The Wonderful World of the Whitakers!

New camera!

2012-02-10T20:41:00.004+13:00

I have a brand new camera now - thanks to the burglars... plus a new laptop, TV, sound system etc - it feels like Xmas in our house at the moment - but we would rather have not gone through this horrid process.

I have been taking more pictures of Will and Bernie than ever before - Will is a little more happy to post copious pictures of him online - he definitely plays to the camera!

Bath time is play time and he loves brushing his teeth - in between smiles!
That gummy smile is reminiscent of me circa 1986...

He managed to walk whilst pushing a box along the floor yesterday - completely of his own invention! He has accelerated his development considerably in recent weeks and fights sleep some nights as he wants to climb and play continuously - more challenging for Bernie now I'm back at school too.

I have some home work to do this weekend and had to pass up a diving trip to the Poor Knight's Islands (regularly voted in the top 10 places to dive in the world) and we have a St Valentine's party on Sunday with new friends - let the good times roll!

Love to all,

CBW xxx

Kerikeri - so nice, they named it twice...

2012-02-06T19:32:00.011+13:00

We both miss Nelson heaps, but the above slogan - coined by a tourist a few years ago - is fitting for this gorgeous part of the country. It is home to the oldest building in the country - not far from where we live: The sea comes right up to the building in an inlet and there is a nice cafe and walks all around:
Will is developing increasingly fast - climbing up onto his feet at every given opportunity and talking / shouting at cars, birds, dogs and many other random things he sees. He loves to watch birds and mutilate insects:

We eat all our meals out here:

I've been keeping up with one of my new year's resolutions - hitting the beach much more often - it aint too shabby here!

Will is getting a taste for the odd ice cream:

And I've gone all arty...

Pic-nic time

How cute?!

In colour too!

I have began running again and always do the same ugly, boring route, along a crystal clear river, through native bush and ending up at this eye-sore... life's tough!

You can cheat and drive / walk to it too - unfortunately I cant push Will in his buggy through the forest so we drove on this occasion.

Its 29 meters high and called Rainbow Falls due to the rainbows created when the sun's out - hard to picture unfortunately - you'll just have to come and visit!

Going arty again...

As is Will with his creative eating! We have always let him feed himself and despite this picture, he is getting less messy... honest!

He obviously doesn't believe me either! Notice his top tooth - the one next to it is now on its way through to make it no. 4

Pointing and clapping are his two favourit e triecks - after shouting at things!

Our little Hammer is glad to see West Ham at the top of the Championship...

Opito Bay is our closest beach and we already love it - Bobby is allowed to run and swim there which is a rarity in this part of the country due to the large populations of Kiwi that live here - most places a no-dog zones - we can hear them from our bedroom some nights! Will loves the beach too:

Although he isn't brave enough to compete with Bobby yet!

Bobby and I spend ages chasing his ball - I win the sprints, but I'm ashamed to say that I get beaten for stamina these days and call it quits before Bobby Dazzler!

We have finally recieved all of our belongings minus what was stolen - new electrical gear to arrive this week hopefully - 6 weeks without TV has been quite good - done heaps of gardenning, reading books and reading the Times for world news... oh gosh, I'm turning into my Dad! We are looking forward to having the Whits and Wakefields with us in April - hopefully they will finally realise that they can live the dream too and book a one-way ticket in 2013... here's dreaming!

Love to all,

CBW xxx

The long trip north!

2012-01-08T11:51:00.006+13:00

We left our beloved Nelson on Thursday 22nd December and spent our final night in the South Island on a 126 acre section of bush overlooking the beautiful Marlborough Sounds. Our large station wagon was packed to the rafters as we took the ferry across the Cook Straight to Wellington. We were sad to say goodbye to the place we called home for 3 and a half years, but looked forward to the adventures ahead up north.

We stayed in a nice hotel (for the first time ever as Bernie pointed out in shock when we turned up somewhere decent for a change!) north of Wellington and enjoyed a spa bath outside with a bottle of wine when Will was sound asleep (we had the baby monitor on - no neglecting our little lad!).

We continued north to the Tron - Hamilton, a city away from the coast, which is host to our dearest Down Under family members - Paul, Shirley and son Bradley.

Will and Bradley quickly got acquainted and enjoyed cooling off in the pool:

On Xmas day Shirley's Mum Lesley, sister Hazel and daughter Karmen joined us for festive celebrations, food and general great fun! Karmen was very helpful openning presents - Will needed the most help!

Bradly loved viewing pictures of himself opening presents - reliving the moment!

We had chicken, ham and much much more in the shade of the blistering sun

Will's favourite present was his first set of wheels / ball pit - he was static... I mean ecstatic...

He particularly loved Shirley's bubbles too

We spent 5 days in the Tron and had great times, went shopping, walking, moved fridges in and out of the house, fitted rear shock absorbers onto our car so it doesn't bottom out each time we go over a pebble... and had a really lovely time together with our family. We then headed north and spent 2 nights with friends who were generous in letting us stay in a very comfortable converted woodshed next to their house, 20 meter swimming pool and 52 hectares of land by the beach.

New Years was spent with friends from Nelson near some beautiful lakes - for once a New Year's party that wasn't expensive, stressful or an anti-climax.

We then headed up to the Kauri tree forests which have trees as old as 1,200 years and are huge pillars of timber that earlier settlers used to butcher (and even more sadly burnt) in their thousands for a few quid... those still standing are immense and well worth staring at in awe for a few hours.

We eventually got to our new house in Kerikeri on Jan 3rd and were finally welcomed with clear blue skies, after having showers and rain for most of our travels. We already feel very settled and comfortable in this spacious rental property and welcome visitors this year as we have 4 bedrooms and a groovy house nestled in the Bay of Islands - one of NZ's real treasures.

We headed up the coast to one of the many many awesome beaches and took Will swimming in the sea for the first time.

He found it fun at first, but freaked out a little when the surf picked up.... he did get completely submerged by one wave that caught me out, but he quickly calmed down and will be all the better for it I'm sure...

As you can see, he quickly regained his cool composure...

So we chilled out and made Bobby work up a good sweat And some more...

Before Bobby and I had a big swim together chasing his toy.... happy days!

The climate is sub-tropical up here so we eat breakfast, lunch and dinner outside. We get more rain here than Nelson, but have a lovely covered porch by a fish pond where we can eat come rain or shine.

We have begun exploring the area and I had the most beautiful run of my life yesterday - I'm not going to bore you with a description, you'll just have to come and run it with me when you visit! Bernie is presently at the farmers market in town with Bobby whilst I surf and will sleeps.

Will finally got his first tooth for Xmas (just after actually) and is talking heaps - Dog, Dadda, Muma, Woof and Bird are his most commonly used words (in order of frequency) and he imitates a lot of other words we say already. He also sings to himself a lot which is beautiful to listen to!

It has been so lovely spending so much time together and we have become an even tighter unit for it. We have moved north so that I have a permanent job and Bernie wont have to give up Will until she and he are both ready to do so. We have the immediate Whitaker family visiting this April and Paul and Shirley are now only down the road (4.5 hours down the road but much closer than before!) so we will get to see a lot more of them too which is a massive bonus.

I still have three weeks off before I begin my school induction - 3 days on the marae (traditional Maori community area), so plenty more time to settle in and have a look around.

Here's wishing you all a happy, healthy and crisis free 2012...
Love from Chris, Bernie and William Whitaker (plus Bobby Dazzler) x

Messy Xmas!

2011-12-22T12:37:00.002+13:00

We're off on a road trip for 11 days and will be contactable by Skype at Bernie's brother over xmas.

Here's one last (messy) video of Will

Happy xmas to one and all,
Love the Wandering Whits - still living the dream! x

From pillar to post!

2011-12-13T16:05:00.004+13:00

The madness continues! We have had to vacate our house every day to allow prospective buyers through our house (fingers crossed still!). We have also had to organise a rental property in Kerikeri and plan for removals of all our belongings, the shipment of Bobby (our dog), ferry bookings, leaving parties (hic!) plus all of the typical admin that goes along with changing address and moving. I am entitled to a relocation package, due to being made redundant, but the Ministry of Education are bloody slow so we don't really know what's happening there...

Despite this chaos, our William is still a joy to be around and makes us laugh with tears every day. He rarely cries, he still sleeps really well and has us in stitches as he tries to imitate what we say!

Here he is eating chicken a drumstick

He always has natural yogurt after dinner and gets proper messy! His bib is a god-send and he has quickly learnt to fish around in there as the meal progresses!

I have had to sell Dorris - our beloved Mini that has not been given a huge amount of love since Will came along. She was a great car to us for over 3 years and was so cheap to run. The funniest moment was when Bernie, my parents and I were shooting around Nelson one day and we descended a really steep hill - we got to the T-junction at the end and she wouldn't stop due to the combined weight and her old, caliper brakes! I had to throw a left-hand turn and pray there was nothing coming! Needless to say, we didn't take Will in her! The new owner is using her as a project car so she should get the love and attention she deserves!

Will is sitting up now and crawling so quickly we are glad to be leaving our house with its ranging veranda.

I have dug out my SLR style camera and got some great close-ups as Will polished off marmite on toast:

Here's Will getting stuck into Flick the Fire Engine

We'll miss his aquatic nursery!

So the ferry is booked for Dec 23rd and we plan to stay with Paul, Shirley and Bradley in Hamilton over Xmas. We will do a spot more travelling and join friends in Northland for New Year before moving into our rental around Jan 3rd... they are the loose plans, who knows what will actually happen - its sure to be an adventure!

We wish all of you a very merry festive season and hope that we have even more visitors next year!

Love from Chris, Bernie and Will x x x

Moving North

2011-12-06T20:05:00.003+13:00

I've just got back from the Bay of Islands where I've been looking at places to live and got to know my new Science Department a lot better. My new boss kindly put me up in her huge mansion overlooking the Bay of Islands. Paihia is a beach heaven and has some funky bars and cafes:

This was my view as I woke up on my 34th Birthday:

Now I'm back with my beloved family. Will is on great form and trying to get out of his cot

All we've got to do is sell our house, unfortunately we are having the worst weather of our time here and the garden is a swamp... we've had about 50 groups come and look though so fingers crossed!

What a month!

2011-12-03T16:14:00.005+13:00

I know I sound like a scratched record, but Will is really thriving, as we all are. He is crawling now click here and talking incoherently (just like his father!) and can sit up unaided. He has never refused any food and eats all meals with us - including curry, marmite, fish, chicken drumsticks and steak - despite not having teeth! He still feeds himself, which is far messier than his spoon-fed friends, but more fun for us all! His coordination is also improving heaps as a result too.

You can watch him eat here

Quite literally living the dream! We eat our on the veranda most evenings as the weather is so good, and spillage is mopped up efficiently by Bobby! Our boy has been successfully using his potty for number two's for two months now - we're so proud of him!

In the past month I have been made redundant, got a new job in a completely new but equally beautiful part of the country and have put our house on the market. We are in the process of trying to buy a section of land on which we hope to build a house... So a month of painting, DIY, job hunting and researching parts of the country we would happily live in has kept us very busy - life is never dull in this household, but this has been a rather exhausting time. Fortunately we have got rid of Sky TV as we don't have time to watch much TV. My home brew has tasted especially nice with the warm weather and after a busy day of manual labour! Banana beer was 'interesting', but oddly refreshing!

Our new destination is aptly named the Bay of Islands and is situated in the subtropical region of Northland, at the top of the North Island. I have a permanent job and therefore stability, and wont have to teach a raft of different subjects like I do at present. We are hoping to live close to the water so we can use the kayaks and swim more in open water... it really is a sea and island paradise with a lot of bush and hills inland. We have friends in the area and we feel very positive about the move now - particularly as our only family here might finally come and visit us now (luv ya P&S! x)

Will has been swimming each week and he loves chasing after his little turtle - he kicks and splashes, but is no Michael Phelps yet!

We still have much to sort out - we just pray that our house sells quickly so we can pack up and get on the road. It will be great if we can spend Xmas with Paul and Shirley and introduce our boy to them before getting up to our new home in early Jan. School starts at the end of Jan so a few weeks getting to know the area will be excellent.

I'll try to keep this updated more frequently, but we have had so little time recently. We certainly don't have a boring life!

Love to one and all, keep smiling and keep well.
Love from Chris, Bernadette and Willsy! x x x

Wonderful Whitaker Walk!

2011-10-31T16:41:00.010+13:00

What a month! We have watched NZ win the world cup - and partied quite a lot along the way:

The face paint became very smeared over the course of the 80 nerve-jangling minutes! Bernie even made a special cake for us all to keep our energy up!

We have just returned from Wills first tramping (hiking) experience. We bought a baby carrier online and loaded up for a weekend in the bush:

We tramped over an undulating track at a reasonable altitude (800-900m) and took in the Lord of the Rings scenery and birds. We negotiated rocky stream crossings and swing bridges:

We stopped for pretty waterfalls:

And eventually got to our rock shelter with plenty of time to make dinner!
We had the place to ourselves (lucky as it only sleeps 3!) and quickly relaxed on the swing in front of a fire which we lit in the evening!

Will was very aware of the new surroundings and slept well after a tiring day on Mum's back!

The bear suit Granny Whitaker bought him was ideal for the occasion!

As you can see, the rock shelter is built into the 45 degree cliff wall and provides great protection if the weather turns sour - which it didn't!

We woke up and cooked porridge on the pot-bellied stove inside the shelter: We had a leisurely morning in the bush before heading back out, through wonderful scenery. Our shelter was at 2,680ft or 850m and used to be a base used by gold prospectors during the 1800's

Will sat back and took it all in!

