Christmas 2011

This year for Christmas we hung out a friend's farm which was pretty cool. On Christmas eve another friend of ours arrived back in Ohakune on the train and we met him with a banner on the platform, not sure everyone else on the train/platform knew what was happening! Everyone then came down to ours for lunch and Robyn whipped up some venison wraps. We then had a nice afternoon sitting in the sun having a few beers, before moving on the Canadian Embassy for dinner and a sleep in my case.
Christmas day morning we unwrapped our presents and did a bit of Skyping, and I finally signed up to Facebook....peer pressure!
Then it was out to the farm for a lovely big lunch and couple of games of volleyball, and secret santa present swapping. We ended up with some locally produced honey and a recipe book from Womens Health magazine. The farm house had lovely gardens and a few horses, one of which took a shine to Robyn... We ended the day in our little tent camping out under the stars with a view of Mt Ruapehu, another different Christmas for us.
Boxing day was pretty low key as there were some sore heads on the farm, not ours though! Sheree whipped up some lovely eggy breakfast for us and we then dropped the Canadians off, came home and just chilled out.
We have a pretty busy week here at Canoe Safaris until New Year, then a few busy weeks in January. There's lots of pics from Christmas on Facebook anyway!

Summer in NZ

Summer has officially started in New Zealand but we are still waiting for the weather to settle down! James has been really busy driving the canoe trips into and out of the river with plenty of school groups going at this time of year.
Luckily we had really nice weather last month for James’ birthday and had a mini break in Mt Maunganui at the beach. We had a great 3 days away in a hotel right on the harbour front and spent our time shopping, sitting on the beach and walking up the Mt itself.
Since then I have been on a river trip with my Auntie Julie who I hadn’t seen in 10 years. We went for 3 days along the Whanganui River. It was so much fun to catch up and get to know each other again. We did more laughing than paddling! And probably more eating and drinking too... The trip goes from Whokohoro to Pipiriki and takes in the Bridge to Nowhere on day 2, it’s an amazing trip. James and I have done it before last year, but this time there was me, Julie, 2 other women and our guide all in the one big boat.
Not long until Christmas time now although it doesn’t feel like it at all with it being summer, but still plenty of mince pies and Christmas films to enjoy!

Redwood Forest

So we haven't posted anything in a while, so here goes....

Robyn now has a paid job at Ohakune Primary school, which has just finished for half term. She now goes in 2 days a week, one paid and one voluntary. She seems to be getting on very well and is pretty keen to look into teaching longer term. It's school holidays now though so she has a couple of weeks off. Not long left at Kings for her now, then she'll be spending more time down here with Simon and I.

We managed to get to a RWC game a few weeks ago in New Plymouth. We saw Ireland v USA, which Ireland won. It wasn't such a brilliant game, but good to be part of something as big as RWC while we are here. Nobody knows what will happen here if the All Blacks don't win, we may have a day of national mourning.

I've now got all the drivers licences I need for the summer so I can carry passengers and drive the Canoe Safaris buses, now we have two. Canoe season is slowly picking up meaning I can earn a few more $ this year doing drop off/pick up from the river trips.

This week we had a trip to Rotorua and did some mountain biking in the Redwood Forest which is a beautiful place. Robyn had a bit of a tumble off her bike while tackling a grade 3 track called 'Genesis', the original mountain bike track in Rotovegas. She dusted herself off and did a spot of tree hugging as you can see. We then stayed the night at Simon's new house in Matamata, then had a stop in Taupo on the way back down to carrot town.

