OK, I’ve been slack: I haven’t blogged for almost a
week! But the internet connection has
been crappy and there wasn’t really that much to write about, except how nice
it is to be with loved familiar people doing the same old stuff after a
stressful time. We had a very good
blobby restful time in the Marlborough Sounds, doing the normal stuff, fishing,
swimming, mucking around with the dinghy towing offspring around… While the first few days involved quite a bit
of cabin fever because of the mediocre and damp weather, it really picked up by
New Years Eve. The boys took of fishing
and the girls (and Kasper J), took off to Picton for an
impromptu lunchtime disco: we just happened to be in the pub when the sound
equipment was getting tested for the evening festivities. The kind hearted DJ even let of the fake
smoke and turned on the disco ball. The
kids thought it was all so grown up and everybody got a chance to request their
favourite song, so cool. A lesson in not
planning too much and just letting it happen.
Then off to the bead shop for some creativity and before we knew it a
great day was had by all (as the toast indicates!). Didn’t manage to stay up for New Year’s Eve,
I never do, but I did wake up feeling like 2011 was 2011 and hello, it’s a new
year! It was quite significant in that
respect, I was very happy to say goodbye to 2011. Funny, it’s just a date, but really, I’ve
felt quite different since then.
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| Biscuiting, Onahau Bay |
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| Manaia, with her flash new covers |
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| Mr Pensive, hatching a scheme.. |
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| Happy New Year |
New Years Day we took off up to Endeavour Inlet and had our
beer on the lawn at Furneaux and tied up in Tawa Bay for the night. Manaia is a great family boat, and Steve
finally felt he finally got his ‘moment’ with the boat tied back into the bush
and the kids off in the dinghy for some adventure on the beach. I must say that the dolphins have been
magnificent this year. With the fishing
restrictions in Queen Charlotte Sound, I think the net effect is a much better
hunting ground for these guys, and they are certainly out in force. We had dolphins rounding up kawhai right on
our bow and actually playing with them, tossing them out of the water etc. And then the Bluebridge came along and we
watched a couple of them surfing off its bow wave: man they can move
along. Priceless. All it takes is some diesel on your
MasterCard! Sorry, no pictures, too busy
watching or fishing. We threw back
countless cod because they were too big and over the limit of being
allowable. That’s a new thing, having to
throw them back because they are too big!
All the while when we were in the Sounds, I found it hard to
relax though. I was still fretting about
all my animals being all over the place and I was on a mission to get them all
together again. So really, I was pretty pleased
to be heading back, despite Christchurch evidently being bombarded with
earthquakes again. Mum, our ‘great
sport’ supporter, was fantastic and delivered our dog Koko (yes really, a
genuine Red Dog of movie fame), across The Strait on the ferry to Picton. So after much tail wagging, and excitedly
jumping up on us and whoever walked passed in the festiveness of it all (there
are no strangers when it comes to Koko), we had a lovely seafood lunch on the
Picton waterfront and finally left Mum to head back across the ditch while we
made our way back to Christchurch. Koko
is cool as a cucumber about the new digs, although the first 24 hours his
demeanour was very much ‘you’re kidding right, THIS is what you’ve cooked up
over the last 3 weeks, this is where we’re living?: how sweet but I was really
kinda expecting something a bit different’.
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| Koko dog is back and reunited after an extended stay with Oma |
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| Cat motel.... |
I picked the cats up the next day. Skinny and both with colds, sneezing
profusely, they are happy to be here I think.
I have no doubt they were looked after fine, but they are old and they
like having their home comforts.
Catteries are not their thing.
Our grass STILL hasn’t been cut for hay so in desperation we’ve fenced
off a strip (still way too much food probably) so we could go and get the
horses. The floating was rather a
miserable experience, different float, set up for race horses and I/we had a
couple of disasters which have really knocked my confidence and Millie’s face
around, but we all got here, Frankie learnt a float isn’t a truck and it really
is better to come out backwards (I didn’t see THAT novel exit coming after all
the practising in the past L), we’re all happy now… But our family is complete! I feel normal again and in Steve’s words, we
have come to the end of set up mode. Steve
even cut the ‘lawn’ and got the tools out of the ‘dining room’ and I’m back to
cooking normal healthy food again rather then just slapping up whatever is
quick. Plus I have a tack room set up in
the container. So I’m full of
enthusiasm, albeit coloured with a bit of intrepidness, to try and get Frankie
and I ready for our 5 day Parelli Super Camp end of February. My broken and plated arm seems to be at
60-70% capacity now in terms of strength, I only hope that at the next checkup
and x-ray that there has actually been some healing going on in the break. But even if there hasn’t, the plate seems to
be holding everything together enough to have a life!
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| Kids with their science lab |
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| What, I'm not piggy... |
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