Woolshed creek really is a lovely little hike with young kids (which is probably why we do it so often!). I was most impressed – this time we walked in & out the more difficult route (it’s not that much more difficult, but, still, nice going)

At the hut, kids chilled out and then put on a show – mainly driven by Quinn who was determined to put on a magic show. He rounded everyone up, hiked in his box of tricks all the way… it really was a most impressive effort. Then the kids did a waiata (song) too. The applause was thunderous.

Slept pretty well in the hut.. I’d bought along my anti-snoring device and apparently I was nicely quiet! Next morning, cleaned the hut, quick trip down to the wire bridge (because those are super exciting!) and then back out. All in all an excellent weekend.

Mark Adams is an absolute hero when it comes to organising weekends away. We headed to to Kaikōura for the weekend to go mountain biking at middle hill. It was just a fantastic weekend. Stopping for fish & chips on the way up on Friday night…

The actual days biking on the Saturday was excellent. There’s a massive range of tracks, and you pay for shuttles up the hill. There was absolutely enough for a day for everyone, and just really enjoyable tracks :) Can highly recommend.

The following day I went back to ChCh with Paddy and we stopped off to do the kaiterau trail, which basically starts at the Mt Fyffe carpark and climbs steeply up through the forest. The fitter lads (Mark, Ian, Paul) biked up to the hut, which is a really massive climb…. I was happy to skip that and do the track with Paddy. Still a bit wet, but, not too bad, and certainly got the exercise for the day. Hot work – ended with a soak in the river!

Then home along the coast back to ChCh. All in all an excellent excellent weekend.

I’ve been trying to get out a bit more walking. It’s mostly the mental effort of getting up and out after everything else has been done. Aiming for at least once a week and mostly hitting it (not always) but I’m trying.

Anna had a friends birthday party. She had her nails done. At a salon! She was psyched & we were mildly horrified. Then on to “ninja zone” or something (quite like clip & climb) where she had a great time.

She has also taken to playing with my more piece-heavy games (like Catan and Wingspan) and incorporating them into play. This is fine, just as long as all the bits are still there!

Anna Maaike & I went biking at the park. It was OK, but, Anna was having a slightly tired day – and I think she must have hit a rock 3/4 of the way down as the derailleur hanger got slightly bent and she could no longer change gears. Anyway, we all survived but personally I think McLeans island is a bit more fun while they’re Anna’s age.

I went to a lecture Nobel Prize laureate Moungi Bawendi: From curiosity to technological impact. That was fascinating, all about “quantum dots” – how they power your TVs and the simultaneous discovery etc. Also some quite sobering questions on what the heck is going to happen to science in the US now that Trump is gutting everything.

Speaking of Trump, I’ve been getting increasingly nervous about the effect of the incredible amount of damage he has been doing to US soft power, their institutions, the amount of federal workers he has laid off, the war on science and scientists (and doctors too it seems). The entire thing seems utterly mad. Like, even from a selfish stand point I don’t quite understand what they’re hoping to achieve here. Anyway, we have a small amount of savings in a growth account (which is mostly US backed) and we decided to just withdraw it all and put it in a term deposit for 6 months. I know you’re not supposed to be ruled by emotion, I know it’s about “time in the market not timing the market”. Whatever, I wanted to sleep better and this has certainly helped my anxiety levels. It’ll be fascinating (and very unknown) if this leads to the end of the dollar as the reserve currency. It’s all just completely mad.

The other two New Zealanders (Nahum and Walter) on my team who work for Vibrant Planet live in Wellington, so, I headed up to see them. Nahum I knew from Ruby circles, Walter I don’t think I’d met before. Janet was over visiting from the US, so, we had a very enjoyable few days hanging out, doing some work, having some food, playing games (Janet’s extremely good!). Good times.

Then Maaike and Anna came up and we hung out with Glynn and Jayne & visited Thomas & Adeline. Wellington is in a bit of a state at the moment, as there have been just massive job cuts in Wellington from this government. I think it’s something like 11% net job losses in the last 12 months. Pretty crazy.

And a nice walk with Nick once back in ChCh, haven’t seen him in an age :)

Oh, and Donald Trump got elected for the second time. Well, ok, the election happened back in November, but, he has taken office. Musk is in and running around causing absolute mayhem… honestly, it’s a total shit show. Here in NZ David Seymour is cutting school lunches (more on that in a future post) and they’re just absolutely uncaring heartless mean cruel people. It’s honestly disgusting. Tax breaks for landlords and let the most needy go hungry. Sickening.

The wonderful Kate & Mark organised a trip for us all to Lake Daniells up in Lewis Pass. It’s a place we’ve been a bunch of times before, as it really is ideal for young trampers. The hut also has the best toilets of any DOC hut I’ve been to. No kidding, they’re really good!

The kids did well, no real complaining and we made decent time. Even went for a dip in the lake. It’s ridiculously shallow for a really long way!

We’d booked the entire hut out, and there weren’t any campers, so we had the entire place to ourselves. Quite rare and really lovely!. Marshmallows were toasted, drawings were made on the massive blackboard which is there. Ice-creams were eaten on the way home. A lovely weekend.