Things I'm Loving...

Just a little list of some of the things I'm loving at the moment...

New Zealand’s Wildlife
Recently I’ve had to remain content with watching giant orb spiders (yikes) and tuis (beautiful birds) from my window – I don’t mind as they are amazing to see, but Jake’s been having a far cooler time over on Kapiti Island this week (another work trip) and sent me this awesome picture of a kaka who jumped onto his knee and tried to grab his lunch.

We also took the kids to the Marine Education Centre at Island Bay last weekend, and it truly blew us away! What an amazing place. Molly was completely in her element as she was allowed to touch and pick up different species of star fish, kina*, anemones and crabs. I definitely recommend this place if you're in Wellington and are interested in marine life. 

  

Springtime

New Zealand really comes alive at this time of year and we've had so much sunshine. OK so it means the garden’s getting out of control, the grass is ankle high (and the lawn mower's broken, dammit) and I’ve got my work cut out with all the weeding - but thanks to a very cool water slide gift from Mark and Sam I've found a great way to keep Alfie occupied while I do the gardening...!

Also we have so many more hours in the day now, as the sun rises early and doesn’t set until about 8.30pm. Beautiful sunsets over the mountains, peaceful early morning walks...ahhhhh, I’m just loving it!

Living by the Bush, Mountains and Sea 
You can't beat Wellington for its setting, and I really, truly appreciate having the bush and mountains on our doorstep.

Jake's been enjoying the odd swim in the sea in his lunch hour this week, while I have been doing quite a bit of bush walking (actually, make that bush-pottering-around) with Alfie.

Often we end up at Tyers Stream where Alfie can happily spend hours poking around looking for crayfish and mayflies, or if not then he'll find some mud to squidge around in, some fallen branches to drag around or something to hang off. 

The Funny Things Kids Say
At dinner time yesterday Alfie asked “Mum, can you buy me a hearing aid for my birthday please?” First I had to double check that he’d actually really asked me for a hearing aid and it wasn’t just another misunderstanding of his Kiwi accent...but yep, he really does want a hearing aid for his birthday. His reason? Because then when people boss him around he can turn it off. (What a great idea!)

The Brother & Sister Friendship
Although he claims not to like girls, Alfie often describes Molly as his best friend. They're so close in size that we often get asked if they're twins - Molly thinks it's hilarious. I love how they do everything together and look after each other so well.... xx

*The kina is a type of sea urchin which is endemic to New Zealand. It’s a traditional Maori food, a spiky looking thing with a beautiful green shell. I love them (to look at, not to eat).  

Tramping in Wellington

If walking (or "tramping") is your thing, then Wellington is a pretty perfect place to live in. There are bush reserves, coastal tracks, heritage trails and mountain walks all around the city.

Over the last 18 months we’ve become regular users of some of these tracks and trails, but we have been a little guilty of using and re-using the same few favourite tracks.

So this week, Alfie and I decided to explore some new ones.

We looked through the website www.tracks.org.nz and chose the Piwakawaka Track because....well honestly? Just because we thought the name sounded cool!*

It starts off as a pretty easy walk along a well maintained track which climbs up gently to an open area where there's a big water tank and some other equipment (for weather monitoring??). Alfie thought this was the coolest thing ever and asked lots of questions - how does the water get in, how does it get out, what's it for, etc - although unfortunately I couldn't answer a single one of his questions! (If anyone can help me out here, please feel free to provide information in the comments field below!)

Lucky the track was good as the little guy decided it was generally far more fun to be piggy-backed up it instead of using his legs. I got a good work out, but I'm not used to carrying 20 kgs on my back and  I collapsed in a heap at the top.

The views from the top were awesome and we spent a long time poking around looking at the city, the Westpac Stadium, the airport, Mount KauKau and Matiu Somes Island. I'd brought a flask of coffee with me and just as I thought to myself what a great spot it would be sit down and enjoy it, Alfie found the next part of the track - some downward steps and decided it was time to shoot off down them.

It didn't take me long to realise that lots of steps down means lots of steps back up again on the return journey - most likely with 20 kgs on my back. So we didn't go much further, and Alfie was forced to use his legs for the rest of the walk as it was mostly downhill. I'd love to do a bit more of the track though, so will have to train him better for next time - or develop my own muscles a bit more!

* The word "piwakawaka" is the Maori word for the New Zealand fantail bird. 

The last couple of weeks...

Part of my job is to ghost-write a weekly newspaper column about marketing and technology, and in the process of my research for an article this week I discovered that the first message ever sent over the internet (back in the 60’s) was “LOG”. It was in fact meant to read “LOGIN” but the computer system crashed before it was completed.

This really summed things up for me about working in my field as an online marketer, as I had just lost a whole section of a really important report I’d been writing when my laptop decided it didn’t really like working so hard and shut down. Grrrr! I was grateful that the sun was shining so I put things on hold and went for a big run to de-stress. (OK, it was actually only a 31 minute walk-run but a "big run" sounds so much better!) 

The last couple of weeks have involved a lot of very hard work by me and my laptop, and some late nights. 

But they’ve been a good couple of weeks, full of sunshine and happy times with the kids as well. The good weather means the car’s been left in the garage a lot and the scooters are being put to good use...

After school we’ve had lots of time relaxing in the garden (and sometimes not so relaxing). And on our “hanging out days” Alfie and I have enjoyed several lazy morning take-out coffees/fluffies in the park followed by a bit of pottering about in the stream getting muddy.

Alfie’s started tennis lessons this term and I must say he seems to be extremely good at it, he's a sporty little thing. A small class of just three boys means he gets plenty of attention from the coach and plenty of turns hitting the ball. 

Molly continues to practice dancing all the time, everywhere she goes. She's happy but is starting to get that "end of the school year syndrome" where she's extremely tired and is definitely in need of the long summer holidays (only 6 weeks to go now).  

Oh – and she's also made herself some pretend boobs.