The Otago Peninsular

One of our favourite spots is the Otago peninsular, a thin slither of land that branches off from the mainland to the southeast of Dunedin.  It has a heady mix of fabulous scenery and abundant wildlife.  Of all the beaches to see, Sandfly bay must top the bill and on our Christmas trip I took this shot giving a slightly different view to ones seen previously on the blog.  The weather was a real mixed bag with some rain, cold and fabulous sun mixed together.   I snuck out for a quick look pre-dinner more in hope than certainty as the cloud cover was pretty thick.  The sun was breaking through intermittently and my final result can be seen below.

 

I even got back just as dinner was being plated up!  The light became spectacular as the sun set around pudding but it's not every day that family from the UK visits and there is always next time...

Stormy Beach

 As usual it's been a while so to fill in a gap before any meaningful personal update I thought I would throw in a photo or two from our recent trip to Oamaru with my parents.  The weather was not due to be anything special and, as is so often the case now, I left my D80 at home as the car was just too full of baby paraphernalia.  We woke on Sunday VERY early and after eating breakfast in the dark and trying to entertain Tom without waking every guest staying in the motel we hit the road as the gloom revealed itself at first light.

Having been this way many times before, we knew a lovely beach to head to and we had the clothes to cope with the rather chilly early morning.

Photographer and assistant!

While it was a bit grey and dreary there was some good potential for moody weather shots.  Looking at other peoples images I feel I have always failed to exploit similar conditions in the past and armed with my trusty S90 I tried my arm at a few shots with a specific type of final image in mind.  Amy was a bit worried Tom was going to be tipped into the drink but we managed to avoid any major mishaps and my feet even remained dry!

As to whether I achieved my aim, I'll leave that for you to make your own mind up...

A Year of Tom!

Where has it gone?  No idea but it's sure been fun.  Rather than a long-winded catch up I thought I'd just post some photos to show what the boy has been up to!

 

 

 

 

Winter Wanderings

While it seems like our feet have hardly touched the ground since we arrived back home after our UK trip we have certainly achieved a fair bit that's worth reporting on!  On the hearing front it was full steam ahead with visits, revisits, progress checks and hospital visits.  In one week alone we were up in Christchurch for 3 consecutive days with 2 appointments on each day.  This gives you a fair idea of how well he has so far been looked after and checked out to make sure that, to date, all is going to plan and there are not any other issues that we need to know about.  In this 3 day period we visited the audiologist, pediatrician, ENT department, Van Asch School for the deaf, geneticist and had an abdominal ultrasound performed!  Tom took it all in his stride and I think actually really enjoyed both the attention he got as well as all the sights that a day out brings.  Of course there is still a fair amount of uncertainty as to how much hearing the aids are providing but we (well the audiologist and Tom) are about to start behavioural hearing testing and so will hopefully get a better idea about this over the coming months and so be able to assess if in fact a cochlea implant is the way forward.

 This winter the weather has been fantastic.  At least while we have been around having missed a ridiculously wet and cold patch while on holiday.  We have been treated to beautiful Canterbury blue sky days that have allowed temperatures to reach the high teens at times.  Of course as I write this it is wet and windy!  We have been making the most of it and have been getting good use out of our backpack with trips ranging from local walks down the river path to day trips in the mountains.

Our most recent was in celebration of fathers day last Sunday.  The weather was fantastic and so we could head off as planned up past the lakes and on to Mt Sunday.  This must be our 3rd or 4th trip here as it is only about a 90 minute walk but provides a spectacular viewpoint over the headwaters of the Rangiatata and mountains beyond.  Mt Potts station also has a coffee shop that we have never visited and this seemed the perfect opportunity to give it a go.  We must have been out for about 7 hours and all three of us were pretty exhausted once we got back home!

The Ashburton Lakes are a place we keep heading back to and I also managed the sunset trip I had planned many months ago.  While I had hoped for some ice or snow, I'm not sure I can complain too much with the view that I was presented!  I think my previous trip really helped with the composition of several different shots going to show that planning is key.

We don't always need to travel miles though and have also been spending plenty of time in the domain, feeding the ducks and enjoying the swings which Tom really loves.  The blossom is coming out in full force, it is September and October when the domain really does look at its best.  I'm hopefully going to be making full use of all our local resources with Tom because as of this week I am going down to a 4 day week so that Amy can increase to 3 working days.  The reason for this is so that Tom only has a couple of days in preschool which we feel is ideal for him.  The preschool is great and tom really enjoys it but with several children to look after we are finding that Tom is sometimes able to sneak out a hearing aid and give it a good suck before it gets noticed!  It then has to be dried before being put back in, often only for him to remove it straight away again.  This can take place many times in quick succession and so we do wonder how much time he spends without them in which is not ideal for his language development.  We are also very lucky to have the option of changing our working days and it will be interesting to see what life as a part-timer is like.

That's just about enough for now.  I'm fully aware that this is becoming a blog about general family life and trivial events but if you're still reading I'm sure you won't mind too much.  I have also had 2 books printed of this blog, the first of the Asia trip and second of NZ pre-Tom, and so find this a great way to document more normal events and include various pictures to produce a reasonable diary of sorts.  with so many photos being taken it is nice to have a few printed in a book to flick through with brief notes about what we were doing at the time and we have both enjoyed a little nostalgia browsing  the entries made over the last 4 years.  Opening day of the fishing season is the next event I am looking forward to but I won't bore you with that now...!

Family Introductions

This post is going to be a bit of a family album as we have just returned from a month (or 6 weeks for Tom and Amy) back in the old country.  The month flew as always but it was brilliant to see everyone and to experience more than one short and t-shirt day (I think there were two!).  First stop was the Ensell family both in the New Forest and Birmingham.  Amy and Tom had a little under 2 weeks there before I joined them and in that time there was a whirlwind of visitors and a trip to the midlands to see (Great) Aunts, Uncles and Grandparents.

Bath Time!

Sun in Brum

A couple of friends managed to time their visit for for my arrival which was fantastic and it was then off to visit the Avery Family where the first stop was to meet our niece, Elise, for the first time with a trip to the Home Counties.   It was then on to Somerset where the big event of this year was (Great) Grandma's 90th birthday.  It was a real international affair with family from Australia, Canada and Switzerland joining the more "local" attendants.

Tom and "GG"

Cousin Play Time

The party marked the start of two weeks in Somerset where Tom was very much the center of attention and our activities very much revolved around sleep and feed times!  Exmoor was looking very lush on our walks and we even enjoyed a trip on the steam train to Watchet.  All activities interspersed with cream teas wherever possible!

Walking Fergus

Hello Grandma

Of course time was also made for the annual match play grudge match at Minehead Golf Club.  All square going into the 18th which I won.  Not bad considering I have played 9 holes since last year compaired to Dad's twice weekly rounds (and ignoring the fact he gave me a handicap of 9 over him!).

Our trip finished with a wedding in a country house surrounded by good friends and enjoying fantastic weather.  We were staying in the house and the monitor worked throughout so we could even both let our hair down without having to pop up and check on Tom every 10 minutes.  All too soon it was time to fly home and head straight back to work but at least Canterbury looked stunning with snow covered mountains and several blue sky days to start with.

The Happy Couple