Christ! mas

So, we're in our new place (see previous entry), and It Was Decided that all possible members of Rach's family would come to our place for christmas.

So, in addition to me, Rach, Barns, Ella and Bethan, we also had: Rhys, Jasmine and Jai; Rach's mum Chris; Braydyn, Krystal, Aimee and Jaxon staying for a few days. This merely meant that all potential bedrooms got used - no-one had to sleep in the lounge, dining room, or a tent. Rach's dad Ian was also here, but stayed elsewhere, then on Boxing Day, Palmerston North invaded, adding Jan, Greta and Paul, Dawn, Wayne, Lucy, Austin and Jack for a grand total of 23 people.

Luckily, we currently have three fridges and two freezers, and the week before saw me buy three extra couches, for a total of 5 couches in the lounge. NOTE: total cost of ALL FIVE couches was less than $100

So, since I've been told asked, here are some photos, some with hilarious captions. Click for big as usual:

Here's Jai being our bum-boy (with his mum and dad):



First thing was to open the stockings/santa sacks. There was some kind of time limit set, where they weren't allowed to start before a certain time, but still quite early as I remember:



Betty did her standard, "Oh, it's JUST what I WANTED!" exclamation for every single present:



Jak-jak was a hilarious guy as usual:



The pile of wrapping paper outgrew this box in about 30 seconds:



Betty - caning it since 2007:



Bet Krystal complains about this photo. Save it! there's worse to come:



Haven't had a chance to use this yet, quite looking forward to giving it a go:



Here you get a good look at one of the Sallies sleigh-couches (Kendyl, this is about one-third of the lounge):



Shiny ball to the right, Brayd's head to the left OR IS IT THE OTHER WAY AROUND?



Try and ignore Rhys's expression and look at how stoked Jai is to get some more bubble mixture:



Before:



After (she hugged the Jenga for a while after that):



Betty got the kitchen that was on her list:



Some of Bear Grylls' tips for eating horrible crap may have come in handy for Ian a bit later on, as I had done baking:



Ella modelling new clothes. I can almost guarantee that hat gets re-used outside the christmas period:



Rach is happy because she knows the kids now have their own area, so we don't have to listen to Elmo (although we probably will because he's quite funny):



Not sure if Jai knew quite what to make of all the insanity:



Krystal kept the gin handily hidden inside a cosmetics box. Wish I'd thought of that:



Jacko got a jigsaw, perfect for hacking up the floor:



Barns has not seen a Clarke christmas before. I think he's OK now:



Betty-bets also got new clothes:



Note the empty wine glass:



He had a big morning, time for a rest:



Time to play with all that new stuff:



A final photo of all the cousins (plus bonus Rhys at no extra cost):



Thanks to everyone for a great time, I'd even consider doing it again. Maybe.

SNOWTASTROPHE 2011

Today, as promised, it snowed in Johnsonville. Not only that, it settled on the ground (my car is still covered as I type this at 8:15 pm).

Here are some pictures COMMENT YOU BASTARDS, JUST HIT THE LINK AND TYPE WHAT YOU THINK.

We got a bit excited when it started to snow, so took pictures of what appear to only be rain:



Get bent, there's totally snow in that picture!

It got a bit heavier (always seems a funny word for snow), so now it just looks like I chucked some bits of paper in front of the camera:



Still, it started to settle:



HUUURRRRRR:



Mrs HUUURRRRRR:



HUUURRRRRR Jr x2:



Uncle HUUURRRRRR in the background:



This ponga tree doesn't know WTF:



Telephoto shot out to the motorway makes it look like Siberia:



Barns and I went for a walk around J'ville. Safer Communities Together:



This snowboarder was having minimal success, but definitely the right idea:



Betty's kindergarten. Starting to get a bit of an unintentional tilt-shift effect due to all the water on the lens:



This thing kills me to death in the dry, christ knows why I tried it in the snow:



Ella's school:



Click on the following if you are insane and want to see 72 photos:

Wacky like a fifties sitcom

Betty's school had a Wacky Hair and Pizza Day. Let me state right now that only the hair was wacky - the pizza was not wacky, nor was it wack.

Rach installed some pig- or pony-tails or whatever and sprayed some pink dots in. Betty looks a bit apprehensive - she was worried that no one else would have wacked out their hair.



Not to worry though, she was not alone (although it's a bit hard to tell in this photo):



Here she is again:



With her friend Maddy - parents went in for the pizza bit too, that's why Rach is there:



Very excited about pizza, although they ALL eat their bits of fruit first, without exception:



Why does she have her eyes shut?



