Well we left you last half way through the winter school holiday psyching up for a few days of daddy daycare, a clever way to play it is to ask the kids what they want to do and pick the best option! Ethan suggested crazy golf, Iona her usual play-park choice and Sara biking so into town we went to do all three plus some tasty homemade cookies from the cookie shop too! We also did some fun local biking in the bird reserve the next day and Ethan built his ridiculously complicated marble parkour set. I even tried my hand at home baking which went badly as it turns out cupcakes cook much faster than large cakes – who’d have thought! Good for removing fillings though!
Lucky daddy even managed to score a rare day off, making good use of our nanny Jasmin, and I went to Porters Pass to check out the backcountry options there – bluebird skies and soft snow (if you were on the right aspect! S and W pretty icy, N and E pretty soft) meant for some fun skiing, though I got a little carried away with a day without children and did many vertical metres of skinning and skiing to fill the day, home to cook dinner for the kids with a smile on my face. I can’t believe I spent so many years in Scotland winter climbing and shivering on big icy cliffs with spindrift blowing down your neck and painful hot aches in the hands, when you can just ski mountaineer in the sunshine with better views and constant movement keeping you warm. No doubt in my mind it’s the best winter sport, though my skis may disagree as I keep gouging large holes in the bottom of them with all the hidden rocks under the thin snow cover! Poor skis!
Once mummy had done her three day week it was back to the adventures and with rain forecast in Christchurch, but blue skies on the West Coast a last minute plan came together and we packed the van to bursting with bikes, boats, bouldering mats etc and headed west. First stop Castle Hill which compared to last time in the heat of summer was magical with snowy mountains all around, great friction and Spittle Hill beats Quantum Field hands down for interesting, varied bouldering plus the usual terrifying slopers to top out! Kids found an impressive amount of caves and Sara and Iona loved one route so much they did it about 30 times each!
We stayed at the Hokitika Holiday park which had a nice little cabin with plenty of beds for everyone, a great kitchen and an impressive pirate ship tower and terrifying zip line. Almost no-one around too being “winter” and no tourists so we had the place to ourselves. Cold overnight temps for sure and hard frosts (Em did suggest camping in her usual style!!) but very pleasant if you were in the sun in the middle of the day for the few hours of sunshine. Next day was biking some more of the Wild West Coast Wilderness Trail, this time the 10 mile section to Lake Mahinapua and back, freezing in the thick forest out of the sun and some technical roots for daddy to test his skills on the final descent to the lake. A quick whizz down to the clear blue waters of the Hokitika gorge in the afternoon, sadly far too cold for swimming or SUP but definitely worth a visit.
Last full day of the trip and we could resist the lure of the clear blue water no longer and drove North past Greymouth to Paparoa and opted for boating on the Pororari river near to Punakaiki, this was a bit of a gamble as the steep rock sided gorge doesn’t get much sun. We launched in sunshine but soon after went into a chilly gorge and paddling upstream against the current was hard work for me and Em and I had to get out and push the boat a few times, icy on the toes for sure. The kids hands started to turn blue(!) so after one rapid too many we turned and retreated, much more fun going downstream and in retrospect we should have walked up the valley and boated back down. After sharing a very pleasant sunny lunch with some local wildlife in the carpark we went to the nearby stunning Punakaiki beach instead for some bumpy surfing and some great caves to explore. Rounded the day off nicely with sunset fish and chips on the beach.
Just had time on the last morning for some fun biking at the tough Blue Spur trails near Hokitika, with the well named Tunnels Trail (hardest blue I’ve ever done in my life – more like black grade for sure!) being the best of the bunch, though the kids did a lot of bum sliding rather than biking! Heading home now reluctantly but not before one last attack from the Keas on Arthur’s Pass on the way back, they even got a few chunks out of the rubber door seal! The West Coast really is an amazing place to hang out if you can get there in good weather, so many fun outdoor things to do amongst stunning scenery and a really chilled vibe. We’ll be back!
So into Term 3 we went and though it’s always a shock to the system going back to being Mr Harrison the warmer weather and slightly longer days meant plenty of cycle commutes over the Port Hills to race the sunset and keep me sane! After lots of driving the week before we had a couple of local days the following weekend, both at Sumner beach, once with the the kids on bikes while Em was working and then on SUP round the coast to Taylor’s for some great SUP surfing on small, clean waves. Jasmin had a rare sick day so I ended up with a bonus day off work and took the little one to the beach to look for crabs and fish and the library for endless stories. Attempt 2 at baking was much more successful and Iona’s creative “Orange, Chocolate and Raisin” cake was pretty yummy!
