Train Rides

The HeartKids Christmas party was cancelled before Christmas because of bad weather so we had a day at Steam Scene in January instead. All three boys are old enough now to get excited about going on the trains. We'll have to go to Ferrymead this summer to ride on the big trains.

Finlay tries his hand at some woodwork

Escape to Narnia

A couple of weeks ago we went to Castle Hill, about an hour out of Christchurch. The battle scenes from The Lion, The Witch And The Wardrobe were filmed there and at the nearby Flock Hill. So the boys were able to run around, climb on the limestone outcrops and battle mythical monsters.

Abel Tasman

So after our epic journey north we made it to Abel Tasman a couple of days late but it was so worth it. I could write lots of smart-arse comments to try to make you all jealous but why bother when the photos can do it so much better!!

Marahau beach

Callum strides across the sands at Tonga Bay

Peak-season crowds on Tonga beach

Awaroa Pizza Bar. The most chilled bar in the world!

Riding on the boat is this much fun!!

Aunty Flea and the boys came to visit in December. I'll let Vicky blog about their trip to the North Island.

The week before Christmas we packed the tents and headed off to Abel Tasman for a week in the sun. We piled the boys in the cars and headed north stopping in Kaikoura for lunch. Now Finlay doesn't travel light. There are a few extras we need to pack for him. Quite a few. What with his insulin pump, feeding pump, infusion sites, feeding sets, insulin, daytime digestive enzymes, night-time digestive enzymes, gastrostomy tube, glucose meter, test strips, spare test strips, alcohol wipes, glucagon, spare glucagon, syringes (various), plasters, antibiotic cream, spare cartridges, meter batteries, pump batteries, pump power cord, spare gastrostomy tube, lancets, back-up gastrostomy button, bottles, mixing pots, hypogels, spare hypogels, back-up hypogels, emergency back-up hypogels...it's a wonder we ever manage to leave the house.

So perhaps we shouldn't have been too surprised to get to lunch and discover we hadn't brought any of his milk! For a diabetic child with a highly regimented feeding plan requiring a high-carb prescription-only milk formula five times a day to delicately balance his blood sugars between damaging highs and potentially lethal, seizure-inducing lows this was possibly the worst thing, other than Finlay himself, that we could have left behind.

So we hastily booked a campsite in Kaikoura, and while Vicky, Flea and the boys enjoyed the delights of the spa pool, I bought the most sickly, sugary milk drink I could find, made sure I had plenty of hypogels (just as well we packed the emergency back-up ones!) and turned the car around heading back for Christchurch.

What should have been a lovely spot for lunch!

The cousins brave the mighty Pacific

Not a bad place to get stuck for a day...

Having made it safely back home we got up the next morning and laden with two boxes of milk bottles, we set off again for Kaikoura. So we'd only be a day late at the campsite in Marahau. Or maybe not...

By the time we reached Blenheim we were driving through pouring rain. By the time we got to Havelock it was torrential. It was clearly not going to be much fun putting up a tent in that weather so we decided to book a room in Motueka, just north of Nelson and close to our final destination. Of course we then drove over the hills to find Nelson and Tasman bathed in early evening sunshine. None of us suggested carrying on to the campsite though. Funny that!

Kids4Kids

Back in December, before the schools broke up for summer, Cameron got to sing in a charity concert at the Town Hall with his class and hundreds of other local schoolkids along with a very, very famous NZ singer.... that we'd never heard of!

Cameron in the green T-shirt and Santa hat in the middle