Kenneth and Holly

Here's a piccy of Kenneth and his girlfriend, Holly. Now Holly is a really good figure skater on roller skates & she and her sister have recently qualified for the National Championships up in Auckland in December so we wish them all the best for that.
In fact, just over a month ago we were all invited along to the skating and liked it so much that the whole family now go along regularly on a Saturday afternoon. I even dusted off my old skates I had from training and didn't do too bad at all. However after my first attempt after over 20 years, I was aching in places I didn't know I had muscles!!
Never mind, we're all getting a lot fitter and it's a great family afternoon out.

Meet the natives.

This is a Tuatara. They originate from the times of the dinosaur and are native to New Zealand. In fact you can only find them in New Zealand. They are much the same size as a rat and are a protected species.
We snapped this picture during a recent visit to Karori Wildlife Sanctuary, a favourite of ours.

As old as they get.

There was an old car rally in Upper Hutt the other weekend and I spotted this fine example. It really was as old as the number plate says!!
Notice how the driver and passenger were dressed up in period clothing for the drive.

It's been a while.

Well folks, it's taken us a while to come out of hibernation but we're back.

It's funny how you get into a routine and we had done just that. Unfortunately, what seems to be routine for us might be quite interesting for all you people out there so we're back and will be updating again on a regular basis from now on.

The shot here is one from a recent visit by us to MarineWorld in Napier on the east coast. We haven't been to that area before so we decided to make a long weekend of it, especially as it was the middle of the 'tattie' holidays here and the kids were off school.

Can't remember if I've mentioned it in the past but my job is now permanent. Originally, I was on a 1 year contract covering for a woman on maternity leave. Well, she didn't come back and I was offered the job permanently so, as you can imagine, that was a great weight off my shoulders.
As a result of me staying on, I was eligible for a bonus so Kenneth got a new bed, Amy a new bike, me a new camera and Daphne hasn't decided on anything yet but I'm sure she will.
My new camera allowed me to get the great shot of the dolphin at MarineWord balancing a ball on its' snout. Brilliant eh?

Out of hibernation

Hi folks,

We're out of Winter hibernation now so look for some new postings real soon.....

NZ Robin

Recently we bought a family pass that allows us to visit the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in Wellington as many times as we like for a whole year! Well, we were there last weekend and came across this cheeky wee fella. It's a New Zealand Robin.

It's almost the same as the Robin you see in the UK but it doesn't have a red breast!

Kenneth scraped the ground quite near to it and it came right up to us looking for all the wee beasties that he had uncovered.
Absolutely brilliant.

Guess where we were today?

Yep, you've guessed it, the Zoo. The hand in the picture belongs to Amy. There's a platform which overlooks the giraffes enclosure where you can view them. On this occasion, one of the Zoo staff was there telling us all about the giraffes and at the end, she had a pile of 'greens' for anyone who wanted to feed them. Just after this shot was taken the giraffe almost pulled Amy off the platform! Luckily there was a strong barrier to hold on to.

We also saw a one legged Kiwi called Tahi. Tahi means 'one' in Maori. The Kiwi had been accidentally caught in a possum trap and eventually had to have its leg amputated. The Zoo took him in and they made an artificial leg for him but he would only put up with it for a hour at a time. He now hops about quite well and doesn't seem too fazed about it all.
No pictures unfortunately as it was inside in a darkened enclosure as they are nocturnal creatures and there was no photography allowed.

More shots with my Mum and Dad

Another place we visited was Te Papa, the museum of New Zealand. It's a fantastic place where we've been before but there's always something else to see. Entry to the museum and most of the exhibits are free but this time we went to see an exhibition called 'Egypt - Beyond the Tomb' which had a small charge. It was really good with lots of real artifacts from tombs in and around Egypt and even a real mummy, bandages and all! The displays were all well labeled, interesting and even the kids found it great too. All in all another good day out.



We also went out for a run one day when the kids were at school and, on the way back, stopped off at Staglands Wildlife Park for a picnic lunch. Well, no sooner had we got settled down than we had some pretty nosey visitors. Daphne had to eat up her lunch quick!!

No you can't have my sandwich!!!

They came, they saw and they didn't want to go home

My Mum and Dad came across and visited us recently. It was really great to see them. They stayed for 5 weeks but it was all over too quickly. The picture is us in Christchurch before starting what is reckoned to be one of the Great Railway journeys in the World.
We flew down to Christchurch on a Friday and spent the rest of the day shopping and looking around. Then, on Saturday we were up early cos it was 'All aboard' the Tranz Alpine Express. It starts in Christchurch on the East coast of the South Island and winds its way West to Greymouth on the West Coast. In between it takes in some of the most spectacular scenery in the South Island.
The next piccy is at Arthurs Pass, approx half way on the journey and high up in the Southern Alps. On the way back the train stops here to add a further 3! engines on the front (making 5 overall) prior to a climb through what used to be the longest tunnel in the world at Otira. It's 8.5 kilometers long!! and on quite a steep gradient.
We spent a fair bit of time visiting various places and I'll post more pictures up soon.

Almost good as new

We went along to the Queen Elizabeth Park recently and, amongst other things, spotted one of these.
I'm sure some of the readers of this blog will remember the Zephyr in her heyday but I'll bet they won't have seen one like this. It's the 'pick-up' version, or ute as they call them over here. On this one, everything has been restored to pristine condition and it really does show. A real classic I'm sure you'll agree.

Happy New Year everyone.

Great Soil over here

Here's a couple of examples of what comes out of Daphne's garden.
It's not a big garden but what it produces certainly is!