Another day, another race

Feb 1st: Start of month 2! Time flies by! Today was the second day of the 133rd Waimate Caledonian Games and was a cycling criterium. This seemed to be a series of cycle rides around a town centre route. In Steve's race you cycled for 20 minutes plus 3 laps. Tempting to hide round the back somewhere and join in for the last 3 laps with fresh legs, but apparently that's not allowed in the rules. Although Steve wasn't going to join in he was persuaded by a friend he met when we walked to get some shopping in the morning. As you can see from the photo he maintained a friendly attitude to the venture and enjoyed every minute. Again he came somewhere near the back. Although Steve has cycled a lot in the past he hasn't done any training for ages because there's so much else that gets in the way. So yesterday marked the start of his season's racing, and I think today marked the end of this season's racing for him!
The boys and I enjoyed a sausage sizzle while he raced. This is a strange Kiwi phenomenon of a pre-cooked (boiled) sausage frizzled on a barbeque and then wrapped in a slice of white sliced bread. These are for sale at every Kiwi gathering. There seem to be no rules about food safety or food preparation so it's an easy way to make a quick buck.

Scotland in Waimate

Jan 31st: A hot muggy day, 31 degrees at lunchtime, then cooler and showery at tea-time. This morning was the annual Waimate Caledonian Games. This is some strange mix of sports and activities for children and adults. It takes place in the velodrome and you get to see running, jumping, welly-throwing, highland dancing, bagpipe-playing, cycling and running competitions all going on at the same time. Quite odd. Also lots of people wandering round wearing kilts. We thought we could introduce a new triathalon combination of welly-throwing, bagpipe-playing and cycling - of course as women can multi-task so well they would have to do them all at the same time! The three boys all took place and did well in everything they tried, and Steve took part in some of the cycling races. In the afternoon we went to see 'Madagascar 2'. We don't have a cinema as such in Waimate but we do have a theatre and it shows films at weekends. It has been shut being refurbished the past few weeks and today was its re-opening. In the evening we went to a barbeque at a friend's house nestled part way up the hills you saw in the harvesting shot a few days ago. The photo is of the Caledonian flag and Steve is one of the cycle races. Steve is on the green bike (near the back - shhh!)

Why don't they concentrate like this at school????

Jan 30th: Another English summer's day. We got through plenty of school work this morning, so much easier when the temperature is cooler. Swimming lesson was cancelled at lunchtime because it was only 17 degrees and drizzling. On a Friday afternoon the boys get to swap credits they've earned during the week for computer/tv time. New Zealand tv isn't too good. All 3 channels we get are commercial and the adverts are not necessarily suitable for the time of the day they are shown, and "acceptable" language here can be looser than we'd like the boys to use. So the boys haven't watched the tv here for about 10 months, but we do let them watch dvds we recorded back home, or films we rent from the library. This afternoon they decided their treat would be to watch some Pink Panther shorts on dvd, and the picture is of them enjoying the humour.

An English summer's day

Jan 29th: A typical English summer's day - drizzly and cool! I'm sure you'll be glad to know we get that sort of weather over here! In fact the great weather we've been having so far is much better than it usually is in summer, the locals tell us. More schooling in the morning and it was too cool for a swimming lesson. Steve's friend Ralph came round at lunchtime to fire up his (model) aeroplane engine. In the afternoon I cooked a quiche (more eggs!) while the boys played on the computer. Then we all got together to do some more on the jigsaw we are working on at the moment. Up until now the boys have only done 12, 24 or 60 piece jigsaws, but we are working together on a 500 piece of a guinea pig. Here is Edward showing you how far we've got so far, and the box shows you how far we still have to go!!! I'll try to remember to show you the finished article in few weeks (we work on it one afternoon a week).

