Have reached the half way point in Term 1 so time for a quick update on the New Zealand lifestyle. Feeling much more settled now with a (fairly) fully furnished house, kids enjoying school and daddy continuing to enjoy his busy job at Villa Maria. Staff are very sociable and try and get you to drink beer at every opportunity which gives me a chance to be sociable again, been a bit of a recluse in recent years with children and exercise addiction. Em has found it tougher without work and her network of Queensferry friends but with a job interview coming up and meeting lots of mums in the playground things are slowly improving. We’ve also had Sally and Christopher (Em’s parents) visiting from Bedfordshire which has given us a nice full house and plenty more fun adventures with them in tow. The eight seater car turns out to be very handy for just such an event! The trampoline (best fifty bucks spent ever?) has also proved very popular with young and old, sadly no pictures of Granny Sally in action but she is rumoured to have done some impressive back flips!
Adventure Number 1 was a weekend trip to the Banks Peninsula to show the in-laws the delights of Akaroa and the excitement of the steep gravel tracks down to the beaches! Tumbledown Bay once again didn’t disappoint for some (albeit windy) surfing and seals and Granny Sally put a brave face on during the terror of the access road! We had planned to stay in Little River but made more sense to push onto Akaroa and stay there, so we moved in to the excellent Top10 campsite there overlooking town and Sally and Christopher booked into the slightly retro Grand Hotel just below. We all enjoyed the Giant’s House Take 2, a swim and SUP in the harbour and rounded it off with a tasty meal at Ma Maison which was delicious if a little pricy for our usual standards! There was also some noisy Dragon Boat racing going on in the harbour which looked great fun. Back home Em showed off all the local Christchurch sights and I clocked up my first NZ 100 mile commuting week but I still need to learn to take more water and not cycle over the hills on 35 degree heat and extreme fire risk days – also far too proud to beg for water off mountain bikers! 🙂 Biggest challenge here seems to be choosing what activity to do, with so many options on your doorstep and endless summer…so nice to finally (nearly four months!) get our shipping stuff from Scotland, certainly filled my evenings building bikes anyway..
Ethan and I went to the delights of Cub Camp at the Owaka Scout Camp the following weekend but I sneaked in an excellent couple of surfs before and after at Sumner and New Brighton to offset the pain that is 15 hyperactive, noisy and boisterous boys. I did my best to instil some respect and discipline into the group but in the words of the leaders, these kids are out of control! They stayed up till after midnight and tried to get up at 4am and pack to go home! We had fun at times but not 100% sure if quiet, introverted Ethan who loves lego, Origami and reading is best suited to these kind of gatherings. There was some great beer and banter with the leaders in the evening once the kids were in their tents and the range of activities was impressive from tubing on a river, to feeding eels, blindfold walks, zip lines, rope bridges etc. Ethan claims he has fun though, despite some negative moments but Em can definitely be a parent helper next time, I quit!
Sports Day was a big hit with all three children despite the silly hats they had lots of fun doing tug of war, gumboot throwing and plenty more. Sally and Christopher also got inspired in the garden and trained some junior gardeners to carry on once they left! They set out on a South Island expedition to Wanaka and the West Coast and we made plans for adventure 2…
…which was a final weekend in Castle Hill village in the Southern Alps about an hour west of Christchurch, another place I had fond memories of from 2004. Castle Hill itself is bouldering on an epic scale and you feel like an extra in Lord of the Rings exploring the strange stones looking for boulder problems and hobbits. We had quite a gathering on the Saturday night, with 15 people enjoying a BBQ and fitting round one picnic table! So nice to catch up with old Uni friends Heather, Steve and Sarah and kids too and the water/mud slide right outside our house was enjoyed by all. The biggest challenge of the weekend was getting three small children and two elderly grandparents through Cave Stream, which in my memory was a path underground next to a river but turned out to be an hour of wading up a fast moving river, climbing up mini waterfalls and finished with a gripping climb up iron rungs and shuffling along an airy ledge. Em and I were highly relieved to escape the cave without any lost or sad children or broken hips or worse from grandparents! Ambitious but highly satisfying for all involved, and a fitting end to their NZ adventure.
After all the busy weekends it was time for a quiet one and in typical Harrison fashion we still had a few adventures up our sleeves! The River Avon bubbles out of the ground in the western suburbs of Christchurch and then runs right through town so we thought a little boat trip was needed to check it out. Our first ever urban paddle (6km or so) was somewhat surprisingly really pleasant, being mostly wooded and scenic through Hagley Park and round the Botanics before a few fun rapids and plenty of urban sights and a fitting finish at the (to quote Ethan) best play park in the world. Met plenty of other boaters, punters and even an inflatable sofa but we got plenty of photos taken of us for our five in a boat trick! Definitely earned our homemade cookies on New Montreal Street, which is rapidly becoming our favourite street in town with lovely shops and cafes. Sunday was some more surf and ice cream in the Sumner summer sunshine (technically Autumn now!) and Em and I fitted in a long run and a MTB respectively in the Port Hills too, some great single track to play on from the house and Captain Thomas track was as exciting and Black graded as I remembered it, almost got it clean and will return later in the year with more clothing layers for protection!
Harrison Family Adventures Down Under 