The Christmas letter that isn't...

Once again a Christmas letter was started but not completed... So here it is now for the five of of you read the blog. I will try and mail it to the non-blog readers when we return from our trip...

Firstly, apologies for the lack of a letter last year. Cathy had a good excuse for not helping with its production but I didn't.

Cathy had a broken wrist. While playing soccer with some people from her work, and taking her turn in goal, she stopped a shot which, in hindsight, might have been better not stopped. As the break was so close to the joint, a plate was inserted to line things up correctly and she was off work for quite a while and then in recovery for some months afterwards.

She kept herself busy planning a road trip around the South Island which we did in January. It was a great trip, marred only by a storm which caused a bridge washout. Given it was the only bridge over that river, we had to take a significant detour to get to Queenstown. We did lots of cool stuff - beach days, walking days, glow worm caves, a boat trip in Fiordland, an Albatross colony, the Antarctic centre, swimming with dolphins, whale watching, fishing, kayaking and visiting Weta Workshops and Hobbiton on the way back up the North Island.

Continuing in theme... Cathy got a broken nose at a pre-season soccer practice so started the season a bit late. Luckily, that was the end of injuries for the year and everyone had fairly good seasons. Emma's team (which I coach) managed to win their division. (Having a horrible grading round and ending up in a lower division than we should have has something to do with that though).

Emma had her first year at Intermediate school. Other than the daily battle to get her to the bus on time, it all went pretty well. She is a lot harder to wake up than Zak. He managed to even get in some computer time before he had to leave for the bus but she never had any time to spare. Her end of year report was excellent, full of 'Advanced' and 'Mastered' with great comments about her attitude. Outside of school, she and Cathy put a huge amount of effort into preparing for her Jazz dance exam. She did very well and received a grade of Very Highly Commended.

Zak had his first year at high school. It is walking distance from here so he gets even more screen time than when he was taking the bus to Intermediate school. Minecraft is his game of choice but he is also prone to spending excessive hours on his iPod if he can get away with it. High school was a bit of a step up but he jumped right in and did very well. He has been learning to sail, starting last summer, which he is really enjoying.

We are off on another adventure in January. We are visiting California and Vancouver again.

BB

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Calla. 1997 - 10 November 2013.

Today we buried our cat Calla who has been with us for almost 15 years.

Although she had a pretty tough start (a story we told many years ago when the web was young) and had a few scrapes with other animals along the way she's had a pretty good life.

She was a very affectionate cat.
She always greeted us in the front yard when we came home. We thought that this was because she could recognise the sound of our cars but when she became completely deaf in the last couple of years we realised that she was just patiently waiting for us. Some of our neighbours referred to her as "the letter box cat" because she they saw her there so often.
In the evening, she would leap into my lap the second I sat down - especially in winter! On occasion, she would wait by the door into the lounge - staring at me, willing me to come and barely waiting for me to be seated before pouncing on me.
Her night time spot of preference in the last couple of years has been Zak's bed. She chose him to keep her company and keep her warm, a role he took on happily despite waking up cramped in the corner on many occasions to accommodate her chosen spot.

She provided us with a fair number of late night games of "chase the mouse (or occasionally rat) around the house" over the years and despite having lost a lot of weight over the last couple of years, she was active and agile as recently as last week. Leaping from the ground to the top of the barbecue, to the fence, to the roof so she could sit in the first place that the sun reaches our house each morning.

Something happened during the week and she completely stopped eating. Despite a couple of trips to the Vet they were unable to tell what was wrong and she died last night, in her basket in the dining room.

Cathy, Zak, Emma and I are going to miss her, as is Lucy, her daughter who is still with us.

Oxy-Acetylene torches

It was Saturday afternoon, we were coming back from visiting Grandad in the rest home and Dad decided to catch up with Uncle Dave. When we got there the chickens were in the front yard and on the wrong side of the fence, the neighbor's kitten was lying in the middle of there driveway and when you stroked it it started running around your feet or grabbing your hand. Gino had retired to the couch but Spider/Stinker was ready to give us a big lick when we came though the gate.

Uncle Dave was in his shed. He told us about his bikes and where they came from. Then he showed us the frame he was working on for Kate's new bike. He was putting flux on the chainstays and the bottom bracket to prepare the metal and so that it wouldn't rust when he welded it. He then lit the Oxy-Acetylene torch and adjusted the flow of the oxygen and acetylene to get the temperature and flame right. When Uncle Dave first lit the torch the flame was orange as he adjusted it, it changed to blue. With this he melted the welding rod into all the joints to make sure everything was strongly attached and that the edges were smooth. It was an exciting process! I particularly liked the Oxy-Acetylene torch, I look forward to seeing it used again!