The 7/8km walk went by easily due to the beautiful native bush and birds which came out to eat the flies and grubs we disturbed

Will eventually fell asleep with his face on his toy which squeaked with every step Bernie made!

In the past we have found plenty of dead native snails, which are mostly nocturnal and are carnivorous - sucking up large worms like spaghetti, but we finally found a live specimen on the side of the track:

We arrived back at the car to be greeted by two Kea - native parrots which squawked and flew around the tree tops near us.

We had a lovely 2 days and it really made the weekend feel a lot longer. Bernie had us prepared for every eventuality, yet we still travelled light. Will was on great form and is such an adaptable lad - hopefully this will continue for a very long time!

To see a video of us at the shelter, click here

2011-10-12T09:34:00.007+13:00

Our little lad turned 6 months yesterday and has been making us laugh and sing like school kids throughout! He is still very tall for his age and is a happy and healthy boy who loves Bobby... Bobby loves him too for all of the tit-bits that end up on the floor! As mentioned previously, we have just returned form our favourite place in the world - the Marlborough Sounds (and not because of the world class Marlborough wine!) because of the labyrinth of islands and sounds, the bush and cool properties like the one we stayed in which had a fire bath (a bit better than mine sadly!)

Will wore the flash new rash vest Grandma Whitaker bought him (aged 9 months+!), which was super handy!We took Will kayaking out into this bay where we caught the large fish which Will ate for the next 3 evenings! (the picture is of our mates who joined us - pics of us on their camera!)

I look a bit like Stevie Wonder, but the sun is quite strong in these parts... you can see the hand line (yellow round thing) I caught the fish on - easy life!

Will found the gentle lapping of the waves very therapeutic and despite being swaddled in his very own life jacket, coats and two hats, seemed to have a very relaxing cruise on our 6m boat..

So much so, that he fell asleep!

Will is eating well - we have opted for baby led feeding, so he feeds himself, and we give him most foods that we eat, including biltong (beef jerky for any non-Saffas!)

There is more mess this way, but as mentioned, Bobby comes in quite handy!

Bernie and Will shared an incredibly special moment recently... (I got the light wrong though!)

Remember the movie... I had to settle for the same with Bobby...!

Our clever lad quickly mastered the ability to drink out of his sipper cup

Here's Bobby chilling at our bach

This is the bush surrounding the bach, there is a BBQ and an outdoor sink for gutting fish... the sea was a 3 minute walk down the road

Here's Will with his girlfriend Issy - they love looking at and touching each other.

We're really enjoying family time this school holidays - nearly 2 weeks left too! We're off swimming at lunch time and have a B-day BBQ with friends tonight. I need to do plenty of work on the garden, which is now bursting into life and we have more chickens on order to boost our egg supply. Our king fishers have returned to breed in the tree in front of our house too - summer is on its way! I put down a barrel of home brew last night which was an ale kit, beefed up with grapefruit and honey - both from our garden... thought I'd experiment a little!

Enough ramblings, love and best wishes to one and all - visit soon! CBW! x

Happy Holiday's!!

2011-10-11T15:31:00.002+13:00

Hey All!

We've just returned from 3 nights in the Marlborough sounds and had an awesome time with our mates in a beautiful bach (holiday house) surrounded by native bush.

Will had his first kayaking experience and was chuffed to see his Dad haul in a large fish which we BBQ'd and also made fish cakes out of (yes, it was that big!).

I have only uploaded videos so far so here's Will eating

Here's Bernie and Will in the outside fire bath

And me and my boy in the same bath

We ate well, drank lots of home brew and watched some very defensive rugby - Go All Blacks!

Pictures to follow soon...

World Cup Rugby

2011-10-04T17:16:00.005+13:00

The World Cup came to Nelson for 3 games - the biggest of which was Australia v Russia. A mate and I dressed as Bears and heaps of other locals had come out to support the Russian Bears against the Kiwi enemy number 1 - Australia! It was all good banter and there were heaps of try's including 3 from Russia which went down very welll!

Will was on great form and occasionaly looked up from his grapes to ponder the different styles of play... Despite a bit of unseasonal rain, we have some awesome weather on the horizon - in time for the school hols which start in 3 days! We're off to our favourite place on Earth - the Marlborough Sounds (see previous posts) with friends and our two dogs and kayak!

Will is eating really well and doing so well at feeding himself click here

He is playing more and more, trying to crawl and laughs heaps as can be seen here

Bernie is doing such a fab job as Mum still - our Boy is the happiest and healthy baby we could have every hoped for and all thanks to her love and deication. They went to their baby massage course today and are going to the cinema for a speacial screening for Mums and Bubs in the theatre with huuuge leather couches! We'll be venturing out in our double kayak with Will this weekend (I promise not to take any risks!) which will be the first of many such adventures for sure!

Love to you all,

CBW! x

Nayland's Got Talent!

2011-09-21T20:18:00.003+12:00

Our school holds an annual talent competition with students pulling out the stops to out-do each other with drums, dancing, singing and lip-sync.

Us teachers put in an effort of our own for fun - check it out here

Will continues to eat, sleep, grow and stay happy and healthy. We're loving experimenting with food - we let him feed himself which makes for heaps more mess, but also heaps more fun we reckon!

He goes swimming once a week and is very enthusiastic! He loves his music too and has encouraged me to take up the guitar again... good times!!

Will 'avin a laugh!

2011-09-16T17:04:00.000+12:00

Youtube video here

All's Will!!

2011-09-10T16:42:00.005+12:00

Our William is 5 months old tomorrow and is thriving. He usually wakes once a night for a feed, but sometimes sleeps continuously for 12 hours, which is heavenly!

We have begun feeding him solids - this broccoli came through his body unchanged!

He doesn't sleep much in the day - he's only like this for 20/30 mins and then wakes and plays for a while:
We took him for his first swim t'other day and he loved it. Despite the fact that we don't have a bath, he took to it really quickly:
And began splashing like mad!

I have been taking evening classes in Te Reo - Maori language and culture. It was a fantastic course and I learned heaps. Today we went to the local marae and were greeted onto the sacred meeting place before giving a pepeha (speech) and then getting stuck into a lot of good kai (food!). Bernie and Will came along and Will was fascinated by the beautiful carvings and art inside - you're not allowed to photograph inside so you'll have to come and visit yourselves!

Bernie and Will sat outside - bottom right:

You take your shoes of here before going inside

We have also been giving Will his own toothbrush and he loves copying us:

Kat (a friend who lives in Sydney) designs sunglasses and sent us a couple of pairs - how cool?!

We went to the beach last weekend and Will and I enjoyed some raw carrot after a long Kayak (Will stayed on the beach this time but will be heading out in the summer!)

He made me an awesome Father's day card (on headboard) and helped unwrap my pressie!

Here's Bernie on her birthday - we walked into town for a Turkish lunch in the sunshine:

And Will helped Bernie open her pressies too!

Will now has a nice wooden high chair - he isn't too stable yet so only has short bursts in there as he builds his muscles.

Bernie has been persevering with eco nappies over the past few months in an effort to reduce the waste we produce. Will will be weighed and measured again soon, but is visibly growing each day! He still doesn't cry much and spends a good amount of time playing with simple toys. His favourite past time is eating - from the breast and spoon. We are letting him feed himself which makes for more mess, but more fun! He is adept with a spoon already (see vid on next blog entry) and does well with a little assistance.

Love to one and all,

CBW! x

Will Feeding

2011-09-10T16:39:00.002+12:00

Will is just about to turn 5 months old and we've begun weening him onto 'solids' - 'mushies' would be a more appropriate word though!

He loves chomping on banana, raw veggies and pureed veggies as can be seen here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m71-cD_HTEg

Warm winters and Wonderful William!!

2011-08-27T10:12:00.008+12:00

Will is still rocking our world and continues to be an angel - eating, sleeping and interacting really well. We have fed him tiny amounts of fruits and mashed veggies, and will be weaning him properly soon. His amber necklace appears to have helped to reduce the hot-red cheeks he suffered with when he first began to chomp on things with his gums - we also reckon he looks pretty groovy with it on too - as do his various girly friends! He loves jigging to music and listening to stories as seen here (we read from a story book whilst he looks at picture books!) He often feeds up nicely before falling asleep on the breast with the most serene expression, which is only partially captured here:

He is getting closer to rolling on his own, and loves doing his turtle impression to look around whilst on his belly!

The climate was a small factor in us choosing NZ as a place to live, but we have been sooo spoilt over the past few months. An initially wet winter has turned into a dry and sunny one and I have recorded temperatures over 20 degrees whilst sat having lunch or a drink on our veranda overlooking the bush-clad hills of Nelson. I've been getting out into the hills on a regular basis with Bobby and my mountain bike and get spoilt to views like these:

I recently got to spend the day testing the water quality of our local rivers and streams with an ecologist from Nelson council. I have a vested interest in learning more about this topic as Bobby and I go swimming in various swimming holes through spring to autumn - fortunately all of our upstream sites are perfectly clear and good enough to drink, such as this favourite spot which is about 8 metres deep and crystal clear:

But its not long until I'm home with our little lad:

You can see Will on youtube here jabbering away and exploring my face!

Where is 2011 going to?

2011-08-12T22:44:00.005+12:00

My, how time flies when you're having fun! The days seem to turn to weeks and months; we're already in August, and Will is 4 months old.

He is such a delight and having Chris home for 2 weeks in July was just sublime. His relationship with Will changed a lot in that time with lots of giggles and screeches, endless babbling and miles of smiles! Not sure who was making more noise - Chris or Will, but they seem to have so much fun together.

Will's favourite toy is his ball from Shirley and Paul. He reaches for it and passes it from hand to hand, sticking his tongue through it and looking at it for ages.

On Saturday 6 August we walked up to the Centre of New Zealand - a hill which is geographically the centre of NZ (halfway between the northern most and southern most points of the country and conveniently at the top of a hill overlooking Nelson!) and planted our placenta there. It is a custom of the Maori people and in the past few years the Nelson City Council have provided native trees to plant on top of the placenta. We chose a Totara which is a hardy prickly bush that should grow tall and sturdy, hopefully like our William! It was a very special and spiritual day for our Whitaker family.

Bobby would have preferred to chase sticks, but was well behaved!

Here's us with some friends who were also burying their placenta's - there were 60 families in total and we had a Maori preacher carry out a little ceremony beforehand...

Will's girlfriend Isabella is with her parents Matt and Tish (right) and Penny is with parents Kelly and David. Both families have moved to Nelson from Christchurch following all the earthquakes there. Will spends a lot of time with Issy and Penny, especially after story time at the Library each Wednesday when we go to Tish's house for tea and playtime.

Will was recently weighed and measured and continues to be in the 99th percentile for height. Bernie is still exclusively feeding him with her milk, which is obviously the perfect blend of nutrients for him. He is still a very happy and healthy boy who is interacting, laughing and jigging around more and more each day! Long may that continue...

Shake, Rattle and Roll!!

2011-07-06T18:14:00.004+12:00

We are all doing well this winter and look forward to our mid-winter Xmas bash with a group of about 20 friends at the end of the month. It always feels a bit weird to celebrate Xmas in the middle of summer, so this is our attempt to have a proper Xmas meal and booze-up!

Will is getting bigger and stronger each week

And smiles more too
We are still both loving our showers together

And Will is starting to believe he can fly!

Will has progressed from hitting out at toys, to holding them briefly and on his 12th weekday, he held and shook his rattle for the first time!

Which made us both burst with pride!

Will has also been making progress on his tummy - click here!

Whitaker update

2011-06-28T11:15:00.003+12:00

11-week old Will has been jibber-jabbering to himself more and more recently as can be seen here He is still lavishing us with miles of smiles (more footage here)and continues to eat and sleep well too.

Bernie is still an awesome Mum, making time to take Will on walks with the dog and a weekly session at the library where there are stories and songs for toddlers - Will is by far the youngest, but loves stories already - we read to him regularly - more smiles!

I have damaged a ligament in my knee playing football (boo!) and have a week off school with my wife and son (yeah!). I have a follow-up appointment at the hospital on Thursday and will hopefully be told it's not ruptured... fingers crossed!

Miles of smiles!

2011-06-22T18:15:00.003+12:00

The smiles keep on coming in the Whitaker house down-under. Will can often be seen smiling mid-feed, which always brings about the same effect upon us!

For those of you who enjoyed the previous video there is another of Will playing on his play mat here

Mum had her first night out last night and I had immense pleasure in giving him a bed-time bottle whilst Bernie enjoyed a chick-flick at the movies.

We have started reading to Will... do you think he enjoys it?!

So all is well here. Bernie enjoyed a lazy day with Will today, which was a rarity, but something I keep encouraging her to do... I'm off for a shower with my boy - living the dream!

Wonderful William!

2011-06-07T18:12:00.004+12:00

Will continues to delight and develop beyond our expectations!

Here he is with his girlfriend - born two days before Will...

William weigh's a shade under 6kg and showers us with smiles - you can see for yourself here

Whilst Will takes up a lot of our time, we have been so lucky (so far!), he even slept until gone 6am this morning!

Living the dream,

CBW(and Bobby!)

Family Fun!

2011-05-28T16:51:00.005+12:00

We have been fortunate enough to have both sets of Grandparents jet in from different continents to share our gorgeous William with us! The Whitakers arrived two weeks after Will was born, and enjoyed a mostly wet and windy 3 weeks (its not like that very often - honest!).

Will's first West Ham strip arrived in time for him to enjoy his first relegation experience - he has been randomly crying ever since!

The Whitaker's and Dupont's overlapped by a couple of days, which enabled us to be together for the only time other than our wedding. We had an excellent time, and managed to enjoy a glass of wine or two to celebrate! Bobby made sure we all had a full glass!