The middle of Waimate

Jan 28th: A sunny day but with a cool southerly wind (they're the ones that come up from penguin-country!). We schooled this morning and then the boys had a swimming lesson. We still had some maths to finish after lunch and then the boys played with bows and arrows in the garden. Our free twice-weekly Waimate paper arrived telling us that we are now under a hose-pipe ban. But nothing is really banned in NZ, it seems, and in fact when you read the details, we can now only use our hoses during daylight hours on odd days of the month (because our house number is odd), and the even-number houses over the road can use them on the even days of the month! We harvested another cabbage for dinner, but it was so big we shared it with our neighbours! We had some very soggy bananas so I cooked three different banana cakes and used up another 5 eggs (still 5 in the box, though!). The photo is of the main street, Queen Street, from the south end. The clocktower on the right is of interest. It's over 90 years old and the clock is of a pendulum design. It chimes the Westminster chimes every quarter hour, and bongs the hour. When we first moved here it was a poor timekeeper, and as the week went on it would get further and further behind. Once it was 10 minutes out someone would go and change the time. One Sunday I was walking into town and the clock bonged 3 o'clock. It was spot on the hour, but my watch said 2 o'clock. I got into a panic as to what the real time was, but soon confirmed that it was an hour ahead, and remained so until Council staff turned up for work on Monday morning. It has recently been refurbished and is now spot-on all the time.

Our house

Jan 27th: Some rain overnight and a cooler (21 degrees) breezy day, great for getting all the beach clothes dried on the line. The boys schooled in the morning. This week we are studying Japan on our trip round the world. If you're wondering how our carrot experiment is going that we set up a few days ago, well the carrot tops in water have grown new leaves, now about 2 inches tall. The boys are amazed. It was boiled eggs for lunch (need to use up the ones laid while I was away over the weekend). In the afternoon we returned Sunshine the canary, went to the Postshop, supermarket and library and then home. The boys are digging in their sandpit as I write this. They are making their own pizzas for tea tonight, and I think I'll make ice-cream (more eggs!). The photo is of the house we are living in. We face north, which is good here in upside-down land. As you can see there is a lot of glass so the lounge is typically 36 degrees in the evening in summer, and in the winter the sun helps to give some warmth to the front of the house.

The awesome Moeraki boulders

Jan 26th: Guess what - another very hot day! The boys did an hour of schoolwork in the motorhome and then we and our friends left the campsite and headed a little way north along the coast to the Moeraki boulders. These are amazing spherical lumps of rock on the beach, uncovered at low tide. They are in the mudstone cliffs and are revealed as the cliff erodes, and then weather away once the sea acts on them. Some of the smaller ones look like dragon eggs (so the boys said) and then they crack open. They are incredible. There were about 20 of us clambering over them and then a coach turned up and it got busy for a while util it was time for their whistle-stop tour to move on. We spent a couple of hours there in all. We headed north to Oamaru for lunch and some shopping, and then arrived home in Waimate about 3.30pm. By bedtime it had cooled down to a more pleasant 20 degrees.

Penguins and seals

Jan 25th: Another incredibly hot day. In the morning we drove to the lighthouse along the coast from Moeraki. Here there is a colony of yellow-eyed penguins. You usually see them at dawn and dusk but as these times of the day aren't very child-friendly in summer, we were delighted to come across one penguin poddling around the edge of a steep cliff. We got to about 6 feet of it (but there was a fence in between to keep people out of their nesting area as they are very rare and a protected species). We clambered over rocks and came across seals leaping out of the sea on to the rocks. At one point two members of our group were cut off from us by a seal and they had to wait until it decided to go for another swim before they could get off the rocky headland. After lunch we played on Moeraki beach again, and after tea went for a walk from our local beach round into the next bay.

Moeraki beach

Jan 24th: Steve was working this weekend but I set off with the boys in the motorhome, south past Oamaru to a tiny fishing village called Moeraki. No shops, no facilities, but a campsite and a lovely beach with really orange sand. It was a very hot day but by 3pm it was cool enough to get out of the (air-conditioned!) motorhome and cross the road to the beach. We had met up with the same family as we had spent time with at the lakes, and the 6 children played well together. After tea we went for a walk from the campsite and saw seals coming out of the water to bask on the warm rocks. The photo is of Edward playing on the beach.

