In classic New Zealand fashion we seem to have moved straight from Winter to Summer with hardly any Spring rainy weather to show for it, and we’re now firmly back into the seemingly endless 20 degree sunny days. After a tiring first week back at school after the October break Em had to work the Saturday so I took the kids to the Antarctic Centre (which poor Em had been hoping to go to for months, but I kept saying the weather was too nice!) This turned out to be an excellent day out, with snow vehicle rides, a storm room, liquid nitrogen ice creams, penguins and plenty of hands on activities. Best of all we entered the draw and Sara won a hamper of goodies and a free family pass so we’ll be back with mummy some time soon to show her around!
Sunny Sunday followed which of course means surfing at Sumner beach and a first chance for the season to test out the wetsuits and surf boards closer to home (they’d been well used in Abel Tasman over the holidays but the water is much warmer up there!) Sumner has really slow, gentle waves, perfect for mini bodyboarders and learning to stand up…
The girls had been getting excited about their joint birthday for about six months now so it was nice when it finally arrived on a long weekend in late October and we could decorate the house in their chosen “Under the Sea” theme, play lots of silly party games and Em worked her usual magic with the cake! After all the high pitched screaming and shouting I was relieved to be allowed a few hours of peace up in the hills and was treated to a great cloud inversion descending off Mount Pleasant via Captain Thomas track, nice to get all the tricky rock sections clean too, longest descent in the Port Hills gives your forearms and fingers a good work out! Post party day Sunday was back to our old favourite Tumbledown Bay, though with no swell forecast we opted for a boat trip. The strong off-shore winds were a little exciting at times but we saw plenty of seals and sea stacks and made it back to the beach with barely a whimper from our brave young adventurers! Just enough swell for some body boarding and comedy attempts at surfing the kid’s foam board to finish! Water still “refreshing” without a wetsuit but heading in the right direction for sure….
The joy of a long weekend is not having that Monday morning feeling and we replaced it with a trip to Orana wildlife park in the NW of town which had a good selection of animals (if a little spread out!) – feeding the giraffes and farm animals were popular options, but the gorillas and rhinos were also worth a look. On Sara’s actual birthday (she’s cashing in this year!) we went out for some great pizza in Sumner and of course had yet more cake! Sara was very happy to get her own pair of rollerskates having watched Iona skate around on hers for the last two weeks and some spectacular wipe-outs followed on the smooth surface of the kitchen floor! They’ve got the hang of it now but we have advised them to not try the steep driveway just yet!! Only the most important birthday of the year to come now, start buying presents for Daddy children, not long now!
Halloween most people go trick or treating but not Mummy, she prefers to run off-road mountain marathons – The Mt Somers marathon is a super hilly, technical trail around the mountain and it was a really hot day for it, but in typical style Em cruised it smiling all the way and came an amazing 3rd overall and first vet (she’s not particularly happy being in the veteran category now but definitely increases your prize quota!!) despite having to cycle to the start as well (another 16km to go with 42km) due to the very early start. The mini team and I enjoyed chasing mummy round the course and popping up with jelly babies from time to time and exploring the rivers and mini summits. We somehow made it to the finish just in time to accompany her across the line for her well deserved post race massage and cold beverages. Em was so quick at running the course I even had time for a mountain run of my own in the afternoon, I opted for a much shorter but hillier version over the summit of Mt Somers and an exciting steep rocky descent down the back which eventually brought me back to the carpark and a long rainy and hellish headwind cycle back to the campsite to finish. Iona and Sara had made some very cute pumpkins and everyone looked suitably dressed up for the Halloween weekend. Sunday was another hot one and our plan had been to paddle the nearby powerful Rakaia River to rest our weary legs but one look at the river, which was in full spate after rain mid week, sent us running away quickly with our tails between our legs. Plan b) was a mini mountain bike round the well named “Swamp Donkey” trail at Mount Hutt which was a nice quick option though Em and I were on our town bikes which were a bit rattly! Who needs suspension anyway? The kids cope fine without!
Great swimming hole, rubbish descent route! 
Swamp a Donkey 
Happy Halloween!
After a lazy Saturday at Taylor’s Mistake surfing some small clean waves and the epic dunes, we had a fun evening at the local Heritage Park in Ferrymead which involved old tram and old train rides, lots of dressed up historical characters and junior firefighters and plenty of very tasty food, I recommend the lasagna sandwich, doesn’t sound like it should work but it really does! Ethan had a lot of full-body excitement driving the trains on a very large model railway, and for him this was a great double as Sunday was more model races – this time the legendary “Pinewood Derby” where kids build and race minature wooden cars. Ours was definitely at the bottom end of the design spectrum but it raced really well and Ethan even managed to win one heat. Now we’ve seen it in action we have plenty of tips and can only come back stronger next year! The coolest bit was strapping a camera to the car and wearing a VR headset to watch your car go round a crazy loop the loop….
