Oh! A kune...

WARNING: massive post - you might want to take a couple of goes at it.

[click on the pics if you like]

Many Wellingtonians seem to be happy to see the back of the snow we had a few weeks ago, but not us.

I have a season pass, so I've already been up a few times this year. The first time I went, I took Ella and Betty with me. Ella went from strength to strength, her lesson teaching her how to turn better, as well as ride the (platters? pommers? Whatever those beginner disc things are called).

Betty was another story, though - she had a beginner lesson, where she was probably the youngest and smallest, and didn't enjoy it at all, despite being able to do all the technical stuff she was taught. She's never that keen on things she can't already do, so needed a bit of time to come to grips with it by herself - I certainly didn't want to put her off by forcing her into it.

So, we booked a few days off for all of us to go to Ohakune, and hopefully get some skiing in.

I searched around for a while to find a place to stay, and decided to go with novelty - an old railway carriage at Rimu Park. Bethan was a bit puzzled about where we'd sleep - I think she was picturing something like the inside of the J'ville trains we go into the city on, with all the seats and everything.

Here's what it looked like:


Yes, we took the Horrolla - partly because it's 4WD, but mainly because it has a working stereo at the moment.

I should backtrack a bit and describe the trip up to Ohakune first, even thought there aren't any photos for some reason. We knew the weather on the mountain was likely to be pretty shit, so we didn't rush too much. Although, with the "Are We There Yet?", "This Is Taking Ages," "I'm BOOOOORED" girls in the back, there was never much chance of doing it all in one go.

We stopped at the Levin Adventure Park:

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This is a free playground, although calling it that is a bit like calling the Taj Mahal a bach. It is MASSIVE. Dozens of things to play on, including not one, but two of those big barrell-roll things that you get inside and run around like a hamster and make yourself feel sick on (based on a true story), and a loooong flying fox.

As if all this wasn't enough, there's also a miniature train on the weekends, and an indoor picnic area with a microwave and boiling water, and a coffee truck with nice coffee, and, and...

This may not be a widely-held opinion, but this playground, plus a roast shop and a noodle shop next door to each other make Levin a great place.

Our other long stop was just up the road at Foxton. Ever since I first moved down to Wellington, I've wanted to check out the de Molen Windmill. Follow the link to read about it, it's amazing, a working windmill that actually produces flour.

Back to our carriage in Ohakune - the inside looked like this:


Through the door at the far end is a room with two bunks, a toilet and bathroom, and beyond that, a bedroom. It was great - not so flash that we worried about destroying it either.

Friday was again too crappy to go skiing, so we drove to the Tokaanu Thermal Pools for a hot swim instead, which was, as always, awesome.

Saturday also looked a bit useless up the mountain, but we thought, "bugger it," and went up there anyway. Glad we did.

Rach and Betty headed into Alpine Meadow (the learner's bit), while Ella and I headed up the Parklane chairlift for her lesson. It was her first time on a chairlift on skis, but was no problem.

Here's Betty getting her little skis - her face kinda sums up her attitude to skiing at this point:


As you can see, Ella's more relaxed about the whole thing:


Nobody else turned up for Ella's group lesson, so she got a personalised, individual one. I abandoned her with her French-Canadian instructor for an hour and went up the mountain, where I found some great snow in between bouts of bad visibility.

I returned to find Ella even more confident than before - so much so that she was able to ski with me all the way back down Clarry's Track to the bottom:


Betty had had enough of skiing by this point, so I went up for a bit more, while the three girls made a snowchair:




slid down a hill on their bums:




and Ella did a little bit more skiing in Alpine Meadow:


On the way back down the mountain, we had to stop to take care of Bethan's obssession about making a snow angel:




Ella had a go too:




A quick beautiful scenic shot:


...and then briefly back to our train, then out to OCR Cafe for dinner, which was cheap and delicious. Highly recommended.

Sunday was our last day, and we were determined to go skiing again, so it was straight up the mountain after checking out of our train.

This time, Rach got some skis, so she and Ella went up a bit higher, while Betty and I hung out in Alpine Meadow. At first, she was pretty tentative, but then something just seemed to click, and she was suddenly a whole lot more confident. Still wanted me to stick around, particularly to help her on the Magic Carpet (a conveyor belt for humans, here Ella demonstrates:

)

I even took Betty up on the Parklane lift (which she managed to get on and off while wearing skis) to do a run down Clarry's Track, which might have been a bit ambitious, as we had to stop halfway down for quite a long rest:


This time, Rach had had enough of skiing, so Ella and I went back up to go to her last lesson, with the same teacher as the previous day. Again, I abandoned her for the hour, getting in some of the best runs of the year, and then we made our way down to Betty and Rach.