Harvest begins

Jan 23rd: Another very hot day, about 30 degrees. I was busy for part of the morning selling raffle tickets as fund-raising for the taekwon-do club and a friend kindly looked after the boys. I rushed into the bank and supermarket while I had the chance and at both staff spontaneously commented that I didn't have the children. That's one of the 'drawbacks' to homeschooling - they have to go everywhere you need to go. I joined the boys for lunch. In the afternoon we went out to see our friend Guy harvest grass seed. This is Steve's flying mate. If you have seen the film 'Cars' then you'll have met Frank, the combine harvester. Our boys love 'Cars' and have wanted to meet a real "Frank" for ages. They were so excited. Then we got to ride in it while it went round and picked up and threshed the seed, four times round the paddock. We helped harvest a couple of tonnes of seed or so in a couple of hours. The best bit was the cab was air-conditioned so it was the coolest we've been for days! In the background you can see the Hunter Hills, which are out the back of Waimate. Being sheltered by them means we have quite different weather from other places even quite nearby and so the weather forecast is often no use at all. I'm off away with the (...some might say "fairies"!) boys for a couple of days so I'll be back with more photos soon.....

This is NOT overgrown!

Jan 22nd: Today was very hot - 30 degrees by 10.30am and then stayed about 28 in the shade all the rest of the day. We've finished tea and it's still 27 so it'll be another sticky night trying to get the boys off to bed! More schooling this morning and then another swimming lesson at lunchtime. The outdoor pool was beautiful on such a hot day. The supervision levels are different from the UK. Once you are 8 you can swim without an adult. We turned up for our lesson to find five children aged about 10, no other adult present except the lifeguard, who was indoors filling out her timesheet! Usually the lifeguard is indoors, even when the pool is full of kids after school and no adults around (it's kind of used as a babysitting service). The photo is of my veggie garden, behind the garage. It hasn't been used for years but neighbours used a small digger to turn it over for me. I'm growing onions, leeks, cabbage, broccoli, lettuce, peas, beans, tomatoes, rhubarb, potatoes, yams, carrots, silver beet, pumpkins, and herbs. As you can see it is all growing vigorously and we are busy harvesting some of it. Today our neighbour brought us some apricots, plums and cherries - all grow easily here without need for a greenhouse. The only thing I couldn't grow is blackberries. It is against the law to sell or grow blackberry bushes in this region because they are so rampant and interfere with arable crops. We miss blackberry crumble, which the boys loved and we would eat all round from dozens of kilos in the freezer.

A very small chicken???

Jan 21st: Another warm day, about 27 degrees (sorry England but you can get me back later in the year!). We schooled in the morning then the boys had a swimming lesson at lunchtime. For some unknown reason Edward decided to drag his maths out today - 30 minutes of work took nearly 3 hours today and so he was working at it most of the afternoon and so we didn't get out to the park. I have the delight this evening of doing our tax returns so I expect I'll find lots of other things that need doing instead :) This photo is of "Sunshine" that Edward took and chose as today's photo. He is the canary at the Childcare Centre in Waimate. This is like nursery and is the only day care here (there's no out-of-school care or holiday schemes for school age children either). Jonathan has the occasional half-day there when someone calls sick but there's such a long waiting list he has no regular session. Sunshine comes to us for long weekends every now and then. His singing is amazing and he's very quiet overnight. He's currently staying with us for the 4 weeks the centre is closed over the holidays. The only problem is he likes to sing his loudest when we're schooling and he's in the kitchen with us so it can be a bit of a nuisance at times!

Mmhh!! Dry pellets - my favourite!

Jan 20th: It's about time to introduce you to our chickens. Bobby (Edward's) is the brown one on the left, Fizzy (Jonathan's) is in the middle and Jessie (Peter's) is on the right. They are laying hens and live in our back garden but as we are inside the town boundary they have to have a cover over them. Despite this they have made frequent bids for freedom when we have opened doors to feed them, collect eggs, etc. Having three fresh eggs every day sounds superb. And it is, but if you don't use them one day then suddenly the next day you have six to deal with! And when we go away for a weekend we have 9 waiting for us and another 3 due the next morning. I have a good repertoire of recipes using lots of eggs - quiche, chocolate cakes, ice-cream, chocolate mousse to name but a few. And of course the boys have boiled eggs at lunchtime quite often. The chickens are fun. Bobby is friendly but the other two are, quite honestly, mad.
More schooling this morning then did our 'messages' in town - library, supermarket, post shop and bank. After a grey and cool morning the sun has finally come out in time for tea.

