New arrivals – babies and Covid-19!

Having gambled successfully with two brilliant road trips round South Island with a heavily pregnant Emily it was time to be a bit more sensible and stay closer to home! We gradually reduced our distance from home (and hospital!) starting with an old favourite Tumbledown Bay for some great surfing and Bottle Lake for some mountain biking, Em doing well to still be riding the waves and popping the jumps at 8.5 months! As we got closer to B-day the kids all wanted solo adventures with daddy so Ethan and I had fun doing all the blue runs at a slightly greasy Adventure Park, a great warm up was cycling up summit road to Mount Vernon for a nice long descent via Bowenvale Traverse, Gumtrees and Loess Rider and we finished with the excellent and tricky Gung Ho and Captain Torpedo. Sara was up next and fancied a ride on the gondola so we walked up the pipe to the top and got some sweet treats before getting the gondola back down. Iona took the whole family to Kindie for her graduation which was a lovely little ceremony and she looked very proud to be starting shortly at the big school.

Still no sign of the baby and still plenty of surf and sunshine so we opted for the usual Sumner surf and ice cream winning combo and some fun SUP/walk adventures from Cass Bay to Corsair Bay which worked well as we could swap half way and all get a turn. I headed back to work for a couple of days to try and get my head round how Head of House works and enjoyed catching up with work colleagues. A fun time was had at Jeremy’s birthday party complete with massive bouncy castle and another Ethan (and Iona!) magic show and we finished the pre-baby summer on the 30th January with a last surf at Waikuku beach and Em getting her final pregnant body board in….

…and then finally the contractions started, annoyingly at 2.15am on Monday 31st January while I was dreaming about riding another perfect wave. Without any family in New Zealand we had all the neighbours on standby but they were proving hard to wake up via phone and even when I climbed over the fence and banged on the windows! Being baby number four we knew it was going to be a quick one and mild panic was setting in, but luckily a sleepy Becky came round and Em and I shot off to the hospital where Zachary Michael Christopher Harrison was born at 3.30am with very little fuss and another very memorable experience for all involved. Family finally complete and nicely balanced now with two boys and two girls. We debated going home and waking up with the family but common sense prevailed and I went home to relieve Becky (a very excited Sara was awake at 5am playing games with Becky!) and try and get some sleep and we all drove in late morning to reunite the whole family and take Zach back to Cannon Hill Crescent…

Being an outdoors type Zach was keen for the beach on day 1 so we went back to a grey Sumner for some more surfing and then the next day was the first day of school for the older three which I was lucky to be in attendance for too and we got to show off Zach to lots of excited teachers. Iona did brilliantly for her first day despite so much going on at home and I even made it into work for the afternoon to meet my new classes. After three days of school we were all relieved to make it to a three day weekend -Waitangi Day weekend, a great invention having such an early bank holiday to ease you into the term, especially with a new-born in tow!

Zach’s first proper adventure was a mini coasteering trip to Lyttleton harbour with some great caves and scrambling along the way and we also went up to Woodend beach where Zach got covered in sand so required his first ever bath, which he seemed to enjoy after an initial grumble. Kids all enjoying Zach but Sara especially loves him to bits and can’t stop cuddling him. The tiredness was starting to get to me so I wisely set up a bed on the floor in Ethan’s room to try and get some more sleep. This meant I could get into work a bit more without the blurry haze and also start enjoying the longer commutes home over the hills and plenty more fun surfing at the usual local hotspots. Also with Autumn arriving on the scene we found plenty of blackberries at Bottle Lake to go with the usual excellent biking fun on offer….

After 6 weeks of local adventures the lure of an away weekend was getting bigger and we made plans to try camping (yikes) at Akaroa on the Banks Peninsula, but luckily at the last minute Becky next door revealed she had a bach (kiwi holiday cottage) in Akaroa we could use, no brainer really and turned out to be in a stunning location above town complete with an outdoor bath and plenty of bedrooms and games for all the noisy children! Saturday we went over to remote Hickory Bay for some exciting big wave surfing (not the best gentle re-introduction to surfing for Em!) and great body boarding for the kids. Over to the bach for some hot tub on the deck action and a tasty bbq dinner in the hot sun, summer not quite finished yet it seems!

Sunday was going to be a hot one so in typical fashion I thought a hilly bike ride would be a great idea! Em and the kids enjoyed finding all the animals on the scenic Children’s Bay walk and I slogged up the 600m hill to summit road for some great views and a lovely long downhill back to town marred only by an idiot boy racer trying to kill me by overtaking and then swearing at me in town about how bad a cyclist I was?!?! The locals even came out of the shops to check I was okay he was shouting so loudly! Reunited with the less sweary family we enjoyed a long afternoon of swimming and SUP action with all of us managing to shoot the pier which is a fun mini paddle. First weekend away a great success even without the camping part….