Hosting the family

So Mum Dad and Ben have left NZ this week after a stay of about 10 days with us here in Ohakune. On leaving Taupo they flew to Melbourne to catch up with some old friends, then I collected them from Wellington, had a night there where we visited Te Papa the national museum among other things, and drove back up to Ohakune.
Over their first weekend here we had a pretty nice mutton roast with locally sourced veggies, and the three of them tucked into their big sheep dinner with surprise at how tender it was.
The first part of their stay here was dominated by a once-in-50-years storm which left about 30cm of snow in our yard over two nights. Luckily during the day it was pretty sunny so we got out and about for a few walks, and had a drive round to Whakapapa village and did a nice walk to a waterfall.
Ben and Dad got up the mountain on the Friday for a half day of skiing, although the weather wasn't too flash. Neither of them has skied in a few years so they were both pretty chuffed to come back down the mountain having not fallen over too much.
On their second weekend here we took a trip to a friend's farm and had a ride out on the bike up to the top of the hills for some lovely views of the central north island and Mt Ruapehu and Mt Ngauruhoe (Mt Doom from LOTR). Dad had a shoot at a few goats, Mum looked down the barrel and Ben shot a huge hole in a tree, so good first experiences with a real gun really.
Luckily the weather was a cracker on the Monday and we all made it up the mountain when Robyn finished work. Ben and Dad showed us their moves on skied and Robyn and I replied with our slick snowboarding skills.
On Tuesday they had a bus booked back up to Auckland, and flew out to Hong Kong on Wednesday. Aparantly HK is very hot, loud and full of people, everything that a NZ winter isn't, especially in our little mountain town.

Taupo and Robyn's Birthday

So at the end of the school hols Mum and Dad Travis and Ben arrived in Ohakune on the train, and after a quick cuppa we drove to Taupo for a break. During the week it was Robyn's birthday and we did quite a few things during out little vacation.
We took a walk along the Waikato river, the longest in NZ, ending at Huka Falls. We've been a few times now, on our own and with both sets of parents/siblings. They were all pleasantly surprised with the weather, so much so that we all had an ice cream. On the way back we popped over to watch someone do a bungy, don't think anyone in the visiting party will be doing one.
We had a drive north to Rotorua, home of lots of geothermal activity and bubbling mud. Everyone enjoyed the little walk-tour to see the mud and steam appearing from the ground, and same as Huka Falls, Robyn and I have seen it all three times now.
On Robyn's birthday we started the day with breakfast out at a schmancy cafe in Taupo, then it was on to Rapids Jet for a jetboat ride up and down the Waikato River, stopping to see Aratiatia Rapids. The ride was fantastic and we all had a great time. After that it was on to prawn fishing. We had a quick lunch and a little tour of the facility, then it was down to the serious business of prawn fishing, although there was only me caught anything.....
The rest of the week was taken up with a trip to Napier where Mum and Dad had a fancy-pants wine tasting adventure while the rest of us mooched around town, and just hanging out in Taupo.
Those three have flown to Melbourne to see some friends and Robyn and I are back in Ohakune. I made it up the mountain today while there is nobody in town and the weather is good, so good you could see all the way to Mt Taranaki, and Robyn is off doing her weekly volunteering at school.
On Friday I'm off down to Wellington to meet the rest of the Travis', and on Saturday we'll all be back here in Ohakune.

First trip up the mountain

On Wednesday this week we had our first snowboard of the year at Turoa. The weather hasn't been too flash so far this season, but we managed to get up this week with Simon and the kids seeing as it's school holidays. The weather has packed in again now for what looks like a few days, so all quiet here again.
Next Friday Mum and Dad arrive, then we're off to Taupo for a week. They've booked a pretty flash looking place with a spa pool and BBQ, although we won't be using that anytime soon. I think we'll end up going to Rotorua for the day, and maybe Napier weather dependent. During the week we are there it'll be Robyn' birthday so we're off to do a jetboat ride and some prawn fishing for her big day. She's not too impressed about turning 23....
Having a quiet night in tonight to watch the All Blacks first game of the year, a special fundraising game for Christchurch against Fiji.

