Elsie Cruises!

Today we moved from Marahau in Abel Tasman National Park to Te Mahia Bay on Kenepuru Sound. The house at Te Mahia was fabulous, absolute waterfront with a stunning vista of the malborough sounds. There were four heavy wooden sun loungers on the deck and Elsie started properly cruising along the length of these when we arrived. She's cruising!

Cruising on the Interislander

Today we headed to the south island on the ferry. We set sail at 8.30am then headed up to the café to feed Elsie. Elsie waved to a lot of random strangers as she ate her weetbix (such a Kiwi!). Joel and I were impressed to find that the ferry had ‘nursery rooms’ available for use by families with small children. These were cabins containing proper wooden cots (with clean sheets), an ensuite bathroom, and a couple of arm chairs for mum and dad. Great! We were so happy to be able to put Elsie down for a proper morning nap (rather than in the pushchair – which may or may not have worked). Elsie wasn’t so keen to go to sleep – the excitement of the ferry must have got to her. Thus, we put her down and crept out of the cabin to wait outside until she settled. Closing the door behind us we noticed the sign that said “do not close this door” and realized that the door was locked – with Elsie inside and both of us in the corridor. Uh Oh. A quick dash to the ? Perser? Later and we had our own swipe card for use in the door. Probably reserved for the use of dopey parents like us. Crisis averted, Joel finally settled Elsie who went on to have a lovely nap for the remainder of the cruise. We pulled into picton at lunchtime and set off for Marahau.

The Road Trip Continues: Wellington

Today we drove to Wellington from Napier. We had an awesome trip, Elsie was an absolute gem! Sleeping well and playing happily in the carseat. We made it to Masterton for an uneventful lunch then continued to Wellington, stopping in Waipawa the heart of ‘lamb country’ to visit a local butcher selling ‘NZ’s award winning sausages’. The butcher, Murray Stehpens, took his art quite seriously and kindly supplied me with some free sausages after it transpired that I had purchased almost every sausage except for the award winning ones! We stayed in Wellington for the night with Sarah, Wayne and their boys, Lachlan and Anders. Sarah cooked a delicious lamb shank, served as it should be, unctuous, tasty and falling off the bone. A few wines, a great nights sleep (thanks for giving up your bed guys!), and we were up and off on a boat.

The Road trip continues: Napier

On our way out of Gisborne we stopped to catch up with Simon and Fleur. We met their lovely son, Harry. Unfortunately Olivia was away at day care. Harry and Elsie made quite the pair standing up at the coffee table (more pulling up for Elsie) in their matching merino tops. Too cute!

After lunch we headed down to Napier to stay with my Aunty Lenie. It wasn’t a great drive, the weather was terrible, the wiper blade was noisy and weird, and Elsie Bear just didn’t want to be in the car. Much of the journey was accompanied by a chorus of baby crying.

It was a relief to finally arrive at Aunty Lenie’s place – set beautifully in the grounds of a vineyard. Unformtunately Aunty Lenie needed to  head straight out for her Election Day Volunteers training – but she left a tasty dinner in the oven and my cousin Carolyn (Lenie’s daughter) and her husband Jeff kindly came over to eat dinner with us and keep us company. It was great to spend some time with Carolyn and Jeff who Joel and I hadn’t seen for two years.

The next morning it was up, at em and on with the road trip.

The road trip begins – leg 1: Gisborne

25 Hurahura - Gisborne

The sleep out

The freshly painted fence

France and Elsie enjoying the back lawn

Matt - post surf

The ladies relax (I'm still working on my tan..)

Jenni and Coral celebrate the good life

Elsie taking in the Gisborne cafe scene

The three rivers

Francine and Jenni assemble the new chook house

On Thursday November 3^rd we headed over to Gisborne for a week. This marked the start of our one-month road trip, our holiday within a holiday.  It was really exciting packing up, miraculously managing to squeeze everything into the car (including mountain bike, pushchair, portacot, highchair, body board, all our bags, and some essential kitchen items for bread making) and hitting the road.  I had decided that this was to be our “summer holiday”. With an itinerary including Gisborne, Abel Tasman and Malborough I was convinced that we would see some sunshine along the way and Gisborne certainly complied.  The weather was amazing! Blazing sun and highs of 28C Joel, Elsie and I didn’t know what had hit us.

We were in Gisborne to visit Francine and Matt who like us have also just returned to New Zealand, albeit permanently, after a good decade away in Europe. A few years ago Francine and Matt bought their dream house in Gisborne and have been letting it out until this year, their big homecoming.

They had returned to New Zealand to find the house required a little more work than anticipated due largely to the high number of sunshine hours creating a Jurassic garden that required taming. Sticky fingered tenants had also helped themselves to anything that wasn’t permanently attached to the property. Yep, security lights had been taken, a garden gate, all manner of period door handles (for the brass presumably), a bench, and an irreplaceable vintage porcelain sink.