The next few weekends involved plenty of skiing at Mount Hutt and Porters Pass, almost got enough of a snow fix for the season now and keen to get lots in before the snow melts. What’s amazing is how far the kids have come along since the start of the season, they now cruise down green and blue runs and even look for jumps to launch off. The lift have been more challenging than the descents, with T bars being especially exciting! The main problem is the girls won’t double up so Em and I take one each, and height and weight wise it’s not even close to being balanced, leading to inevitable wipe-outs but we usually make it up to the top in the end! Free lift passes for under 10s has worked very well for us this winter, saves quite a bit of money. The elusive Scottish ski/surf double is so easy here too as the mountains are high and the swell is reliable. You can also chuck into the mix excellent scenic mountain biking in the Port Hills, Mcleans Island or Halswell Quarry’s Crocodile Trails. I pushed hard for living in Christchurch again when other options were suggested and I’m glad I was singleminded as it is truly an outdoor playground here, just what we were looking for when we moved half way round the world!
Some interesting negative press on social media and in the news recently about New Zealand having a “big upsurge” in Covid-19 cases mostly started by Donald Trump. The typical humorous kiwi response is to post lots of photos of Twitter and Facebook of the suffering and misery that goes on here under the #NZhellhole hashtag. The photos above and below hopefully also convey that level 2 here really isn’t so bad, apart from large gatherings not happening and checking into places on your phone, life is fairly normal and likely to go back to level 1 in a few weeks and we remain very grateful to be avoiding the worst of the virus in other parts of the world.
A trip back to Tumbledown Bay on the Banks Peninsula reminded us how remote the surfing is here, I had the great waves all to myself and was joined in the water by seals with lots more honking at me from the rocks. The kids found plenty of dunes to launch themselves off and we rounded off the weekend with some great biking at the other end of the Port Hills, parking at the top meant it was mostly downhill for the kids and daddy got to go back up and get the car at the end of the trip! (Though I did sneak a lap on the excellent and technical Flying Nun on the way up). Sara is turning into a proper little artist like her mother and grandmother and spends many hours drawing and colouring and all children have settled really well into kindie and school and they can’t wait to go back each week, Ethan even said he prefers it to the weekends! (must try harder! 🙂 )
After a few quieter weekends at home with day trips we all longed for a weekend away but without the long drives so opted for a night in Springfield which is one hour west of home at the foot of the Southern Alps. This meant we could ski at Porters in the sunshine yet again and also go back to Castle Hill for some more fun on the rocks the next day. Same places for sure, but still great every time! A nice touch was waking to an impressive cloud inversion with only the hills poking out and then driving through the murk right to the same sunny hills for skiing! The kids even managed to sneak a sledge or two onto the magic carpet at Porters Pass which caused much amusement! The Sheffield Hotel is a cracking place for dinner with friendly staff and great food – Seafood Chowder and Garlic Bread comes highly recommended, and Smilie’s YHA in Springfield was also a lovely place to stay (2 bed apartment for 170 dollars pretty cheap!), oozing charm and quirkiness and even had friendly pigs on site.
Some really hot days in the last week of “winter”, up to 22 degrees, so Sumner beach was calling again, firstly on bikes with kids, then after a hot walk near Taylors we were all relieved to get in the water again and Em (no wetsuit needed, she’s tough that girl!) and Ethan did some great bodyboarding. I had a brief go but have been struck down with the known killer that is man-flu, so didn’t last long in the 9 degree water! Maybe skiing at altitude in cold temps and swimming in the sea not the best known cure for the common cold, I mean deadly man-flu, but never been the best at sitting on home on a sunny day waiting to get better!
So Spring arrived on the 1st September and in typical fashion after a week of warm weather, blossom on trees and baby lambs in the field, September started with bitterly cold temps and snow down to 400m! Great for more skiing in the sunshine of course and this meant that finally some more resorts than Mount Hutt and Porters could open up again, we went and checked out Mount Cheeseman for their “season opener” which may also be their last weekend of skiing! Exciting steep access road check, death defying T bars to fall off check, fun beginner area for kids check, backcountry bowls and ridges for mummy and daddy ski mountaineering adventures check, sunny terrace for apres ski cold drinks check, all in all a great place to spend the day, shame they haven’t got more snow lower down the mountain….only two weeks to the next holidays, not that I’m counting! Better start planning the next #NZhellhole misery-fest adventure, surely there will be somewhere nice to explore? Saying all this firmly tongue in cheek, we know Covid-19 could easily return to NZ too and we do miss Scotland at times, especially the amazing Highlands and Islands and know we’d find plenty of adventures back there too. Also plenty of family and friends in the UK who we haven’t seen for far too long, don’t forget us, we’ll be back one day! Well done for reading this far! I hope everyone is well, happy and keeping positive in these ever stranger global unrest/climate emergency/pandemic times. Never have we needed a happy bubble more than we need it now… #bekind and if you can’t be kind keep singing….
Harrison Family Adventures Down Under 