Kate's bike frame



Oxy-Acetylene torch



Written by Emma, assisted by Bruce. With thanks to Uncle Dave.
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Emma Scored!

... I missed it!!!

After playing soccer for 6 years, Emma scored for the first time yesterday!

She has come a long way from the little girl who stopped half way up the field, picked a couple of daisies and brought them over the the side line so that no-one would step on them!

Being coach has some drawbacks and yesterday, it was that I was in the middle of a discussion with one of the players on the sideline when Emma put the ball in the back of the net.

We won the game 3-0 which was pretty pleasing considering we'd lost to the same team 4-1 about 3 weeks back.

BB.

Dead Planet

DEAD PLANET

I look out upon the wasteland that is my home. The rubble and junk spreads as far as the eye can see. As I walk through the trash I imagine what it would be like to live on the capital planet with towering white skyscrapers and lush rainforests surrounded by clear blue seas. It has animals too. Huge lumbering grey things with long noses and other things like tiny insects with shells that shimmer like a rainbow. The place here has no animals no green trees and no blue oceans, just endless piles of scrap-metal and waste used as the dumping ground of the capital planet.

I pick up an old engine, my father told me once he had these in his time, now days this couldn’t even run a hoverboard. I look out across the seas of rubble at a starship, dropping its load of rubbish into the junk. I start to head over, to check if I can scavenge anything new, walking atop of the sheets of rusted metal. I’ve been here all my life trying to get off this dead planet, slowly collecting scraps of metal and working parts that are not wanted, trying to create a ship that can get me out of here to the capital planet.

My eye catches a glint of something beneath the metal and machinery and I pull it from the rubble. I can’t believe my eyes at first. I’ve spent months trying to find this one piece and now, right in front of me lies an almost unused starship engine. It is complete, not a part missing. The date on the metal reads 3067, just two years ago. My creation can finally be complete. All I needed was this.

I spend the next month finishing my creation, loading my supplies from my makeshift house into my ship. I spend hours double-checking everything. I have fuel, food, drink, air and spare supplies. My starship is completely airtight, its bolts and screws are tight and its glass is polished completely clear. The engine is running and I slowly lift it up of the ground. Everything is perfect, I have waited 23 years for this moment. As I fly up, leaving the atmosphere and heading towards the capital planet, where I can live a better life, I look back one more time to say goodbye to my planet.

Goodbye to Earth.

By Zak Benson

This was for an english assignment recently.

Blogs without pictures

Cathy has added another soccer injury to her catalogue...

Way back, before we were married, she broke her ankle. Preseason... Didn't get to play a game that year at all...

Last year the wrist. She is still doing physio and has to visit the surgeon for a check up next week.

We won't be getting any pictures of yesterday's addition though... She has a broken nose and a wicked black eye! Something about a practicing headers and two people going for the ball at the same time. (The other woman has a big bruise on her forehead and was potentially concussed).

So she is out of the game again for a while but has no plans to retire just yet.

BB


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Something like this...

After 5324km (3300 miles) we are back home. On a map, the trip looked something like this...

The original intention was to go down the west coast from Grey Mouth to Fox Glacier and then to Queenstown. As mentioned previously because a bridge was washed out by the storm we had to loop back from Hokitika over the Lewis Pass, back to Christchurch and across country to Queenstown. (The second bit is actually quite a nice drive). This added 350km to the trip and meant we didn't see Fox Glacier.

Most of the driving was easy. There were a few twisty bits most days but nothing like getting around Kenepuru Sound.
Buried under the label marked L above are the Marlborough sounds, a very complex area of inlets and islands. One of them is Kenepuru Sound. We stayed at the place marked B in the map below - Hopewell BBH, I would recommend it to anyone.  If you ask Google for driving instructions it refuses. It does work if you ask for a cycling route. It is 72km (45m) of twisty, windy road the first half is sealed and the equally twisty, windy second half is largely gravel. We drove this. It took 3 hours each way. Don't do this. Take a water taxi.

