Goodbye Winter

Today we finally got to the ski field just in time before it closes for the season.
While all of the kids have seen snow this was the first time for skiing for Jack and Molly.
Molly had no interest in skis but Jack was keen as. Well! We thought it might be a waste of money with the little kids getting bored. How wrong we were!
Jack went in with great enthusiasm, and tolerated his teacher with great patience. (ski school won't take under 7 for group lessons so mum was it).
Molly was happy to play on a tabbogan and in the snow for 3 hours this morning and most of the afternoon.
Jack in the beginning got the snow plow backwards, but in the end mastered it on his own when his mother left him alone. :)
It took the morning to teach him that the rope tow would not hold him up and by the afternoon he was going up and down the beginner slope by himself.
In the last hour Molly decided that she would like to ski (we were there for 7 hours)so we decided to humour her and lent her Jack's skis. Well, I wish we had encouraged her earlier. In the photos you will see her first trip down with support of dad, and the second all on her own. In all 5 runs she never fell, and you can't take the smile off her face. We did however resort to the daddy chair lift for getting to the top as I could not face another session of teaching rope tow skills at the end of the day.
Sabastian had a ski lesson and was again above the skills of those in his class. Fortunately they recognised this and gave him 1 on 1 when he should have been in a group. He is starting to learn parallels and is feeling great. His mother even showed him that after 13 years off skis she could still get down the mountain (a little rusty though).

Just another fun day

This was coming home from one of our adventures down on the rocks between Tapu and Stephens Bay. The weather has been great lately, a taste of summer to come. And to top it off we had another snow fall last night, so the skifield is open until Sunday. Hopefully we will get up there this weekend.

Flounder

Well the purchase of the week needs to go to Marc. A flounder net, and a whitebait net.
We can flounder off the beach here and are keen as. Whitebait have just started running so hopefully this weekend.
Sully was keen to check out the net even without the smell of fish. We love your enthusias! Sully is not past coming to the beach with us so we look forward to your anticipation of great flounder!!

We have a chook

Well we don't, but our neighbour does.
Our neighbour bought two chooks, and both got loose on Saturday. Marc came home on Monday and we had one chook up at the fence teasing the dogs. I was amazed that it was not afraid of the barking. We had no idea where it came from and were quite amused by how friendly it was. A visit he next day from our neighbour looking for his chook, and Sam and Jack were able to locate it within 2 minutes. Turns out it was raised on a property with dog kennels. Chook s now home 2 doors down the road safe and sound.Who knows maybe soon it will be playing with Sully on the beach!!

Vege Dog

There is a competition on TV 1 at the moment for things made out of fruit and Veg. Jack drew plans and made this dog. The funny thing about Jack at the moment is he loves to draw plans before creating anything, and then when he is done he shows you how his project matches the plan. His mum put it together due to the danger of the skewers. (Just as well because she took out the top of her finger doing so), but the design belongs to jack, with a little input from Sam on the parsnip bone. Well done Jack!!

A series of unfortunate events

We went out in John's boat on Sunday to try out his new fishing rod. John had a birthday last week, and requested a fishing rod. He had never fished with anything but a handline before, until we took him fishing with our little rods. He got hooked (no pun). Well after last week and catching 8 cod, 300 scallops, and more, we were all motivated. Last week we had to go around to Takaka, a 3 hour boat trip, so this time we tried to keep it local.
Armed with NEW rod, and GPS we were all excited. Well we got a tip for a scallop bed and headed there.
We managed this:
One hat overboard, rescued, broke the oar on the dinghy doing so (see photo)
One fishing net (Jack's) overboard, rescued
One fishing rod (not the new one) snapped
One child (not ours) vomited
Found a good scallop bed and on the way home snagged the scallop dredge on a reef. Now at the bottom of the bay.

All home safe and still with a smile on our faces.

Enjoy!!