Mum and son!







Danielle and her current favourite soft toy.






After last night's snow fall, we awoke to the surrounding hills covered in a very light dusting of snow. It did not appear to be anywhere near as heavy as what we would see in Dunedin. In the past we have been told that the Avoca Valley is a bit of a micro-climate and, generally warmer than a lot of Christchurch, today this certainly proved to be the case as we did not even have a frost.











We did not need to travel far, though, to find some snow. Five minutes around the hill and a quick gondola ride and we were throwing snow balls. Dad and son.We were not expecting the snow to be all that heavy up the top and quietly chuckled to ourselves about the families lining up with gumboots on, in preparation for lots of snow.They got the last laugh as it was a lot heavier than it looked and we were the ones not dressed for it. We'll know for next time! We had no snow around the house but were surprised to see that a lot of the city did have snow. As we discovered later this afternoon some suburbs, out by the airport especially, had obviously had quite a heavy snow fall.

A snowy night out

After an early tea we headed out to enjoy some tenpin bowling. We had a really good time although the scores were a little below par for all of us, apart from Danielle and Alana who did really well.

"Leave me I can do it myself!"

Samuel tried hard but was not rewarded, as he would have liked, for his efforts.




As for the adults we certainly enjoyed ourselves but the scores sure did not reflect it. Ann started the strongest of all of us but the last three frames were not how she wanted to finish.

To celebrate we headed off for an ice cream and discovered it was snowing as we left which was very exciting and the kids (big and small) just loved it!

You're sorry? Yeah right!

After a significant drop in the temperature today with a cold southerly front arriving, the outdoor plans got canned in favour of a game of "Sorry."




John started off with a hiss and a roar getting many of the sort after cards at the beginning of the game. Time for some dirty tactics!




After much play and a lot of out cries of glee and doom finally there was a clear winner.

Talking of snow - memories of Dunedin this time last year

Fun in the park!





Looking down the drive in the direction of Kaikorai Valley.







Looking up the drive to the east.






Looking north up Elgin Road

Uncle John comes to watch the Saturday action

This week it was John's turn to witness the action! While Samuel's team took a thumping, he had one of his best games yet! Strong kicking and great tackling. All before the temperature took a 12.4 degree nose dive!! No snow yet.