BB

Fishin

Today we went fishing at Hopewell which is a cool place that we had to drive 3 hours down a windy road to get to. Instead of taking a five minute boat ride. I caught a snapper and kahawai and Dad just caught a snapper. Here is us in the boat.


This is before I caught the kahawai. Emma and her friend got bored and ran off before we had even caught anything! As well as the fish I caught 2 sticks and some coral.

Zak

Marine life

The main reason for choosing Akaroa as our next destination was to go swimming with the dolphins. The dolphins here are the Hectors dolphins, which are the smallest of the dolphins. They have a good success rates on their swims and after failing to swim at Paihia last year, I wanted to make sure we had the best chance of succeeding. The manager and boat captain were a little unsure of letting me go when they saw the arm brace, but they were persuaded. And we did succeed. Photos will have to follow once I've downloaded them. We were in the water for about forty minutes because the small pod we swam with were not that sure and swam off and came back many times. They got quite close, but were maybe not as interactive as I'd hoped. We were thankful for the thick wetsuits provided, or in the case of the kids, two wetsuits!

After completing the swim, we headed north again to Kaikoura. This time for whale watching the following day. With a 7:15 check in for the whale watch, we were faster getting packed up than ever before. The weather was horrendous. We almost didn't go. But in the end decided to. Emma felt sea sick , but the rest of us were fine, but very wet by the end. We saw one sperm whale on the surface and then he dove down.




But we also saw more albatross than at the Dunedin albatross colony, a few seals playing, and a pod of a couple of hundred dusky dolphins. They were having a fantastic time leaping about in the sea. I thought briefly, we should have done the dolphin swim here - but then the tour guide told us to try and spot the babies they had recently had, and since baby dolphins means no swimming, I was ok with our choice.




After changing out of our damp clothes, we headed to hopewell lodge in kenepuru sounds. We had decided to drive around the sound, a long windy road which made for a very long day considering we got up at 6. But it's great to be here. Subject of the next blog maybe...

Cathy

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On to Christchurch.

Continuing north, our first stop was Moeraki to check out the unusual spherical boulders. I still don't get why they are so round! From the description given for the process which formed them I couldn't see why they would be as close to perfect spheres as they are...

Next was Oamaru. They have a bit of an 'Old Town' quarter with lots of craft places and souvenirs and a fairly cool Steam Punk museum and workshop. Emma and Cathy took a short ride in a horse drawn carriage.

Our destination for the night was Christchurch where our only plans were to visit the Antarctic Centre the following morning. Christchurch airport is the jump off point for the US, New Zealand and Italian presence in Antarctica. A couple of Hercules aircraft with skis fitted were parked outside hangers just across the road from the Antarctic Centre. The centre has static and AV displays about all aspects of the operations, wildlife and history. We watched their penguins being fed, there was a 4D movie (3D plus some motion and other effects) and we had a ride in a Hagglund, a tracked, articulated vehicle for use on ice and snow. In their storm simulator we braved -8C with lots of wind noise but not much actual wind. Zak had fun on the ice slide.



I ate too much lunch in the cafeteria so Cathy had to do most of the driving in the afternoon on our way to Akaroa. The sunset was...



BB

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of Chocolate, Albatrosses and Steep roads.

Our first afternoon in Dunedin was taken up by Cathy's trip to get her cast removed, X-rayed and checked out. Zak, Emma and I cruised off to a park to wait, had a swing. I took out the map to see where the next days attractions were. Looking at the map, admiring a big green strip, thinking that it would have a bunch of great parks etc but on driving thought it realized it is green space because it is just too steep to be anything else!

The first stop on Saturday morning was Cadbury World. There are static presentations about the history of the company, making chocolate, products and advertising and a bit of a tour. Unfortunately, the factory wasn't running so we didn't get to tour through it. We were given a few chocolate bars and brought some more to ensure we had snacks for the next few weeks. (I give it 10 days tops before it is all gone. We'd halved it in the first two).

Walking back toward our motel we stopped in to the Museum for a quick look. We headed toward the nature section and checked out bits about seals, penguins and birds which we have seen on our travels. They also have a butterfly aviary with hundreds of tropical butterflies. It was about 30C in here - a nice change from outside. All of us had butterflies land on us while there but Emma had one on her finger for the whole time! They don't breed the butterflies - the chrysalises come by mail from South America.