Another watersport weekend followed with surfing some enormous waves at New Brighton on Saturday, great for bodyboarding but frustrating for surfing as neither Em or I could make it out the back to the good stuff and battled with masses of white foam instead. The locals jumped off the pier which in retrospect we should have tried to save a lot of wasted energy. Sunday was the Sumner Sea to Sky Triathlon which we all enjoyed last year so were keen to try again. I cycled down in the dark to be greeted by an amazing purple sunrise and once again the sea was massive with amazing lines of giant swell rolling in but much cleaner than a year ago. Would really rather be surfing such perfect swell not attempting to swim in it but I set out in my covid-restriction wave and had a reasonable steady swim all in all. The hilly cycle into the Port Hills and scenic Godley Head run went pretty well too and I overtook the usual amount of people and enjoyed racing the mini team down the beach to finish. Iona and Sara did the aquathlon with Sara loving it more but Iona going the fastest. Ethan stepped up to a full duathlon and did very well with 3km of running and 9km of cycling. The other kids all had tri-suits and fast road bikes and were aged 9-15 but Ethan is determined and great he made it to the end winning his age class (easy when you’re the only one! 🙂 ) After watching such perfect waves Em and I were both very happy to finally get in the surf and though the swell had dropped it was still pretty nice, amazing what you can pack in before lunchtime if you start early! The girls caught some great blue rides on the SUPs, they are really getting into surfing both solo and tandem…

Sadly midweek things took a downturn as Ethan was sent home from school with some strange symptoms. After a day of vomiting he tested positive for covid so after avoiding it in New Zealand for so long we all entered a minimum of seven days isolation aka lockdown 3. I read the small print about daily exercise and looked promising though as although you can’t enter shops, gyms, pools etc you were allowed to do biking, walking, surfing etc so maybe it wouldn’t be so bad? After two excellent days surfing on quiet Sumner beach though I too caught Covid, maybe sharing with Ethan to avoid Zach waking up in the night hadn’t been such a good move after all. Like Ethan I had odd symptoms compared to most but generally felt pretty rough in a man-flu kind of way and was ever hopeful it wouldn’t last too long. What was surprising was the variety of symptoms with the kids vomiting and recovering quickly, Iona was totally asymptomatic lucky thing, whereas Em and I had typical head colds and dry cough, which all went on for much longer than we’d hoped. The local adventures kept us sane and it just felt like a third lockdown all in all but with bonus goodies from kind neighbours! Social distancing on busy beaches or narrow footpaths was the biggest challenge and we chose our routes and surf venues accordingly. I returned to work after 10 days off but it was a real struggle the first week back and even cycling slowly was a battle, I had to admit defeat and get lifts with my workmates. Definitely no triathlons this week!

Once we were all recovered and allowed back into society we headed into the hills for a badly needed weekend away and stayed at Springfield for the classic double of biking on the Craigieburn trails and bouldering at Castle Hill, we chose the longer walk to Flock Hill which is a stunning location high on a hill and an amazing selection of bouldering and caves to explore and play on. Almost too hot at times, endless summer seems a theme in New Zealand! Sunday we all enjoyed various bike trails, I started with the classic Luge, climbed Helicoptor Hill for the views and steep scree descent before finishing with Dracophyllum Flat and Cuckoo Creek and Em took over to finish over the mega classic Hogs Back while I took the kids to the epic water slide in Castle Hill village, an old favourite, everyone agreeing it was great to be (mostly) recovered from covid and resuming normal outdoor adventures!

Lots of fun back at school too with our first house events for the year starting with school cross country so a chance to wear silly outfits and cheer on the runners. Em and I scored a rare date night to the wonderful Fisherman’s Wharf in Lyttleton, Zach didn’t quite behave as we’d hoped and Em ate a lot standing up but definitely great to have some adult chat for a refreshing change! Liv did amazing at babysitting though and had the older three all whipped into shape and into bed when we returned! Finished the term with a great surf double at Sumner and Waikuku beach, the rare off-shore breeze giving some magic lines to play on and kids taking full advantage of long wetsuits, still warm water and a fleet of boards to play with! Great to finally be recovered from covid and enjoying the long rides home over the Port Hills and start thinking about the Easter holidays, only one week to go and still no plan! Yikes! Happy Easter when it comes and watch out the scary pink dinosaur baby Zach!