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.

Courtesy of Trevor Keohane Courtesy of Trevor Keohane Courtesy of Trevor Keohane
Courtesy of Trevor Keohane Courtesy of Trevor Keohane

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.

  
  
  
  Manuka Point Stream

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.
Heave! Ruairi & Madeline Calm in the storm!

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.

Castle Hill with the Keohanes

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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