October 25, 2011
Bealey Spur
Great spring walk up Bealey Spur with the Maddigans & Monique from Castle Hill.
Posted by conor at 2:29 PM
September 6, 2011
Ohau Retro-style
Our neighbours, Paul & Amanda, at Castle Hill invited us to join them down at Lake Ohau for an extended 40th birthday gathering with a retro-theme, and the retro-style competition both on and off the slopes was hard to beat. Fantastic calm blue-sky day on the Saturday for a barbeque on the slopes with the mother-of-all-barbeques arriving on it’s own wheels. It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with Evie on the slopes, and Conor, Ildica & Evie all had some (mostly successful) attempts at the snowboard box jump! Ohau Ski Field is an awesome location, would love to go back sometime when it’s got more snow.
Posted by conor at 3:02 PM
June 17, 2011
Well, what an eventful year we're having
Within the last few weeks, my place of work has burnt down, we've had another Mag 6.3 earthquake, and I ended up as a solo parent when Ildica got stuck in Sydney due to ash from the Chilean volcano. Oh yeah, and I've given up drinking. Anyway, not so much in the way of photography recently, but here are a few from various trips and activities.
The last photo is a bit poignant in that Christchurch's doomed CBD high-rises are still there on the right, but dark and silent, probably destined never to shine out over the city again.
Posted by conor at 4:01 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
March 13, 2011
Village BBQ, Castle Hill Station
Christine Fernyhough from Castle Hill Station invited the Castle Hill Village residents along to a BBQ at one of the station huts near the Porter River, and it was a great opportunity to have a peek at one of the less publicly accessible parts of the basin. The Keohanes are still staying with us at Castle Hill, and they enjoyed coming along for the ride too.
Posted by conor at 2:43 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 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
November 15, 2010
Spring evening walk after a long weekend’s work fixing gib-board
Amazing progress this weekend with the help of our friend Richard and his two children, who had a ball with our two, enabling us to finish most of the gibbing upstairs, the downstairs bathroom, and most of the downstairs bedroom. Great weather (the waterslide seemed to be in use most of the weekend), found time for a walk one evening, and a bike ride for Richard & I another evening.
Posted by conor at 10:26 AM
September 11, 2010
Stephen & Louise's Wedding
Two great people, two large & lovely families, lots of friends and a great location all added up to make for a great occasion, and one which I felt privileged to be invited to attend. A lot of work went into making the occasion come together, and slightly tiring though I think it was for the main players, I know they had a great time; they were surrounded by a lot of people there to wish them nothing but the best for their future life together. Congratulations to you both, Mr. & Mrs. Rodgers!
Posted by conor at 3:29 PM
September 10, 2010
Checking out Chatsworth & The Peak
After a few pints of Guinness in Dublin, Peter & I headed across the Irish Sea towards the Peak District and our roles as ushers at the wedding of Louise & Stephen (one of my oldest friends having met, we realised, 20 years ago this month at university, someone with whom I have a lot of great memories of climbing trips far & wide, and someone who was crazy enough to be the best man at our wedding). Peter & I took a couple of days to check out a few places in the Peak District including High Tor at Matlock, Masson Mill at Cromford, and Chatsworth House, the location of the wedding. Stephen had arranged 3 nights of great accommodation at Haddon Farm holiday cottages, which was a great location to chill out with a large portion of the wedding party. Great to refresh great friendships with Stephen’s family and other friends. Chatsworth was a stunning location for the wedding, and the estate is currently holding a sculpture exhibition in the grounds, which provided a few great photo opportunities. Stephen also took us to one of his favourite Peak tors, Cratcliffe. One of Stephen’s other friends also turned up in a stunningly refurbished VW Karmann Ghia.
Posted by conor at 3:19 PM
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
May 24, 2010
Shane's 40th birthday
We met up with Shane & Bernadette, Sara & Mark, and Fergus & Meredith at Castle Hill to celebrate Shane's 40th. Shane & I had a great bike ride back from Dracophyllum Flat to the Mt Cheeseman road on a beautifully sunny late autumn day, before the weather turned to custard. The assorted kids decorated Shane's cake, and amused themselves with Lauren & Ella's guinea-pigs.
Posted by conor at 4:49 PM
May 11, 2010
Slave gang
The slave gang hard at work, and just for a change, there's even a photo of me.
Photos courtesy of Trevor Keohane.
Posted by conor at 2:20 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 13, 2010
Craig Mc's 40th @ Mesopotamia Station
Had a very enjoyable weekend on Mesopotamia Station at the head of the Rangitata River helping Craig McLean celebrate his 40th birthday in some style.