William soon worked out how to smile and regularly puts relegation behind him for a few moments, in order to make hearts melt!

We took both sets of Grandparents to the Marlborough Sounds - my favourite place in the whole world - yes, even more than Southwold I'm afraid (that's more about the people isn't it?!). We enjoyed walks, mussels and oysters (me mostly!) and gorgeous skies like this:

And this - do you see why I love it so much?!

We made advantage of the presence of Grandparent's and had an informal naming ceremony for young William. Bernie chose a lovely wooded area with giant Redwood trees dominating the area surrounding a quiet clearing. We each said a few words and even sang a song for the little man!

A few tears were shed - relegation still fresh on our minds!

William is growing really well. We have a Maori-focussed parenting group who work with us to monitor William and give us advice now the midwife's responsibility has finished. He was measured and weighed and finds himself in the 75th centile for weight and 91st centile for height. His legs in particular are growing really strong and he can push himself along the floor already using just these powerhouses! He held up his head (breifly of course) from just a few days old and is getting stronger by the day.

Bernie is feeding him home-made milk only still and doing a fantastic job. It amazes me that every molecule of his body has been provided by her... sorry, I'm a geeky science teacher!

Smiles are the best part of every day and I cant wait to return home for a few after a busy day at school. The Whitakers enjoyed a few, but the Duponts were spoilt to his first mini laugh on their final night here - I think I'll explode when he first talks!

Will has been lucky enough to have two holidays in his first 6 weeks of life. We cannot wait to be able to take him to more and more fantastic places here - particularly when the weather warms up and we can throw him in the sea!

So farewell from sunny Nelson (yes, the sun has returned!), we are so incredibly grateful for the endless thoughts, presents and cards we recieved from so many people. Will's room (now looking even cooler!) is packed full of clothes, toys and love - let the smiles roll on!!

Billericay!

2011-04-23T10:49:00.003+12:00

Thanks to (great?!) uncle Michael Whitaker for pointing out that William's name, when abbreviated might be mistaken for the Essex capital of Chav! Will Ariki = Bill Ariki = Billaricay...

Our young Kiwi lad is doing so well. He eats and sleeps really well and is being more and more active each day. His cheeks are filling out and we're looking forward to his next weighing - on Tuesday (with Grandma and Grandpa Whitaker present!). I'll eat my own face if he hasn't put on weight! Will has been pretty good to his mother and only requires a couple of feeds most nights - I do a bit of winding and settling down, but its hard to do much more without a pair of large breasts!

I get to have quite a bit of tummy time with my lad. We took him to a cranio sacral expert who specialises with children's physiology. He released a lot of tension in Will's neck which means that he has become incredibly floppy! Early indications were that he could hold his head up for long stints when lying down... this has now reduced and I'm sure the poor boy feels much more comfortable for it!

William doesn't cry much - only when he needs food or winding really. He is looking around the room much more and pulls all sorts of faces - building his muscles up for real smiles soon hopefully!
Bernie is continuing to do a fantastic job, with her ever-present sweet smile! We have had a builder in over the past few days who has woken us each morning by knocking down part of our wooden walled house! Amazingly, Bernie has taken all of this in her stride and hasn't been phased by it at all. Will has also slept through the cacophony and the front of our house is now waterproof which is quite nice! We don't get a lot of rain, but it does help!

Today we are taking William into Nelson for the first time - coffee shops and knick-knack stores out number the larger chain stores, we hope that doesn't change over the years. I've been called up to the first team for this weekends fixtures - and they're sticking me up front - desperate times for Metro FC! One of my teammates is having a bad taste fancy dress party tonight - he also has a young baby so Will is going to his first fancy dress party aged just 12 days old! I promise to drink all the alcohol so Bernie and William do not get poisoned!

I'm off to get ready for our jolly into town. Many thanks for all of the cards, flowers, gifts and well wishes from so many of you - particularly those whom we moved so far away from! Our love and best wishes to you all - we simply couldn't be any happier!

CBW! xxx

2011-04-18T15:04:00.004+12:00

This has got to be my favourite picture EVER! Will spends pretty much all of his time on the breast or sleeping - that's my boy! I have joined a football team - our pitch is 100 meters from our front gate! Rain on the weekend made for a bit of a mud-bath though! I scored and we won so happy days all around!I then managed to enjoy my first shower with my son - what an awesome experience!

In other news; We have planted various citrus, fig and plum trees, but there were already some healthy fruit trees in our garden when we moved in. The most successful are the Feijoa trees, which are ripe at the moment. I'd never heard of this bizarre fruit before coming to NZ and must admit that my first impression was that NZ'ers were a crazy bunch for loving this tangy, sweet-and-sour fruit, but Bernie and I have come to really love them too, which is fortunate, considering we have kilos and kilos ripening as I type. They are a similar size to a kiwi fruit, and you eat all, but the rind... you'll have to visit in order to try... like our parents will oh-so-soon!

We have had a few visitors and some lovely gifts from people - Will has a bigger wardrobe than Bernie and I put together, but to be fair, we don't shit ourselves quite as often as he does!

William Ariki Whitaker

2011-04-16T09:01:00.005+12:00

Ariki is a Maori name for: a paramount chief, high chief, chieftan, lord, leader, aristocrat, first born in a high-ranking family - qualities of a leader and is concerned with the integrity and prosperity of the land its treasures and people.

We chose this as a middle name as we want our Son to have an attachment to his birth place, and also we want to heap expectation that he will one day rule the land! Joking aside, it's a strong name which will hopefully make him more accepted by his peers in the area... that last bit was in jest too...

You cant quite see it, but he regularly sleeps like this with his hands clasped like a preaching minister! His doting mother is an absolute star:Will, like most babies, cries when having his clothes taken off, but immediately freezes when immersed in water - as if back in the womb. And stays like that for some time!

And on and on and on...

Ain't he a sweetie?!

Bobby is Will's big brother or guardian, and intently follows and watches him cry, feed and sleep. Bernie or I are always nearby, but Bobby really doesn't seem put out by Will - he just seems pleased for the extra company!

So as you can see, Will is sleeping well, but more importantly, he is feeding really well and has noticeably filled out already. Bernie is continuing to be an absolute legend and her aches and pains are subsiding without pain relief or antibiotics - I have sooo much respect to all women who go through that!!

We are yet to move onto the reusable Eco nappies, but have already produced a lot of rubbish from his nappy changes - so it wont be long. We have a lot of earthy / hippyish friends here with babies who have suggested some good natural products too, like almond oil as a moisturiser for his skin and sheepskins for his car seat and bed. He passed his hearing test with flying colours yesterday and we just pray that he keeps so happy and healthy... not that we know he's happy yet - facial expressions are more reminiscent of somebody trying to adjust their glasses without using their hands... amusing for us!

I managed to take most of the last week of the school term off, and now have a further 2 weeks with my beautiful wife and son - if only life could stay like this! Will only woke us once last night, twice the night before and didn't stay awake for long - I hope this honeymoon period keeps on rolling merrily along!

It's been great chatting to lots of you on Skype - it certainly bridges the gap and to think that Bernie's Brother in NZ has seen just as much of Will as family in South Africa and England, it goes a long way to bridging the gap we put between us!

It's 9:30am and back off to bed for more baby time!

Living the dream,

CBW xxx

Introducing William Whitaker!!

2011-04-13T20:22:00.005+12:00

This is literally seconds after William was born. At 8:38pm NZ time, 11 days early and already weighing 8lb 13oz / 4kg. The home birth plan was going fine until the head stopped passing through the cervix (he has a big head like his nephew Ben!) and after many hours of pushing, a talented man and his salad servers pulled our new favourite toy into the world!

We chose his name just after we found out Bernie was pregnant, but spent the next 8.5 months thinking of girls' names. That's probably the cause of all of our dreams which featured girls, not boys... we were both genuinely surprised when he came out instead of she (or hermaphorodite thank feck!) That's my boy - he's done a lot of suckling this past 48 hours!

Back at home aged approximately 24 hours after birth, Will fell asleep on my chest - so heavenly! God, this fatherhood thing makes you soppy!

He certainly sleeps a lot too!

Sadly, I had to go to work today and missed his first bath - he loved the water apparently:

His umbilical chord is set to fall off soon...

Bernie has amazing strength and and stamina and has bounced back in no time at all - she honestly looks awesome! Her loving nature is already being put to excellent use and we're simply buzzing at all of the wonderful things we'll be able to do with this wee lad as he grows up... we're already planning our first small holiday away when my parents join us in less than two weeks... no hiking or kayaking yet though I promise!

Many thanks for all of the well wishes in emails, cards and texts. We have not spent much time replying to you all so please don't be offended!

Time to play with my new boy! Speak soon,

Love from CB&W!x x x

B is for Beautiful, B is for Bernie!

2011-03-21T15:49:00.006+13:00

Apologies for the long absence of news from Nelson. Whilst Britain continues to thaw, we are still enjoying one of the best summers in living memory of Nelson's oldest and hardest to please residents.

The most important and exciting news is that Bernie is doing fantastically well. She and baby have been growing consistently, so much so that two weeks ago (aged 34 weeks) baby was an estimated 7 and a half pounds, which even made the radiologist wince and squirm in her chair!

Nevertheless, Bernie is her typically active and full-of-beans self and it is still a battle to get her to sit / lie down. Baby is equally active and causes Bernie to make regular "oooh's" and aaah's" as it flexes his/her muscles inside. I took this picture this very day - doesn't she look awesome?!?
Bernie recently had a Baby Shower (the name just freaks me out a bit and fortunately I didn't have to attend!), which she really enjoyed. We're fortunate enough to have a large circle of friends, mostly through school who are or have recently gone through child birth and we have managed to talk about little else for what seems like years! I celebrated in a more manly way - with a pint (or two!) of my fine home brew! My Mexican cerveca here enjoyed in an Adnams glass... very refreshing after a long bike ride!

We have managed to borrow a lot of baby gear from friends and family (mostly Paul and Shirley!) and pretty much everything bought has come from tradme (like ebay) including the change table, push chair, chest of drawers etc for a total of not very much... Also, it sounds as though our parents will be testing their baggage limit to the max when they fly here soon, whilst only bringing only one change of underwear for the entire month!

Bernie's rocking chair ($25 from a recycle centre!) is going to hide most of this part of the nursery, but I thought it best to start my artistic exploits here - hopefully my skills will improve... I last painted something almost twenty years ago... and yes, that is grey hair... thanks Dad!

The fish is a carving I can take no credit for, but the other creatures are just passable I think!

Although we've got a child on the way, we already have a beloved companion - Bobby. He has really taken to me and often pushes past Bernie to greet me when we return from work... I don't know why as its usually Bernie who feeds him! It might have something to do with the fact that we both love running around like headless chickens and play fighting... he is unbelievably affectionate for a dog though... he often falls asleep like that and then twitches his paws and barks quietly as he dreams of chasing balls!

I'm trying to toughen up his image though - a Harley Davidson bandanna has been donned, but he doesn't like looking at the camera for some reason... he smiles a lot!

Despite only having my bee hive for a few months, they have already spoilt me with 12 kilos of beautiful, golden honey. I filled 30 jars of various sizes for gifts and personal use. We've been using it in cooking from stewed apples to curry! I'm now in the pest control phase of bee ownership, with varroa and other diseases which attempt to decimate bee colonies. Everybody keeps telling me over and over again how I will not have time for anything other than work and baby related stuff once he/she is born. Nevertheless, I've joined a football team who play within 50m of our house and hope to be able to keep the bees, garden and the odd bit of biking going over the next few months... only time will tell!

Bernie has spent many an hour making some awesome curtains for the nursery. I cannot imagine the long process involved in making all the pleating and getting them looking so neat, but Bernie has done an awesome job. They look a bit garish in the picture, but they really suit the sea/sky theme of the nursery:

We're now 31 days from due date, but we're both praying for an earlier birth - not just so I get time off before the school holiday's, but it would be ace for us to have a little getting-to-know-each-other time before our beloved family arrives, and I don't want Bernie to have to squeeze out a ten pound beast!

We're still planning for a home birth and birth pool will hopefully be used as and when Bernie feels like one... we've got to get this new triathlete in training as early as possible to maximise training for... only joking, I just want something comfortable to lie in whilst Bernie gets all the attention!

Love and best wishes from Chris, Bernie, Bobby and Bump!

Another day in paradise!

2011-02-05T10:42:00.005+13:00

Our weekly Thursday night sea swim race is always a refreshing highlight of the week. Numbers of participants have been rising steadily and we were all treated to a small pod of Orcas which used our swim course as a feeding ground before, during and after the race! There were 5 or 6 of them and some people were fortunate enough to see them eating sting ray's - their staple diet in these waters. A calf was also very visible and speaks well of the health of the group. A lot of swimmers were a bit nervous to swim with the huge dolphins, but there is no recorded event of an Orca attacking a swimmer so we all persevered - looking extra hard as an underwater 'fly-by' would have been great!

A friend of ours was paddling in a canoe and was treated to a broadside little more than a metre from her boat! We have heard of many sightings of this pod - resident to the area, but this was the first time we've been fortunate enough to see them. Click here for the newspaper story.

Talking of newspapers, I had a letter to the editor printed in the Nelson Mail! I am dabbling with local politics(!) by putting pressure on our mayor who is trying to push through permission to build a new road through our local community. We live in the most multicultural part of Nelson (a far cry from the diversity in the UK though!) and a lot of work has been done to improve what used to be a run-down area with few public facilities and no sense of community. Many of us locals are upset that the mayor wants a fast road through the middle of our park, shops and community centre, which regularly hosts festivals, a market and community events. This road has been argued over for decades apparently, but this mayor is fighting hard.

