Place Your Bets!

You've been selected to win a free cruise if you guess the date and size of the baby! Okay, maybe not a free cruise, but how about a nice piece of seasoned and autographed birch firewood? (John, I know you'll be interested in this).

For comparison, here is Ann-Marie pregnant with Tobin and the second is, obviously, her pregnant with #2. Another helpful hint might be that Tobin was born one day before her due date and he was 7lbs 2oz.

Just like on the 'Price is Right', if you over-bid you lose.

Baby 1

Baby 2

The first thing I noticed in these pictures is how tidy* the house looks in the first photo. Our standard of living has obviously declined since Tobin came along.
*Tidy is a relative term.

Toddler Logic

It's infallible. Tobin wanted me to read him the same book for the 15th time in less than an hour so our interaction went like this:

Tobin: "reeeeead a boooook?"

Me: "I'm tired of that book, why don't we read this one?"

Tobin: "thiiiiisss oneeeeee"

Me: "Why don't you ask Bear to read it to you?"

Tobin: Long pause.... "Bear have no hands"

Me: "Fair enough, okay, I'll read it."

The Last of NZ!!

So you don't have to suffer through any more.

You know you're in New Zealand when...

A walk on a beach south of Hokitika

Interesting Maori carving at the start of a hike

I had to add a few more of Trace and Phil. I think some of these might be duplicates, but I had to point out how in every photo we took of them, they were both smiling and/or laughing. This was pretty much continuous with those guys. They seem to be able to laugh about everything and make you laugh too. It was hard not to have fun and be inspired by these guys, they live simply but have everything they need. We're lucky to know them, and feel so thankful for their unstoppable hospitality for 3.5 weeks!!! Thanks for making the trip so amazing T and 2P!!

Kaikoura

After Anikiwa we went down and spent a couple of days at Rarangi, near Blenheim, and in the middle of vineyard country. We stayed at the house of a friend of T and P's and did a bit of playing around. No pics, strangely. I'm not sure why, it was beautiful: Penguins, nice beaches, surging caves, surfing on deserted beaches. Nice place. You should go there.

Kaikoura Playground. NZ playgrounds are great, not safe, generally poorly maintained and often some really fun devices for adults to play on.

This teeter-totter only had one seat

Beach time at Mangamanu

Phil and I went a-huntin'-and-a-gatherin' for Paua

Kaikoura is beautiful, the mountains go straight up from the ocean here. Also, just offshore is an enormously deep trench so it's rich in marine biodiversity.

Father daughter chat

Paua for dinner. Note the 'tenderizer' on the left.

I can't believe, in retrospect, how ghetto we must have looked to normal tourists.

Tobin wandering around, barefoot, dirty and eating 'Spicy Bijah Mix'. And yes we did only bring him one outfit to wear.

At Kaikoura I had a transcendent moment while surfing. The swell was big, much larger than I felt comfortable going out in, and the crowds were...crowded. After three days of watching from the beach, being simultaneously envious and grateful that I wasn't out there, Phil convinced me to go out on our last evening. I grudgingly agreed and marched off with him, sure I was going to die. We paddled out and I took a bit of a beating, getting swept down the beach, pounded by huge waves and passed by 9 year old girls.

Finally I made it waaaaayyy outside and down the line, sure that I would be safe from a) actually having to catch a wave, b) getting in someones way and c) killing anyone with my surfboard which was bound to go haywire with me thrashing around under it when a big set came through.
I was starting to relax a little, did some lackluster paddling for a few waves, when, once in a while, Phil would calmly say: "paddle bro" which was a euphemism for "PADDLE LIKE HELL OR YOU'RE GOING TO DIE!!!!!". This happened too many times to count.

I was still way outside and down the line so safely away from everyone, when a biggish set came along. As the first wave came through I thought, "what the hell, I may as well go for it". So I paddled into it just right, it was a right hander so I had a good chance, but it was bigger than any wave I've ever been on, 6-8', so I was trying not to think about it... Suddenly the board started planing down the wave, I jumped to my feet, other surfers were cheering me on, and I did my bottom turn, a nice carve. Then as the wave softened I pumped the board along the face and carved back down. "I'm actually riding a wave!" I thought in disbelief. And then WHAM! The wave closed out on my head and sent me straight to Davey Jones' Locker for the same amount of time I rode the wave. At that point, I figured I better end it on a high note, so clawed my way gratefully onto the beach.

