The Annual Grandparents Visit

For the last couple of weeks my parents have been over on their annual visit – the ninth year in a row they’ve managed to take a month out of the UK to come and see us (thanks Mum and Dad!). 

Unfortunately they brought a bit of English weather with them so we had a cool, wet patch to break our summer up – it didn’t spoil things too much though, and we had a very relaxed time mostly just playing along with the kids: riding bikes, playing in the stream, going to the outdoor pool, lots of cafes, the playpark, Te Papa and the Zoo.

We also managed a grown-up dinner out one night at the lovely Cuba St Bistro, followed by cocktails at one of our favourite little spots, Duke Carvells, to belatedly celebrate my dad's recent big birthday (60 again ha ha!).

I lost count of the number of days we spent down on the waterfront while they were here, just wandering up and down people-watching, watching buskers, letting the kids play at Frank Kitts Park, watching this year's “Birdman” competition and other various people jumping in off the steps into the harbour, etc. 

I also lost count of the number of times we went down to the local park to search for creatures and bugs in the stream – thanks for humouring us on that one Mum and Dad! 

PS And the day they left, the good weather got switched back on again (sorry Mum and Dad!).

Himatangi Beach Again

Today is the first day back to work after the Christmas break for many Kiwis, although many more are still at the beach enjoying an extended break. January's usually a quiet month in New Zealand's cities and work places.

We came home yesterday, after rounding off our trip with a few days at our old favourite, Himatangi Beach. I love Himatangi – it’s a small place with such a laid back feel and it never really changes, yet every time we go we have a different experience. And going there is always a guaranteed rest.

We arrived at Himatangi just a few days after a 27 year old man drowned there - he got caught in one of the strong rips that this area is notorious for. I can certainly vouch for the fact that the ocean is pretty wild in these parts and I have a healthy respect for, fear of and awe for it.

I’ve got to give a lot of respect and thanks to all the surf life savers who patrol our beaches every summer. These amazing people (many of whom are volunteers) dedicate huge amounts of their time and rescue thousands of people every year.

On reflection, despite the number of times we’ve been here, I don’t think I have actually ever swum at Himatangi Beach. We’ve paddled, we’ve built driftwood teepees, we’ve collected thousands of shells, we’ve played rugby in the sand, I’ve been for walks and even runs by the sea....but I’ve never actually swum here. 

After spending several days swimming, boogie boarding and surfing in hot weather in Taranaki, I think we all assumed we'd continue with similar activities at Himatangi. 

However on this latest visit, we chose not to swim due to the large number of blue bottles (known back in England as Portuguese Man O’War) which had washed up in great big swarms everywhere. Although they’re not deadly, they deliver a nasty sting and none of us really wanted to risk it (although Alfie did take a little persuasion due to his current addiction to his cat-scratched boogie board).

But Himatangi Beach is an amazing place and we didn't mind not swimming. Instead, we did all our other favourite things – we built sand castles and teepees, played rugby, tennis and mini golf, spent countless hours at the playpark, drank coffee, bought ice creams at the dairy, had dinner at the Cossie Club, read books, fed Victa the reindeer, had water fights, collected shells, etc – and just really appreciated having a few more days of holiday together before we had to go home. 

See you next time Himatangi....

A Road Trip to Taranaki

We’ve just spent the last couple of weeks or so on a road trip from Wellington to Taranaki (via the Kapiti Coast, Horowhenua, the Manawatu and Whanganui). Some of these areas we were already fairly familiar with, but Taranaki was a completely new region for us – and wow, did we have a great time!

Taranaki is a pretty isolated and wild part of New Zealand, and truly stunning in its own way – with black sand beaches, lots of driftwood and big surf, and the looming presence of a huge snow-capped volcano (Mt Taranaki).

For part of the trip we were joined by Mark and Sam, and we all spent three happy, lazy days exploring, drinking lots of coffee, watching surfers, having a bit of a bush-walk half way up the volcano, swimming in the river, and plenty of G&Ts, barbeques and laughter in the evenings.

We also managed to go to the amazing “Festival of Lights” in New Plymouth several times. This free event in one of the local parks features live bands and entertainment most nights and a stunning lighting up of the park every evening. The kids were up dancing at the front of the stage more than once, and their highlight of the holiday was when we took a little row boat out on the lake one evening (to quote Alfie: “I CAN’T believe we’re really doing this!!!”)

New Plymouth also has a great coastal walkway, an 11km path from one end of town to the other. It was just perfect for the kids on their scooters, and featured a couple of playparks along the route as well as an awesome little outdoor cafe with bean bags and surfboard tables facing out towards the ocean - and it also served what were possibly the best iced chocolate drinks in the universe.

Meanwhile, Jake’s been surfing most days, and we’ve all been swimming in the ocean and splashing around in the surf a lot.

Alfie’s favourite Christmas present this year was a boogie board from his sister, and he’s had so much use from it on this holiday. It’s been so lovely to watch his pride each time he gets his wetsuit on and carries the board (all by himself) from the car to the water each day, and so lovely to watch the look on his face every time he catches a fast wave into the shore.

Unfortunately, towards the end of the trip we had an unfortunate accident with the boogie board when a cat got hold of it and ripped it to shreds. The look of devastation on Alfie’s face and the sound of his wailing (“it was my favourite ever present, I want that cat to go away for EVER!”) was quite heart-breaking.

He was quickly calmed down with the promise of pizza, which we took down to the beach and ate it while we watched the sunset, the perfect way to spend our last night in Taranaki. 

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!)