We had swim sports day at school yesterday. This involved competition races as well as fun races such a the dry teacher carry, which is pretty self-explanatory! I got involved a bit more and had a good rivalry with a senior student who competes at national level in the pool... I let him win honest!

Bernie and I bottled up 25 litres of lager last night and put a new brew of dark ale in the barrel. We are having a heatwave at the moment with temperatures in the 30's over the past few days, which means that the brew ferments in 4 days instead of 7-10 days like it did in the UK!

Bernie is in town having coffee (decaf!) with a friend and we're going to head up a local river for a swim soon to cool off! Bernie is finding this heat quite uncomfortable, but is handling it really well. Only 75 days to due date!

Love and best wishes from sunny Nelson! x x

Old School Style!

2011-01-31T14:09:00.004+13:00

Not only is school back in full swing, but Bernie and I are getting back to some old-school techniques. We regularly go to a recycle centre in Nelson, where people take junk and things they don't need anymore. We have bought things like juicers, balls for Bobby, wood for DIY, plant pots, pans etc, etc. We recently found a soda stream machine - in 80's beige and couldn't resist! We enjoyed our first concoction this afternoon - to celebrate another old-school past-time revisited, brewing! We've got a barrel of beer bubbling away and will be ready for bottling in just 3/4 days due to our warm climate. I used to brew at home in Oxford and at Uni but beer got so cheap in the supermarkets, like most people, I stopped. Over here, beer is not as cheap, plus friends have been brewing for a while and produce dark ales and stouts far superior to the very bland beer which predominates the market here. Here's our celebratory drink - notice the authentic glass soda stream bottles!

The great weather keeps on coming and we have enjoyed some beautiful sunsets out on our veranda.

Bernie is still keeping busy and we enjoyed a lovely walk up into the hills above Nelson again today with Bobby. She is still baking her own bread and inspired me to make some fresh pesto today with the glut of basil grown in the garden. Cakes, deserts and hummus are regular products of Bernie's kitchen experimentation - all delicious and nutritious!

We have ploughed through a long list of little jobs this holiday, but there is still much more to do before our house is ship-shape... things like yesterday's 4km sea swim are enjoyable distractions and we cant wait to take our child exploring with us soon!

Love and best wishes,
C&B

White Water Whitaker!

2011-01-29T17:57:00.003+13:00

What better way to handle the hot summer days than to go river kayaking?! My good friend at school happens to be the head of Outdoor Education and has kindly decided to teach me how to white water kayak. We spent a couple of days practising in quite calm rapids near school, before heading deeper inland for some more gnarly (get with the lingo!) grade 2 rapids today.

The following pictures weren't taken by us, but show the same places we passed through - the day was clear and hot, the water was clear and warm. We began by 'dropping in' just upstream from the waterfall below - it might not be Victoria Falls, but was still quite a buzz flying over the middle of it!

We paddled through unspoilt bush and rock formations with birds around us and fish beneath us - its an awesome way to sight-see in NZ's finest native bush:

The water was amazingly clear:

And we ended up here for a swim... in fact I ended up turning over twice en route - but the swim was very refreshing!
We finished off with a nice swim, cliff jump and a walk around the native forest with some of the largest trees I've seen in NZ. Roast chicken is in the oven and my kayaking mate is about to come around with a selection of 7 different brews he brewed himself - not a bad way to start the long weekend!

Bernie is growing really well and baby is moving almost constantly! Just 80 days to due date and a little over 5 weeks to the final scan... Our chicken eggs are 9 days from due date too - how do they grow so fast?!

Love to all,
C&B! x x

Sea Swim-tastic!

2011-01-27T20:25:00.003+13:00

We have just got home from our weekly Thursday night sea swim race and scoffed a steak with new potatoes and corn-on-the-cob to replenish our reserves after another ace swim.

An afternoon sea breeze whipped in to make the sea choppy and the current made it hard to navigate between the buoys which mark the courses, but we both loved it!

I am so proud of Bernie, she completes the shorter swim course each week, but still at a healthy rate - she beat another school teacher who did an Ironman not long ago and he was wearing a wetsuit (makes you faster) and was without child (surprisingly!).

The picture below doesn't do the choppy waves justice - it is always magnified when you're in it, but the sea is still warm and a good night was had by all as always. I beat a few of my adversaries, which was good after a poor show last race. This weekend is another endurance race - a comparatively short 2km swim from a boat house to a gold sandy beach... there's the 3.8km Ironman swim coming up towards the end of Feb... not sure if Bernie will lead that one out or not!!

Below is a snapshot from the Nelson web cam - it's very hard to see us dots (moving from right to left) amongst the kayakers who provide safety assistance if required. We long race swimmers swam right out to the platform in the water top left below the trees... and back:

Bernie is coping well with work and I'm still getting her to do a bit of digging every now and again. She is starting to complain at carrying me home from the pub on a Friday night though... (I might be fibbing a bit there so please don't send offensive emails... she's more than happy to carry me home!)

Ante natal classes are still fun, with a fair bit of role play last night, and there was a lot of wincing at the plastic pelvis and doll birth simulation - I think the doll lost both ears and its nose which made a few mothers-to-be wince somewhat! The guys seemed excited to hear that labour lasted upwards of 8 hours rather than the expected 2-3 hours we thought we'd have to spend in the pub - that will be a long drinking session!!

Sadly school starts tomorrow (without kids - yey!), we have a public holiday on Monday though thank God... its hard being a teacher!

Love to all,
C&B! x x

Youtube Stars!

2011-01-22T14:30:00.004+13:00

I thought I'd try to communicate with snippets of our life here in NZ via video to the rest of the world... everybody else is doing it!

Try clicking here it is my first (and very poor) attempt!

And here is Bobby being Bobby Dazzler!

And here is the beautiful Bernadette in da kitchen!

The Holidays Are Nearly Over!

2011-01-22T13:22:00.004+13:00

Poor us! After 6 long weeks of sun, sea, Sydney, swimming, sgardening, sdecorating and meeting up with friends, we are reaching the end of the summer holidays. Bernie starts back on Monday, still on 30 hours at the moment - her boss is fine with her reducing the number when necessary. I don't have to go in until Friday, but will go in before hand to move into a more centrally located laboratory (woop-woop!) and prepare for the whopping 5 subjects I'll be teaching this year - Science, Maths, Horticulture, PE and Conservation... variety is the spice of life as they say... I guess I'm quite like a curry...

Bad jokes aside, we decided to do one of our favourite walks this morning - up into the hills (Grampians) above sunny Nelson and tried to tire out our tireless dog... which is by definition, impossible! We took it nice and slow and made the steep ascent at a comfortable pace for Bernie - allowing me heaps of time to stop and throw sticks to Bobby.

Once at the top we spent a good while taking in the beautiful landscape of Nelson and surrounding wineries, mountains, beaches and islands. Our house is approximately where Bernie's left shoulder is and the place where I've swum with dolphins and we've both kayaked with a Southern Right Whale, is next to Bernie's left eye:

We practiced our cheesy grins - I didn't realise my face creased up this much!

We managed to wrestle Bobby's stick away from him for a quick moment to get him in on the cheesy grin effort - he smiles more than the pair of us combined!!

Looking inland towards the wineries and Monaco - where we used to live (the dog-legged finger of land projecting into the estuary)

It was bang on high tide and a large boat set-off for some distant land... the picture doesn't reflect the very rugged topography of Nelson:

Our first ante natal session went well t'other day - an interesting bunch of couples and plenty of humorous conversation about wind, back-ache and tiredness - and that was just from us men!! We got a little overwhelmed by the presentation on car seats, but if anybody wants to give us $1,200 for an all singing, all dancing child booster seat then I'll send you our bank details! We have another 5 weeks of these sessions and alongside the multitude of books we've acquired over the years, we're getting better prepared for meconium ('google images' it if you dont know!), sleepless nights and temper tantrums.... yeah right!

In reality, we're trying to enjoy our last slice of 'easy life' and have a couple more BBQ's, sea swims and beautiful walks before school begins on Monday... 87 days to due date!

C&B! x x

Feelin' Broody!

2011-01-19T16:07:00.002+13:00

As promised in my previous post, we headed out to a farm nestled amongst some of the regions finest wineries and picked our own fruit. By heading out of Nelson we paid much less for our fruit - paying $6 (less than 3 quid) for about 3 kilos of juicy Boysenberries! As I type, a huge pan of Boysenberry Jam is boiling away behind me!

Here's B (and bump!) at the farm:

We then drove to another farm and bought 6 fertile eggs tio put under our broody bantam. On the farm were aviary birds, peacocks, chickens of all shapes and sizes as well as large rabbits - I asked if I could buy one to eat and to my surprise she said people do buy them for that purpose - they're just a bit too expensive for that!

Here's Bernie, relaxing in the evening with a very comfortable Bobby who loves curling up on the floor, a chair or on the bean bag with either of us - he only has 3 months of so much attention left!

I finally finished the nursery off this morning! Some might say its tacky, but we like it - we're a bit nervous to start painting fish and birds though... we're no artists!

Bernie has been going to aqua natal classes - aerobics in the pool for mums-to-be. We have our first ante natal class this evening too, which is very exciting. A bit more tiredness and aches and pains for Bernie, but she's still keeping pretty busy - I nag her constantly to sit down, but you know what she's like!

Ciao for now,

C&B

Fancy a dip?!

2011-01-16T10:58:00.002+13:00

Here's us enjoying our inaugural dip in our new deluxe pool... its not quite Olympic distance, but it was a great way too cool off last night... Bobby wasn't as keen, but looked on with interest!

Its now Sunday morning and we're off to the beach with Bobby. We'll go fruit picking on the way home (boysenberries and blackberries) before picking up some fertile eggs to stick under our broody bantam so we can eat roast chicken with our parents in 3 months time!

A boozy (for me) BBQ this afternoon with friends by the sea... 25 degrees and rising... we love school holidays!!

Living the dream,

C&B!!

Hot and

2011-01-15T11:21:00.003+13:00

The summer keeps on rolling on here in sunny Nelson! We typically record around 2,500 sunshine hours in a year, compared with 1,500 in London.

We have filled our child-to-be's paddling pool in order to cool off... no pictures of that, but here's a snapshot of where we eat most of our meals, with Kingfishers and other birds flying around us:

B is still growing and glowing fantastically well - 7 weeks until the next scan which will hopefully give us the all-clear for a home birth as opposed to a dreaded C-section, which has become a swear word in our house! Fingers crossed!

I have all but abandoned triathlon training for the more responsible but equally arduous and satisfying DIY movement! We are having a gender-neutral sea and sky theme and hope to get family and friends to paint a fish or bird when they visit. Here's me in action:

As always, Bernie wants to be fully involved, but this is one job I've insisted on doing in order to prevent B from breathing in the fumes. It is nice to be able to prepare for the birth in this small way - us blokes are really left out of the pregnancy thing... not that I'm complaining!

I had a funny experience today - messaging Ellie Key and Phil Salisbury and suddenly had to deal with an egg-bound chicken (egg stuck up bottom) - I managed to give Ellie a full (text) commentary on the removal of the problematic egg whilst she is on the other side of the world... technology eh?!

So far both of our parents are set to join us around baby birth time (94 days to due date!), Phil and Margaret are going to visit and get a bit of skiing in, Paul, Shirley and Bradley plan to visit when baby is a bit older and cousin Rosie is hopefully visiting us in the winter with a Kiwi boyfriend - good taste girl! Hopefully even more of you are able to plan a visit here soon!

Bernie has just poured me a cider and we're off to the paddling pool to cool down - its gone 6pm and still hot - living the dream!

Love and best wishes to all,

C&B x x

A few more pictures from Sydney!

2011-01-07T15:33:00.002+13:00

No, these aren't pictures of the England cricket team doing 'The Sprinkler' at the SCG (we could have extended our trip if we had known upon booking... oh well!). Here are a few more pictures of the beautiful Bernadette and I in Sydney and the New South Wales area:

This is in Jarvis Bay - south of Sydney: Me, Bernie, Phil, Kat and John

This is at Joanne's (B's cousin) apartment in Western Sydney, Sven and Joanne in the middle:

Phil managed to organise us tickets to a New Year's bash in a lawn bowls club! The music was pounding until 7am (no joke!), but we didn't last that long - Kat began making rainbow fountains just after midnight and so the girl's left (B did manage a little boogie first - our baby's first dancefloor experience!), leaving John, Phil and I to party on.. we are obviously getting older as we were back byefore 3am... although the port did come out to stretch out the evening a little! Here's Phil, Bernie and I inside the Bowls Club rave!

We went north west of Sydney to a river (no Crocs fortunately!) where Phil got to try water skiing for the first time - he rocked!!

Phil also cooked us (he loves to cook!) a lovely BBQ in Jarvis Bay... I must learn how to smile properly!

We visited an historic lighthouse (ruined) and Bernie really let her hair down... literally!

I am presently sat in our study which has begun transformation into a nursery. I feel very proud of myself for the simple victory of getting Bernie to have an afternoon nap. Needless to say, she has been on the go a fair bit as we simultaneously try to keep the mass of vegetation in our garden under control, decorate the nursery, sell unwanted furniture and clutter (we are such hoarders!), decorate the downstairs flat and read a million and one books on babies, bees and vegetarian recipes... we've decided to eat only fish and meat that hasn't been farmed for a bit - thanks to an advert on Aussie TV... Most of you probably don't know that I was veggie for 6 months whilst at Uni (largely to allow more beer money!) and it is our green / healthy / impulsive parents-to-be resolution for 2011... I've also now not had a drink since Jan 1st (well technically I was still drinking at 2am Jan 2nd, but who's counting?!

Here's to a happy (and healthy) 2011... maybe I should run a poll on how long I last!

