This weekend we headed up towards Arthur’s pass to camp for the weekend.

We had pretty decent weather (this summer has mostly been a washout). There’s a lovely circuit the cass lagoon which we just did the first part of. Once you’re up towards the saddle there are some tarns up there and we’d been told there were some decent camping spots, so off we went.

It was a decent old hike up hill for Anna. Approx 600m of elevation gain and some boggy parts to navigate. She did really well and basically didn’t complain (the second day was a slightly different affair, but, on the whole really good!).

We had to look about for a good camping spot. Down by the tarns 43°03’01.0″S 171°35’49.1″E was where we setup.

It was a lovely evening, just great to be out in the fresh air. Maaike was extremely brave and went for a dip, and Anna went in too. A little bit too much cold-wind blowing about for me to jump in too. Maybe next time ;)

Maaike made me a Dutch Apple pie for my birthday. It was delicious as ever

We’ve had miserable weather of late, which put a slight dampener on some of the buskers festival (but only for a few days). Anna totally enjoyed getting on stage and doing her pukana.

A couple of trips to willowbank where we had “El Gregore”‘s magic show. Always a firm favourite.

I’ve started reading “Swallows and Amazons” to Anna, and she’s totally enjoying it. My Aunt Mary who works in a bookstore keeps an eagle eye out for any in the series I don’t have. This one – “We didn’t mean to go to sea”, well, it so happens that the boat in that was Arthur Ransome’s own boat, and it’s still available to be sailed on, and it’s close to where the family gathering is in the UK later on this year. I’m hoping to get to sail on it (nothing set in stone yet however). There’s a really lovely video if you have ten minutes to spare. For some reason brought a tear to my eye (but I’m a terrible softy)

p.s. I’ve migrated to a new server, let me know if you notice anything weird.

There was an exhibit of Banksy in town.  I love his stuff.  No idea if this was “sanctioned” or not, I suspect not but it’s hard to know.  Anyway, it was very cool seeing a bunch of his stuff in one place.  I particularly liked some of the quotes, including:

To not realise you have power is the first step to losing it

My colleague Janet (our principle engineer) was in town visiting. She stayed at ours for a week, we did some walks, went to Banksy, played a bunch of games (she loves games). We played wingspan a couple of times. She won with the best score I’ve ever seen (on her second play!). Probably a reason she’s the principle engineer and worked at Facebook (and many other places) as an engineer. We also went to Hinewai Reserve which is this lovely spot where the guy just basically bought a bunch of land and just let it regenerate (i.e. just left it alone!). It’s lovely now and free to visit. There’s a video here if you want to learn more.

My friend Dave Aubrey & partner Jess were over visiting from Canada. One thing Dave had really wanted to do was to go for a trip down the Hurunui. The original plan had been to pack-raft. I’ve never been in one of these before. The Hurunui was running pretty high (it’s usually 30 cumecs, it was running at 145 or something). So, much faster and pushier than it normally is. I’d borrowed a single from my friend Hamish, but, on the day they asked me to go down in the double with Jess (Dave and Warick were safety-boating, and Neil wanted to go in a single).

So, Jess and I gave it a go, almost capsized on the first turn into the river (I’m just nervous and leaning “into” the turn doesn’t come naturally). Anyway, after a couple of very tenuous crossings I decided that this really wasn’t for me. I almost never give up on an adventure, but, yeah, while I don’t think it would have been massively dangerous, it would have meant some long unpleasant swims, and quite possibly putting a hole in the raft. Jess quite agreed with me that stopping was a good idea.

It did give a bunch of time for chatting and taking pics, so, that was nice!

Short Christmas holiday this year for me, have plans for holiday later in the year :) Anna in holiday programmes a bunch. We try to do no more than 3 days a week as otherwise it’s a bit tiring. It’s pretty cool all the things you can try as a kid these days. I think from next year she’ll be able to try bouldering, and in a few years sailing possibly? Very jealous!

I got out for a few rides while we had some half decent weather (it really has been quite the rainy summer. Again.). Also very nice to be back with a decent coffee machine at work!