July 24, 2011
Winter holidays
After turning up to The Doug to find water cascading through the downstairs light fittings (due to more crappy plumbing work), the first week of the school holidays turned out to be blessed by great weather and a reasonable amount of snow. Got the house dried out within 48 hours (thanks to Tony from Enviroclean, who claimed his industrial wet-vac could "suck a sailor off your sister"), and settled the kids into 5 mornings of ski school at Porters where by the end of the week, we are now almost struggling to keep up with Evie on all the pistes there. Just in time for the latter half of the week, Granny & Grandad had sent over some funky helmet covers from Headztrong which the kids loved.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
Posted by conor at 9:19 PM
July 11, 2011
Winter is here (finally!)
While the forecast was pretty rough for this weekend (apart from the hope that that meant some snow might arrive!), we took a punt and went up for the weekend, and while Saturday was pretty miserable, Sunday dawned pretty nice, and the kids were rapt to find about 6-8cm of snow carpeting the village.
 |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
Posted by conor at 10:40 PM
July 4, 2011
Olympia Invitational Gym Competition
Evie competed in the Olympia Invitational event here in Christchurch, against three older, more experienced girls in Stage II. She performed well, although still rusty in places due to lack of practice in such a disrupted year. She’s still loving her gymnastics.
 |  |  |  |
Posted by conor at 10:12 PM
July 1, 2011
South Christchurch Schools Music Festival
Evie's a member of the St Martins School Choir which this week took part in the South Christchurch Schools Music Festival along with a number of other schools.
 |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
Posted by conor at 5:41 PM
June 21, 2011
South Island Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships
A team from Diva RGC headed down to the South Island Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in Dunedin, where Evie came second (in a small field!) in Stage 2. She performed well, although the lack of practice and previous competition experience this year due to earthquakes showed slightly. Enjoyable weekend though.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
Posted by conor at 8:59 PM
April 12, 2011
Refugee time at Castle Hill
We've felt incredibly lucky to be able to partially escape the initial trials and tribulations of post-earthquake life in Christchurch, and we've been able to share that a little bit with a few friends over the last few weeks. All the various Castle Hill kids have had a great time at Springfield School and it will be a real wrench to be leaving the school at the end of term this week. Thanks to the Keohanes for the company, the craic and the St Patricks Day house-pimping, thanks to everybody who made it up to Castle Hill for Ruairi's birthday, thanks to friends and neighbours at Huntsbury for looking after the house/keys and cutting the grass; we'll look forward to picking up the pieces at Huntsbury shortly after Easter.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |
Posted by conor at 11:08 PM
February 13, 2011
Quiet portrait session with the kids
Still loving the new lens I got for Christmas. Evie wanted a photo with the fan that Granshe brought from China last year, so Ruairi decided to grab the similar scroll hanging on his bedroom wall.
 |  |
Posted by conor at 8:52 PM
February 7, 2011
Speedsters & Sparks
Ruairi and I went for a spin round the mountain-bike track at McLeans Island Forest, and we had a blast. Great to be able to take it at his pace, and by the end he was buzzing, and a lot more confident with his bike-handling. He brought along the class mascot Patrick, who he was lucky enough to bring home for the first weekend of the new school term.
After that, I took myself off to experiment taking some firework photos at the Classical Sparks event in Hagley Park. Probably didn't experiment as much as I should have with different camera settings, but I got a couple of okay shots.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Posted by conor at 12:39 PM
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
November 25, 2010
Kea trip to the Airport Fire Station
The boys and girls (big and small) of Ruairi's Kea group had a great trip to the Christchurch Airport Fire Station where they got to appreciate up close one of the airport's Rosenbauer Panther fire-fighting vehicles and have a go with a fire hose. 705 horsepower can get 35 tonnes of 6-wheel drive truck laden with around 13,000 litres of water up to 80km/h in a shade under 30 seconds, and be at the other end of the airport in under 3.5 minutes from the alarm sounding. When it gets there, it can offload all that water in just over a minute. Impressive stuff, and a nice colour too. I assume you can have whatever colour you like when these things cost upwards of a million bucks each.
 |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Posted by conor at 9:55 PM
November 23, 2010
Kea sailing trip on Fox II
Ruairi has recently joined the Keas, the most junior group in the NZ Scouting movement. The group were lucky enough to have some great weather for a sailing trip aboard Fox II, a 54 foot gaff-rigged ketch, launched in 1922 and operated by the CanSail Charitable Trust.
 |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
Posted by conor at 12:07 PM
October 17, 2010
Ranfurly Shield Defence at AMI Stadium
Took the kids along to an early evening NPC match at AMI Stadium. It was a Ranfurly Shield defence against Counties-Manukau (Counties fielding Tana Umaga - can't believe the guy's only a year younger than me!), Canterbury having wrested the Log Of Wood from Southland the week before. It looked much warmer over the other side in the new Deans Stand.