Fish with a fish

Jan 19th: The boys schooled for a while in the morning while Steve spent some time fishing on the lakeside by the harbour entrance with the other Waimate kids, and caught three good-size fish. Here is one minus its head! After lunch our boys were encouraged by the morning's success to have their first try at fishing. After two hours of whittling sticks, throwing stones and other ways of filling time, we had caught nothing and it was time to pack up. Before driving home we headed to the far end of the lake to the dam I mentioned last weekend. The water was thundering down as they had opened the gates wide. We went to the bottom of the spillover ramps on the other side of the river and the noise and spray was immense. To top it all there was a gorgeous rainbow in the spray. It was such a big event that it was on the news and in the papers. You can have a look at http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/video.cfm?c_id=1&gal_cid=1&gallery_id=104132 to see the dam in action.

The Pied Piper of Aviemore

Jan 18th: Steve got out one of his model aeroplanes this morning and most of the Waimate kids appeared in seconds to join him. They are all his patients back home and he enjoys being able to get to know them and spend time with them out of the surgery. The next morning they were all knocking on our motorhome door - "Is Dr Fish flying his plane today?" We went for a sail in the morning but there was no wind at all so we bobbed about a bit and played 'eye spy' and then chugged back into the harbour. In the afternoon Steve took a friend, Gordon and his two sons out in the boat while I took our boys a little further up the lake to Gordon's camp and they played in their kayaks (as in an earlier picture). We had a little rain in the late afternoon, otherwise it was hot and sunny.

Back at Lake Aviemore

Jan 17th: After sorting out a few things (here they call it "doing messages") we set off for our spot on the east side of Lake Aviemore again. We found many of the other inhabitants of Waimate camped out here for the weekend too. The photo is of our truck and trailer backed down the boat ramp. Mellow Puff is across the water tied up on the jetty and you can see the harbour opening out into the lake in the background. We parked in same place as in the photo last weekend.

Peter's creation

Jan 16th: Another morning of schooling for the boys. Poor things - everyone else in NZ is on holiday until early February, but we are already two weeks back into our studies. This week we have been learning about China and have started a month's topic of plants and plant growth. We've been growing beans, peas and cress this week, comparing growth in sunlight, dark and the fridge. We've set our next experiment of cut-off tops of carrots in water. Peter made this simple car chassis with the K-nex with a motor and wanted this to be today's photo, so here it is. Today was over 30 degrees again but unusually it was very muggy. This evening we had our neighbours in for tea. It's their 50th wedding anniversary tomorrow. In the time it took to eat tea, the temperature dropped from 31 to 18 degrees. Unfortunately there was little wind so the house is still very hot. We're off again tomorrow for a few days so tune back in at the end of the weekend...

More swimming

Jan 15th: Today the temperature was about 29 degrees, and as I write this late at night the temperature in our lounge is still 26 degrees. The boys schooled in the morning and then had another swimming lesson. Edward swam a whole length (33.3m) with some unrecognisable stroke but the first time he has tried this and gone out of his depth, so quite a breakthrough for him. This picture is of Jonathan about to fling himself into the water. In the afternoon we were busy looking after one of our chickens. Bobby was egg-bound. That means her egg was stuck and quickly becomes fatal if not resolved. This happened to her just before Christmas and the vet bill to sort her out was about the same as a year's eggs!! This time we put her in a warm bowl of water for a while (as per suggestions on the internet!) and half an hour later out popped the egg. Being so hot the boys were soon busy playing with water in all sorts of guises in the back garden.

Waimate velodrome - yes, really!

Jan 14th: Another hot sunny day! The boys schooled in the morning and had another swimming lesson at lunch time. They are doing really well at their swimming and are happy doing dolphin dives under the water and now trying to breathe as they do front crawl. After lunch we took our bikes to Victoria Park, a large landscaped park about a 5-10 minute from our house. This is a busy place with many different things to see and do - this is where Cubs and Scouts meet, there is a bowling club, a campground, a fabulous children's playground, wallabies, peacocks and a 400m asphalt velodrome with an athletics area in the centre. This photo is of part of the track. Once a year there is a cycling event here, and that comes up at the end of this month. I'm not quite sure how pure a cycling event this is as I hear there is also highland dancing and welly-throwing going on, but I'm not sure if you have to do all three at the same time as each other. Tune in at the start of February to find out how it all turned out! The rest of the year our boys can be found pedalling furiously round the track, especially Jonathan who has a tiny bike and no gears and so his legs have to go at lightning speed!

