Geocaching

We're still enjoying this activity.

Recently we found four out towards Blackhead, Waldronville (a very clever one that Alana solved) and two around the speedway. Two closer to home have evaded us: one down the bottom of the Glen near Avoca Road and the other along the green belt, which we've been to twice,and it quite literally has us stumped!

The kids all love to choose a cache, read the description, the clues & hints, then navigate for us to the site and be the first to find. This earns them the privilege of signing the log book and being able to log the find on the website.

We do it all using the GPS on the iPhone 3GS and it seems to work very well. The Geocaching site we belong to is superb.

Sam's Big Night In

Make your own free photo collage

Sam is 4th in on the middle row. This was a concert that he thoroughly enjoyed being a part of as he sung with the Southern Children's Choir.

The Rail Trail from Alana

This photo collage generated with Smilebox

Champion Speech Maker

Alana won her year 8 speech competition with a very humerous speech based on her winning science fair project. Her topic was nappies and the environment. We sourcing a better video that I will link to later, but in the mean time here's the B grade version of the A grade speech

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=at3E07XcPB4&feature=youtube_gdata_player

Redwood Ride

A few months ago the kids and I discovered a great new MB track up the back of Wakari through a stand of Redwoods. It's a brilliant ride and technically challenging enough of adults but very well designed for family riding.

The first time Sam and I did it alone I nearly returned with one less child. We took the longer section of track home and Sam disappeared on me over a bank and down into a creek bed. He did well to ride out and swore he would never go back.

Last weekend we went back and he completed the same more difficult stretch of downhill, on which he had previously crashed, twice with out incident. Not so me!! I decided that I would have a crack at a log crossing, after all I had mastered the lesser sea-saw so why not have a go at this. A moments hesitation answered that question as I went crashing off into the bush and fell about 4 1/2 feet. Not terribly high I hear you say but it is when you are moving on a bike and wind up entangled in the thing.

Sam was suitable concerned for his ol' da but not so much that he couldn't enjoy the fact that it was me this time and not him. Some damage to the bike and rider but nothing too much.

Biking Trip Dad and Sons go to Naseby

Four Dad's and their sons go mad in Naseby! We had a great time away exploring the water races, dams and tracks.

Thanks Dave for these photos!

  

Riding along the Otago Peninsula

One of the great bike rides in Dunedin, because of the views and setting, is along the road to Portobello. I look forward to the day when the council is able to extend the cycle way from Port Chalmers all the way round to Portabello.

Some months ago now we joined a good friend Alan Dickie and his son Daniel on the ride from Mac Andrew Bay to Broad Bay and back again. It is always a great ride no matter how often we do it. It is neither long or hard but is beautiful
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At the moment there is only a short section on the north side, starting at the University Rowing Club, that runs along the railway line towards Port Chalmers but stops well short of this just along the harbour side at a place called Maia: it is not so scenic on this side. My favourite stretch to ride is on the other side of the harbour (the Peninsular side) and stretches from Mac Andrew Bay to Broad Bay. On any other part of the road, if you ride on it, you really do take your life in your hands as it is very, very narrow. While lots of people do cycle on it, it really is not safe given the volume and speed of the traffic.
Here we stop for a snack and a drink before we set off on the return leg. While the day looks fine and sunny it was a pretty cool autumnal day.
That’s how long ago we rode it and how far behind I have got with some of the blog entries.

Tribute to 3 Squadron Ohakea Air Base

  On ANZAC day, because I was not able to get to the Dunedin dawn parade with Alana, I was listening to the Wellington Parade on National Radio. It had already been mentioned the Iroquois helicopters would be doing a flyover at the end of the ceremony but it became apparent even on a radio broadcast that this wasn’t going to happen. Eventually the announcer, Warwick Burke, commented that perhaps they could not complete it because of the low cloud and for safety reasons had called it off. No one knew at that stage that there had been a fatal crash involving one of the helicopters, killing 3 of the 4 crewman on board. It was several hours before this was reported.

One of the highlights at the Warbirds Air Show was the display by the RNZAF Iroquois Team. They demonstrated a number of highly complex manoeuvres showing that RNZAF pilots are right up there in terms of skill. Some of the manoeuvres were a run on landing (photo 1), flying the helicopter sideways down the runway while rotating 360 clockwise (photos 2-5) – apparently this is extremely challenging because the pilot is putting in put in to all of the controls simultaneously. Another one they used to do until the mechanics complained was fly the C130 Hercules down the run way, with only the nose wheel in contact with the ground (not shown).

Here is a selection of photos of the Iroquois in action, I hope you enjoy them:

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Warbirds Over Wanaka - WoW

This Easter I was able to fulfill a dream of 15 years gestation – to go to the now very famous Warbirds Over Wanaka Air Show. Samuel and I left on Saturday and camped at Cromwell over night in a tent and drove through on the Sunday. There we met up with friends from Dunedin and Queenstown, spending the next 6 hours with our necks craned skyward as we watched the action.  Well known NZ TV presenter and pilot Jim Hickey and others provided an excellent commentary, there was an interview with Vera Lynn, old pilots, superb music accompanied the flying. It was a stunning day!

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Weetbix Tryathlon 2010

This is the third year Alana has competed in the Weetbix Tryathlon and she continues to enjoy it.  Because she has just this week turned 11yrs old, she had to enter the 11-15yr age grouping which meant a much harder challenge.  I commented before the race that this would be quite a challenge in comparison to previous years but her response was:  "Don't worry Mum, this is the beginning of my future"  Well there we have it then!

Alana is 19916

This year the distances were:
Swim : 200m
Cycle : 10km
Run : 2km

 

 

  

  

  

 

Hockey Update

We may have mentioned that this year Samuel chose to play hockey rather than soccer and he is really enjoying it. When I went to pick him up today, after the game, he proudly showed me his trophey explaining that he had received the award for his defensive play, saving a number of goal shots from the opposing team. He was really chuffed with himself and seemed to have even surprised himself with how well he had done!

"Saturday Morning Music" Concert - May 09

Something for the Coffee lovers