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January 31, 2011
Family sail on Reliance
Captain Trevor kindly took some of the crew families out this weekend, and certainly our two had a great time.
Posted by conor at 3:47 PM
January 26, 2011
Fun at Castle Hill
Water-pistols on the water-slide... knocking together a see-saw from a log off-cut and a couple of planks... simple times, fun times...
Posted by conor at 12:06 PM
Helicopter Hill
Had a great walk up Helicopter Hill in Craigieburn Forest Park, early in the morning before things got too hot. Lyndon Saddle is now immortalised as the location where Ruairi's first wobbly tooth made a break for freedom. Easy walking, kids full of energy, and a great location for views across the whole Castle Hill basin.
Posted by conor at 11:54 AM
Caravan vs Canterbury Nor’wester
Our roof got a good test last week when a windy nor’wester blew up round Castle Hill village, strong enough to bowl over a caravan that had been parked on another section where construction is starting. With the help of friends and family, we’ve been making good progress on getting the logs oiled on the inside, the bunkroom and bathrooms mostly finished, and just generally making the house more comfortable to spend time at. Next mission is getting rid of the wasps that have decided to build a nest between some of the logs in one of the flyways.
Posted by conor at 11:44 AM
January 18, 2011
New Hogs Back Track at Castle Hill
The Castle Hill Community Association has been busy over the past few months actively building a purpose-built mountain-bike track between Castle Hill Village and the Mt. Cheeseman road, which ultimately means that off-road mountain-bike access to Craigieburn Forest Park is now a reality, or will be when construction is completed, hopefully by the end of this summer. Having contributed a little bit of manpower, and enjoyed riding the track a couple of times since construction started, here's a GPS track I recorded which accurately shows the route of the track.
Click on the lower/southerly track marker for some stats and an elevation graph of the track.
Posted by conor at 9:52 AM
January 13, 2011
Positive start to 2011
Headed up to Castle Hill for our first extended stay in the house, for what ended up being a great mixture of chilling out, plenty of sun, stars, friends, a bit of painting/oiling, an overnight tramp with Ruairi, some mountain-biking, and some track-building. We have mostly working bathrooms now, so the priority is to get mostly dust-free inside, oil the inside of the logs, and build the rest of the kitchen. We also had a really interesting couple of hours at Kura Tawhiti (the rocks in the Castle Hill Basin) where a Ngai Tahu guide working with DoC talked about the Maori history of the area, made relevant quite a few of the Maori creation-type stories, and showed how the rocks provided a lot of shelter from such things as the weather & pouakai (with Ngai Tahu believing that Castle Hill Peak/Tawera was the nesting spot of the last of the pouakai).
Posted by conor at 10:10 AM
January 2, 2011
Christmas & New Year 2010
A very relaxing Christmas & New Year so far, 10 days in and around Christchurch (incorporating a few large and shallow aftershock earthquakes centered right under the city centre on Boxing Day which caused a certain amount more damage to the city), with trips to the beach (with the Maddigans), the Botanics (with the Abeleiras) and Banks Peninsula (with the Keohanes) - we just needed a bit of time off from house construction. Had a great Christmas brunch at Andy & Leonie's, and a great New Years party at Anna & Ben's. Roll on 2011, we might actually get Castle Hill finished!
Posted by conor at 8:40 AM