Maybe because her dad was the ONLY PARENT with wacky hair:



The centre manager said I'd get a certificate for this, but I have yet to see it . . .

Snow! [1400km final]

At last, I'm going to finish writing about our trip, and it hasn't even been a year since it happened!

Last time, we were just about to leave Wellington, on a freezing, windy Tuesday morning. We could have just driven straight home along State Highway One (i.e. the way we came), which would have got us back home easily within the day.

However, we're more adventurous stupid than that, so we decided to drive through Upper and Lower The Hutt, over the Rimutakas and through the Wairarapa instead.

Mostly we did this because I've never really been over there before, and I wanted to give it a look.

I should also point out that large parts of the central North Island (which we'd need to drive through to get home), including the Desert Road, had been closed due to unprecedented and slightly unseasonal snowfalls. So, there was even the possibility of getting stranded somewhere. Exciting!

The Rimutakas surprised me with their unexpected size (seemed a lot bigger than the Kaimais) and unrelenting expanses of gorse (or was it broom? Yellow flowers anyway).

Featherston's the first town once you get over the hill. It's nice enough, but seems a bit like Wellington's version of Tirau - I wanted to see the real Wairarapa.

Greytown and Carterton were getting closer to what I wanted to see, but it wasn't until we got to Masterton that I found what I was looking for. It was great, reminded me of the good bits of Tokoroa, although it's a hell of a lot bigger. It's the sort of place I reckon I could live in, for a while anyway.

After some local delicacies McDonalds, we continued on. Somewhere along the road, we suddenly noticed the looming Tararuas in the distance - and they had SNOW on them! We had to take a photo, there was no way we'd see that much snow again on the way home:


(if you click on the photo to make it big, you might just be able to make out the mountains, sandwiched between the hills and the clouds)

Next stop, Eketahuna, where we continued the "photos with oversized roadside objects" theme:





This last one was immediately prior to a major meltdown about something I can't remember, probably the only tantrum of the whole trip, and it was all over in about three minutes:



Eketahuna's another one of those little places I love - a town that seems truly represenative of its region, unpretentious in the extreme.

Pahiatua's another one of those, but it has the benefit of a massive and incredible playground:



Betty is sideways as usual; hopefully this is some indication of how she will drive a car:



They even have what appears to be a real plane:



Plane nerds, please let me know what it is - this emblem on the side may assist with identification:



I'm not sure that any of those photos convey just how bitterly cold it was. Ah, here's one that does:



We travelled on.

These pictures are from a place called Stormy Point Lookout. You've no idea how hard it was to figure out where the hell I took them - GPS may be a requirement on the next camera.



It lived up to its name, anyway, by being unfeasibly windy, but also providing a fairly spectacular view:





Again, I'll let Rach demonstrate just how cold and windy it was:



We joined up with State Highway One again at the humorously-named Vinegar Hill. (if you follow that link, you'll find out why it's called that, as well as why camp really means Camp there)

We got very very excited when we started to see snow at the side of the road, so took lots and lots of pictures, assuming it would be all we'd see. After all, we'd just traveled south on the same road a few days earlier, and there wasn't really anything then.

Here's a few of the sort of pictures I'm talking about:







However, when we rounded this corner:



BOOOOOOM, Winter Wonderland:





Probably not so impressive if you're used to living somewhere that gets snow all the time. And yes, this area does generally have a snowfall or two every year BUT not in October, and not this amount.

I kinda wish I'd stopped, climbed up a hill with my skis (THEY WERE IN THE CAR) and had an impromptu ski. Something like this would've been brilliant:



Still, we made up for not doing this by stopping in Waiouru and going mental in the fresh snow, as only non-snow-dwellers can:









It was hard to get back in the car and keep going, but we thought we'd better. The Desert Road through to Turangi was still closed, so we detoured through Ohakune. By this time we were getting hungry again, so rather than going the quick, sensible way, we went back across to Taupo to get food.

Luckily, this meant we were able to get one last roadside statue photo in; the Turangi Trout:



Despite going the long way round more than once, we had a really really good trip, and it hasn't even put me off driving long distances with small children. As a side benefit, I now know the High School Musical 3 soundtrack off by heart.

Since we had a whole day to spare before going back to drudgery, the girls did this:



Comments please about what they are making (and anything else you want to say).