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Posted by conor at 11:11 AM
August 1, 2010
Evie's 7th Birthday
Evie had her 7th birthday at Science Alive with a great bunch of friends. Lots of activities, a demo on interesting things to do with liquid nitrogen, spins on the gyroscope, etc. And cake obviously.
 |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
Posted by conor at 11:25 AM
July 27, 2010
Amy’s Birthday at Clip ‘N’ Climb
It’s that crazy birthday time of year when all of Evie’s friends have their birthdays (Evie’s is tomorrow), so it’s a continuous round of parties at the minute.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
Posted by conor at 12:21 PM
July 19, 2010
Evie came first in her 3rd Rhythmic Gymnastics competition!
Evie's just loving her gymnastics, and getting some results too, including a trophy this time too. We're delighted for her, we're not pushing her at it, but she's just thriving.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
Tricky getting decent shots in what from a photography point of view is a reasonably low-light environment...
Posted by conor at 4:13 PM
May 18, 2010
Evie's first gym competition
Evie participated in her first rhythmic gymnastics competition, heading down to Dunedin for the Otago Invitational Competition with her friends from Diva RGC. She was very pleased to come 4th in her free routine, 1st in her hoop routine, placing 2nd overall, and gaining a nice medal and a certificate! Ruairi & I entertained ourselves by also heading to the Butterfly House at Otago Museum, and for a wander along the beach at St. Kilda with Ken & Elly.
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Posted by conor at 2:07 PM
April 19, 2010
The force is strong in these ones
Ollie's Star Wars birthday party. Darth Vader got a seriously good poking with all those light-sabres.
 |  |  |
Posted by conor at 10:17 AM
March 23, 2010
Ruairi's off to school
Ruairi's first day at school went swimmingly, especially with his big sister to keep an eye on him in the playground.
 |
 |
Photos expertly taken by Grandad.
Posted by conor at 12:50 PM
March 20, 2010
Athletics meet
Evie's friend Paris won a colouring competition at school, winning a prize-giving from Beatrice Faumuina (Queen Bea the discus champion) and earning tickets to the International Athletics meeting at QE II Stadium for her family and classmates. Evie enjoyed meeting up with Paris & Madeline at the meet, and seemed interested in all the events, although the girls were obviously pleased that Beatrice chose to wear a pink tracksuit top.
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
Posted by conor at 3:48 PM
February 15, 2010
Weekend activities
Ruairi had a trip to Clip N Climb with his friend Cara from kindy (including deciding he wanted to jump the Leap of Faith!), and we had to run to keep up with the kids on their bikes on a "stroll" round Hansen park!
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
 |  |
 |  |  |  |
Posted by conor at 8:11 AM
January 29, 2010
Woolshed Creek Tramp
The kids first "proper" overnight tramp to Woolshed Creek Hut on the Mt. Somers Sub-alpine walkway in south Canterbury. We brought along a couple of extra Sherpas who seemed to enjoy the experience too. Had a little bit of everything, sun, wind, cloud, including a reminder of a) how wet the inside of a cloud is, and b) how quickly the weather can change in the mountains. 5 kms each way, plus 400m of ascent, and the kids did brilliantly, especially Ruairi whose legs are somewhat shorter than everybody else's.
 |  |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |
 |  |  |  |
Posted by conor at 9:41 AM
January 12, 2010
The kids
 |  |
Posted by conor at 12:09 PM
December 22, 2009
Christmas excess!
This is from Christmas 2005, but it’s a priceless photo! Who would have thought a 9 month old could look so stuffed…
Posted by conor at 9:32 AM
October 27, 2009
Wacky Hair Day
| Evie’s school had Wacky Hair Day last week as a fundraising effort in response to the recent tsunami in Samoa. She won some comedy glasses for her efforts! |  | |
 |  |  |
Posted by conor at 1:17 PM
October 19, 2009
Evie enjoying a quiet read
Incidentally the book she is reading is titled “Evie the Mist Fairy”! A pink, sparkly book about fairies… what more could you ask for?
Posted by conor at 9:27 PM
October 2, 2009
“Spring”-y Sunshine
 |  |  |
Posted by conor at 9:13 PM
September 6, 2009
Photography overload!
Last minute decision to head to “Daffodil Day” at Otahuna House, Tai Tapu to check out the gardens there, and basically enjoy some beautiful spring sunshine.
 |     |  |
Posted by conor at 10:17 PM
August 24, 2009
Nature red in tooth and claw
Who'd have thought a "meer" meerkat would have been literally the most bloodthirsty looking animal we'd have seen at Orana Park after our bike ride at McLeans Island?