White Water Rafting

We have been having some awful weather here in Ohakune, it has brought lots of snow but until today the ski fields weren’t open and the weather was stopping us doing anything. So, with the Kings staff, I went white water rafting with Rafting New Zealand. It was so much fun and even though it was cold and raining they gave us great gear so we were kept nice and warm and you get wet anyways when you’re rafting.
We were taken out by Luke and spent around 2 hours on grade 3-4 rapids, I had never been before and I loved it! We were given a fleece to wear next to our skin, then a wet suit, then another fleece, then a waterproof jacket. On our feet we had thick socks and wet suit booties; we had a beanie and a helmet and gloves as well. We were so well protected that at one point we got out of the raft walked up to a ledge and jumped in! The rapids were great and no one fell out luckily, part way through we floated through a flat bit of the river with a hot chocolate and chocolate covered marshmallows. Back at their base we had a hot shower, a hot dog and a beer – the perfect way to finish!

Gravity Canyon

The ski season has officially kicked off although it is slow going and not a lot of snow at the moment – only 61cm. However, because this is the busy time of year for Ohakune we are getting plenty of special offers and freebies through work. One of the freebies was a bridge swing at Gravity Canyon. I went along with the staff at Kings but James stayed at home (chicken…). Gravity Canyon is about an hour away from Ohakune and they do a bridge swing, a bungy jump and a flying fox off an 80m high bridge over the Rangitikei River. The scenery is amazing it’s such a nice place – that you can appreciate after you have done your activity, not before!
The bridge swing is something that can be done either solo or tandem, but seen as there were 7 of us in our group I volunteered to go solo and I went first! You start by walking out along the bridge to a little gated platform and you put on your harness, the staff (Mel) then hooks you up to the line and opens the gate and suspends you over the edge whilst they take photos like the one above. In my case though the photographer then had to run around to the viewing platform to take some more photos leaving me hanging for a couple of minutes. When all photos were taken Mel asked me how I wanted to do it and when I said ‘I don’t know’ she said ok you’re going NOW and pulled the cord that dropped me. You fall 80m before swinging out to the other side. I only just got a short scream out before I lost all my breath (although face still poised as if screaming!) but when it got to the swing bit it was incredible! The whole thing only lasts around 30seconds and then they hoist you back up to the bridge. It was very scary, I thought about backing out, it was great fun in the end and…it was free!

Check out their website http://www.gravitycanyon.co.nz/activities/swing/videos where you can watch videos of other people doing what I did!

Rugby Head

James has just finished the first round of the rugby season and his team (Ruapehu) has come top of the table! They only lost 1 game in the first round and now have a $500 bar tab as a reward. James scored his first try of the season on Saturday which is great because now he doesn't need to do a naked dance as a penalty for not scoring.
After the Saturday's game there was the usual roast dinner at the rugby club and then a competition... There were 3 in each team, the first person had to eat a raw egg whole (shell and everything), the second person had to drink a handle of beer through a straw and the third person had to sheer a sheep! Quickest time won, James team didn't win and he was the poor person who had to eat an egg. Luckily though he wasn't sick, but a poor little boy was – bucket on hand. It was exciting at first because we have never seen sheep shearing before and it’s huge out here but after a while the club began to smell and there were a lot of sheep - clearly a farmer didn't want to pass up on the free labour!
Its Queens Birthday today and we have some people coming back from a river trip. Ski season kicks off on the 25th June with Mardi Gras but at the moment there is no snow up the mountain and doesn't look like there will be anytime soon. We need lots and soon so we can get back on our snowboards - it’s the best thing about winter!

Middle of May

More of the same here in Ohakune recently...

Rugby has been going well, although last weekend we lost our first game 16-13 to Ratana, who treated us to a haka in the clubrooms after the game! Check out the club website.

Robyn has started volunteering one day a week at Ohakune Primary School, and is going up to Matamata next week to have a week with Tracie at Matamata primary.

We have one more canoe trip booked for next week I think, the NZ Navy are coming to do some teambuilding/training, then that's it for the summer. The weather has taken a definite autumnal turn, and at the moment it's not too pleasant to be on the river! Although tomorrow Robyn and Simon are taking two fellas from Bare Kiwi on a day trip so they can shoot a promotional video for us which will appear in I-Sites (tourist information centres) in our district, tour buses and their website which is a pretty cool one. The videos are well worth a watch, and we're all looking forward to seeing ours! Check out their video for Escape Rentals, the campervan we rented is parked in the garage! Unfortunately I can't be a part of ours, as I'm sitting a course for a passenger endorsement for my NZ drivers licence! Hopefully I might be able to get in the background of the intro or something...


