Bunnies and it's not even Easter

We went to Mt Ruapehu at the weekend. Ella and Bethan have never even seen snow before, and skiing's one of my favourite things so I'd like to get them into it. Rach was also keen to have another go at skiing.

We left as early as we could on Saturday morning (about 9 o'clock in the end, which isn't bad for us) and drove down with a couple of stops on the way. We got to the mountain about 1 o'clock, and decided that since the last lessons of the day start at 2, we'd just hire a sled for $20 and go up to Mead's Wall and slide about.

Betty and Ella were both quite excited to see the snow (well, Ella was), and then it actually started snowing! None of the girls had ever seen this happen before, so it got very VERY exciting.

Here's Betty in the snow:


She got a bit unhappy about it all later on, as she got a bit wet and cold, and wasn't really into sledding that much.

Ella, after some initial trepidation, loved the sled. She trudged up to the top of the slope with one or the other of her parents dozens of times.

Here's me pushing Ella around:


Here's Ella and Rach in the sled in the distance:


Here's Betty trying to get us to hurry up:


Sledding was pretty good fun, even in the falling snow, but eventually we listened to Betty and took off down the mountain, pausing only for Ella to scam some mini-Moro bars off some snowboarding guys.

We drove to Turangi (about half an hour) to the place we were staying: Creel Lodge. I'm not sure why I picked this place, but man was it a good pick!

Here's our two-bedroom cabin (more like a house):


The kids are good at relaxing after a hard afternoon dealing with snow and sleeping in the car:



Here's Ella to show us the inside:


This place was nothing short of amazing. The grounds are incredible, full of massive trees and carved ponga logs. The back of the place has a gate onto the riverbank path (of the Tongariro River), where we went for a walk and watched dudes in their waders fly-fishing.

We got fish and chips for dinner, which are some of the best I've had for a long, long time.

We had originally meant to go back to Hams on Sunday, but Rach decided we might as well go back up the mountain if the weather was good. It was, so we did.

This time, we got the Discover Ski package for Ella (ski gear plus a lesson):



We'd also brought my (long-term borrowed from Emma) skis with us, so Rach could have a go:


She cleverly saved money AND got extra exercise by not buying any lift tickets and just walking up to the top of Happy Valley and skiing back down. I did this once, which was more than enough for me.

You can see how sunny it was - this meant that Betty enjoyed herself a lot more than she did the day before:



So that was our snow weekend. Could've gone a lot worse I reckon.

All you can meet

Here's a few photos of the kids, because let's face it, who doesn't love pictures of kids?

Psychopaths, that's who.

Here's Bethan wearing gloves (as opposed to violently shaking her head and refusing to put gloves on at all):



Bethan always comes home from school (daycare) with stuff all over her face. Sometimes it is arranged in interesting patterns.

She is also quite obsessed with her bag - this absolutely MUST be taken with her whenever we go out the door. No one but her is allowed to carry it either.



Betty and Ella are snuggled up to watch - what?



Why, it's High School Musical, of course!

This is not a tent:



It is a library:



Here we see Bethan, Aimee and Ella waiting for their dinner. There is probably some significance in the fact that they're all wearing one-piece pyjamas:



Bethan had a brief fascination with Ella's fire helmet:



On an unrelated note, this series on Fridays on Prime about the Royal Family is fascinating.

Half a loaf is better than no bread

Here's a slightly random collection of photos for ya.

First off, here is some very successful baking from a few weekends ago. The bread is the standard Edmonds book recipe, but with one-and-a-half-times the yeast:



The chelsea buns are also from the Edmonds book, only the newer version. The old book says to use scone dough, which seems insane to me:



That was the first go at chelsea buns, and the delicious fantastic result spurred me on to give them another go the following week.

They were nowhere near as good; neither was the bread I made at the same time. Yeast. It is a mystery.

Here is a photo taken on my phone, on the walk to work. I don't even remember taking it, but I like the way the phone hasn't been able to cope with the hugely bright reflection:



This is me trying to capture the threateningly ominous clouds looming over a wet, twilit Hamilton. The phone (being a phone first and a camera second) had other ideas, but I still kinda like the look of it:



Lastly, here's the little-known "Lover" special edition Mercedes SLK:



Click for big and note the badge on the right-hand side of the boot.

Fringe festival

Ella has wanted to have a proper haircut (i.e. done by a qualified hairdresser, at a salon) for quite some time.

She finally got her wish a week or so ago. She has been determined to get a fringe (despite her parents' protests), so here's the result:



I'm not sure if the teenager-style surly pout and exasperated hand-on-hip pose came free with the haircut or cost extra.

Wreck chord l'eau

I don't know about you, but I love the cold. This time of year is one of my favourites, and not just because of skiing. I love frost almost as much as I love fog, and I love walking to work in the cold, with me gloves, hat and walkman on.

I took the camera with me this morning and took some pictures. Please remember that this is the camera which now has neither an optical viewfinder nor a visible LCD screen. If the framing is a bit off in some of the pictures, well, I was just lucky to even be facing the right way.

This is some spiky frost on the top of the Volvo:


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Close-up:



If you don't find those little crystals incredible, well . . . you bloody should!

This is the top of our letterbox, which is normally a flat, smooth metal sheet. It is not hairy, as it appears here:


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This is the empty section at the end of the street. Nothing like a frosty sunrise to make even the normally dull look cool:


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Looking through the Claudelands fence towards the city, the sun reflecting off some building or other:


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More Claudelands:


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I'm pretty happy with this one (O'Neill Street), wish I'd managed to get the tree at the right completely in frame though:


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How's this for a (blind) macro shot?


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. . . . aaaaand a close-up:



Last one (honest) - here's the Waikato, steaming away:


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