Preparations

I am embracing oncoming motherhood by learning to knit... I have now successfully knitted several pairs of bootees...!!!! These ones are a particular colour that may give the gender game away so, for now, you can only see them in black and white(!!)

Saturday evening...

 

 

 

 

 

 

Tonight's twight was beautiful after a glorious day.... Nathan gets down to some serious photo mounting for our walls...

Botanic Gardens

Some black and white shots from the Botanic Gardens taken this week...

Weekend stuff

The weekend was glorious sunshine (and Monday today is bright and sunny too...).

Saturday was garage sale day for me (Nathan was at work - due to snow and catch up time) and so I poured over the newspaper classified section before heading to a few sales.   Garage sales are the new thing in Christchurch because a) everyone is leaving and b) there is no town centre to browse in... The first sale was in a pretty bad earthquake area - the roads were destroyed.  The sellers there had been bombarded with the early bargain hunters and had practically nothing left but I did manage to secure a double blow up bed for $5 (£2.50) which was on the list of "must gets" for extra guests! 
 Those people were moving to Sydney...

The next sale I was a day too early - I read the paper wrong (as did the other 4 people who arrived the same time as me...) but the guy let me into his unorganised garage and I managed to get my first piece of coloured glass from this guy for £1/$2 - a light blue tall vase.... happy with that and am now on the look out for more for a collection.  He was off to the Gold Coast - His kids couldn't surf on the beach any more so Christchurch was a bit of a drag these days.... ummmm.  At least you have a beach and the surfing will come back (the surf is out of bounds at the moment because of the sewage due to the earthquake but it is due to be cleaned up by Xmas).... I do find it interesting to hear the tales of the people who are leaving.  Some of them say they wouldn't have had the courage to do it if it wasn't for the quakes... others can't see the good that remains in the city.  I think it is people who mainly can't cope with change. 

Anyway... Sunday was a trip around the harbour day picnicking and finding some random lamas to feed!   Here are some pictures...

We tried to head home over a different mountain....errrr mistake.  The snow got deeper and deeper and then a 4WD was reversing down the mountain as it had failed to get over the top.... Poor little 660cc car had to reverse in snow down a steep mountain.  Oh an adventure - and it is always nice to appreciate being alive and not falling off the side of the mountain!!

More snow (yawn)

We had a bit more snow here last week.... The once every 20 years snowfall turned into the worst snow NZ had seen for 40 years or so... some people on the news had never seen snow (really!) - Auckland got a few flakes which never happens so they felt really special and we had at least 4 hours of headline news on the subject.   Nathan got a day off work so that was the good part... the bad part was being house bound for about 3 days... Cabin fever alert.  Lyttelton I think got a bit more snow than last time but it wasn't as exciting so I only took about 3 photos.....!  There is however some arty graffitti popping up in Lyttelton which I am collecting pictures of.... here are the first couple in the collection and the obligatory snow shot.

Trip to the mountains

This weekend we had a bit of a road trip up the mountains to Arthur's Pass.... It is about 2 hours away from Christchurch and we were lucky enough to be staying with friends in a little hut which is usually used by a girl's school for field trips.

Arthur's Pass National Park is in the Southern Alps- high mountains with large slopes, steep gorges and wide braided rivers... in other words perfect location to spend the night in before New Zealand has its largest snow storm in 40 years....

We mainly took our time getting to our hut taking in the scenery and urging the little red car up the hills (4WDs? Ha! who needs one we have 660cc of pure red power!) and then had a roadside picnic just outside the hut to sit in the last of the sun of the day.   The evening was just spent relaxing before sleeping in our dormitory!

Sheffield - mid way stop - has no public loo but does have PIES!

Alberta looks at the challenge of the mountain!!!

The next day, paranoid about the snow that was reportedly coming (and already in the mountains) we headed back to ChCh.  The plan to stop for a walk was soon put to an end when a massive hail storm hit the windscreen and the snow started sticking on the roads.... If we stopped the car might be  stranded... push on...... and finally over the ice and the steep roads we went until flat roads and blue cloudless sky were on the horizon.  Odd odd weather...

