It's been a while!

Dear on-line diary....this has been neglected somewhat in recent days, so I shall attempt to resurect my random thoughts and 'stuff'.

A lot has happened since the last typings, including a little bit of work, a lot of play and a trip to the UK and back.

Starting with the work, I have been down to the South Island to a beautiful area called Lake Tekapo which sits in the shadow of Mount Cook and then proceeded to blow it up for 2 weeks. I felt a little guilty....I learnt a lot about my kiwi colleagues, and mainly that some of them have some super crazy ideas. The best must have been at the end of the exercise when we were approached by the guy running the show, and he asked (no word of a lie..) "....what you need to do now is go back into the training area and fill in all the holes you lot made..." I thought he was joking, and told him so, adding that he wasn't very funny....it turned out that he was deadly serious... I had to then explain to him that when a round lands, the dirt doesn't pile up neatly round the edges.....idiot....and that we had also fired nearly 2,000 rounds and that, quite frankly he could poke it....(I might have left the last part out....)

All in all it was a good exercise, the weather did the whole 4 seasons in a day thing but i am getting used to that out here! Never in my army career to date have I been to a training area and thought "...I am going to come back here......on holiday...", that is until now. We will be going back to Lake Tekapo over Summer. It is quite lovely.

Mount Cook

The "Old Church" Lake Tekapo

The play part has also been fun. Again, a few lessons learnt. The prime one being do not go drinking in on your birthday and spend till 4 in the morning getting people out of nick. It was a bloody good night though, and dare I say it, well worth the hassle!

We all trooped down to a food and wine festival in the Martinborough region last weekend with a couple of friends. As I had only returned from the UK the day before, i was feeling a little jet-lagged still and offered to be the sober driver. I quickly realised that this had been a rubbish idea, as not only were there some awesome wines on offer, but your ticket was a wine glass that fitted on a string around your neck...convenient huh? What a shame not to use it?! Luck was on my side as on the drive down, I had to pull over for one of the passengers (not Jocelyn) to decorate the pavement. The were automatically promoted to the position of driver, and i got on it! Drinking red-wine at 10am is cool. I put it down to the fact that I was on UK time still, and that i was indeed late for drink and should have started ay 7. The whole day was awesome, and we will be going next year for sure - i recommend you make the trip and join us.

Liz enjoying a blustery vino

Los Familio

And finally, you should all have a look at: http://gallery.me.com/chris.scott1530#100084

More to follow soon!

A long weekend away

Hi everyone, my apologies for not keeping up this blog while Christopher is away. As you can probably imagine, I've been very busy doing wifely tasks, cooking, washing, ironing, cleaning etc etc... Boo hoo.

So. This weekend I went away for 3 days with my friend Izzy to her family home towards the north of the island in a place called Tauranga. We stayed with her grandpa because his house is biggest, and he lives right on the edge of an estuary just over the water from Mount Maunganui. He grows organic avocados, apples, oranges and lemons for fun, and also takes part in soil research about the effects of organic farming methods on soil organisms. The house has a glorious view over the estuary as it is elevated about 50m above the water on the side of a fairly steep hill, which is where the orchard grows. Lucky old Izzy grew up here on the sea and took me kayaking round the coast and showed me the places she used to play with her cousins, who have for the most part also built houses within walking distance. Glorious!

We had a morning in Mount Maungaui and walked around the Mount, which is the inside of an old volcano, I forget what you call the feature but I expect most of you know what I mean - the rock around the outside has been eroded away just leaving a column of hard rock in the middle. It's very pretty and has a lovely little seaside town with (heaven forbid) high rise blocks of flats on the sea front. The cause a lot of consternation round here - they spoil the view, you see. Everyone was also concerned by the number of visitors the town had for so early on in the season. Mmm, not nearly as busy as Hastings on a weekday, but for NZ that is a lot of people!

We stopped into a craft fair on the way to the Irish pub for lunch, where I had a wonderful pint of Guinness - better than most you find in the UK, which surprised me! Of course I forgot to take the camera with me but with any luck we will get a return invitation and I will do better, I promise.

We also had a guided tour of some cousins houses. they grow chicken and pigs and sheep and horses and doves and turtles, and Jocelyn thoroughly enjoyed seeing them. She is very interested in all sorts of animals and was chatting away to them in a friendly fashion. Seems like a love of nature runs in the family - perhaps she will be a famous zoologist one day!

On Monday morning before we left we had a tour of Izzy's dad's greenhouse. He is French and has acquired a strange accent over his years in NZ. He grows a kind of lily, can't remember what it is called but here is the one he cut for me:

He also grows the most amazing orchids in there for fun, and those dangly air plants. Outside he has hemp, banana, raspberry and macademia. He gave me a big bag of macademias which should be ready in time for Christmas, as long as we can get them out of their shells. Apparently a hammer and a flat rock will do the trick. Sounds like a man's task.

