Sydney

Last week I went to a conference on human genetics in Sydney. It meant a 4am alarm call on a Saturday morning followed by 5 days mainly in a conference hall. Hard going but a really good conference and it was in Sydney!!

On the Saturday we (there were 5 of us from Christchurch) wandered around Sydney then got a ferry across to Manly.
Sunrise over the cloud filled valleys as we left NZ

 On the way to Manly

 Manly Beach

The Conference was in the convention centre in Darling Harbour, with Ibis wandering around on the grass outside and a water park where hundreds of families turned up on the Sunday. Sadly we had to sit inside while everyone else played!

Darling Harbour by day

 and by night

After meeting Alan Mitchell at his flat in Double Bay, I took a run in the morning out to Bondi Beach.

Circular Quay on our last night

Christchurch Flower Festival

Christchurch has lost a lot of it's attractions due to the earthquake. The gondola took a hit and much of the Port Hills are no-go areas, the trams won't be running for a long time, the central city is still cordoned off. But one thing that has remained open throughout has been the Botanic Gardens. And for the last couple of weeks they have been hosting the Festival of Flowers. Sunday was the last day of the festival and I wanted to have a quick look before it all disappeared.
Now a flower festival doesn't sound like the kind of place that the kids are going to get too excited about. So I bundled them into the car.

"Where are we going?"

"A park" This wasn't entirely untrue. There is a playground in the botanics and we did spend at least ten minutes there so I feel justified in using the ruse to get them in the car.

But actually they really enjoyed it. I'm not sure they ever realised they were at a flower festival. There was just lots of cool stuff for them to see.

First we went to the information centre and picked up a map (actually 2 maps as Cameron and Ewan have a bit of a block when it comes to sharing!). The map had all the exhibits numbered around the gardens so the boys set off with their treasure maps, unwittingly dragging me to all the places I wanted to go.
Finlay looking impressed with the topiary penguins

Cameron looking less impressed with the elephant 

The gnomes on the chair are Gerry Brownlee, the earthquake recovery minister and Roger Sutton the head of the Earthquake Recovery Authority. The gnomes below are helping with the recovery too

One highlight for the boys was in the bush section that has paths winding through native planting where there were lots of carved wooden NZ fauna hiding amongst the undergrowth and in the trees.

Then we stopped to listen to The Eastern, a band from Lyttleton who were entertaining the crowds on the archery lawn, where the boys found their "treasure", a chocolate frog.

Elaborate portaloos are a recurring theme in post-quake Christchurch

Then after a quick drink it was time for the festival to pack up when they sell off all the plants. So the boys picked a couple of pot plants to take home to mum.

Sandcastles

A couple of weeks ago Christchurch held the Inaugural New Zealand Sandcastle Competition at New Brighton beach. Sadly it wasn't the best weather that weekend with a strong wind on the Saturday keeping numbers down and heavy rain on the Sunday but we got along for a look on the Saturday and were quite impressed with some of the creations.

It wouldn't be New Zealand without a rugby reference

Ewan plays in the sea

While Finlay has his spade ready for his sandcastle

Although the wind wasn't great for sandcastles, at least someone made the most of it

Cameron turns 9

Last month was Cameron's 9th birthday. He was rapidly outgrowing his bike which he had had for about 4 years so he got a shiny new bike. So plenty more bike rides for the rest of the summer
A few days later we took him and a few friends to a pizza restaurant in Ferrymead near the estuary (they used to have a restaurant in the centre of town but that was damaged in the September quake. Then they moved to a new site across from one of the squares in the centre of town but that was destroyed in the February quake, but the Ferrymead branch is pretty good!) The kids all got to make their own pizzas, with us not having to clean up the mess!

Little River Rail Trail

More photos from the summer holidays. The Little River Rail Trail runs along the route of a disused railway from the edge of Christchurch to Little River on Banks Peninsula. It was a bit long for the boys to do the whole trail so we loaded up the bikes and drove to Birdlings Flats then cycled a 20K round trip with ice-cream in Little River.
The beach at Little River

The boys set off

Lake Forsyth

At Little River

Otukaikino Wetland

Today we went on another walk, this time a little closer to home just a short drive to the other side of the city. The Otukaikino Wetland is a swamp area near the Northern Motorway that is slowly being returned to a native wetland. It is supposed to be a haven for birds but in the face of three noisy boys they were conspicuously absent. However, there was still some wildlife to look at.

Some dragonflies

The boys spot something interesting

Finlay has a rest as his brothers disappear in the distance