Sunny Sydney!!

2011-01-05T14:39:00.012+13:00

We have recently returned from a 12 day sojourn away from the relentless sunny weather we are enjoying in Nelson, to the sunshine capital Sydney. We are both tired (me from boozing, Bernie from growing a baby!) and glad to be in the comfort of our own, but here are a few of our happy memories from an awesome city.

Bernie and I toured around the city and loved the fact that there is a vast river network with smallish buildings dotted along the banks, instead of the massive high-rise blocks which sit imposingly along the Thames... the water is also blue not brown!

We borrowed one of Phil and Margaret's (our very good friends and hosts for the 12 days) iPhone and a highlight of the trip for me was using the map function to navigate (and watch a virtual navigation on screen) around the city!

Xmas morning with wife and baby - living the dream!

This cool lizard stood eating the insects that swarmed around us as we took its picture - everybody's a winner... except the insect I suppose!

Despite swimming as regularly as I could, I have still managed to put on 5 kilos over Xmas - not as young as I used to be! Some much needed cloud too!

Xmas breakfast consisted of large shrimps and smoked salmon with bread whilst the temperature soars!

Phil was the maestro and cooked ham, turkey, veggies and of course yorkshire puddings for us all whilst the ladies panicked for some reason!

I helped a little at the beginning and end - preparing and then hacking into the Ham, which is still being consumed by the extended family as of Jan 5th!

There were heaps of Cockatoos and (flaming!) Galas around the suburbs out to the west of Sydney where Margaret's parents live.

Xmas day - we needed regular cooling off sessions in the paddling pool! By the end of the day it got really warm and Phil and I were taking running dives into it!

The Opera House was much smaller than I expected, it was also beige and not white like pictures show it... impressive nonetheless.

The Sydney harbour bridge was as big as expected and we wanted to do the walk over the top arch (see the ants walking up the left hand arch?!), but obviously not a good idea when B is 24 weeks pregnant!)

There is so much for the tourist to see - we pawed over the Opals in an Opal museum (even significantly reduced they were still out of our budget!). We loved the Navy ship and Submarine parked alongside:

We cruised around the city and were impressed by the clean and compact place which is easy to scoot around as tourists.

Our favourite Sydney beach was Manly. Our travel card enabled us to ride on the buses, trains and ferries which weave all around the city and is vast water network. Manly is to the north of the main city and takes about 10 mins to get to. Despite this, it is clean, not too busy and has a great holiday atmosphere - not like Benidorm by any stretch!

It was rather contrived looking at the typical Xmas tree when its over 30 degrees and there are palm trees in the background, we had to have a photo!

So we celebrated with a monster ice cream... well we each had a big ice cream and the picture happened to overlap!

We managed to meet up with Joanne (Bernie's cousin) and her boyfriend Sven a few times which was really nice. They live West of Sydney and spoilt us with more fine wines and food!

We visited Bondi beach on Xmas eve. Bars and restaurants flow onto a big sandy beach with pounding surf... unfortunately we didn't have time for me to try surfing... I was quite relieved!

I had a swim, but it was survival rather than swimming! The pictures don't do the swell (or me!) justice!

Xmas day and the Adnams was flowing - Phil had managed to find two cases of the beautiful brown nectar for us to enjoy over the festive period along with the odd case of wine! Bernie and baby enjoyed a small glass of Champagne too!

We ate our sumptuous Xmas dinner with the blinds shut and air-conditioning on full blast in order to escape the 35 degree heat!

The blue mountains are inland from Sydney and are named for there obvious colour. The three columns in the foreground are called the three sister and have importance to Aboriginal culture - as does the whole region. Although it has similarities to the NZ bush, it is much more arid and filled with poisonous things for us to want to venture out for days on end as we do in NZ!

An awesome blow-hole which spurted water some 50 metres into the air!

We headed down to coast about 150km to a remote bay with Maraget's sister Kat and her fiance John joining Phil, Margaret, Bernie and I. It is very quiet and boasts the worlds whitest sand (which squeaks when you scuff your feet!). Here's Kat, John and Margaret having a dip to cool off!

There were dozens and dozens of gorgeous parakeets hounding people for food. There are signs instructing people not to feed them as they become dependent on people and many die in winter, but that didn't stop people!

The trees were filled with them too!

We had so much sun and plenty of beach time on this holiday and we are so indebted to Phil and Margaret for all they did for us whilst we there there, but it is always nice to come home!

Since arriving home, I have attacked the relentless lawn and weeds in the garden and have attempted to wear the Bobby (who is fully fixed) by taking it up mountains on my bike. Bernie has been pottering around the house, making it right again after our house sitters left. We are waiting for our midwife to visit us. She visits once a month and checks B's health, answers questions, signs us up for ante natal classes and best of all, listen to baby's heart. Bernie and I have both dreamed that we're having a girl, but I think we're having a boy still... 15 weeks to go (hopefully!)

Happy New Year to all who know us - whilst you're all so far away, we think about family and friends constantly.

Here's to an awesome 2011!
Love from Chris and Bernie

Fun in the Sun!!

2010-12-15T13:49:00.004+13:00

The weather is not the reason we moved to Nelson... but it certainly helps!

Here's a typical day in the Wonderful World of the Whitakers...

B got up early and walked the dog (still with his lamp-shade on unfortunately!) around the leafy streets of Nelson. I got up a little later and had a nice long bike ride up into the mountains around Nelson and listened to many of our favourite birds sing as I wound through the forest for hours. I got back home, showered (I was literally drowning in sweat!) before heading to the bike shop of the guy who sponsors me - he services my bikes for free and is a good guy to know when getting gear. B did a bit of shopping in town - buying bits and bobs for Xmas before we head over seas next week. I headed to school and cleared out the forest of tomatoes that were growing in the hort yard at school - the tomatoes are grown in a perspex walled shed in order to get plenty of light and to trap the warmth - it was 38.5 degrees today! I also harvested blackcurrants, carrots and loquats, which are nice, juicy orange fruit I had never heard of before http://http//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loquat Bernie and bump picked me up and we had a good yarn with a few other teachers about our various holiday plans, making plans for adventures in the new year - we're so spoilt for choice! We were then going to head to the outdoor pool again, but there was a 'code brown' the day before - somebody used the pool as a toilet so we headed to the sea instead. Below is a screenshot from Nelson's webcam which is at http://www.takeabreak.co.nz/accommodation/nelson.asp (click on the webcam icon and when it has loaded you can scroll across the page to see pics from the previous 10-12 hours) and goes a small way to show how gorgeous the sea is - we literally parked on the side of the road, walked down about 5 steps on the sea wall and jumped into the clear, warm sea: We drove home after our refreshing swim and Bernie helped me cut my hair... I kept telling her to cut all the white / silver ones, but she didn't seem to differentiate!

I now sit at the computer with a well deserved Brandy and Coke whilst Bernie bakes homemade bread in the oven... A few more jobs ticked off the long holiday-to-do-list and there are another 3 hours of sunshine to keep my bees busy! We were given 30 scallops (in exchange for some of B's delicious mince pies!) caught by a friend yesterday and will be enjoying those for dinner c'est soir!

We might go fishing off the kayak tomorrow, big Snapper have been reported throughout the bay so it would be nice to hook into those...

So, another action packed day in Nelson! Today marks the end of the 22nd week of B's pregnancy! I'm incredibly proud of the way she is walking, swimming, baking and keeping me and Bobby out of trouble. I have to fight to make her sit still some times, but she does listen to me... eventually!

Living the dream,

C&B! x x

Spring Honey!

2010-12-14T12:59:00.004+13:00

We just had our first taste of the delicious honey our bees have been indefatigably collecting over this amazing Spring! I had taken out a frame of drone (the males which live solely to have sex with a queen - during which time their genitals get ripped off!) eggs as a natural method of controlling varoa - a mite which can cause a hive to die if left alone. The larvae were fed to the chickens and today I needed to replace the frame - in its place was a nice slab of honeycomb filled with delicious honey!

I am becoming more confident when working the bees - I must admit that they still get my heart racing, but I felt a bit panicky on my first few hive inspections. I now feel a lot calmer and take care and time, making it more enjoyable... for me not them of course!

I still haven't seen the queen, below I'm checking to see that the honey frames are capped - meaning they are full and... capped off with wax!

If only you could see all of the bees - there were a few thousand checking out what I was doing! My colony are very placid apparently (doesn't feel like it some times!) and I only get a few trying to find a way into my suit - they make a distinctive high pitch buzz when on a mission to sting!

Here's the honeycomb I robbed - after brushing off the hundred or so workers who were desperately trying to devour it during the theft!

I look drunk, I'm not! I always get really hot inside the suit... the taste of honey was sensational - a slight bitter taste to it which I really liked.

If only you could taste it...!

An extra incentive to come and visit us here!

Making hay...

2010-12-14T11:38:00.003+13:00

Whilst the sun continually shines, we have been harvesting loads of veggies from the garden and also the school horticulture (hort) yard. My Y13 hort students grew hydroponic tomatoes (nothing else I assure you!) to sell to the public... unfortunately they only fruited after the seniors left, so I have been harvesting kilos of fruit over the past few weeks. Stir fry's and salads go some way to using the veggies, but we have both been toiling away in the kitchen experimenting with our own pickle, relish and chutney recipes... we check for a recipe on t'internet, but ignore what we find and make it up as we go along, which is much more fun!

To date we have pickled beetroot and onions, made two red tomato relishes and a green tomato chutney, using about 10 kilos of tomatoes:

Bernie likes to grow various shoots and beans for our stir fry's and salads too with the help of this funky contraption:

Further to this, I have had to buy another honey box and will shortly be spinning off two boxes worth of Spring honey from my bees. I have a new queen to introduce soon too as the current one is over the hill - I can still smell at the moment and I am putting it all down to being stung - I actually quite enjoy the buzz of being stung - no pun intended!

We're enjoying the start of our long summer holiday - we're off swimming soon in a lovely outdoor 50m pool this afternoon and I've been getting into the hills on my mountain bike - I found a cave network t'other day, deep in some native forest which was equally stunning...

Bernie is growing nicely and baby is moving around a lot still. She will be 22 weeks gone tomorrow - she will have another scan after 34 weeks due to the placenta being over the cervix in the previous scan. This is very common and usually moves as the baby grows... the worst news would mean a cesarean, but in our mid-wife's expansive experience, the baby nearly always moves it naturally over the next few weeks. We're still set on a home birth and ante-natal classes begin in late Jan which is exciting! We've been looking at names and like Adolf at the moment.

We're really excited about meeting up with Phil and Margaret in Sydney - they are still waiting for their furniture etc from the UK, but we will be out and about a lot - seeing the city, urban beaches (and surfing!), we're going to Margaret's parents for Xmas and heading down the coast for a few more days of rural beach life!

I hope all of you in the UK are enjoying the wintery feeling - listening to Xmas songs here is still bizarre, it is nice not having it rammed down your throat like it is in the UK!

Love and best wishes from C&B!

Merry Christmas!!

2010-12-04T17:18:00.002+13:00

It definitely doesn't feel like Christmas, but that isn't stopping Bernie from baking mince pies - to her Mother's recipe of course!

Temperatures have been in the mid twenties for some time now and thoughts of stockings by the fire seem a bizarre activity to pursue despite Christmas cards here depicting the traditional images befitting a northern hemisphere celebration!

Bernie, as you can see, is doing remarkably well, and is showing remarkably well too! Young Whitaker keeps bouncing around, much to his/her mother's delight as can be seen below (recipe in hand Liz!):

Bernie isn't knocking out as many as Liz and Georgie (her Mother and Aunt respectively) do each year, but she is working single handed due to me going for a blast on my road bike with mates instead of slaving away in the kitchen - horses for courses right?!

Tomorrow is the first endurance swim - a 2km swim from the beach towards the top left of the next picture, to the point from which the picture is being taken. In Feb there is a swim from the same beach, around the island to the right and all the way back to the far beach - 3.8km!

The garden is churning out more spinach, lettuce and Pak Choi than we can consume. Beetroot has been pickled, peas, tomatoes, rhubarb, broccoli, cauliflower etc etc all coming through too in various waves... I've still got a long way to go to match the steady stream my father produces, but I'm getting there slowly!

Poor old Bobby had a freak accident - so freaky nobody knows what happened! He ended up with a couple of dozen stitches and an inevitable scar - we think he wants to shake off the reputation his boyish good looks has earned him in the neighbourhood!

Just to add insult to injury, he has had 4 days recuperating inside and was taken for a check-up today, only to be rewarded with a lampshade to impede his ability to move around... the hyperactive behaviour has been replaced by an inability to move more than 6 inches without getting caught on a piece of furniture!:

You can tell that Bobby-Dazzler (as uncle Mike calls him!) is having a great run-up to Christmas!

We have 3 days of lessons next week, followed by a prize giving morning, followed by a drunken golf session, followed by a drunken leaving speeches / BBQ day.... then school's out for seven weeks of summer!!

As if we aren't enjoying enough sun, sea and summer fun, we're off to Sydney in two weeks time - we fly from Christchurch so it will be interesting to see the destruction down there first... we are staying with the friend who seems to be the only person who was unaffected by any of the quakes... which are still occuring!

Love and festive cheers to all family and friends - we hope that you have an awesome Christmas... we'll try to remember to update this from Sydney but if not have a great time! We're both sorry to be so far away from most of you... you'll all just have to make sure you come and visit soon!

Love from Chris Bernie (and bump) and Bobby-Dazzler X X x X

ITS A....

2010-11-25T16:44:00.004+13:00

...Baby!!!

We decided not to find out its sex - a last minute call, but we both imagined we would find out during birth. All looks ship-shape and we were blown away by the clarity of the images - bones, bladder, brains and bum clearly visible!