Posted by conor at 8:26 AM
November 10, 2009
Bunny rustling and other Farmyard adventures in Geraldine
Had a superb weekend down at The Farmyard near Geraldine with the Keohane, Dadds & McKinnon families. 20 degree days, quiet campsite, dips in the Geraldine outdoor pool, starry nights, good company, happy kids, donkey & quad-bike rides, bunnies & guinea pigs to pet, marshmallows to toast…
Some photos courtesy of Trevor Keohane.
Posted by conor at 8:58 AM
October 27, 2009
Wander at Diamond Harbour
Had a great walk on Saturday with some families from the Trimble Social Club around Diamond Harbour after getting the little ferry across from Lyttelton. Beautiful day, and of course, the kids were stoked with an ice-cream at the end.
Posted by conor at 1:23 PM
September 19, 2009
Huntsbury Preschool "What Not To Wear" Night
| Ildica was recently the chief "victim" at the Huntsbury Preschool “What Not To Wear” fundraising evening. Having had her hair "done" the day before, she spent a couple of days picking the kids up from school/kindy in a fetching black bob wig and sunnies! Melane & Jayne were the other two models on the evening, and they all looked stunning. Kudos to Nic Robson from SirenStyle for the makeover. |  |
Posted by conor at 10:07 AM
November 11, 2008
The Farmyard, Geraldine
Had a great weekend camping at The Farmyard near Geraldine, South Canterbury with Trevor & Marcus & families. The craic was mighty. Safe place for the kids, donkey rides to be had, lambs & kids to be bottle-fed, quadbikes to ride, rabbits to pet, marshmallows (or should I say, "marshmellows") to toast...
Posted by conor at 1:15 PM
October 30, 2007
Glenrock with Dorje et al
Just back from another weekend up at Glenrock with Dorje, Keryn, Tashi, and their friends Richard, Liz & Caitlin. We stayed in the other house available at Glenrock which again was very comfortable. We had a stunning day out on Sunday, finally getting to the top of "mighty" Double Hill (with Evie walking the whole way up and down!), this time getting to appreciate the expansive views up the Rakaia.
Posted by conor at 1:16 PM
October 9, 2007
Glenrock Station with Bernadette, Shane, Lauren and Ella
Just back from a weekend up staying at
Glenrock Lodge. Glenrock Station is a working high-country farm with a couple of very comfortable cottages available for rent. It was a wild and windy weekend, with gale-force winds and torrential rain on the way in on Friday afternoon, and a deafeningly impressive 6 hour thunderstorm on Saturday night (where the shockwaves from the thunder rumbling up and down the valley continually rattled the windows and indeed the whole cottage). However, both days were blue and sunny, if still windy, and we had a very relaxing weekend with a couple of wanders round the farm, and up the valley, plus getting to feed a couple of well-fed lambs and calves. And we won't mention the rugby (watched over breakfast on Sky in the cottage), since the shock loss for the All Blacks is obviously a National Tragedy... ;-)
Posted by conor at 12:44 PM
July 15, 2007
Chilly wander at Orton Bradley Park
Headed out to get some fresh air on a chilly winters day at Orton Bradley Park across the other side of Lyttleton Harbour from Christchurch with Owen, Emily & Madeline (Nicki & Liam are in Canada for her brother's wedding). The kids had a great time throwing stones or splashing sticks in the stream, plus heaving on the old mill wheel there. Home via the cafe in Governor's Bay for a coffee/fluffy.
Posted by conor at 10:18 PM
June 15, 2007
Enjoyable weekend at Castle Hill with Trevor, Della, Cara & Little/Big Conor
We borrowed Bernadette & Shane's bach at Castle Hill village, and invited the Keohane family to come and join us.
Winter has definitely arrived temperature-wise down here, although very dry, so no snow about. Hard frosts in the mornings (-7 or -8 degrees), indeed the air temperature on Saturday up there didn't get much above freezing. All the kids had a good time playing/scrambling about among the Castle Hill boulders on Sunday afternoon as well. I took a few photos which I've enjoyed experimenting with in Photoshop to make a bit more dramatic.
I also tried taking a few more star trail photos with limited success this week. In fact on one abortive attempt I left the camera out for an hour, and when I came back, both the front of the lens and the camera were covered with a hard frost!
Posted by conor at 12:26 PM
May 21, 2007
Visiting Ken & Elly in Dunedin
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