 

The road just outside the hut

 Sunday morning... the snow was on its way.....

 You can just about make out the hut here

 Glacier floor - eerie in the morning with snow and mist

 

ahhh snow on Sunday morning in the mountains

Wrong footwear

Blue sky on the way back to ChCh

 Phew home in time to do some baking (!!!!!!!!!!!!)..............

 

And just before the snow arrived on Monday morning.....

 

NZ Alpine Handbook 1961 advert!

Snow

Errr ....it was only supposed to happen every other decade or something but we are snowed in again... worse than last time. 

Nice to see the weather man being so very precise about the amount of snow...apparently its just "a lot".  Very informative given that everything outside the window is white.

 

Another NZ story I have just come across is this:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7522952.stm

As you will see from the link, apparently we cannot, in NZ, call our baby: Sex Fruit, Keenan Got Lucy and Yeah Detroit or O.crnia.  However, Number 16 Bus Shelter, Violence and Midnight Chardonnay are just fine!!! The story comes from a child who was called "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii".  Nice work from the parents there....The story worryingly comes from Nathan's home town of New Plymouth.   

Pictures of our mountain break this weekend to come!

Delia, Martha and Nigella move over

Ahhh I have no idea if there is an existing Kiwi version of Delia Smith, Martha Stewart or Nigella Lawson but I have self-crowned myself She.   On Saturday Nathan did "man" activities (cycling a stupid distance) so I did "lady" activities - ummmm that sounds (c)rude.  But, I do, of course, mean baking.  Baking also = preparation for being a yummy Mummy!

Fruits of labour are below as evidence....

One flapjack...

One puff pastry apple and apricot tart ...

One couscous, beetroot (roasted by my fair hand), rocket, green bean, tomato salad

One quiche (avec leek, tomato, courgette, spring onion)

 Numerous chocolate cupcakes

Ahhhh yes, I am Queen of the Kiwi kitchen.  Of course the best thing about baking pre-child is that you are the one who gets to lick the bowl...

Baby likes that.

Getting to know ChCh

Yesterday I promised myself that I would get out and have some time to do nothing.  I went for a drive around the bay looking for a historical site.  I had seen the sign lots of times but never worked out what it was.... anyway, I drove to the signpost and despite many a U turn still could not see what the sign was pointing at.  Just a few grubby work diggers and new sheds.... Then I saw a pile of rubble....Perhaps the historic site had fallen down in the earthquake.  Ooops.
 

 Alberta the car takes in the view(!)

 Not another blue sky winter's day!

I then headed over to New Brighton.  As you might have guessed it is by the sea! - Its an odd part of the city (think "Eign Gate" Hereford fans) but I kind of like it.  It actually has a shopping street rather than a massive carpark/retail park type thing and there are loads of junk/crap shops.  The library is also amazing with views overlooking the ocean with large glass plate windows to keep you in but embracing the "out".  I managed to pick up some knitting books (Oi! Hey there - no laughing out loud I am supposed to be doing stuff like this now!!! - just wait til you see the finished product!!).    New Brighton was hit hard by Quakes. The roads are a complete mess but it seems to still have spirit even in a Poundland type way. 

 Not a lot of fun waiting for the bus (that cone appears to be the new bus stop in Quake hit New Brighton)

 Now we know what flavour the baby is I can buy more things in errrr ...yellow!  (This hand knitted cardi only 75p (present exchange rate)! - I found a preloved clothing store where hundreds of people have donated their unwanted granny/baby knits.... despite having the library knitting book (!) I can't even make it for that price!!) I have also got some colour coded items hiding under the black square I have added to this picture...its still a secret!!

 Cheeky gulls

New found fun

I have re discovered the joys of lino block printing.... I've now done a large repeated print for the wall.  The bike for Nathan the camera for me and also a little Kiwiana print which I am going to develop more in time.  There are a few others too which when they are looking fantastic (!) I'll show them off too.