to fit in an awesome weekend away recently, over at Riversdale Beach. Some friends of ours have a family bach there which they invited us to, so we managed to kick back and relax for a bit. The fact that we were 4 adults plus 5 kids all aged under 7 meant it was noisy, but they mostly entertained themselves – meaning us adults could sit in the sun, open a few beers, and actually hold a conversation (most of the time).

Meanwhile, Jake and his running buddy attempted their first official mountain/off-road race last weekend. As they now regularly do 3 hour runs in the mountains around Wellington they’d assumed this one would be a piece of cake.....however they’d completely under-estimated how challenging the terrain would be – I hear they were scrambling up rock faces and had to walk at some points. They eventually completed the 24 kms in 4 hours and 21 minutes. They hobbled back home looking quite a bit worse than usual and Jake is still not fully recovered 4 days later. Still – they are already preparing for the next one!

No gin required after all!

I am pleased to report that I found the solution to all my troubles – a weekend away with the girls is the cure to all problems!

Especially when the weekend is in Hawkes Bay, the home of some of New Zealand’s very best food and wine (what more can 3 girls ask for?). 

Our original plan to hire bikes and cycle around idyllically in the sunshine tasting the wines at all the local vineyards was quickly abandoned after we found a very lovely tapas bar by the quayside on the first night and drunk multiple bottles of very nice wine....

....leading to my first hangover in years and an absolute desire NOT to be riding a bike around. Or to be tasting any more wine.

Instead we got in the spa.

Walked along the beach.

Went for coffees.

Went up a hill to admire the view. 

Wandered around town looking at art deco buildings. 

Watched  beautiful sunsets and sunrises from our deck. 

Ate fresh strawberry ice cream at a farm. 

Watched a live band playing down by the ocean (who were completely brilliant, I must give them a plug here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jN2I9VHid60&noredirect=1 ) ) 

And when we felt a bit better we went to some vineyards and tasted some wine!

Will somebody please pass the gin...?

The holiday period is over and it’s back to work – boo! – and things are incredibly chaotic in the Hughes-Downing household at the moment.

I’m the second to admit (Jake’s always the first!) that there’s a long list of things I am no good at. My lack of spatial awareness and poor map reading abilities being amongst the most frequent causes of arguments in our household. But I have long been renowned for my thoroughness and attention to detail.

Not any more!

With life at the moment containing far too much in it for one person to properly manage, things are no longer getting done to our usual standards. Hence the very dirty kitchen floor, the lack of balanced meals for the family, dirty children, late invoicing to my clients, late birthday cards (sorry Dad!), library fines, the grocery shopping not being done until 10.30pm last night (thank goodness for the modern retail environment and long opening hours!), the overflowing laundry basket, and the huge pile of overdue paperwork at the moment (a big sorry to our accountants and to our British bank – although I doubt you are going to accept a formal apology through this blog?).

Not to mention the fact that there are still a rather large number of things to do on the wedding planning front (148 on the To Do List at the last count). 

And to top it all, Molly’s flower girl dress arrived in the post last week a size too big for her due to my poor skills with a tape measure.

AND - there is no gin in the house!

So, if there are any blog followers out there who are expecting phone calls, birthday cards, or anything else from us, please bear with us – we are either just running late with it or we have more likely completely forgotten and we are very very sorry!

Having said all that, Nana Jenny has now arrived to stay for 2 months, so we have childcare for the rest of the school holidays which is a HUGE, massive bonus – so big thanks to Jenny for easing some of the pressure!

The kids are loving all the adventures their Nana takes them on. Meanwhile, I am trying hard not to ask what they are currently doing in our garden with two car tyres (where did they find them??), a piece of rope (again, where did they get that from?), a very large bucket of water and my new luxury handsoap.

Anyway, given the above circumstances, I am temporarily checking out of the blogging world until the Government officially changes the length of each day to 54 hours long....

Camping at Paekakariki

Our third trial at camping with small children took place in the last few days – and we’re pleased to report that now they are both a little older it is starting to work pretty well.

Having seriously considered a range of Dept of Conservation campsites (which are located in stunning places but don’t come equipped with playparks, jumping pillows and ice cream stores), we ended up taking the easy option and drove up the coast to a very lovely holiday park at Paekakariki instead.

Cheating, I know, but it made life much easier!

Paekakariki was a major US Marine base during WWII and I believe there were over 20,000 Americans stationed there for training and recreation purposes. It’s hard to envision now, as these days it’s just a very sleepy, little coastal town (with a population of less than 2,000).

We had an incredibly lazy time, the hardest work being the 15 minutes required to put up the tent. Other than that, we played tag on the beach, had coffee at one of the best cafes in NZ, hung out at the play park, visited Pizza Hut for dinner (aaagggh, yes really, we did), and read lots of books and magazines.

At night the kids were allowed to stay up late and take their scooters out around the holiday park and go on the jumping pillow – oh ,what fun they had! (Oh ok, ok, so did we!)

Beach Bach

Our exceptionally sunny Christmas was followed by a very rainy few days..... starting exactly on the day we left Wellington to go on holiday, and continuing until exactly the day we returned home!

Ah well. We enjoyed ourselves hugely anyway, regardless of the weather.

We spent the week in a little Kiwi bach (beach house) in rural Wairarapa. Please don’t ask us the name of the beach as neither of us could remember/pronounce it most of the time! All we can say is it was about a 3 hour drive north-east of Wellington, in a small settlement of about 20 houses with nothing else in sight except a long coastline, lots of mountains and trees (and a lot of clouds!).

We didn’t let the rain spoil our time though, and managed to get out collecting shells, surfing (Jake in his wetsuit and Alfie in nothing but his undies but he did a great job, better than his dad), paddling and running up and down the sand every day. The sun even came out a couple of times (briefly!).

Thinking about it, this is in fact pretty much what we’ve historically done every single year for our NZ Christmas holidays – ie hired a bach and chilled out in a remote spot for a few days – and it is SO worth it! We have all come back completely refreshed, relaxed, well slept (yes, really!) and very happy.

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!).