The albatross colony on the peninsula was our next stop. They had great presentations about their life, the colony and the threats and dangers that are causing ongoing reduction in the numbers of albatross around the world. After that we walked up to the viewing platform to see a few birds nesting. They sat. Occasionally, one got up and changed his position and then sat again. One we could see was just resting rather than nesting and we did get to see him spread his wings, rise off the ground and disappear down the slope out of view.



Back in town, we visited Baldwin Street which, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, is the steepest street in the world. Zak, Emma and I tromped to the top of the hill and released a dozen giant jaffas however it didn't appear that they survived the trip as they got up some significant speed, bounced high into the air and shattered on returning to the road or bounced off the side never to be found.

We had dinner with my cousin Giselle and her partner Dave. We weren't exactly sure how long it had been since Giselle and I last met, somewhere more than 15 years... She cooked us Thai Chicken curry and we chatted about all sorts of things. After complaining that the 3rd year botany text he had picked up had too many 'y's Giselle found Zak something more suitable which he has been chuckling about many times since.

BB
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Cadbury World

I was so excited, because we were going to the Cadbury chocolate factory. Me and Zak raced around like dogs on the loose, sniffing the chocolate smelling air already wafting out of the factory. The entrance was only a few meters away. Inside we saw a giant rabbit we soon discovered was made of chocolate. Apparently there was a wire frame on the inside and the outside was covered in chocolate.





Then our tour guide came, and gave us a bag of chocolate each before sitting us down for a 7 minute movie about Cadbury. showing us how various processes and things were done, with a little history about Cadbury. In the bag there was a peppy chew, a caramel chew, a freddo frog and a chocolate fish (all Cadbury products).

The tour guide took us to another room and handed out samples of Cadbury Dairy milk (with spoons) and we watched a video on how they make Jaffas. Then she showed us the different parts of the cocoa beans. Next we went out of the building up to the top of a purple tower. Where we were instructed to scream "CHOCOLATE" at the top of our voices when a certain light went on, but stop when the light was gone. When we did one ton of milk chocolate poured out like a waterfall! We got two more chocolate samples picking out of a mini selection of cadbury chocolates (the chocolates were mini). Then Mum took photos of us in there old milk-truck before buying a large selection of extra chocolate.


By Emma

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Te Anau to the Catlins

From Te Anau we headed south though Invercargill to Bluff. It was drizzly and windy so we certainly couldn't see Stuart Island! We took some photos at the lighthouse and moved on.



Heading into the Catlins, we stopped at Waipapa Point to check out another Lighthouse and look for seals (there was only one). On the way out we got a reminder of what the local weather is usually like. The trees below are macrocarpas. Usually they grow upwards rather than sideways.


A bit further around, Zak and I braved the rain to have a look at the petrified forest. You can make out fallen trunks rising a little above the surrounding rock but not much more.



And then about 20 minutes later... Blue skies and beautiful views. This is looking north on the eastern side.



The following day we visited this disused rail tunnel.


BB.

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The Glowworm Song

I wish I was a glowworm
A glowworms never glum
Cause how can you be grumpy
When the sun shines out your bum!

I didn't make this up but I found it at the glowworm caves and memorized it.

Zak

Cast off!!!

Our first 3 hrs in Dunedin were spent at appointments for my arm.

"Gollum arm" Zak said.

My arm is skinny, scaley and pretty yukky looking. Also severally lacking in flexibility. So I have half a dozen somewhat painful exercises to do for the next fortnight to try and get some more rotation in the wrist joints.

Massive surgery scar to try and get rid of too.

But at least the cast is off.




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Milford Sounds

Today we went to Milford Sounds on a boat trip. Milford Sounds is a fiord. A fiord is created by a glacier carving out a valley from a mountain. There are lots of waterfalls in Milford Sounds this increases after particularly rainy weather. There was one wide and large waterfall that we went quite close to, about a meter or two away from it. I was on the deck at the time and I decided to walk up to the bow so I could get sprayed too. It turns out I underestimated the waterfall because my raincoat was covered in water and the front of my trousers were soaked.

There are a lot of steep cliffs in Milford Sounds partly covered in moss and trees. The bare patches are caused by tree avalanches much like snow avalanches.

There were lots of seals sleeping on rocks, and there was a seagull annoying them.



Us on the way to Milford Sounds.




Seagull annoying seal.




The View

By Emma


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Adventure capital of New Zealand

We had four nights booked in Queenstown. Our route here was longer than expected due to the weather issues on the West coast. But by skipping the night at Fox Glacier and driving for the day instead, we got to Queenstown as planned.