The silos

Jan 13th: The great thing about this blog is that none of you have been to Waimate so I can show you and tell you about so many different things and you will soon be experts (there's not a lot here!). These are the "famous" concrete silos. These are Waimate's most well-known feature, it seems. When you drive in from the south they are the first thing you see, as they lie at the south end of the main street, Queen Street.
They were built in 1921, are 115 feet tall and can hold 3200 tons of wheat. UNFORTUNATELY they mixed the concrete up wrong and so they did not dry out properly and kept sweating, and it was 45 years before this was fixed! Read and remember - I might test you on it later!
To celebrate Christmas the tops have been draped with red light bulbs that seem to swirl around the top of the towers. Not sure why they're still going in the middle of January, but none of the decorations have been taken down in the main street either.

Lupins

Jan 12th: The boys did some schooling in the morning and then had fun rushing round the campsite. At noon we drove north along the edge of the lake to the Benmore Dam at the top. This is an enormous dam that has been generating electricity since 1965 and produces 220 Gigawatt hours per year. It is one in a series of dams on the Waitaki River and much of the electricity generated here is sent to the North Island. Due to lots of rain up in the back country the upper lakes in the hydro-electric scheme have filled up and the lake levels risen high. As a result they have had to open the overfill chutes at Benmore Dam to release the water. It is the first time in 5 years they have been opened so we went to see them. There is an amazing noise as the water rushes down the 500m long overfill slope and crashes into the upper reaches of Lake Aviemore. Lupins are a feature in the South Island of NZ at this time of the year, along the roadsides but particularly around the edges of the lakes. They are individually beautifully, but collectively magnificent, in an enormous range of colours. These were close to where our motorhome was camped.

Sailing

Jan 11th: A gloriously hot day with no wind in the morning. The boys were happy dashing about on their bikes and enjoying the maiden voyage of the remote-controlled boat we bought Jonathan for Christmas. After lunch we all enjoyed a trip out in the boat, but there wasn't a breath of wind so we used the outboard to get out into the lake, bobbed around for a bit, and then used the outboard to get back to the harbour! The boys spent the afternoon playing in a treehouse they found while I read a book. By about 4pm the wind had picked up so Steve decided to go out for another sail. This shot is of him in "Mellow Puff" from where I am sitting on the shore. About ten minutes later it all started to go wrong and he capsized the boat in shallow water with strong winds and waves pushing him into the shore. Fortunately we remembered friends of ours were camped further along the lake and they were kind enough to use their powerboat to tow Steve back to our harbour later in the evening.

Off to the lakes again

Jan 10th: Today was grey and gloomy but still pleasantly warm. Our next door neighbours were having a party in their garden in the afternoon to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary so we spent some pleasant time with them and their friends and family. Just before tea-time we drove to the eastern shores of Lake Aviemore. Hundreds of people put their caravans and tents there for the whole summer season and go back and forth. Sometimes it is very busy and other times quite quiet. There is no electricity there, no mobile phone coverage, no radio, no tv but there are now toilet blocks there and they are of the flushing variety, rather than the 'long drop'. This shot is of our motorhome with its solar panel outside to power the fridge. Steve bought me the solar panel for Christmas (how romantic) and we had plenty of hot weather and plenty of cold drinks this weekend. In the background is the boat ramp and a small harbour where we launch our boat from.

Swimming!

Jan 9th: Today started warm and sunny again and we went swimming at 9.30 again. The pool is outdoor and a 5-10 minute wander from our house. It is heated to about 26-30 degrees and always seems to be almost empty. During school term some of the local schools come and use it, but many schools have their own pool, even the ones with only 10 pupils. The first weekend we were here, in April, we went for a walk and the pool had already closed for the season. We peeked through the window and chuckled when we saw three ducks racing up the lanes! The weather for the weekend is not clear but now the motorhome is fixed and back with us we might scoot off for a couple of days again.