I came home from work on my birthday after a hard day at the office to find the kids had built an amazing treasure hunt round the house for me to solve to find my presents, Em’s nun cake was also very impressive and ever original, not sure what they would make of it at school! I had a great week at school too with a field trip to the local river for some Nature Detective hands on research with the Year 7s, predictably a lot of them got very wet but they loved finding the invertebrates and sampling plenty of data for a local environmental website. I also went on a STEM CPD day at the University of Canterbury which was a nice mix of Science and Maths featuring Mobius Strips, Menger Sponges and Earthquake mini testing platforms, lots of great ideas to take back to the classroom, I needed something to fill the end of term with my Maths class besides the talent show they really want so that’s sorted now, just need some coloured paper and card and lots of sellotape!
Up here daddy! 
Ethan builds a Menger Sponge
Another long weekend following daddy’s birthday (guess I’m cashing in as well!) and with a great forecast on the west coast finally we headed over to Westport for some wild west coast adventures. We stayed at the Top 10 holiday park just west of town which was functional enough, if a little soulless in character despite being in such a great location, and I set the alarm early for a big day ahead. Plan was to cycle the famous Old Ghost Road trail in a day which is an amazing 85km bit of mountain bike singletrack from Lyell in the Buller Gorge to Seddonville on the West Coast. Mostly grade 3 (blue/red standard) but with a couple of airy grade 5 (black) sections to keep you on your toes! Most people seem to take 2 or 3 days over it and stay in the nice looking huts along the way but seemed easiest for the family if I just went light and fast and tried to do it in one day. Hard part was arranging a shuttle to the start which took lots of emails and phone calls to organise but I got there in the end. The first third is a long steady climb up and up crossing lots of streams and with flashes of views but mostly in the trees and then suddenly you pop out above the trees and start the airy goat track along the summit ridge before dropping down loose trail paths to Ghost Lake Hut which is in a fine location high in the hills with great views. Sadly I had a bit too many clouds drifting in and out to get the full experience but after a rainy start to the day I wasn’t complaining with the improving weather! From Ghost Lake the difficulty ramps up a lot with exciting rooty and rocky hairpins and some very exposed hairpins descending down the well-named Skyline Ridge. A slip here would put you in the hospital for sure and I found the frequent heli-pads for rescuing crashed bikers intimidating to say the least! I was mighty relieved to reach the super steep Skyline Steps (have been cycled apparently, can’t see how!) which take you back down into the forest for a much easier and mammoth descent down to the valley floor and the halfway point. So far so good and time for a lunch break and quick swim by Stern Valley Hut, the temperature was cranking up at this point. Next was an atmospheric section called the Boneyard through a valley of rocks and the final big up for the day before another monster downhill to Goat Creek and Specimen Point Hut. Hardest part of a one day cycle is the mental concentration of mountain biking, you constantly have to scan for roots and rocks to avoid crashing off the trail and though easy riding it’s hard to stay focussed after 7 or 8 hours on the go! Had a good break at the last hut with 17km to go and met some hut residents who were happy to take my picture, everyone asks which hut you’ve biked from and are suitably impressed/shocked that you’ve actually cycled all the way from the car park at Lyell! The final section just wouldn’t end and featured some airy high suspension bridges again well named as Suicide Slips, and finally I reached the car park at 4.30pm after 8.5 hours of truly memorable and excellent mountain biking. Not a moment too soon as Em had said if I arrived after 5pm she would have headed back to camp and I’d have to hitch the 60km back to town on my own! Luckily she has a heart and once they’d found the amazing Rough and Tumble lodge at the finish at Seddonville they knew they could cope with waiting a little longer if need be. They’d also had an action packed day cycling some of the Charming Creek walkway and finishing like me by cycling the last few km of the Old Ghost Road. After all that biking the mini team and I were ready for some tasty homemade pizzas and beers and plenty of satisfaction in escaping the hellish sandflies in the carpark too!
A quieter day was required the next day for sure after that one and we opted for surfing at the lovely Tauranga Bay near to Cape Foulwind. The bay funnels swell nicely but is sheltered from the wind and we got some great rides on the lovely blue lines of ground swell rolling in. The kids also enjoying exploring (naked!?) up the river on SUPs and we had a mini walk to the seal colony at the North end of the beach. Em opted to run back to the campsite via a very rocky coastal route and an even longer section of sandy beach. Sadly time to head for home on Monday back over the Lewis Pass but just had time to stop at the pass for a very scenic nature walk with some great reflections in the lake, all in all a pretty perfect birthday weekend, another year older but still no wiser!
