Labour Weekend 2013

Yay! Finally, a long weekend!! It seems so long since Queens Birthday Weekend in early June but finally Labour Weekend arrived. As we are now feeding a veritable menagerie of animals we cannot get away for a break so decided to take a 'local' holiday and spent the afternoon down at Lake Whakamaru. We usually spend a week or so camping here in January but it was really  nice to go down before it gets too crowded and enjoy the lake by ourselves. There were a few keen campers there but nowhere near as many as in Dec/Jan.

 

We set up day camp with some chairs and the chilly bin under the pine trees and unloaded the 'toys'! We took the kayaks and the paddle board down with us to play on and everyone was on, and IN, the water in no time!

 

 

I thought the lake would still be a bit cold but ...apparently not!  :)

 

 

We are so lucky to be able to enjoy such beautiful scenery right on our doorstep.

 

 

Briar and her friend navigating my paddle board.

 

 

Phew...they made it back to shore!

 

 

Enjoying the first summer (ok, spring!) sun

 



 

Gotta have food...oh yeah, and a beer! :)

We had a lovely picnic lunch of bacon & egg pie, tomato & goat's cheese tarts, ham & salad rolls and chocolate cake. Yum, yum.

We had a wonderful afternoon just chilling and relaxing and having fun-we should do it more often!!  

Councillor Gash

NO...not me!! :) 
Jeff decided it was time he did his bit for the community and decided to stand for council. Elections are held every three years in New Zealand for districts to select who they feel will best represent the community and work in the best interests of that district. In the South Waikato this year there were 16 nominations for councillors and only 6 positions available. After a few weeks of campaigning (attending public meetings and putting signs up around the district) the public voted. Well, 40% of them did! :(  Not the best turnout for such an important decision but I guess now the other 60% cannot complain about what goes on if they don't like it. You can't complain if you don't vote!!  

Finally on Oct 12 the results were in...and to our utmost surprise Jeff was the highest polling candidate! Wow, very humbling. A week after the results were announced it was time for the first council meeting and the swearing in process to take place. Olivia and I went along for a look and below are some photos of Jeff making his declaration.

The council staff performing a waiata (song) during the ceremony

The Mayor being sworn in

Jeff making his declaration

Jeff signing away the next three years of his life!

Congratulations, Councillor Gash

First day on the job... look at all that reading material!!

So, well done to my wonderful husband - I am very proud of you! I just hope there will be some minutes left in his day for us??!! But it is what he wants to do so I say "Good on you, darling-you'll do a great job!"

Now, let the fun begin...

Cougar Chaser

News flash!!! There are cougars in Cougar Park Mountain bike trails!

Well, there were on Sunday 20th October when the local mountain bike club held their first event in a long time...the Cougar Chaser. Riders could enter either 30 km, 20 km or a 5 km ride and Jeff and Olivia decided to do the 5 km event together. The 5 km was set up as a 'family fun' ride so the kids were encouraged to look out for 'cougars' in the park (well, paper pictures of them!) Each rider who found one received a large block of chocolate and much to Olivia's delight she spotted one!! Plus she had the added bonus of being the first girl home so received a certificate for her effort.

Olivia, all set for her event (well, she will be once she puts her helmet on!) 

Waiting for the start...

This is what they were looking for...

On the start line...Olivia and Jeff to the right of the photo after the smaller kids

The end result...well worth the effort! Good on you, Olivia, well done!

She now has her sights set on another local event in early November-The Taniwha, which consists of many different options including both running/walking events and mountain biking. Olivia has signed up for the 21 km mountain bike ride-go Olivia!!

Term 4 has begun...

Wow, the school holidays have finished and we are into term 4...it will be Christmas before we know it!

The holidays were fairly quiet but still flew by so fast...at least it seemed that way for me. Briar had the busiest holiday of all as she had it all organised from day one. She was off to Aunty Lacreice and Uncle Vaughan's for a few days then to Nana and Gramps before heading over to the beach for a holiday with Nana and Grandad! Whew...welcome back home Briar...nice of you to join us again! :)

Olivia spent a fun-filled week with Nana and Gramps at the farm with Caitlin and I going over for a weekend to catch up with them too. It was wonderful to spend some time with them while they are home.

Caitlin's holiday highlight was right at the end when she got to go to her first ever concert! Yep, 1D was playing in Auckland and her roommate from hostel had invited her to go with her...cue lots of squealing and hugging and laughing etc! :) Of course it was the busiest weekend we had in a long time but luckily for her Aunty Lacreice and Uncle Vaughan came to the rescue and took them up to the concert and by all accounts EVERYONE had a great night! (Glad you enjoyed the Italian dinner Creise!!)  :) A HUGE thank you for helping the girls out as they would not have been able to get there otherwise.

Jeff and I had a Sportsworld conference to attend and it was great-I hadn't been able to get to the last couple so it was great to catch up with familiar faces and meet new members to the group. Jeff stood down as chairman of the Board and a presentation was made to him-he is now the owner of a spiffy new dress watch! We stayed at the Ibis Hotel and had wonderful meals there with great views of the Waikato River just out the window.
On the Saturday night before conference Jeff and I took the opportunity to find a Turkish restaurant as it is our favourite type of food. After walking half the length of Victoria Street we turned into Hood Street almost ready to give up when we stumbled upon "Paasha"...OMG...SERIOUSLY good Turkish food!! Do check it out if you are in Hamilton and like Turkish food-it was absolutely divine and we will most certainly be back.