A really hot day

Jan 8th: I'm sorry the photo isn't a very good one, but I wanted to show you that it really was very hot today. The boys had a swimming lesson at 9.30am and it was warm and sunny, but as the morning went on a thin cloud moved over and the temperature and the humidity went up. At half past 2 it got to over 32 degrees. The chickens were panting and not looking well, so our neighbour rushed round with a fan to cool them off! I got out the hose but they were less impressed with that! Fortunately all the gardens here have a sprinkler system so there is no effort at all keeping the flower beds and vegetable patch watered. There don't seem to be any restrictions on using water, and there are no water meters so everyone has their hoses and sprinklers on every day. It's now just after 5pm and still over 30 degrees!

Flying high!

Jan 7th: Another hot day. Our motorhome is fixed and needs to be collected. Mr Neighbour kindly offered to drive me to the garage, 47km from home, and Mrs Neighbour said she would look after the three boys. Not only did she look after them, but she bought them a kite each. They had 2 hours of fun at the local park, flying their kites. Edward took this photo. We've been invited to a barbeque this evening, so have been busy making chocolate truffles to take with us. The boys got very messy helping me!

Twelfth night

Jan 6th: Today was grey and gloomy and only reached 20 degrees by lunchtime (mind you it was subzero and snowing back home, we hear!) but the sun came out this afternoon and it is currently 28 degrees in time for tea and bedtime! This is our Christmas tree in the front window of the house, just before we took it down. Of course it doesn't get dark until 10ish here so we save on electricity for the tree lights! Apparently some houses decorate themselves but the boys didn't get to see any of them because I wasn't interested in waking them up and taking them to see them, and then having to put them to bed twice in a 24-hour period. My lovely friend Debbie made and sent a pretty decoration which you can just see part of hanging across the windows. It is now safely boxed away ready to enjoy again next year.

We never meant to stay in Kurow

Jan 5th :On Boxing Day we headed for the lakes but our motorhome broke down in Kurow and wouldn't start again. Fortunately we were in Kurow, because it is the only place with people and mobile phone coverage (and a campsite) on the 90km journey. Fortunately we also had our 4wd with us because we were also taking our boat with us. So we towed the motorhome onto the campsite and spent the rest of the Christmas break there, and then returned for a long weekend over the New Year. This morning it was put on the back of the truck and driven 110km to a garage to be fixed. We're desperate to get it back so we can go on our next adventure while the weather is so beautiful.

Playing at the Lake

Jan 4th: This is the boys and some friends from Waimate playing on the edge of Lake Aviemore. Of course it is the summer holiday season here. Many people camp alongside the lake for the Christmas/New Year break, and then leave their tents/vans there and travel up and back at weekend during the school holiday through January. One whole section of the lakeside seems to be the Waimate encampment, and this family has children the same age as ours. The two dads were out sailing and the two mums drinking tea while the kids played all afternoon!

Racing

Jan 3rd: Horse racing is a popular thing here and each community seems to have an annual meet. Kurow's meet was on the Saturday after New Year. Walking from the car to the main gate (about 50m) we met our next door neighbour from Waimate AND the daughter of our other next door neighbour! Once inside we met the doctor Steve works with in Waimate. They all travel to Kurow every year for the races. We only went because we were camped just up the road and thought a new experience would be good. I know absolutely nothing about horse-racing and betting, but the doughnuts were tasty!

Mr and Mrs Hay

Jan 2nd: We spent a few days after the New Year in a place called Kurow, about 65km south and then west from Waimate. The road there follows the course of the Waitaki River. Go north and you are in "the lakes", where the river has several dams on it to generate hydro-electric power. In the middle of Kurow we met Mr and Mrs Hay, made from hay bales. Everyone passing stopped to see them.

This is where it starts....

So, with all good intentions I begin our family's 365 project. Why not start with a picture of the little Fish. They're in front of the Christmas tree but it's already 25 degrees and it's only breakfast time! Happy New Year! We're off for a few days in our motorhome and will post more pictures when we return.....