Betty was now completely self-sufficient, and in her usual style, unstoppable. Ella and I went up for another run down Clarry's Track; Betty was still skiing when we got back. I went right up the top for a few more runs; Betty was still skiing when I got back. She'd progressed to getting on and off the Magic Carpet by herself - "I don't NEED you, dad" - I stayed with her while it started to snow, and Ella went back and returned her skis.

The only reason Betty stopped in the end is that the lift itself closed for the day at 4pm.

I couldn't be more proud of my daughters, and pleased that they both seem to love skiing at least as much as I do. Just got to get Rach a bit more time up there and we'll be set.

Here's a video of first Betty (in the pink jacket), then Ella (then a loud unknown snowboarder) skiing past the camera:

(available right up to 720p resolution).

Check out the amount of snow that ended up on the Horrolla - I don't know the measurement, but it wasn't enough to stop Betty, that's for sure:


The girls wrote what they thought of the mountain:


...and then we drove home, pausing only at OCR again for some coffee, and then Levin once more for KFC (15% off for season pass holders!)

Absolutely, Positively Wellensteins

Rach had been doing her 2 - 3 days a week in Wellington as part of a secondment, and I said that the kids and I should go down and visit. Thanks to a local airline's bargain flight site, I was able to actually make good on this, rather than it becoming another one of those "always meant to" things.

$59 each way for Ella and I, and Betty still flies free (although she doesn't get a seat)! We got to Wellington about 2pm, it was cold and windy and starting to rain.

Had to phone the rental car guys for them to show up with our Corolla:



Despite this very slightly bad start, they were great. I especially like the mismatched wheelcovers, also unlike every other rental company, kid seats were completely free.

The Corolla was somewhat smaller than we're used to, but we managed to cram the pram in the boot, as well as all of us into the car.

I didn't get lost at all on the way into the city, getting us to Our Place no problem. Rach met us there, with some lunch as Ella had not been able to steal enough lollies from the plane to keep us going.

We had a brief (i.e. a couple of hours) look at a relatively small amount of the free stuff. The big hit for Betty was the big map of New Zealand that you stand (or in her case, jump) on. Ella showed a surprising amount of interest in plate tectonics and volcanism.

Te Papa really is an incredible place - if you haven't been, you really should make an effort to get there somehow.

Once we'd (actually, probably just me - I am the most prone to museum boredom in our family) had enough, it was off up the motorway to Cheryl's place in Porirua Ranui Heights. 'Auntie' Chezza was kind/mad enough to put us up for the next two nights, which was probably quite good, as the Corolla may not have made the best campervan in the world.

I had not been to her place before, despite her having owned it for a hell of a long time. It's a great place: massive garden, and like pretty much everywhere in Wellers, a great view. Here's a few pics (click for slideshow):



Because I am an idiot, I went for a run the next morning. Being from Hanimalton, where everything is flat, running on hills was a bit of a novelty. It was actually not too bad a way to get a look at the area too, as long as I ignored the massive leg and lung pain.

We decided to use that day to visit the Karori Sanctuary, a place I'd never heard of before, but highly recommended. It's not too hard to find, being pretty much right in the middle of a suburb that's very close to the CBD.

Once you've paid the entry price, had your bag frisked for mice (!), and walked in a couple of hundred metres, it's hard to believe that there could possibly be a city anywhere nearby.

Everything here is amazing, but some of the highlights were:

Green Geckos:


Tuatara:


Shag nest (hurrr):


I am not really that interested in birds, but as we were walking through I found myself getting excited every time I saw a Saddleback or a Tui.

Another place that's well worth the visit - we ended up wandering around for nearly four hours!

Hunger brought us out in the end - eating the native wildlife is frowned upon, I can't imagine why. There was a little bit of drama actually finding something to eat, but an awesome playground down on the waterfront took at least some people's minds off their hunger.

After lunch, we did a bit of a drive-around of some suburbs that I don't know the name of, then tested out another playground (where some maniacs were swimming in the sea):


Back to Cheryl's after that, where I cobbled together dinner using some of her tomatoes.