Day 1, we went up the gondolas and Bruce, Zak and Emma played on the luge. It was very popular and the lines started out a bit long. Emma was particularly pleased with how fast she could go. She only gave Bruce one worrying moment when she went off track and was close to tipping the cart over.




Second event for the day was jet boating on the Shotover river. Again, not a sport for me, so I checked out the shops while I waited. They had a ball and pronounced it the best thing ever.



Day 2, we took a trip on the Earnslaw to the Walter Peak farm and had a farm tour and BBQ lunch there. They had pork spare ribs, a family favourite, and since it was all you could eat, we had a lot of spare ribs! The weather was now extremely warm, and we hung out at the motel for a while before heading back to the wharf for paraflight. But it was too windy and the flight was cancelled.

Day 3. First up paraflight. This was something I could do, so Zak, Emma and I went as a triple. Bruce just took photos of this one. For paraflight you are harnessed under a foil which is dragged behind a speedboat, and you took off and landed in the deck, so we didn't get wet. Perfect since I am not supposed to get my cast wet. We were last to have a go, as the only ones going triple. The kids watched the ones before who had their feet dipped in the water and decided they wanted to try that. Zak got his feet wet, but Emma being shorter and lighter was not so fortunate. It was not too scary and there were lovely views on yet another beautiful hot day.

Lastly for the day, we drove out to Arrowtown. The kids were keen to try gold panning which was part of some if the aborted activities planned on the West coast. So we have done that, looked around the historic chinese settlement from the gold rush days. Now they are just building dams in the river to cool off.

Leaving tomorrow for Te Anau.

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On the way to Greymouth

Something swallowed up this blog the other night. So here are a few pictures.
1/1/13
Cape Foulwind - really windy...




Seal pup




Pancake rocks.




BB
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The National Kiwi Center

Yesterday we went to The National Kiwi Center. The first thing we saw were the eels. Their long gray, but fish-like bodies swishing around the tank with menacing electric blue eyes flickering in the gloom. The ones upstairs were worse longer and larger there were also more. Some were old blind even, (the old ones had dead cold white eyes, the young ones who could see had electric blue eyes). But it made it no better. Now I can't believe I joined the queue to feed the eels 3 times.



There was no sign of the tuataras probally hiding because of the rainy weather. There were lots of fish, I particulary liked the ones with pink and yellow tails sometimes with a dot of another colour. I don't know what they are though.

Then we saw the kiwi it had thick sturdy legs, a long beak and glossy brown feathers. It was running around in circles madly. Then a man came in to give the kiwi its lunch. He put down a plastic plate with a pinky brown mushy substance. I think it was worms or something of the sort. It ran to the food and pecked at it and the man walked out. It kept running in circles in the enclosure and pecking at the food, and repeating.

By Emma

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Trip disrupted by weather

I have spent many hours planning and organizing this trip. Once I started booking accommodation in the more popular places where it is harder to find at this time of year like Nelson and Queenstown, I pretty much had to work out where we would stop in between and how long we wanted to stay in each location. Once I started, I just keep planning and so in the end I pre booked the whole trip. Also I needed something to do while off work with my broken arm.
Today's plan was to start in Greymouth, see Shantytown, so the kids could pan for gold and wander down the west coast and end up in Fox glacier for the night, ready for a walk on the glacier first thing tomorrow morning.
But we woke to 40-50 km/hr winds and torrential rain. An outdoor activity like Shantytown didn't sound like fun. Instead we headed south to Hokitika. We stopped and did one of the local activities (which the kids may blog), and had lunch at a cafe. While there, the water on the footpath outside the cafe got to a foot deep and then slowly receded.


We then wandered through a couple of craft shops and overheard a conversation about road closures. The 6 - our route south to Fox glacier - and the 73 (Arthur's Pass) were both closed. The 6 being down for perhaps a number of days due to a washed out bridge. The 73 closed for flooding, perhaps open tomorrow.
So we had a quick change of plan .....
We headed back the way we had come this morning to Greymouth and took the Lewis pass to Christchurch. Four hours later....accommodation wasn't too hard to find, but with phone and Internet down in southland, we couldn't cancel our bookings for tonight or tomorrow. And tomorrow we have another long long drive to Queenstown to get back on schedule. Maybe just winging it for the accommodation on this trip would have been wise after all....
Cathy
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