It wasn't quite as mobile as we expected - it has been moving around a lot for the past few weeks - it made it easier to see it though!

Our friends agree that it has Bernie's facial structure

Bernie is coping really well still - she positively glows these days! School is almost out for summer - exams and marking almost over and a fancy-dress Xmas party tomorrow - my friends and I have borrowed a massive slushy machine to make iced cocktails with... B has enjoyed a few small glasses of Nelson's finest wines over the past few weeks so I am drinking for two... or is that three?!

It looks like I still have a full-time job next year - teaching maths and PE in order to bump up my hours which will give me a bit of variety... we have our weekly sea swim race tonight - over 140 people took part in the first race last week. The sea is already warm enough not to wear a wetsuit, but they give you extra bouyancy and speed so most of us wear one. See if you can spot a Whitaker:

Two Whitaker's here:

Not a bad way to spend a Thursday evening is it?!

This will be us in just over an hour's time:

All is Super!

2010-11-10T20:40:00.004+13:00

Bernie is still doing really well - we both felt the baby moving around heaps again last night - its reassuring to see so much action - hopefully he/she is growing fine inside!

The seniors finished the last of their lessons at school today, so its 4 weeks with a reduced timetable and planning for next year... cruise time!

The weather has been ace for some time here - so we can eat outside most evenings - like tonight, watching the pair of Kingfishers feed each other and go hunting as we tuck into our roast chicken! As a result of the good spring, the bees were doing so well before my friend brought them over to me that I had to add a second super (a box for honey to go into) this evening.

Fortunately the bees were much more docile than the day they arrived! I was a bit nervous - going solo for the first time:

The bees just sat there and I jiggled boxes - even pausing for a cheesy grin to the photographer... not that you can see:

Does my bum look big in this bee suit?!

Work done for the day, Bernie and I are enjoying a fine Nelson Chardonnay (B is only having half a glass!) and some home baking. I wish you were all here to share it all with us!

Best wishes,

C&B x x

Oh Bee-have!

2010-11-09T19:05:00.003+13:00

I took receipt of my first bee hive just after my last blog post. My friend arrived after dark and we got suited up for the job. Unfortunately my friend didn't tell me that she had blocked the entrance to the hive with a rag and upon pulling the hive out of the car, I pulled away what I thought was snagging the hive and was immediately filled with horror as hundreds of bees swarmed out of the entrance and all over me! My friend forced the rag back in - killing several bees - further aggravating them in the process before we made a hurried attempt to carry the hive down to our house. This would only be relatively painful - we were being stung through our suits and both had a few bees inside our suits - but our house is down a flight of stairs and it was pitch black and we had to walk down our dark garden which also has several steps... It took a few painful minutes and we needed a mid-way stop to wipe the large number of bees of us both, but we succeeded in having a quite immense adrenalin rush, which gave me genuine flash-backs to my 3 bungy jumps in Queenstown nearly 10 years ago!

Fortunately the stings are much less painful than I remember from being stung at Grandpa Whitaker's over 20 years ago. Two days on and some of them are itchy, but fortunately I'm not allergic! They have settled down a lot and I can walk all around them now without a suit or smoke - it will be a few more days until I go in for an inspection though!

I have got back from work the past 2 days and sat and watched them take off and land for some time - quite mesmerising! We can watch them from inside the house or the balcony and fortunately Bobby being White, the bees leave him alone! Not a bad set-up is it?!:

I have another box of supers to put on top next week - to be filled with delicious honey. The hive has come in time to get quite a harvest this summer - just in time for our parents to enjoy this April!

Bernie is still doing really well, despite getting frustrated with the occasional boughts of tiredness. She is out learning how to make various cheeses this evening so its hardly slowing her down! We were both thrilled to feel the baby kicking / moving last night. I thought it was last night's Pad Thai playing havoc, but put my hand on her belly and quickly felt several clear movements inside! We listened to the heart beat too when the mid-wife visited us this afternoon - we are desperate for the scan on Nov 25th!

Love to you all,
C&B x x

From Triathlon to the garden!

2010-11-07T17:25:00.003+13:00

I returned from the UK a month ago (feels much longer though!) to find my Beautiful Bernie and a definite bump! Two days later we went for the 12 week scan (which I cant upload onto this for some reason) which was awesome - he/she moved around heaps and looks to be developing fine. Bernie is doing really well now at 16.5 weeks - ocassional boughts of tiredness but other than that I still get 8 hours of labouring out of her... joking - it is damn hard to get her to sit / lay down for a while! We go for the 19 week scan in just over 2 weeks and have the tricky decision whether or not to find out the sex... I'm tempted for us to find out, but not tell anybody else... we'll see!

Meeting up with so many friends and family in the UK was awesome and I wish B could have been there. Socialising helped ween me off the training schedule and back into serious drinking and not-so-serious conversation making - something I'd cut back drastically on before!

Bernie and I had an awesome trip to the Marlborough Sounds (see old pics - I cant be bothered to upload too many pictures tonight!) and had a bath outside each night after eating mussels and fish caught out in the bay. Bobby had a wild weekend with a dog called Earl - they ran around the land for 3 days straight - we fished with Earl's owners out at sea and watched a very white and a very black dog chase each other, play tug-of-war with sticks and chase each other again - they definitely had the better time, although we were a very close second!

School is winding up to final exams and B and I are both busy. Fortunately the seniors leave next week and after a few awards ceremonies, things quieten down. I'm looking for a new job as we have a falling intake and I was the last recruit... a few irons in the fire... we'll see.

Since B is still cooking and reading for a change (Go The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo!) it would be quite rude of me to bugger off training 20 hours a week so I have not got back into the 5:30am starts and lycra obsession, but have focussed my OCD towards making our garden churn out enough food to feed a small Pacific nation! We had previously made the front lawn a native bush area, but I returned from the UK to find more grass than native ever-greens! The 4 chooks are still doing great and churn out 2-4 eggs a day - depending on their mood:

The bottom of the garden used to have flowering cheery and plum trees, but the flowers / fruit were not up to much, so I borrowed a pruning saw and used it and my trusty axe, to anihilate anything over ancle height, before beginning our modest orchard, which now boasts a fig, orange, (a proper) cherry, orange, clementine, lemon and olive tree. I also have 3 plums trees propagating at the horticulture yard at school yet to go in. Our orchard is very modest - but trees grow like America's national debt and I'm sure we'll have fruit this summer... hopefully!

Friends of ours have handed on their trusty bantams which were bought to be cute and have names. I intend to buy fertile eggs and use them as an eating-chicken production line and for the record, I think they look stupid! There is a third, but it flew out of the chicken coop straight away, despite the fact we had clipped its wings... she might pass away a little sooner than God intended!

Here's Bobby - waiting to be thrown soemthing as usual! You can also see my veggie garden - 95% of which was a lawn when we moved in. We currently have spinach, silver beet, broccoli, cabbages, cauliflower, beetroot, peas, potatoes, celeriac, cucumber, courgette, melon, parsley, carrots, pak choi, rhubarb, tomatoes, basil, celery, peppers and artichokes growing in there... much more sensible than plain old grass... not sure where our nipper/s will ride their bikes though... there is a park 50m away fortunately!

In the foreground is the far end of the veggie garden (with respect to the previous picture) with the bizzarely located washing line... a thieving sun interceptor! In the middle of the picture is a gravel bed on which my bee hive will be located in about 2 hours time! First I have to carry the hive down 40+ stairs, but I'm very excited to become a proper Apiarist! In the background is the Bay Tree screen which I pray will stop the bees from annoying our neighbours!

This is the view from our verandah - the orchard (yes, I know its very small!) is behind the light green bushes - which are Feijoa trees produce heaps of bizarre fruit which have become very addictive - ever tried a Feijoa?!

We also have a passion fruit and two different grape vines as well as guava and a variety of pip fruit vines... our bees shouldn't have to travel too far to get a good feed! A new Beekeeping club has just begun in Nelson so I have been hanging out with lots of senior men who want to go to great lengths to explain their favoured methods and set-ups. Fortunately I have an ex-teacher friend here who is flogging me one of her 9 hives (she wants to down-size) and is happy to mentor me which is of great comfort as she doesn't mince ehr words. I have been reading up on bees, but am itching to get stuck in and learn the ropes on the job.

Bernie is in the kitchen making an apple tart as she simultaneously prepares our steak dinner. She sends her best wishes to all family and friends who might be reading this. We have been buying bits and bobs for the baby - I need to focuss on painting and DIY-ing soon... not as relaxing as gardening, but having a baby on its way will motivate my ass into gear!

I'm going to clock out now. Love and best wishes to all of you from sunny Nelson... I forgot to write about my recent school trip when I got to swim with dolphins... twice... I'm sure I dont need to elabourate much further than that!

Love from Bernie, Bump and Chris! x x x

Towards the end of the Heaphy 5-day Tramp (hike!)

2010-08-02T18:18:00.007+12:00

Pictures are taking a lifetime to upload on this computer and I do them in reverse order, so here's the end of our recent tramp through the Northwest corner of NZ's South Island.

After 3.5 days walking through native bush and over some pretty sizeable mountains, we arrived at the sea on the booming West Coast.

We dropped our gear off at the hut and enjoyed the sun-set in paradise:

We had the beach, sun and sea to ourselves!

This was the Heaphy Hut, over-looking the sea and on the site of one of the earliest Maori settlements in the country.

Chris walking into the sun - too cold for a dip!

Nikau palms predominated along the gold sandy beaches. The weather was very fresh, but the sun, sea and palms made it feel very tropical!

Bernie having a well earned rest

Later that day we crossed the final swing-bridge and finished our 90km+ tramp... we later returned to the river to plunder enough rocks to re-landscape Nelson (a hobby of Bernie's!)

Taking in the beautiful river below:

The finishing line! Now who brought a beer?!

Duathlons

2010-05-23T22:05:00.004+12:00

In the Autumn months we still keep busy. Duathlons replace triathlons and we ignore the frigid waters for mountain bike duties. Today saw the final race on Rabbit Island (the finger of land projecting from top left)- below - just outside Nelson

I still managed to swim in the water a couple of weeks ago, but the locals are soft, and triathlons only begin again in November. To be fair, snow is already falling in the mountains around Nelson:

But the weather is mostly cool and calm, but we still get heaps of sun and the seas are calm.

Apart from that, life is pretty chilled. We walk the dog for hours and hours, we live, laugh and play, and we miss our chums in the UK!

Love and best wishes,

C&B! x x

Phil and Margaret in Kiwi-land!

2010-04-22T17:40:00.011+12:00

Hey!

Autumn is well and truly here, which means warm temperatures still, but also millions of acorns dropping onto our house, around our house and no squirrels to eat them (seemingly the one rodent not introduced here).

Our great chums Phil and Margaret recently spent 11 days touring around the South Island, here's the proof...

We met P&M in Christchurch with Margaret's Mum and Dad - they dont mind a drink or two either:

We had a sniff around Chch which is in drought, like much of the counntry:

We called in at the organic farm where I worked 9 years ago in a past life! Pru, the owner was as lovely and mad as I can remember!

P&M, B and myself then headed up to Kaikoura to go whale watching, but the windy weather put an end to that dream. We played around in rock pools instead and found some Paua (Abelone) to eat. We also stopped at a roadside crayfish stall for a lovely feast:

So we headed up to Marlborough for plenty of fine wine tasting:

Before heading home, packing our back-packs, and heading into the bush:

We walked fast!:
We returned to sunny Nelson for more fine food and wine at our house:

I uploaded the following pic and then realised that I have no idea where or what it is!:

We also went to Pupu Springs which is a very spiritual place:

Before heading to a salmon farm where we caught 4 beauties anf took them home to eat!

Just before a sad farewell, we headed to Woolaston Winery just outside Nelson for a final wine tasting and bottle in the garden, looking out over the grapes and mountains:

In order to cope with the loss of Phil and Margaret we bought a small native forest and spent 3 days planting them into what was our front garden:

We already have native birds feeding from the berries!

Love and best wishes to all,

C&B! x x

Kia Ora!

2010-03-28T17:13:00.005+13:00

Hello All, from sunny Nelson!

We hope you're all well! We're entering autumn now, but we still have mostly sunny days with temperatures in the low 20's. We get to eat outside a lot at our new table and chairs...

We're still eating well too... venison pie tonight - a deer one of my student's shot!

And B bought this sweet dresser...

I went to cut my hair one weekend and thought I'd give Bernie a surprise...

I kept it on over the weekend, it made me much faster in a triathlon! Bernie made me shave it all off before going to school on Monday though!

The girls are still well:

I've been spending a lot of time with them recently... the triathlon season has finished and I've really got stuck into the garden.

I bought 2 barrels and plumbed them in to collect rainwater...

I have also extended the tiny veggie patch from about 2 square metres to about 20!

As well as building the world's first double-decker chicken coop! The 4 layers are still providing a constant stream of eggs but that ain't enough - we have 6 chicks on order to fatten up for the table and they will reside downstairs to avoid fighting...

We still have lots to do on the place, but 3 months in and we've really taken to our first house!

We've also planted a lot of plants, shrubs, grasses and trees in the front of the garden - hard to see a lot here, but most stuff is pretty small at the mo!

We're both fighting fit and looking forward to a 2-week break which begins in 5 days! Phil and Margaret will be whale watching and wine tasting with us and sleeping in rock shelters - what more could you ask for?!

Love to all,

C&B! x x

Conservation's Cool!

2010-02-20T18:35:00.004+13:00

The school year has started well. Bernie is doing the same job as last year, but now has a permanent contract rather than an ad hoc arrangement, which gives her more stability to plan her week and obvious security (and regular money!) The work is not too stimulating, but she enjoys being part of the school community and works with senior management - who can be as trying as the kids by the sounds of it!