The next day we went back to Te Papa. We'd intended to go to the Monet and the Impressionists exhibition. However, the 3km-long queue plus 8 billion schoolkids made us reconsider.

Instead, we spent the morning seeing another 3% of the museum. This place is truly huge, it would probably take a week to see everything properly.

Betty went polynesian:



and Ella forged some money:



We then wandered through the city in search of lunch, stopping only for photos of landmarks:



We ate at a French place with actual French people working in it, with accents and everything. We ate outside - not because it was nice and warm, but so as not to destroy the place:



At last it was time to go on the cable car. It wouldn't be a family holiday without some kind of train (well, pretty much):



Betty is only looking apprehensive because she wasn't allowed to drive. Actually, I think she only wanted to drive due to the awesome book you could read while doing so:



Cable-car museum next BECAUSE IT'S FREE but also quite interesting. Cue sideways pictures of kids on old cablecars (I wasn't the only one taking a picture like this, believe me):



The Wellington Botanic Gardens are picturesquely arranged on what appear to be a series of sheer cliffs. Don't worry though, for those of us pushing little Ms. Hefty in her pushchair, there were some merely near-vertical paths.

We descended about 900 vertical metres from the cable-car stop to a playground, which was very good, probably even worth the titanic struggle back to the top. Ella (maybe with some encouragement from someone who isn't not me) rolled down some of the gentler hills.

She enjoyed this so much that she tried it again where it was too steep. Standing up out of a barrel roll, as both her parents yelled out in panic, she slipped over onto her arse, then bounced over a bank taller than her to land, on her feet, on the path. This was much to the horror, shock, and finally amazement of some people sitting on a bench who would have been well hit had it gone wrong.

Here's some people playing in a playground:


(I told you Bethan was heavy)



Note how no sky is visible in either photo. This is due to it being blocked out by the aforementioned hill, which Wellingtonians probably consider more of a gentle slope.

Back to, and then down the cable-car, then off to my first cousin once removed Toby and family (some of who are my second cousins (not removed)). Sorry, this cousin thing's all a bit of a novelty to me.

Having met us only once before, and quite briefly at that (and before El Destructo arrived), Toby, Hilary, Emily, Leandra and Tom had invited us to stay for the night.

The girls got to sleep in an amazing bedroom under the stairs:



while Rach and I luxuriated in the rest of the basement (about two-thirds the size of our house):



It was really good to catch up - my extended family make up for their relatively (hurr) low numbers by being, well, just good people. The Fiennes house was a whirlwind, mostly of various sporting endeavours (possibly a glimpse of the future for us?), but they made time (and dinner) for us AND THEY HAD LOTS OF PLAYMOBIL which I've just realised we completely forgot to tidy away.

We'd love to return the favour if they're ever up this way - I'm sure we'll find somewhere to fit them all.

Here we all are:



From the left: Emily, Toby, Tom, Hilary, Leandra, Idiot Boy, El Destructo, an unknown beautiful lady no wait it's Rach, Invisible Girl, and o god I've forgotten the dog's name. Nice dog, I'm just terrible with names. Hopefully someone will remind me.

Due to the cheapness of the tickets, we had quite an early flight the next day, back to seemingly subtropical Hamilton.

AAAA+++++ would visit Wellington again as they say on TradeMe.

If you are insane you will click here for a massive slideshow. You have been warned, although I guess you could just leave it running in the background for a couple of hours.

It never rains but it pours

Here's a few photosets that I should have put up ages ago.

The first slideshow is of Ella's fourth birthday celebrations:

Sorry there aren't more, but sometimes the camera just gets forgotten about!

The next slideshow marks an important watershed: Bethan is over two months old now, easily enough to start sharing her photosets with others. So, there's a mix of people, not just Bethan, in here:

The last slideshow for today (and possibly for a while, going on my past efforts) covers our visit to the Frankton model railway last weekend.

I can't believe I've never been before. Dunno what it's normally like, but they were having a (well-publicised) fundraiser for Hospice Waikato the day we went. This meant it was pretty busy, but even so, the queue never took very long - there must have been more than twenty different engines.

It's run by the Hamilton Model Engineers, and is $1 a ride (or $10 for 12 tickets). If you're in Hamilton on a nice Sunday, bloody go!