Francine and Matt opted to stay with Matt’s mum, Coral while they attacked the property weeding, waterblasting, and painting before they finally unpacked their container load of goodies and moved themselves in. That was until Joel , Elsie, Jenni and I all decided to come and stay.

After a communication failure on my part Joel and I left Auckland a day earlier than France and Matt expected. So, we arrived at around 7pm to find an exhausted looking Francine and Matt. They had spent a very busy day rummaging through boxes to find, beds and linen and towels and all those things that you need to make a house work and had decorated two beautiful guest rooms for us. On top of everything else the oven wasn’t working so Francine had to schlep over to Coral’s in order to slow cook the leg of mutton for dinner then drive back to Hurahura once cooked.  However, we made it, every one arrived, the food was fab and we all sat around the kitchen table to celebrate France and Matt’s first night in Hurahura. Matt smoked a cigar, Joel drank far too much, Francine looked slightly overwhelmed, and we all ranted well into the night.

This marked the beginning of what turned out to be a truly wonderful week in Gisborne. The sun shone, we went to the beach, we barbequed, there were lots of visitors to Hurahura, the fence got painted (and so did we a little bit), we had lunches and family dinners, chicken coops were constructed, Elsie slept BEAUTIFULLY (perhaps it was the perpetually blaring stereo?), there were paddling pools, the salad greens from the garden seemed to grow a foot overnight (and tasted superb), Green lipped mussels were cooked over an open fire on corrugated iron, Joel Elsie and I applied a lot of sunscreen and we completed the week having fallen into the rhythm of a happy sun drenched family.

Hurahura really is a special place. It is easy in New Zealand to go on and on about the size of the houses and Hurahura is no exception it truly is a beautiful home - but it was the garden that stole my heart. Mature laden citrus trees, winding paths, ancient apple trees, lavender, climbing roses, an arch (!), the greenhouse, flat lawn, fishpond (with sitting budha), curved driveways, splindly cosmos and giant spikey natives. The next door neighbor is Anzac Park – a reserve with the XXXXX river flowing along it’s border – complete with rowing club and neighbourhood Sea Scouts. So you could literally drag your boat/kayak/row boat out the back gate and 50m down to the boat ramp.

It really did make me pause and think about the merits of living in a city with next to no outdoor space.

I was pretty impressed with Gisborne itself. I liked the layout of the town, it’s always nice to be riverside but with a beach as well the locals are quite spoilt. Speaking of which the locals are very friendly! Strikingly so. The economy seems to be booming, we ate well, and there is a buzz to the place – a provincial pride that was absent in many smaller New Zealand cities a decade or so ago. Pity it takes so bloody long to drive there!

Lunch with Paul and Bernice - Elsie pulls herself up

Today we visited Joel’s uncle and aunty Paul and Bernice for the afternoon in Devonport. It was lovely to catch up – embarrassingly for the first time since Joel and I returned to New Zealand (the time is flying!). We spent a charming afternoon, yes charming, in their garden. It was a lovely sunny afternoon and we enjoyed sitting on a picnic blanket with Elsie and Joel’s cousin Bryn, his wife Wendy and their beautiful children Charlie, India and Boris. Elsie surprised us all by pulling herself up for the first time on the picnic table.

Great Barrier Island 2

Joel and Francine took the car ferry across to Great Barrier Island for Labour weekend. They saw four or five schools of dolphins on the way over. Then they saw humpback whales on their return ferry ride and more dolphins. Awesome!


Here are some of their snaps...

This yacht was in distress - I think it had ripped it's sails or something. Anyway the ferry shepherded it into safer water. A bit of drama en route!

Labour Weekend – The Troops Arrive – Elsie swims in the sea!

Joel, Jenni and Francine were all scheduled to go to Great Barrier Island this wekend for Labour weekend. With a broken arm, however, this got questioned because I couldn't even pick Elsie up - let alone change a nappy, put her in the high chair etc. Fortunately Mum and Dad saved the day by coming up to Auckland to help me out with Elsie over Labour weekend.  They came up Thursday night and we spent a really nice weekend doing this and that in Auckland. On Friday we headed up to Matakana to the sculpture trail there. We had a wonderful time walking around. I was pleased to see a sculpture there by a friend from my Otago days, Regan Gentry. Elsie celebrated by throwing her toys out of the pushchair the entire way around. We had to double back a number of times in order to collect them. Day 1 and already the lack of control was driving me crazy! (I would never have given her toys in the pushchair). It’s weird when some else is zooming off in the distance with your baby!

It was a really sunny beautiful day so we headed to Snell’s beach for a picnic lunch. The bay was really flat and the water in the shallows had become quite warmed by the sun so we stripped Elsie off and gave her her first paddle in the sea!

Elsie Crawls

Elsie crawls. Properly. No more dragging her legs around or doing the crab for our little lady. I suppose it's kind of typical that she finally starts moving around just when I break my arm. Fortunately it's still a pretty slow process - it reminds me of a tortoise!