Surfing at Mangamanu

Contemplating

More ghetto style

Hiking around the penninsula

Can't wait for spring!!!

Yup, we broke out the bikes with the first inclings of sunshine.

Tobin had a blast riding through some giant puddles.

We watched our neighbour building a huge snow ramp that he dragged his bike to the top of, but didn't see any action. Later, Tobin wanted to ride his bike on the the snow bank, also :)

boys and trains

I was tempted to post the photo of Ryan playing with the train set all by himself...who's having more fun?!

Abel Tasman to Anikiwa

From our time in Nelson where we spent a few days... doing something that I can't remember we headed east again to do a short run/hike on the Abel Tasman. This is one of the most popular hikes in NZ and rightly so. It's a 60km walk on well maintained trails along the beach and through the forest. There are campsites with running water every 10-15km or so and beautiful golden sand beaches. We took a water taxi out from Totaranui to Big Tonga where Trace and Phil jumped off with the kids. AMG and I continued on the boat to Bark Bay where we jumped off and ran the trail back to meet the others. It was a beautiful section of trail through native NZ bush and along the beach. Then Trace and Phil tagged and we picked up the kids and baggage and carried while they ran ahead to Awaroa Bay. Then we drank some beer and started the rest of the 11km hike to the car.

More Vanette evisceration on the Abel Tasman

Poppy fuelling up before the day. That's not chocolate on her face. You know you're in New Zealand when the kids walk around licking Vegemite off the spoons.

The mule. "How long y'all been an arsehole? Ever since ah found this here hat"

Awaroa bay

Racing the incoming tide across the vast tidal flats.

Posers

Posers

Busy beach with hikers tracks

Totaranui

Almost back to the van

Those house like structures are 'tents', New Zealand style

Here we are having a drinking contest. I'm drinking a day old Gin and tonic while eating a banana and Phil is drinking warm milk from the carton.

I think we were getting ready to hit the road and were cleaning out the 'cooler' (more like a warmer).
Mmmmm, delicious milk.

Then we hit Anikiwa, the outward bound base. Trace and Phil spent 4.5 years here teaching so when we returned they were treated like rock stars. It was pretty fun. Especially Phil and I going to 'PT' or physical training at 0600. This is the daily routine for kids there, an instructor runs everyone through drills for about 45 minutes, push-ups, sit ups, dips, jogging on the spot etc etc... The culture of the OB base is for the instructors to be grim faced and militant. This didn't really work for me and I had to suppress a smirk while we did some sort of complex dance move in the guise of exercises. It was pretty weird.

The weirdest part though was when the instructor shouted "COUNT IT OUT HOKITIKA WATCH!!!!"

Uhhh, I guess this is us, I thought to myself...

Phil picked it up without missing a beat and instantly transformed into Sergeant A-hole screaming out "ONE, TWO, THREE.....NINE, TEN, TEN, TEN, TEN, TEN, ELEVEN". This happened a few times and then once in a while he would pause.... and that would be my cue to say "twelve", kind of sheepishly.

After that everyone goes out to the road where they have a timed 3.2km run. Now I haven't been so into running lately and all I had was my hiking shoes and a nice button up short sleeved shirt to run in. What the hell I thought, and besides they'll probably string me up by my reproductive organs if I don't comply. So off we went, and damned if I was going to let a bunch of punk-ass 16 year olds beat me in a race!

The only real problem was the gastrointestinal upset that had been plaguing me for weeks. It seemed that as soon as I would get up in the morning, or start any sort of jostling around, I would be overcome by an immediate and urgent need for a toilet.

The running was going great, I was kicking ass on most of the kids, and not too far behind Phil. But then I started getting that feeling. And my eyes kept darting over to the side of the road where the impenetrable NZ bush looked mockingly back at me. Run faster run faster, oh my god run for your dignity!!! Fortunately I made it to the finish line where I turned left, instead of right and sprinted for the nearest bathroom. All's well that ends well eh?

Then we borrowed canoes and did an overnight paddle down Queen Charlotte sound to camp at Mistletoe Bay

Tobin found this motor to admire. Yes, his hat is pretty goofy.

Someone had this cool swing in their yard that he got a kick out of