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)

With the car repaired in time, we headed down to Roundhill for part of the school holidays. It’s a nice little field for kids. We were hoping that Anna would make it to the top of the t-bar, and, indeed she did! We had a bit of excitement on the way down as we stopped at Dobson for the afternoon. Anna had somewhat forgotten how to turn, and so turned into a little bullet heading downhill fast. Maaike eventually crashed into her to get her to stop. After that we had a recap about turning across/up the hill, and then things went a lot better ;)

It was great that our friend Kate was able to come with her two kids, as it totally made for a more fun time. Well, I mean Maaike and I are very cool,but, other kids are cooler for sure.

At Roundhill itself we got Anna a lesson and the instructor took her up the t-bar (as we’d hoped he might). She did a couple of runs, but, the conditions were somewhat icy “spring conditions (already)!!”, so, she just did a few runs over the next few days and opted to have a more fun time on the beginners slope. I do enjoy skiing, it’s great to catch some sun and be up in the hills over winter. I also feel that climate change is really beginning to affect the viability here in NZ. I’d be amazed if within the next 10 years most of the club fields haven’t closed.

Firstly, car sat down. Power steering died.

Putting on my sad face, it was a little nervy because we were due to go skiing the following week. However, on the bright side – it was a quick and easy fix and far better there than down at Roundhill.

Anyway, on to Matariki. It’s SO good that NZ finally has public holidays to celebrate the Māori festivals (which are much more aligned with what you’d expect – a festival of light during the middle of winter). Anyway, market, heaps of art around the place..

There was also a midwinter bike around the park. That was so much fun, we’ll definitely be doing that again. Our friends Ian & Ali & Amelie came along, and while it was definitely cold, it wasn’t too bad. Anna biked the whole thing I was so impressed!

There was also a fireworks display out at New Brighton. We went out for a nice dinner at Malc’s place and then just walked down the beach (neatly avoiding most of the car-hassles as it’s very popular). It was Anna’s first fireworks display and she was suitably impressed.

Maaike is studying Te Reo this year (and probably ongoing), as a part of that they have noho-marae, which is a stay on a marae for the weekend. So, that was this weekend, and so Anna and I headed up to Palmy for the weekend to hang out with cousins. On the way up we had a really weird optical trick. The moon (I think) was up, but, also the sunset was happening, so, we could see (I think) the moon a reddish colour from the sunset. I dunno, it was either that or the lights of the plane doing something weird, but, pretty sure it was the moon.

We had a lovely time. Played mini-golf, had a lovely time at the big old playground there, delicious dinner at Mary’s.. just a good time.

All too soon time to head home again. AirNZ have this thing where they give out hard-boiled sweets on landing. Kids sometimes do it. Anna has been picked a few times, and she asked me to let the air hostesses know that she’d be available to give them out ;) Anna let me know that some people just take massive handfulls of them… I’ve always been polite and just taken one or maybe two! definitely feel like I’m missing out on a trick there (or maybe not, tragedy of the commons if everyone started doing that I suspect)