My classes are all good, my Conservation group are the most interesting for me. I have essentially invented a course (you have the freedom to do that here!) and the students will complete 5 projects through the year which earn them credits. Its not all credit farming though - we have already been to a sanctuary, 5 mins outside Nelson, which was never slashed and burnt. There is a project underway to put a fence around the 500 hectare virgin site before all pests are trapped within and then native species of animals are released. My group of students and I will keep visiting the sanctuary to help with making traps, weeding and planting native plants to help the project along.

This is the visitors building:

And these are some of the rare natives which will be released when the fence and trapping are complete (some time in 2012 hopefully). Native geckos:

The worlds largest parrot (flightless), the Kakapo. There are now just over 100 of these alive (in the world!), all on 2 islands in the south of the South Island - we'll be the first to have these on the mainland!

Kakariki (crowned parakeets) which are less rare, but I've never seen one:

And of course Kiwi. They will be allowed to populate the sanctuary and then over years, some will be released into the wider area outside the park:

Other rare birds such as the saddleback which are also only found on a few islands will be released:

Plus my favourite slouch - the Tuatara. These have been around, unchanged for 200 million years! We have seen one (on a pest-free island), they don't move all day - they simply wait for prey to walk right in front of their nose before snapping them up - very slow metabolisms... nobody knows how long they live for (well over 100 years!):

I teach normal classes too, plus horticulture to some Seniors (they are looking forward to the unit where we study and use hydroponics for some reason!), but its great to be able to get involved in some great conservation projects. Each student has to come up with their own project in Nelson, liaising with the council, local Maori people and businesses. We're also going to visit a pest-free island as part of a field trip where there are several other rare native species...

On top of school life, B is cooking many wonderful things, from chocolate brownies, to her increasingly infamous muesli, courgette flans and pesto! I excelled myself too, picking golden peaches from our two peach trees and making stewed peaches - the recipe is very tricky...!!

I'm... training heaps - been really getting into cycle races on Saturdays - racing over several stages through the wineries and valleys. More importantly, Phil and Margaret will be with us in just over a month!

Love and best wishes to all, we both hope you're happy and healthy!

C&B! x x

The final leg...

2010-01-31T17:59:00.003+13:00

In between the Wanaka and Timaru triathlons I had 9 precious days to recover and prepare for the longer distance Timaru race. After a week of hard training and little else (the result of living with your coach 24/7!) we were able to check out and do the run and bike sections of the course, as well as eating huge quantities of my coach's Mother's great baking! We mostly trained as a pair and I learnt heaps from my very experienced friend. We also joined up with a swim team comprised of 16-18 year-old human eels! I did my best to keep up with them, but I'm not used to doing over 6km per session so made use of the spa pool at about that point as they all carried on windmilling!

The East coast is not the most inspiring part of the country, but it is reasonably similar to the Cotswold's with rolling hills and great surf beaches... the second part is sadly not true of the Cotswold's, but I didn't have the energy to make the most of them here.

The race went well for me. It was cool and cloudy for most of the week which is not normal summer weather here, but ideal for training and racing. I made a fast start, running into the water like a girl:

(Third from right) Sadly this picture made it into the main Christchurch paper the following day!

The swim was horrible - not only did I forget my handbag, but huge rafts of kelp impeded us frequently on the 1.5km swim. The 40km bike was hilly which I enjoy - flat roads become quite boring when you cycle 8-10 hours a week - including one monster zig-zag hill which made the legs explode! The run was the best part for me, I did the 10km in 41 mins and finished second in my age group again which scores me heaps more points in the national series.

Unfortunately I didn't win the huge BBQ or any other spot prizes, but I drove empty handed up to our friend's in Christchurch and drank red wine in their spa pool as the sun went down!

The following morning I wearily drove back to sunny Nelson and the real summer weather I had been missing. We're both back at school now which is really nice - we work with so many great people, and there are heaps of experiences to share and plan for the near future.

I'm still training like mad, there are heaps of separate running, cycling and swim races around Nelson so I use lots of these for my training sessions to get my speed up. I did a 2.8km sea swim around Hualashore island (below) this morning which is a rather nice way to spend a Sunday morning!

Bernie has taken her baking to new heights, making bread from scratch in the oven (not whilst physically in the oven herself of course!) and the usual quiches, cakes and salads... we eat well!

Bern's has also been the main force in making our new home even more comfortable and well organised. We have a posh new table and chair set (bought from people moving over seas) on our balcony which is nestled half way up a group of oak trees which plays home to monarch butterflies, birds and cicadas which sing all day.

We were so fortunate in having so many guests visiting this summer and wait in keen anticipation for our special friends Phil and Margaret who arrive in April - so much so that I've been asking around for inside knowledge on suitable hedge-diving hedges which are sadly a scarce entity in this country!

I'm sat sipping a lovely Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc to keep me cool on this fine evening. Its 6:30pm and finally its cooling towards the low 20's... what I'd do for a pint of Murphy's and pie 'n mash before going to Upton Park for a game then a curry on Brick lane before throwing down some shapes in a few clubs before going to sleep in my old bed... maybe this September....

Love to all,

C&B x x

The long and winding road...

2010-01-21T13:55:00.004+13:00

Wanaka put on a great weekend. I had a few beers with several friends from Nelson, nobody was up for hedge-diving unfortunately...

I have been cooking a lot of my own food - stir fry's with rare rump steak for dinner, but the odd Subway thrown in at lunch - only a foot-long touches the sides - and its meatballs every time for me!

Wanaka is a great place to visit, nice and chilled out...

And the water is lovely... but cold!

The birds dont mind...

This is where I stayed for 3 nights with friends - a short walk from town and the lake:

And everything manages to fit into the car for the onward journey... destination unknown...

I drove East across the South Island, looking for somewhere nice to stay, where I could run, bike and swim in preparation for the next race... I drove and dorve, and the road turned to gravel...

And ended up driving across a pass which was very remote. I passed one car, and chased a hare (it ran up a 20 foot cliff to escape unfortunately so no hare stew for dinner!) and eventually returned to civilisation... but had to drive for a long time in the clouds:

I eneded up at Kakanui, just south of Oamaru on the East coast. Its a fantastic surf beach and I watched from my bike or as I ran as people braved bigger waves than these:

I've also watched 150 + pengiuns surf in and waddle up to their nests at dusk. I've also joined up with my coach and friend from Nelson and done heaps of training in preparation for Sundays race, and eaten heaps of food the both his mother and his mother-in-law have cooked us as we travel between their houses on the East coast!

Gotta dash, love to all,

Chris

Wicked Wanaka!

2010-01-16T10:50:00.002+13:00

Yesterday was race day for me in the first of four national races I'll be competing in. Two of them are sprint races (including Wanaka) with a 750m swim, 20km bike and 5km run. Two are Olympic distance races - 1.5km swim, 40km bike and 10km run.

I woke up to a cloudy day which is perfect for me - nice and cool, but had the unusual prospect of wasting time until 5pm as the race was a rare evening event - after the shops had closed in central Wanaka. Wanaka is a beautiful town in the Southern Alps and is unspoilt in comparison with its big brother, Queenstown. See Wanaka below:

And we get spoilt to great sunsets like this:

The race went really well - the lake was 14 degrees which is rather fresh, but it was lovely and calm - a rare treat as we usually swim in the sea. The whole race went as well as I could have hoped although you always want to be faster. After the race we watched the elites race but had to wait until this morning for the results. I was really chuffed to find that I was second in my age group which gives me lots of points in the national series. I was then disappointed to see that the guy who overtook me during the run, pipped me for first place by 21 seconds... I simply couldn't have ran any faster so I'm happy enough.

I am currently enjoying the cool environment of an Internet cafe, as hundreds of sweaty people make their way around the half and full Ironman course outside. It is a hot day today, but I would like to give this monster event a go some day in the future. Several of my Nelson friends are here competing and we all got a nice mention in the Nelson rag here: http://www.stuff.co.nz/nelson-mail/sport/the-fitness-zone/3232892/Triathlon-weekend-draws-strong-field

I woke up wishing I was racing in the half Ironman race this morning - the swim and bike would be OK, but the run would cripple me... my body has been seizing up over the past hour though so I'd better take a walk!

I'm going to hang around here for a couple of days before heading to the East coast to join my coach and explore the area by foot, bike and wetsuit! My second race (Olympic distance) is 8 days away so hopefully I can collect some more valuable points and memories!

Love to you all from sunny Wanaka,

Chris

On the Road!

2010-01-15T10:39:00.005+13:00

I left Nelson on Wednesday morning. These moody skies encouraged me to head south to warmer climes to race people who also love running around in Lycra!

I travelled through the mountains, braving trains and vans with one brake light!

And was soon treated to the kind of countryside I love:

Before getting to Gillespies beach, 499.9km down the road! This was to be my home for the night (along with a few dozen fur seals!)

As I cooked my fine steak with roasted vegetables (cheers Berns!) the clouds lifted over the Fox glacier inland:

And then a fantastic sunset before going to bed with Michael Phelps.... his book!

Not bad eh?!

The next morning I walked along the beach to find the seals, but got a bit distracted by the scenery:

And bush, so never made it to the seals... I've seen heaps of seals but its been a while since I hacked around in the bush!

With awesome plants like these!

I then got on the road again and made my way through even more gorgeous bush!

And had to keep stopping to take pictures of it!

As well as the odd bumblebee which was getting battered in the wind.... it took a few attempts to get this!

There are heaps of lakes in the Southern Alps. I kept reading Mum's book which details where scenes from Lord of the Rings was filmed - not hard to imagine the movie is it?!

This was taken just before I got to Wanaka... more pics to follow...

I race this evening which is unusual, hence me wasting time in an internet cafe. The elites race straight after us and the race is entirely in the town, which is good for spectating. I have a few mates in the Ironman and half Ironman races tomorrow... An Ironman involves a 3.8km swim, 180km bike and a marathon - 42.2km!! I am very tempted to do it, but respect my wife too much to sacrifice so much time training!!

I hope 2010 has started well for one and all, despite the immense cold most of you have experienced!

Summer Lovin'!

2010-01-10T15:58:00.003+13:00

We have been busy since last posting. We moved into our new house (pictures in previous posting) with the help of my Mum and Dad (who has since been diagnosed with sciatica - sorry Dad!) We have celebrated Xmas with my parents, enjoying many BBQ's on the balcony and some very fine wine from the region! Bernie still managed to make enough time to produce some excellent jams, including Boysenberry jam - the fruit (below) are like monster blackberries and are twice as sweet and juicy... my Sister is desperate for some, but postage is steep!
Bernie's brother Paul, Sister-in-law Shirley and Nephew Bradley arrived on Boxing day and we spent a memorable week, getting to know our newest family member better... Until my sister Emma gave birth to a little monster they called Ben! He was born on 29th Dec and we were fortunate enough to see him on Skype soon after. Mum and baby are doing well - long may that continue!

We took Paul and Shirley to one of our favourite winery's - Woollaston, which is a short drive or medium bike ride away from home. We had a nice tasting session at the bar, before settling on a lovely Rose Shiraz which we enjoyed in the garden with the view pictured below:

Despite the guests and moving home, Bernie has continued to cook more cakes, biscuits, jams, muesli, etc than ever in her life - her way of relaxing apparently! Needless to say, all she produces tastes wholesome and amazing - she is an organic cook with a knack for perfection! I have taken regular time-out over the past few months on my bike, running or in the pool (I have a speedo tan-line to prove it - no pictures you'll be glad to hear!). I have had to upgrade to factor 70 sun-tan lotion, as factor 50 is not strong enough in our mostly sun-drenched climate.

I headed inland this morning to complete a triathlon which is a warm-up to 4 I'll be doing over the summer as part of a national series. Bernie has taken up a kitchen regime instead of training so will not be racing this summer - it was a long winter of training...

My race this morning was in lake Rotoiti (below) which is a stunning landscape to race in:

Bernie's parents are now with us and have picked up from where my parents finished - plenty of help with DIY jobs and getting our new house ship-shape! In a few days, Bernie and her folks head up to the North Island to stay with Bradley et al, I will head south for two of my triathlons with landscapes like the ones below to race in...

Wanaka:

We both hope that you all had a memorable Xmas with loved ones and lots of laughs. We have been incredibly fortunate to have so many people we love come to visit us this summer - hopefully we will see more of you in the next few months and years!

Best wishes to one and all,

C&B! x x

Our House - at the end of our street!

2009-12-02T14:36:00.007+13:00

We have been looking in the property papers and windows since landing in Nelson 16 months ago. As migrants, finance is harder to come by and we have been put off looking around properties. Recently, the lenders began relaxing so we decided to have a look at what we might be able to pick up with 10,000GBP as a deposit.

The two properties we purchased previously were the very first places we visited each time we began searching - not that we rushed in, we looked at others afterwards but preferred the first option each time. Inevitably, this happened once again (9 days ago) and we are already heading towards a completion date of Dec 21st - less than a month after first viewing it!!

Of course we're both really stoked by this and hope that my parents feel similarly, as they had already boarded the plane for NZ when we were haggling the price down!

It is our first actual house (after 2 small London flats) and is in Nelson itself - a short walk to pubs, shops and restaurants rather than the $40 taxi ride we are faced with at present. It has a good section (garden) of 733m and 3 bedrooms excluding the granny flat on the ground floor.

It is located at the end of a cul-de-sac above a valley and has lovely views and afternoon / evening sun. There are two double doors which open out to a veranda on 3 sides which will be great for BBQ's, wine and relaxing with a book after training!