Broken Arm!

Uh Oh.  In a senior citizens moment for me I managed to trip over a bike rack, while walking towards the ATM (okay yes and concurrently ferreting around in my wallet) in the supermarket carpark.  It was all set to be a fabulous day – Joel was looking after Elsie who had gone down for her morning nap beautifully. I had a master plan; visit the organic butcher (for Elsie), visit Harvest Wholefood (Elsie again), visit Moa to see if I could score any nice dresses for work in their end of season sale (that one was for me). To begin with I wanted to get some cash out of the machine. And then I fell.

I knew the moment that I hit the concrete that I had hurt myself. You just know. Normally, when I trip, I’m immediately back up on my feet, talking a million miles a minute, heart racing and blushing. This time everything seemed to go very quiet. In fact I didn’t even know I had fallen until I was lying face down on the concrete. I stayed down there for a moment thinking through, did I hit my head? Can I moved my legs? Everything seemed to be in order so I started gathering myself up. I knew my arm hurt and immediately thought of snowboarders – who are always falling over and sticking their arm out to break their fall. Snowboarders always seem to hurt their wrists – so I checked mine over. Amazingly, a physiotherapist popped up from nowhere. We ascertained that I could move my wrist okay. A passing mother assigned her toddler to collect and return my purse and all its contents to me. And I decided, bugger it. I’ll carry on with my day. Off to the butcher I headed. That went well. Then off to Moa. I tried on about 10 dresses. It was a bit difficult as increasingly I couldn’t move my left arm, but I soldiered on purchasing three. Off to harvest wholefoods. I got a great deal on organic apples – I was rather embarrassed at the till when I couldn’t lift my handbag and I struggled to get the money out of my wallet to pay. “My arm hurts – I fell over this morning” I said apologetically to the man behind the check out as a queue began to form. Having completed all my assigned tasks I headed home . By this time I could hardly move my arm – it had become quite bruised and swollen – so I hid my shopping in the wardrobe and off to WhiteCross we went. Yep I’d broken my arm. Well, fractured my radial head to be precise. Everyone kept telling me that it was the best fracture to get and should heal really well. The only problem was that Joel was heading over the Great Barrier Island at the weekend and I could lift Elsie, put her to bed, breastfeed her, get her in and out of the high chair or change a nappy. Uh Oh indeed.

Lunch with JJ and Charlotte

Jaron, Charlotte and Rosa came over on Sunday to try and help us deal with all the leftovers from Saturday's BBQ. It was another beautiful afternoon in our sheltered backyard at Webber Street. Joel and I are loving this flat, it just seems to function really well for us and when we're entertaining and Elsie LOVES it. Wall to wall carpeting and a layout that ensures Elsie is always in the centre of the room (and everyone's attention) equals a very contented baby. Rosa is crawling around now and moving quite quickly too! Joel and I have worked out that whatever Rosa is doing, Elsie will be doing the same thing in a few weeks. So obviously it's time to start thinking about child-proofing the house! Elsie is currently moving around, slowly, but she's still trying to run before she can walk (or walk before she can crawl I suppose). So she keeps trying to put the flat of her foot down rather than kneeling. She is moving around in this way - we call it the crab - on one knee with one foot on the floor but she hasn't properly crawled yet.

BBQ!

Yeah Boy. In celebration of Kara and Jonson's return to New Zealand we sparked up the BBQ for our first BBQ of the season. Yum yum yum

Elsie Stands!

She can't pull herself up yet - but if you put her down in the standing position she can hang on. And she is very proud of herself

Elsie blows raspberries

On the way back from Taranaki Elsie entertained us by blowing raspberries the entire way along the Waikato expressway. I'm not sure who she thought she was having a conversation with in the back of the car. I think she was copying her friend Rosa who is the master raspberry-blower. Joel and I giggled away in the front of the car - it did keep us entertained on an otherwise extremely boring part of the drive. Another day another milestone.

Taranaki 4

Joel, Elsie and I headed down to Taranaki this week to catch up with the Grandparents and to demonstrate her new found rolling skills. Check out these lovely photos of Elsie enjoying 'tummy time' on the lawn in Taranaki.

Elsie gets her second tooth

As if rolling over yesterday wasn't enough Elsie cut her second tooth (bottom centre-right) today. Her Grandma is going to be so proud of her when we head to New Plymouth this weekend.

Elsie rolls over!

Finally! Today Elsie finally properly rolled over from her back to her stomach. She has been rolling over from her stomach to her back but never the other way around. Never a fan of 'tummy time I suppose Elsie never really had a reason to roll onto her stomach before. This is really important milestone as she needs to spend more time on her tummy to strengthen her back muscles in preparation for crawling. It's also a means to get around the place until crawling begins. It will be so great once Elsie can 'self propel' however she chooses to do it as then she can start to entertain herself - and hopefully grizzle at us a little bit less often. Perhaps Elsie was inspired today by her friend Maia who is very good at tummy time.