Posted by conor at 1:56 PM
On yer bike
We all had a blast at the McLean's Island Reserve mountain-bike track. The track is in excellent condition, well graded & maintained, dry with some excellent berms on the corners.
Posted by conor at 10:29 AM
August 2, 2009
Evie's 6th birthday at Clip 'n' Climb (again)
Lots of fun, she did the Leap of Faith again after a bit of persuasion. Plenty of reasonably healthy party food.
Posted by conor at 7:37 PM
August 1, 2009
Evie’s new bike
Bit of a stretch to the ground, but so far so good...
Posted by conor at 9:43 PM
July 20, 2009
First ski lesson for Evie
Evie and I took an exploratory trip up to Porters ski field yesterday to check it out and for Evie to have a ski lesson and see what she thought. She got a bit frustrated with her skis not doing what they were told a couple of times, and there was a very biting wind blowing but, all in all, a very successful first day, starting at 6.30am with "Dad, Dad, wake up, it's time to go, and I'm already in my ski clothes..."
Posted by conor at 9:54 AM
April 14, 2009
Tramping at Montgomery Reserve
Had a great day tramp on Easter Monday at Montgomery Reserve, near Hilltop on Banks Peninsula. It could be considered the kids first “proper” tramp with their own rucksacks, some challenging scrambling for little legs up a rocky path, and the satisfaction of an obvious summit with great views over Akaroa Harbour and Banks Peninsula. No pleas to get carried, hearty appetites at the top, and plenty of tiredness by the end of the day!
Posted by conor at 4:41 PM
March 23, 2009
Ruairi revisited
In celebration of the little man's fourth birthday, here's one I've revisited in Lightroom from way back when he was only two.
Posted by conor at 7:15 PM
Ruairi’s 4th birthday
Ruairi's 4th birthday coincided with the Opawa/St. Martins Kindy annual “Wheelathonâ€. Ruairi had received a lovely new bike from his Auntie Boo only the day before, and after having got so much practice on his old walking bike, he made the transition from walking to pedalling in only a day! He still needs a little help starting off, but he’s got the basics, and we’re very glad we made the decision to not even bother with the training wheels.
Posted by conor at 9:43 AM
September 8, 2008
Couple of photos of Ruairi sleeping at Eastfield
Posted by conor at 2:09 PM
July 30, 2008
Evie's 5th Birthday
Evie had her 5th birthday party at Clip 'n' Climb again, and, if Asher was actually Spiderman, Evie was definitely climbing like Spiderwoman!
Posted by conor at 5:39 PM
July 17, 2008
"I don't like beef"
Vegetarians should read further at their own risk...Ruairi: I don't like beef.
Mum: It's not beef, it's dead cow.
Ruairi: Oh, that's alright then. [cue sound of contented eating]
(Note to new readers: we acquired a quarter of an organic cow recently which is living in our freezer and making a regular appearance in small quantities)
Posted by conor at 1:27 PM
July 4, 2008
Nearly starting school!
Evie's going to be starting school in September after we get back from our trip to Ireland/Scotland. She got her school uniform a couple of weeks ago, and is very excited about it. She had a sample morning at school, where she met the other 5 children who are also starting around the same time in the same class (5 of them including Evie are from the same kindy, so she's among friends), and met her teacher, Ms Richardson. Evie can't wait to start school proper!
Posted by conor at 1:49 PM
May 19, 2008
Evie
Had a relaxing wander down to the Boulder Bay baches with the Keohane family where I snapped this photo of Evie having a snack.
Posted by conor at 2:29 PM
April 7, 2008
Late (great!) summer holiday
This year's holiday (well, summer holiday, since we've already got a holiday to the UK in August lined up too), was a bit of a tour round the South Island culminating in the Warbirds over Wanaka airshow at Easter. We started off by heading up to Golden Bay for nearly a week at Ligar Bay (same bay as last summer), which was great, and got us in a relaxed mood for the rest of the holiday. Then we spent a week camping down the West Coast, staying at Westport and Fox Glacier. Great weather for the Coast, and I was pleased to be able to get down to Lake Matheson to get some nice photos of Aoraki & Tasman reflected in the still waters of the lake - a beautiful spot. Then it was on through Haast Pass to Lake Hawea near Wanaka where we had rented a large house on the waterfront for 10 days. Among other things, Ildica & I had a great overnight in Brewster Hut, high above Haast Pass, with some beautiful weather, and a scramble up to the top of 2154m high Mt. Armstrong, where we had great views north to Aoraki, and south to Mt. Aspiring.
Posted by conor at 4:00 PM
January 21, 2008
Revisiting older photographs
Here's a photo from 2007 I've just revisited with Photoshop, and I'm quite pleased with the result. It's one of my favourite photos of Ruairi. This was taken in a cottage at Lake Heron only a couple of months after his second birthday.