Showtime the next weekend as the older two were featuring in Latin Fire’s dance show so Iona and I enjoyed sitting in the audience eating popcorn and watching all the great dancing from age 5 to adult while poor mummy ran round backstage helping all the children get changed and ready for their acts! Think we may have got the better deal there! Ethan and Sara both did really well despite Sara being one of the youngest there and what Ethan lacks in co-ordination he more than makes up for with his boundless energy and enthusiasm! The next day was dreadful weather but I managed to persuade Ethan to go mountain bike orienteering with me in the Port hills and fortunately the rain held off and he loved it, nice mix of two sports we both enjoy, though hard to read the map properly without a map board on the handlebars. Midweek I got a nice treat as Jasmine phoned in sick so I got a couple of days with just Iona, even did an Emily special and nipped up Mount Pleasant after dropping her at Kindie. Never get much one on one time with Iona as usually get the whole gang so I really appreciate these days and as well as a fun trip to the excellent New Brighton Hot Pools we got some serious gymnastic training done at the playpark, Olympics 2032 here we come…..
Nest 1 
Off to Kindie… 
Back from Kindie!
After a fun day at New Brighton doing the surfing, water park combo I headed off to the Banks Peninsula with my new buddies Zack and Ben to take part in the Banks Peninsula Adventure race organised by CrazyKea Events. Team name “Lastminute.com” as we cobbled the team together just in time to get the last slot in the race and after one mini training run up Mount Vernon we were ready to go! This was 9 hours (more like 10.5) of mountain biking, mountain running and orienteering over and around Mount Herbert. The other two were good runners but had little to no orienteering and mountain biking experience, so stage 1 with it’s technical single-track was a tough wake up call! They would end the day with about three over the bar wipe outs but learned a lot, I also managed a spectacular upside down fall into some very sharp gorse bushes. We placed reasonably well for a scratch team and were strong on the running legs though I made some very silly navigation errors at times, hard to focus on over 50 checkpoints over 10 hours. Would I do another similar race, maybe? Four or six hours might be a more sensible amount of time, 7am start and 10 hours on the go pretty silly and frankly exhausting trying to cycle to work and teach after that! (NB I drove Monday and Tuesday as legs a wee bit wobbly! I was the grandad of the group, other two in their 30s!)
Nest 2 
Biking newbies! 
Runners! Summit shot! 
Really missing my regular outdoor education days out of school so great to reach the end of term Year 9 activity days and loved doing some stand up paddle and surfing in the sunshine with two amazing groups of girls, you realise how good the school is when you see how well the students interact with external instructors and members of the public. I even managed to cycle the long way home after surfing and find an excellent cafe at Governers Bay for some warm cheese scone and chocolate brownie washed down with a cold ginger beer, not a bad life! I spend my life struggling along on the bike on a few nuts and sun warmed water, can’t believe I’ve been missing out on the cafe lifestyle all these years, very civilised it is too!
Christmas rolls ever closer so despite the heat it’s good to get the tree up and start feeling festive, kids are buzzing with excitement at school and at home and the temperature has started edging towards the upper 20s which is too hot for us Scottish types, but luckily plenty of water based activities close at hand like bodyboarding and swimming in the sea which is now a pretty pleasant temperature again for decent length swims. Orienteering at Diamond Harbour was a fun event as not many races you get to get the ferry to (or could paddle across the harbour if really keen!) – 8 mins vs 30 mins driving round -no brainer! Ethan got lost on Yellow, Em and I braved the long Red (aka Blue in UK) and Sara and Iona enjoyed Yellow with Em. Missing the regular orienteering fix but weather is more suitable for it in the UK, running in the heat of the day at sea level just seems a bit too much like hard work. We had an exciting time swimming in the harbour, watching the ferry pulling in, then dressing as fast as we could and sprinting over to the boat, Em used the kids to hold things up so I could catch up! Iona has started putting herself to bed now she’s “a big four girl” but this usually involves building a nest somewhere round the house and sleeping on the floor. Luckily she’s a deep sleeper and easily moved to the correct bed later on!
Nest 3! 
Tumbledown Bay, rapidly becoming our favourite local beach!
Finally reached the end of a very long term and after a week of endless prize givings and Christmas quizzes celebrated in style with a long ride home over the hills and back via Gebbie’s Pass and you’ve guessed it Governers Bay for my usual tasty cafe sustenance. Quick pizza dinner then off ten pin bowling with cubs which Ethan was a huge fan of, lots of bouncing balls down the lane and bouncing Ethan watching! The following day was a very rare treat with Em and I both off work and Ethan off school due to building work so the three of us did some proper grown up biking at the top of Mount Pleasant. Ethan is getting really handy at technical rocky sections, Em is worried that he’ll be better than her soon so she’s been training hard just in case! We all agreed it was great to go biking without tired girls needing a push uphill. I also got to take Iona to gymnastics which was a rare treat and perhaps unsurprisingly she showcased her impressive skills on beam and rings! At the weekend we had a fun local adventure biking around Mount Vernon to Rapaki rock for some scenic bouldering, not quite Castle Hill but fun enough and Ethan and I got to climb Mount Vernon on the way back to the car for a great 360degree view. Never a bad day spent up in the Port Hills!