P.S. Pic is Robyn and her new besty Flint, they are in lurrrrrv!

Easter

Today was the Ohakune Easter Hunt, and we went along for a little look. There were three categories, stag, boar and trout, and we watched plenty of people (lots of whom we know from the rugby club) turn up and unload and weigh their catch. A couple of people we know won in various categories, one guy we know won in 3 different categoies! Robyn felt a little squeemish seeing all the headless beasts, and didn't join me in a couple of sausys for lunch. For the kids there was possum, rabit or trout competitions, and even a possum throwing comp too.

Canoe season here is winding down now, and ski season opens 24/25 June with the Ruapehu Mountain Mardi Gras.

A couple of weeks ago we had a few days away in New Plymouth, doing a few walks around the town and a bit of shopping too. We called in on our friend Paul who lives in Hawera on the way, and drove home via The Forgotten World Highway, which connects Stratford and Taumarunui. It's a pretty cool drive through the middle of nowhere but just takes ages!

The rugby season is going well, we're up the top of the league with 3 wins from 3 games, against Taihape, Marton and Counties. No game this week because of Easter, but next week we have our longest away trip, down to Waverley on the Wanganui/Taranaki border, to play Border.


Our laptop has decided to pack in too, so hopefully we'll find a good deal in the Easter sales. In the meantime we're on a loaner, very kindly donated by Tracie.

Crutching

Yesterday me and some of the rugby boys took a trip into the middle of nowhere to do some crutching for a farmer who was going to pay the club for our efforts, keeping our season membership at a reasonable price.
By the time we got there all the sheep were inside so we got straight down to work. I was 'dragging', which meant going into the smaller pen and man-handling a sheep out to the shearer who shaved a little patch around their bum and lady bits, then booted them down the porthole back outside. I don't think I've ever sweated so much in my life.
We were aiming to do 3000, but due to a bit or rain recently we only got through 1000, making about $500 for the club. We had a good feed and a few drinks afterwards then it was back to Ohakune for tea time.
Lats weekend we had out first pre season game against Wanganui Pirates who we beat 50-35. I managed to get over the line for a try and kicked 5 goals so good all around. Our first league fixture is a week on Saturday at home to Taihape.

All together in NZ!

Three weeks ago Mum, Dad and Ruth arrived in NZ, it was great to see them after a long 10 months. James and I met them at Ohakune train station and after lots of hugs and a quick stop at the lodge we set off on a road trip. First stop was Mt Manganui in the Bay of Plenty, North Island, where we had booked a trip to go swimming with dolphins, unfortunately we couldn't find any dolphins! We did however see a seal...But still we got to go to the beach and have a swim in the Pacific which pleased everyone. Then it was onto Rotorua to look at the thermal activity and we stopped at a great place with free thermal hot pools! From Rotorua we went to Taupo and walked up to the Huka Falls, which is a beautiful place and one of the most visited places in NZ. We did a bit of shopping and then the next day James went back to work in Ohakune and the four of us went on the bus to Napier for the weekend. It was gorgeous weather and we had a great time walking around looking at the architecture, swimming and of course shopping for me and Ruth!Napier was hit by a huge earthquake in 1931 and it was rebuilt in an Art Deco style which is gorgeous.
It was then back to Ohakune for a few days where we all relaxed (well James and I worked!)and did a few walks and showed Mum, Dad and Ruth around the place we live. We also took them on a scenic chair lift ride round at Whakapapa, which Mum and Ruth loved, but I'm not sure Dad did! Still it was a great fun and they got to see some Lord of the Rings territory, including 'Mt Doom.'
Then three of them headed off to Waitomo caves to see the glow worms for a couple of days while we were busy at work and our final trip together was down to Wellington. We spent the day in Wellington looking at the 'Beehive' parliament buildings, the museum Te Papa and again shopping! As it was Mum and Dad's 30th Wedding Anniversary we went out for a lovely meal at a 'Polish fusion' restaurant which was really nice and we all ate plenty! The plan was to go to Christchurch but due to obvious reasons that didn't happen so it was back to Ohakune for a couple of days before they left for Auckland on the bus. Sad to say goodbye again but we had a great time showing them around New Zealand, next time we will do the South Island...!