On the way home (a good 5 1/2 hours drive) we stopped at Taupo to take a look at Huka (said Hooker) falls. This is one of the Islands biggest hydroelectricity farms as the water from the lake is channelled through a very narrow and shallow gorge at high speed. You can also white water raft down it, which looks like a whole bunch of fun!

So that was my weekend! It was great fun and the countryside is stunningly beautiful. With any luck we will go back up there and look around some more soon!

Huka Falls, looking upstream

A Tui, the other national bird, the one the beer is named for. Has a puff of white feathers at his throat like a dandy! Drinks the nectar from this tree, gets drunk and falls off, which is probably where New Zealanders got the idea from.

Huka Falls, the fall part. The water is so blue because it is very clear and the bubbles reflect the colour of the sky. Aah.

No time for Blogging, I have done a days work!

I feel I must let you all know that I have completed a full days work, for the the first time since arriving in New Zealand! I believe that it would nearly be called a full days work in Englandistan as well? In work for 0745, and home at 1715......wow.......

I am almost too tired to type......

So since the last entry, what has been going on? Probably the highlight was the boys night out in Wellington, which involved the Australia vs All Blacks game a huge amount of drinking, and a nightclub called Boogie Wonderland....did I mention the 6"10 transvestite??

I feel that the less said about the transvestite, the better. To cut a long story short i was drunk, he/she was massive, and Liz was in a different post code....

The game was good though, I proudly wore my england shirt, and took a bit of abuse. Neither side seemed to be able to accept the argument that you are only as good as your last World Cup, or in their case, as good as your last two World Cups....I barely escaped with my life (that applies to both the rugby and the tranny).

I shall leave it there, with some photos of the match....

The Westpac Stadium in Wellington

Another England Fan!!

(and a right stunner sat behind me.......the Tranny was better looking!)

Snowboarding and other such stuff

Where to begin? It has been a busy few days, we've had two new cars, been snowboarding, bought a new mountain bike, discovered the funniest sounding food on the planet and picked a name for a dog that we haven't even bought yet (and probably not going to buy).

So, i think i shall start with the non-dog. It kind of coincides with the snowboarding trip. We decided to go with some friends up to Mount Ruapehu and to get good parking we had to leave at 6am. On route we stopped off for some petrol (the kiwis complain with the price being 66p/litre...they don't know they are born....) and being in dire need of coffee i wandered in for a quick 'flat white', not fancying a cheese and meat pie for breakfast, i looked at the chocolate selection. A bar a Cadburys starred back at me, and i had to do a double take to ensure i had read the name correctly. Yes i had. The name of this fine bar of chocolate was Scroggin. Maybe because it was so early i found this very funny, and the rest of the journey assed with various conversation centered around the word Scroggin. Jocelyn is now referred to as "..the wee Scroggin", and this is the name that we have decided to give to our next dog. What a combo they would have been...Muppet and Scroggin. Just to prove this to be fact -

http://www.cadbury.co.nz/Products/Blocks-of-Chocolate/Energy-Scroggin.aspx

So onto the snowboarding itself. Mount Ruapehu is a small resort, built on the side of a volcano. We are coming to the end of the season over here, and the snow was not great. It was however good enough! There is a huge amount of off-piste (or 'track' as the call it) and that is where the enjoyment really lies. The photos of steep drops, and wide open mountain that i had seen previously were done justice to what we experienced. It was brilliant. The wee Scroggin had her first snow experience, and loved it. Liz and i took it in turns to go and board, whilst Jocelyn crawled in the snow and did some elementary sledging. I am afraid to report, however, that the European influence of poor taste all-in-one ski suits has manifested itself over here...it is not a good look. The 2 1/2 hour drive to the mountain was thoroughly worth it, and we will be investing in a season pass for next year, no doubt at all!

At the bottom of the Mountain

The off-piste was simply brilliant

The "Wee Scroggin" enjoying the snow!

Now onto the car saga....after careful consideration, and pre-purchase tests, we purchased a Toyota Harrier from a dealer. 2 days later, on flashes the engine warning lights and traction control switches off....hmmmm....not too good i thought. Off we trot to the Toyota garage and ask their opinion...the mechanic looked slightly surprised when i told him the problem, when i asked why the surprise he told me that a car dealer had brought in a Toyota Harrier the morning that we bought the car with exactly the same problem....yes you guessed it, it was the same car. $300 to fix.....understandably, i was less than amused so went and had a very closed door chat with old Luke at 'Adopt-a-Car'. Liz was told to wait outside. We now have a second 'new' car whilst our other one is being fixed and warranties written. I was very close to doing some proper English style "Tramping"...