The other BIG news for us all is the fact that Jeff is now a councillor!! Yep, local body politics...here he comes. The voting closed on Saturday 12th Oct at 12 noon and by 2pm he had the phone call he was waiting for ...elected onto council AND...the highest polling candidate! WOW, huge support from locals which was very humbling. Now the hard work begin which he is looking forward to.  Straight after the phone call we headed up to Hamilton for the conference so didn't talk much about it with the girls but they obviously decided it was a big deal (which it is!) and we came home on Monday afternoon to this welcome...

 

Thanks girls-we both laughed out loud when we saw it!

So...that is what we have been up to lately...hope you enjoyed the update!

Weekly update

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since I last blogged...it's not my fault...there was an issue with getting signed in and accessing my blog and although I tried, it just wasn't happening! :(

Anyway, here we are again so let me tell you what has been happening...

Briar participated in the Interschool Cross Country and after I stood around in freezing cold wind for a couple of hours doing marshalling duty, I was EXTREMELY proud to watch her cross the finish line.......FIRST!!!! Yep, fastest 10yr old in Tokoroa! Well done, Briar. She absolutely ran her heart out and lead from start to finish-there was no way anyone was getting past her!



Olivia has gained a bronze badge as part of a school initiative to encourage students both academically and personally to achieve high standards. There are three levels (bronze, silver and gold) and she is determined to have her silver badge by the end of the year and gold by end of year 8-great goals, Olivia!


In soccer news...Briar scored her first goal of the season!! Yay, Briar! She was SO pleased with herself-especially as she had a challenge going with her uncle who also wanted to score a goal for his soccer team before the end of the season. It was with great glee she skyped Uncle Arthur to inform him that she had indeed netted a goal...had he managed one too?? Oh really...no? Oh dear...
Briar, stop grinning so hard!!


It is now school holiday time and it has started with a Regional Guide Camp in Matamata. Pity the weather hasn't really played its part but I am sure the girls will return home on Sunday tired but happy.
I am not sure what the rest of the fortnight will bring but I am sure we will fill the days! Daylight saving begins tomorrow-yay! I love the lighter evenings...more time outside.

Rite of passage

I can't believe it has taken this long! Our girls have never been to watch the All Blacks play a test match...what is WRONG with their parents...LOL.

However, we remedied that fact last night by taking them to see the All Blacks take on Argentina at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton.

We got ourselves ready...faces painted and (mostly) 'all black' clothing on and off we set. A quick stop in Cambridge for an early dinner and then we were in Hamilton.

 

We found a car park pretty close to the stadium and joined the crowds heading to the stadium.

 

 

 

 As we got to the entrance of the stadium we were delighted to be entertained by South American dancers putting on a display for the crowds. Beautiful to watch and very professional!

 

 

We were a bit early! But the stands filled up quickly and there was always something to watch. And I need to thank adidas NZ for the tickets - a very generous gesture from a great company!

 

 

  We saw Moorehouse perform (finalists in X Factor NZ) and also Jackie Thomas (the winner). There was a display by a dancing studio and  also a giant rugby shirt that moved around the field!

 

Of course, no test match is started until the haka is performed-even more spine-tingling to watch in person. Then it was game on! To be honest, it wasn't the most exciting game to watch but the girls seemed to enjoy it-the atmosphere was great .Unfortunately, Ritchie McCaw had to leave the field due to a knee injury that looked mighty painful :(

 

 

 We saw passionate Puma fans urging their team on but to no avail. They really get into their supporting-they were continually singing/chanting and cheering for their team. This lot even had drums!!

 

 

Then it was all over and time to leave...well, not quite! This was the view from above the ground floor so we sat it out and talked to friends we saw. Watching the crowds was almost as entertaining as the game! We even spotted more people we knew and saw some interesting costumes.

Finally, the crush cleared and we were on our way home. It was after 10pm by the time we left Hamilton so two VERY tired girls fell asleep in the car on the way home.

What a great night out :)



 

RIP Roxy

 

Oh dear...what a terrible start to Fathers Day!

 

We got a knock at the door and found the builder, working on the house next door, holding Roxy. As he put her on the ground we could see her back legs weren't working. He had found her under the house but didn't know what was wrong.

She was a brave wee  kitty and tried crawling around the house. She didn't seem to be in a lot of pain but something was definitely wrong! I rang the vet and arranged to meet her at the surgery in 10mins.

A quick examination found she had a previously unknown heart murmur which in turn had caused a blood clot to lodge at the base of her spine causing the paralysis to her back legs.

There was nothing that could be done for her so the heart-breaking decision was made to have her put to sleep. (I had warned the girls that this might be the case before I took her to the vet)

I stayed with our beautiful wee girl right to the end and she was so calm. I brought her home and she joins our other deceased pets in our (ever-growing!) pet cemetery.

 

Roxy, you were a wonderful "first" cat for our girls-very patient with them as they learnt how to treat animals and look after you. Thank you for all your cuddles and love-we will miss you!

 

 

 

 

ROXY 

2007-2013