Whakapapa and Matamata

The past few weeks has been more of the same here in Ohakune. We're generally pretty busy Friday-Monday, then things get quieter midweek.

We had a nice day out at Whakapapa ski field at a tourism operators day. It started with a scenic chairlift ride up the mountain, then a free coffee and muffin and a talk about the facilities that are open through the summer. The secenery was pretty cool and it was good to see the difference between winter and summer.

The weather has been really hot, normally 20+ degrees during heat of the day which has been pretty good. We had a few days up in Matamata with Tracie last week which was cool too. We arrived on the Monday lunchtime, and had a wander around town which is loads bigger than Ohakune. We did a walk to a waterfall on the Tuesday, then I drove home on Wednesday for practice at my new rugby club, Ruapehu. Robyn caught the bus home on Friday, and has arranged with Tracie to go back for a full week and help out at Matamata Primary school which should be good.

Back to Ohakune

We had a little change of plan on the farm and we're now back in Ohakune, and at Canoe Safaris. We arrived back last Monday and after a couple of nights in the honeymoon suite aka room 1 upstairs, moved all of our stuff back into the room we had over the winter.
We're doing the same sort of thing, a bit of housekeeping upstairs and generally trying to help out wherever we can. Everything has been going fantastically, and it feels like we've never been away.

Today we went on a one day river trip with a French family and a couple of guides which was loads of fun. We put in to the river at Cherry Grove, Taumarunui, at about 9am and paddled down to the lavender farm for lunch and Robyn picked up a bar of soap and some lip balm stuff. After a nice picnic lunch we only had about half an hour to Ohinepane where the bus driver met us and drove us back to Ohakune.

The weather has been pretty good since we've been back, a nice change from the west coast, or the 'wet coast'. Earlier this week we did a bike ride to Rangataua Forest (number one on the leaflet). It was a really nice ride, very lush forest, and being used by the NZ Army for a training exercise!

Christmas and New Year

This year was a very different festive season for us. Firstly because it was our first Christmas spent without family, but secondly because it was hot hot hot! Well sort of, after a lot of rain and a few floods it cleared up nicely for Christmas day and Boxing day. We woke up bright and early Christmas day morning to find that Santa had been and left us a stocking each full of goodies which we dived right into. Afterwards we went out to do our usual morning jobs, helping with the milking and feeding the calves and pigs etc. Life on the farm still goes on and unfortunately the cows don’t know its Christmas! After work we came in and had a nice big Christmas day breakfast and opened all the rest of our presents. Thanks very much to everyone who sent us a little something, we were spoilt! We spent the rest of the day with Ant (boss man) at his uncle's house with the rest of his family. It was great to be included in a big family for Christmas. We played a few games of backyard cricket where James laughed at my appalling hand-eye-coordination skills, but it was still good fun! We had a big roast for Christmas dinner, no turkey but lamb instead, after all we are in NZ! We were excused from afternoon milking and had a really fun and relaxing day before heading back to the farm and chatting to people back home. The weather held out nicely for boxing day and we had another relaxing morning playing with all our new things before afternoon milking.
Unfortunately in the week after Christmas we have had a big flood. We couldn’t milk the cows, the road into town was closed and at one point we even lost power! Luckily enough New Years Eve was a gorgeous day. After work we headed into town and had our tea on the beach and watched the sun set over the sea. It was gorgeous! We came home with a bottle of wine and watched the fireworks at the sky tower on the TV and we were the first in the world to toast the new year. New Years Day was another gorgeous day and seen as we had the day off work we went out for a bike ride and then sat by the creek on the farm enjoying the sun.

Happy New Year everyone!