So finally onto the new bike. Liz's bike made it through customs in one piece, and we have quickly realised that a good way to see a lot of the country is by bike. So I bought a bike and a seat for Scroggin Jnr. The seat was brilliant fun. The shop sold it to us and offered to fix it to the bike for a nominal fee of $25. Being all manly, i said to the man "...how hard can it be?" he looked at me and said "...you will find out...and if you want to bring it back, then feel free." Well this was like a red rag to a bull. My manly-ness was on the line, failure was not an option. The instructions were in Chinese, and soon got binned. All it took was 3 hours, a huge amount of bad language, 16 different screw drivers, a chisel, several bastardised nuts and bolts and a power drill. It looked just like the picture on the box. I was so glad when we managesd a 20km cycle without it falling apart! McScroggin enjoyed it as well!

A well engineered bike seat indeed!

And that, folks, is all for now!

Oh look, I have a minute to myself!

Good morning everyone. I have decided to write in pink so that you'll know it's me, and not my other half who is currently at work. What? Working? Surely not! Probably not, but the battery is back from exercise so he might be doing a lot of meeting people and drinking coffee.

Life is slowly settling down to a less frenetic pace. We've unpacked most of our things, although I have nowhere to put my clothes so they're still in their boxes. We are also a little short on coathangers, but there you go. I was feeding Jocelyn her breakfast this morning when I looked out of the window so see a dead bird on the grass pathway that runs along the side of the house. The poor thing had been got by a cat (boo, hiss) so it's in a pretty terrible state. Anyway, I mention it because I'm looking out our front patio (decking really) window and seeing an inch thick trail of ants marching around the corner to the bird. These same ants were all over the bathroom last night as I tried to bath Jocelyn and I had to spend 30 minutes vacuuming them up - no exaggeration, I promise. At least they've given up on the kitchen, although I am still finding mouse poo on the floor despite there being poison down - it's the good stuff too, for warfarin resistant vermin. Oh yes. We're very close to nature over here. All the houses are built about a foot off the ground so all the nasties move in underneath where you can't get at them, and the ants have made it their task to excavate pathways into various rooms in the house. I find them in different rooms every day, they're terribly organised. Needless to say, most of them don't make it back to the mothership.

On a good note, we've found a lovely car. Subject to it passing its roadworthiness test we will be proud owners of a Toyota Harrier 4WD gas guzzler this afternoon or on Monday. It's big and silver and more like a Lexus than a Toyota and there's no way we could afford to run one in any country in Europe. It's great!

Ah, the errant husband has returned from his arduous hour and a half in the office. He bought a bike the day before yesterday and went to ride it this morning to work and the chain snapped. Not the best start to a new purchase, so he took mine which is thankfully in good working order despite being broken down into many pieces for the shipping company. Soon we will have a carrier on the back for the wee one - she already has a helmet which she loves to wear! She is like her cousin - she has a hat problem. Hat-o-philia, I like to call it. Anyway, we are all looking forward to exploring the countryside on 2 wheels, especially now the weather has taken a turn for the better. We are also looking forward to going snowboarding on Sunday, yippee! Half a day each because of the baby of course, but hey, it's better than nothing. Woohoo!

Ok, time to go and have some coffee before a large voice from a small girl interrupts my me-time. Lots of love X

Just one more thing...!

For those of you that were worried, I want to make it quite clear; I have not been beating up any homeless old men that smell of wee.

Another month, another Blog

My first Blog of September. Having just sent out an e-mail to the masses, i thought that i had better add something recent, in case i get any more followers. I might even start to measure my popularity by this....Going back to my geekyness, i have just had confirmation of my first success on the 'texting' using Skype. I feel that i might have finally joined the 21st century now, both in terms of having the gadgets, but also that i know how to use them.

So what has been going on? You should all know about our trip to 'Welly' from 'Palmy' (the language barrier is very easy to overcome). A beautiful city, or to be more accurate, a medium sized town. But i like that; i have never really liked large cities where the foreign students practically force you under the nearest black cab. I tried to take one of those long exposure type photos of cars going down a street at night. It took over half an hour for enough cars to be

passing to make it any good (even then it was a bit crap!). I found it quite strange to see a capital city so quiet.

We enjoyed a lot of fish, complemented by some good wines overlooking the harbour. The hotel we were staying in has a baby-sitting service so Liz and I were able to go and let our hair down for an evening. A really good idea, and maybe there is a niche in the market in the U.K?

We have continued to explore our immediate surrounds in Palmy, and recently went to explore the Te Apiti wind farm which runs along the ridge behind Palmy. That is where this Blogs selection of photos comes from. We chose a good day to go, as i could hardly open the car door due to the strength of the winds up on the ridge. I found them very therapeutic to watch maybe ...i have been in this country too long already!?

Other exciting news....we have finally got round to getting a dishwasher! Hurrah! The old one was becoming very unreliable, and had the cheek to ask me to help....(i am so brave when she has gone to bed!) I therefore did the only thing that made sense. It was purchased via TradeMe, which is the Kiwi version of eBay. It has served us well already, always after a bargain, me! Lets hope it lasts!

One of the many turbines.....GEEK!

The Hobbits were really pissed off with the new fangled wind things...

It was a bad hair day at the wind farm...

A little less windy at the bottom (careful!)