September brings with it lots of blossom, and Anna’s birthday – 7 this year. It’s amazing how fast it all goes.

Her birthday itself was at the (https://www.chchgymnastics.com/) where you can have the use of it for birthday parties. We opted to have some basic instruction too, and that seemed to keep the kids happy :)

We also bought her a desk on TradeMe… we’re hoping this will be a place for her to keep all her ever-expanding amount of “Stuff”. We shall see.

Well, Maaike spotted the leak, and we eventually worked out that it was that the “shower liner had become detached”. Apparently this isn’t covered under warranty (didn’t check, it should be a cheapish fix). The company that built the shower have been very helpful in helping identify and fix it, so, that’s good. Hopefully that’s the last of it for a while.

I’ve been getting out on a few walks while I’ve been half time (we’re waiting for some contracts to arrive, should only be another month or two hopefully… otherwise it might be a much longer holiday).

Anna’s football has finished up for the season. I think she really enjoyed it – Maaike did most of the work there (she’s thinking of becoming an assistant coach for next year now).

Lots of Te Reo at school. Anna practiced a bunch and was one of the kids picked to do her speech solo. Amazing stuff to be honest. Very gutsy.

The weather is improving a little, which is lovely. This winter has felt (for me at least), like it has gone on a while. It has also been quite wet. Maaike noticed an odd damp patch on the wall behind our bathroom…

… we have started chatting to the company which built the house (< 10 years ago), but, haven’t yet worked out what the issue is. Hopefully it’s not something major, and also hopefully it’s something which is their responsibility. We shall see.

My friend Albert very kindly made me a replacement bird-feeder for wingspan as my old one had disintegrated through too much assembly and disassembly. Very much enjoying the oceania expansion that Maaike got me.

I took Anna with me while I went to play squash with Warrick (as her school start was delayed until 11am).

It was a lesson in frustration for both of us I think. I was super annoyed she would continue to talk and ask questions during the game (and I struggle enough as it is against Warrick!). However, I should really have just reset my expectations. Yes, she needed to be quiet, but, yes she’s still only 6 and be reasonable ;) Very much a learning journey this parenting lark. Her game playing is getting better! Just started playing spit/speed and while there’s a long way to go, it’s fun! (other games: mastermind (she can do 4 no worries), uno, genius square, splendor, set, spot it (dobble)). Good times. I love having a captive game-player. Oh, and started doing https://lichess.org/learn which my friend Daniel put me onto. Very nicely put together that.

The city council put on a frankly gorgeous light show in the botanical gardens. Just lovely wandering around there in the evening. Anna got to stay up late which was extremely exciting for her. We went on “The octopus” ride. Absolute rip-off at $10/seat, and there was almost no padding so I came out fairly bruised. Anna… not really sure she enjoyed it. She did get through it though (for some reason closed her eyes for a lot of it and didn’t require vomiting, so, that was impressive!). It was very very spinny, more than I remember them ever being. Still, I’m sure we’ll be back for more.

I love my boots. I got them before we went on our awesome year of travel. We went straight into multiday hikes and I never had a blister. I managed to track exactly the same boots down again Hanwag Alaska – wide and bought them.

I’m so happy I was able to find the same pair again. I have wide feet and these are just the most comfortable shoes I’ve found. Hurrah!

A wonderful t-shirt from my brother Matt arrived. I love The Princess Bride and it just so happened that the local boutique cinema was showing it again this week – so, I put on my new t-shirt and off I went. Wonderful.

I also made my first ever chocolate brownies. They were well received at climbing with Gabby and Malc. I think Malc is rightly suspicious that Gabby and I are trying to change it from a climbing & baking evening, into a baking & climbing evening.

Finally, Anna has been making great strides with her te reo practice. It’s fun hearing her practicing her mihi and pepeha and now she has a Pao which is a short karakea(song)/ditty to add to the mix. She definitely seems to be enjoying it all!

My friend Nick had a bunch of friends he wanted to go hiking with, but, who didn’t know eachother. Eventually Nick just decided that we’d all get on just fine and he should organise the trip, so he did. And I mean, everyone was sound except for Jeff^*

I’d been to otahake a fewtimes before, but, not in the middle of winter. It’s funny, in my head I’m still sorta late 20s early 30s, and still tramping all the time. The reality is slightly different. In my head this was an easy tramp, 5-6 hours and very straightforward, but, it’s still a decent walk and in the middle of winter everything is a little trickier.

Anyway, Nick did an excellent job organising the weather. It’s was perfect both days, which was no harm because the water was freezing cold.

The hotpools themselves needed digging out a little. Fortunately it’s a very well organised place and there were 3 shovels we could use to dig them out. The water was boiling so some cold water was diverted in from the river, and then it was just a perfect spot to soak and enjoy the stars above.

All in all everyone did super well. The water was up to the waistline on the way upriver, and did I mention cold? On the Sunday morning it was really slippy on the way out, as all the rocks had an invisible layer of ice over them. Once we turned the corner and the sun was able to hit the rocks everything became a whole lot easier.

One difference we did to previous trips was that we came out the Otahake all the way to the Taramakau and then walked down that. It was nice to do a different route, and, I think it probably was easier than via the lake. One to remember for the next time.

Note about the photos: I haven’t kept track of who took what pic. I know Zane took the lovely starry photos – well done him!

Many thanks to Nick for organising. Everyone came back pretty psyched for the next trip (once the legs have enough recovery time)