Some of the last 2 weeks in Wanaka...

Hanging out with the lovely cousins:


Baking apple and bran muffins:



Eyeing up apply shortcake:



Stacking dishes in the dishwasher and interacting with Vino ~ not Lennox's best friend:


Writing stories on the windows and giving a mini-trapping demonstration to a class of 6 and 7 and 8 year olds at school, and some other great experiences at the school like a trip to the trampoline shed:


Some beeautiful sunny weather and times at the lakes:



Eating a sushi picnic at Dublin Bay:


Playing at Dublin Bay:

Watching a helicopter take off at Dublin Bay:


Playing in mud at Dublin Bay:


Some frosty and crisp mornings and evenings:

more frost:

Great trails for mountain biking including a track next to the Hawea River where a kayaking course is being created...


Vino the dog who makes nests for having morning sleep ins:


And a big reason why we go down there... skiing!
Here's Isla with Timo close behind. Didn't take Timo long to become confident at skiing all over Cardrona, he says he's up to the level before 'carving a turkey', maybe he said 'french fries' or some food thing, is going to practice parallels:


Snowy mountain ranges:
Lennox visiting Caoimhe at Cardrona - "Is that you Caoimhe?"



Hello Caoimhe!:

It's good to be home

After a nice time away, and thank you so much to the Heath family who make a trip to Wanaka and all the fun things there possible, it's great to be home.
Straight after breakfast, everyone is back into it. Jeremy went to work; Timo got into creating rat enclosures, sandpit creations and exploring snakes; Caoimhe got into making playdough; Lennox got into some 'cooking' on the floor, setting the fire and attempting to light it with matches(!); I unpacked everything and put it away with some help from T, C and L.
We have come back to laying chickens - hooray -, sprouting violet cauliflowers - hooray -, an assortment of growing greens in the garden - hooray -, I picked some for lunch and we ate the fresh eggs with yolks so orange they almost looked red.

Caoimhe learning to ski at Cardrona, commentary by Jeremy and Sara

day out with little friends

Riding for the first time, they were both naturals. Timo is trotting up there and did a couple of jumps too. This could be a case of parent living vicariously through child.



Gabriella who goes to school heard that Timo was coming to visit so her Mother let her have the whole day off school for the occasion. We were all happy about that! And they had immense fun together.



They put on shows for us including 2 plays. One about a ball including prince and princesses etc, the other about pirates and prince rescues etc. They all appeared to have a good time in the process.



Peeking at battles between Prince and dragon.


They played all sorts of games,



Wait for me!..


Dancing on table.


He copies just what he sees, so it's his turn to dance on the table. He particularly likes to have a good time and move to show it.

Dragon conversation continues...

Timo runs into room Dragons do exist, dragons are real, dragons are real!
Me mmmmm?
Jeremy I don't believe it
Timo Well look at this
Timo shows his Great Big Book of Snakes and Reptiles (thank you Ngaire, it is one of Timo's favourite books) and the pages where he has read and discovered Kimodo Dragons.
And on it went from there...

It's a great thing to be part of their learning and discoveries.

Fossiling at Four Mile

Amongst all the granite we find ancient sea bed rock with shell fossils:

We take it all home to excavate and ask for expert opinion about rock type etc from our friend the geologist.