The LONG commute! 
I normally manage to wangle a day or two off over the six week break but with Jasmine and Em still working and the kids at school/kindie I managed to score the best part of three days off in a row – a wee reminder of life before children when you could basically do whatever you like! Never one to waste a golden opportunity I started with a great local mountain bike over Mount Pleasant and down to Godley Head and onto Taylor’s Mistake via the famous Anaconda track. An excellent piece of singletrack right on our doorstep and one I can’t believe I’ve only done twice in a year! One spectacular wipe out on probably the easiest section of the whole ride when I clipped a pedal, got flipped and skidded down the grass ending with some good friction burns from the grass (luckily no rocks) and a bent derailleur for my trouble. Another hot one so when I reached Sumner beach I went for a 1km swim in the lovely refreshing water before cycling home just in time to pick up Iona from Kindie! Maybe being a stay at home dad isn’t so tough after all? The next day was even hotter so I opted for surfing at the famous Magnet Bay on the Banks Peninsula, a break I’d tried to surf 15 years ago and got no rides, very scared and even broke the board on the steep shingle beach fighting to get out of the surf in one piece. Not a beginner break by any stretch and Em and the kids haven’t let me go there all year due to the sandy, mellow surf and friendly seals of nearby Tumbledown bay always winning out. The 3-5 feet clean waves rolling in looked pretty good to me and I tried to make a sensible plan for entering and exiting the water. Getting in is fine and I got some really nice rides to make amends for 2004, a bit busy with lots of other surfers but plenty of waves for everyone, a bit like Manu Point at Raglan but not quite as epic. Then came getting out which wasn’t pretty as I flapped around in the kelp with my leash wrapped round a few rocks and tried to stand up while getting hit with white water waves, but I made it out in the end and best of all the board survived too! Final day of the trilogy was more biking this time up in the Craigieburn Ranges to try and escape the heat of the city. My first thought was an ambitious duathlon involving a 40km hilly mountain bike followed by a 20km mountain run up to 2200m but as the day wore on it was clear that at 27-30 degrees even in the hills that this would be suicidal especially the run with no shelter and water en route at all! Still unsure what the day would entail I parked at Castle Hill village at 9am and cycled up the main road for 8km to access a short bit of fun singletrack (Sidle 73) before the long slog up the ever steepening gravel road of the Craigieburn ski field access road. An hour after leaving the car I reached the ticket office at 1200m altitude and the start of the first downhill section, an exciting piece of track called The Edge as it traverses steep scree fields and has some dangerous cliff top narrow and loose cycle tracks where you pray the wheels stay on the track. After a short climb you’re onto the Luge which is less scary but equally technical with lots of roots to slalom down through. The native forest makes for very pretty riding and is a welcome respite from the heat of the sun too! After finally admitting defeat and realising the run wasn’t going to happen I added in an extra loop to do a Grade 5 (black) track called Cuckoo Creek which was lots of fun, steep and rooty but much less scary than the Grade 4 rated Edge. The final two sections (Dracophyllum Flat and Hogs Back) are brilliant riding being a mixture of woodland and open alpine meadows for over 16km and although I was getting tired and dehydrated by the end, it was a great ride, 45km and 4 hours of fun in the sun, like half an Old Ghost Road but only an hour from home! Instead of running into the scorching hills I took a far better option and had a leisurely hour lunch break sat on a bouldering mat under a shady tree, followed by a nice swim in Redcliffs harbour to cool off before heading home to get the dinner on. What a great start to the holidays!
Heading for Godley Head 
Looking for a way in! 
Magnet Bay magic.. 
1200m, Craigieburn ranges 
The Edge 
Dracophyllum Flat 
Hogs Back 
Lightning Tree
Roll on the next set of NZ adventures – we’ve got a trip to Kaikoura planned first to look for elusive whales and glassy surf conditions and then a road trip round the South of South Island. In other exciting news with the UK still looking a bit under the weather struck down with Covid-19 we’ve decided to stay another year in New Zealand, so I’m afraid this isn’t quite the end of the blog but we may slow down a bit now we’ve got twice as long to play with! Jobs, house and visas all extended so see you at some point in 2021, hope despite Covid you have a great Christmas/holiday season wherever you are in the world.
Harrison Family Adventures Down Under 