The kitchen and bathroom were refitted recently and to a good spec too. The downstairs granny flat needs a complete over-haul, but we don't plan to renovate upstairs further than some painting and touching-up. There are enough little jobs for us to do to stamp our personal touch on the place over the next couple of years.

The building has a nice open plan with good flow out to the veranda and between rooms. There is a log-burning fire in the centre of the property so we will no longer freeze in the winter! The polished wood floors look great too...

We will no longer battle with the ancient oven at our rental place, and Bernie is trying to negotiate to keep the silver fridge freezer as it matches the oven!

House prices have dropped here, but are picking up. Our British Pounds are very weak at present, but we wanted to get onto the property ladder ASAP. Friends here have paid off their mortgages in under 10 years - mortgages are quite flexible over here!

The large garden is landscaped but needs some clearing. Fruit trees will be put in as well as plenty of veges. Our lovely chooks will also benefit from a larger coop to play in!

Once again, we have lots of room for visitors so please keep NZ in your holiday plans!

This will be our room (minus the chez long unfortunately!)

We will be paying (subject to finance - fingers crossed!) around 100,000GBP for this place. Few properties are available in good areas for this price - we will have no garage or off-street parking, but we can put up with this for a saving of $40,000! There is no through traffic (as it is a cul-de-sac) and there are plenty of spaces on the road so a cover for the mini should keep it going!

As mentioned, we should be in on the 21st - any one available to help us move?! My parents will be!

Love to one and all. Hoping you're all fit, healthy and happy!

Chris and Berns x x

Spring-ing into action!

2009-11-10T15:14:00.002+13:00

Many thanks to all the wonderful people who made such an effort to make our trip to the UK so fun! We still feel bad for not being able to see everybody, we'll just have to save up and come back again soon!

Since returning to the land of the long white cloud we have been spoilt by some great weather, enabling us to get out adventuring again. We had both thought that we were returning to school (12 hours after getting home!) to a quiet last term before the summer holiday, but we have both been run ragged for the past month. Bernie is seemingly organising the various prize giving ceremonies single-handed, and I have been chasing and hassling students endlessly for coursework deadlines and revision papers.

We were fortunate enough to have a long weekend and headed to the remote Marlborough Sounds for kayaking, camping and fishing in the wilderness. It was a great trip as always, we saw only two other kayakers in the 4 days we were out on the water (Friday afternoon until Mon evening).

Every time we head to the Sounds, I get thoughts of retiring there with a tinny (fishing boat) and enough land to play around with... not that I'm wishing my life away yet!

Back in Moncao (below), I caught heaps of Kahawai - nice fish that like a fight! I made Kahawai cakes and a fish curry which kept us fed for a week!

We have also been back into training. Berns is suffering from a real bugger of an ear infection - a result of swimming in pools for months sadly - I'm really enjoying my morning pool sessions though. 5:30am starts are much easier now it is light in the morning.

We have both been cycling a lot as we have a 160km (100 mile) bike race on Saturday - neither of us has been over 100km in a day but it should be a fab race - through a gorge from source to sea... running is not a hot point, but will be a priority for me after this week's bike race. We have some local triathlons beginning in a couple of weeks and then there are a few national races that I hope to compete in after new year's - the World Champs was an expensive experience, but I'd love to do it again...

Apart from that, we are enjoying our house and garden, the chooks are still laying well and I'm off kayaking for 3 days at a time over the next 3 weeks with school - being paid to go kayaking with seals, dolphins and golden beaches is something I'm getting used to!

Love to one and all,

C&B!

Triathlon World Champs 2009 - Gold Coast, Brisbane, Australia

2009-09-16T09:26:00.004+12:00

We arrived on the Gold Coast on 09/09/09 and were really pleased with our self-catering apartment which had a nice view of the sea! We were based about 4kms from the event, which meant a lot of to-ing and fro-ing over the next 5 days.

The Nelson contingent at the Parade of Nations, missing Suzie, Gary and Glenn though - it was hard to get everyone together especially as the event was split over 2 days. We sadly didn't manage a team dinner, which was a highlight of the Wellington race earlier in the year.

12/09/09 Standard Distance Triathlon (Bernie's race)

Running start into the water - 1.5km swim ahead of us! Bernie is second woman in from the left.

Not easy to spot, and even harder when it's in motion, but Bernie is in the centre of the photo heading to the left with a white helmet on her 40km cycle.

And coming in to finish the 10km run, hooray!!

Finished in 2:38:04 - disappointing swim and run times, but still a personal best, which is worth celebrating. We met up with Natalie and Glenn who were our neighbours on Hackney Road in London. Great to see them again!

13/09/09 Sprint Distance Triathlon (Chris's race)

Getting ready to swim 750m...

Looking strong after the swim and over to his bike to cycle 20kms....

Couldn't get a decent photo of Chris on his bike, he was way too fast! Coming into the transition to the run, Chris is looking really good...

Heading out of transition and into the 5km run, Jon (our coach) overtakes Chris on the bridge...

And coming in for a sprint finish is Chris Whitaker of New Zealand, go Kiwi go!! Chris did a great time of 1:07:27 and is now ranked 187th in the world - in his first year of triathlon, that's a fantastic start!

Got the medal and in recovery mode...

Here's the Nelson team with Gary and Suzie, but missing Glenn and Colin, Sunday evening after the sprint event. Sadly no gold, silver or bronze in our group, but only narrowly missed by Suzie who came 5th, Jon 6th and Murray 6th in their age groups.

Back in Nelson on Tuesday 15th September and off to England today, phew! 3.5 weeks of partying, here we come!

Gold Coast

2009-09-11T14:23:00.003+12:00

We're finally in Australia... nearly 5 months of training, a whole day travelling with 2 bikes and enough luggage for a family of Nigerians (no offence meant friends!) and worries of a 35 degree heatwave! Fortunately the climate is cooler - high twenties, and the beaches, sea, race course etc are stunning.

We've swum in the sea, albeit behind shark-proof-netting! The only fish we saw were puffer-fish so all our limbs are still firmly attached! We've continued training since arriving in order to get used to the heat - fortunately we're both enjoying the relative cool for this time of year!

We cant wait to finish the races as we haven't drunk in 6 weeks... not that we're counting! We will be devouring a few drinks on Sunday night at the event after-party, a big Aussie BBQ event at the festival village!

In preparation for the event we have been absorbing some of the speediest animals in the country - the might kangaroo...

Yes! At the supermarket we found 100% Kanga Bangas! We ate these for lunch today, and have 2 prime kangaroo steaks sat in the fridge for this evening!! Hopefully, we'll be hopping over the opposition on race day!

If you go to the triathlon website http://www.triathlon.org/multimedia/livecoverage/ you'll see how you can watch live coverage of our race online. It doesn't mention payment so hopefully you guys will be able to watch it for free. Bernie starts at about 8:20pm Friday night and me 8:20pm Saturday night UK time. Below is a picture of the event area before it was developed:

Last night we had the Parade of Nations which was good fun. We marched to the festival event area and us Kiwi males performed and impromptu Haka! This was hard for me as I missed the practice! I positioned myself at the back and copied everybody else - it was really well received and the only other performance was by a bunch of Aborigines who did old tribal songs which were really interesting to watch. I cant find it on youtube yet... hopefully I'll get some pictures together soon.

Love to you all!

Miles of Smiles,

C&B! x x

Te Hapu Holiday!

2009-07-14T21:37:00.004+12:00

Bernie and I have just returned from a blissful yet typically frantic holiday near the Northernmost tip of the South Island.

We had to drive for over 3 and a half hours to cover the 160km get there - there is a massive marble mountain in between it and Nelson! There are only gravel roads for the last hour or so as our destination was so remote, and so beautiful.

Of course one objective was to see the Blue Whale which was washed up on the west coast last month. We also had biking, running, hiking and kayaking gear packed for an active break from sunny Nelson.

Friends recommended a remote farm which had a small holiday chalet. We had to take bedding and all food for the time we were there - the nearest shop was about an hour away!

Te Hapu is a near-on 1,000 acre sheep and cattle farm, farmed by a couple and their dogs alone. The terrain is very rugged and as you'll see, picturesque.

We arrived on Friday afternoon, had a good hike and settled to watch the sunset...

Over the next 5 days we covered many miles by foot, bike and kayak - as you can see, I like Lycra!

The land is limestone, moulded by the elements for many years. Man mined gold here not too long ago (hence the area being known as Golden Bay), but vegetation has regenerated through most of the area.

This is the cliff separating the farm from the coast - you'll get to see what we had to do on this cliff later... nothing dodgy but please remember for later how insurmountable it looks!!

This is me BBQ'ing outside the chalet. You'll see the sunset view I have later. There is a Kiwi fruit vine behind me, birds aplenty as well as a stunning garden with naturally sculpted limestone, plants, trees and gardens. The weather was mostly sunny, some spells were T-shirts off weather (sorry ladies, no pictures!), hence the mid-winter BBQ!

I want that one...

2009-07-14T20:30:00.003+12:00

I first heard that a 27m Blue Whale had been washed up on a beach some 6 weeks ago. I'd show my students pictures of the beast in as many lessons as I could tenuously link it to and I was desperate to see it whole. Sadly, we came across the remnants of the whale - a mound of putrid skin and blubber after smelling it some way off. We then scratched around a bit and found shards of bones, broken on the rocks before suddenly seeing a spine instead of what we thought at first was a small tree!

Although it is nothing like seeing the whole animal, too see some of its huge components first-hand was mind-blowing!

Although very rotten, the spine was impossible to flex much... its weight was surprising despite its size... how do they swim?!

It is crazy to think that it's spinal cord fitted through that whole...

Merry Christmas! The Department of Conservation had kindly informed me (I pester them too!) that this Whale was not the property of the local Maori people - purely because of the beach it landed on. That meant that all bones were available for the public to take so this beautiful specimen yelled "Take me HOME!" when we found it! We tried to lift it and nearly broke our backs!
I also found a huge rib bone so we hid them in the vegetation above the beach and tried to plan their extrication. The beach we found these on is only a 4km walk from the farm. However, the beach has lots of limestone rocks to climb over as well as sandy beach - 2km in all. There was then a formidable 80m cliff to climb up - it is hard walking up it normally! Then, the next 2km is over rolling hills and fences with rocks, mud and sheep everywhere!

We tried gaining access to the beach by another farm which borders the beach directly. Sadly, other people who asked similar permission left fences open so we were not welcome to obtain our bones by this beautifully simple means... what to do?!

Hardest Game in the World!

2009-07-14T20:13:00.002+12:00

This is the 80m cliff we had to negotiate with two backpacks and two huge whale bones! It doesn't look as sheer or as high as it is in real life... in fact this picture makes it look more like 8m - you'll have to take my word for it!
Check out how relieved we are to have got up there in one piece!

Two kilometers gone, three more to go... and night is setting in!

Fortunately we got picked up by some other visitors to the farm in their 4X4... unfortunately we had already stashed the vertebra further back so had to go back for that the next morning... fortunately the farmer took pity on us and gave us a ride on his quad bike... as he sheparded(?!) his Sheep!

2009-07-14T19:51:00.002+12:00

After carrying the bones from the far end of the beach pictured below...

...we packed up our care to the rafters. We managed to squeeze in our clothes, left over food and wine (we always take too much!), running shoes, walking boots, paddles and kayaking gear, 2 mountainbikes (yes inside the car!), stereo, pebbles and shells collected from the beach and of course, the whale bones - sinew 'n all!

The weather turned sour only on the day of departure - marking our sombre mood at having to return home. We had to endure 3 hours of driving with the lovely scent of rotting whale, but did get a laugh from the dog (yes real) poking out of his mobile home:

We then had to un-piece the jig-saw puzzle in our boot (fortunately the back seats fold down!), and then it was the clean-up... I had to scrub as much of the remaining sinew (now 6 weeks old!) with my hands as possible!

I can still smell the distinctive (yet, now surprisingly familiar!) scent on my fingers despite scrubbling with washing-up liquid, Ajax and a multitude of different soaps!

Beautiful Bernadette!

2009-07-14T19:40:00.002+12:00

Needless to say, Berns keeps us organised so we never run out of food (we eat huge quantities due to training!), clothes and other things that I leave home without - bike gloves, camera, clea underwear etc!

Our five days of fun went so smoothly thanks to Bernie keeping us well fed and prepared for the day's multitude of activities!

Here she is, packing food, food and more food to keep me going:

Now this is quite a rare sight - Bernie sitting down relaxing! Not much time for that when the Whitaker's go on holiday!

Now, Bernie has special powers - she is able to control the sea:

"Show me your power!"

"I want MORE!"

"GIVE ME MORE!!"

Sensational Sunsets...

2009-07-14T19:31:00.002+12:00

We toasted the day's activities each evening with a glass or two of fine NZ wine (Cabernet Sauvignon being our favourite!) which complemented the stunning display Mother Nature spoilt us with:

Indiana Jones Country!

2009-07-14T19:19:00.004+12:00

Whilst at Te Hapu, we walked around the near-on 1,000 acre property every day - sometimes twice a day, exploring the gnarly and diverse land. We really felt like explorers from an Indiana Jones movie - fortunately the only skeletons we saw were non-human!

This is or view from the side of our chalet - Sunset Rocks are aptly named...
We walked up, down, along and through ridges, caves, bush and open country:

With squeezes to navigate, streams to cross and steep sections to climb - often with the aid of ropes:

Bernie just cant believe how stunning this place is!

On this occasion a rope AND a ladder are required - proper Indiana Jones!

Please click on 'Older posts' below to see more of our exciting holiday...

Pancake rocks...

2009-07-14T19:08:00.002+12:00

The whole region sits on a bed of limestone which has been engineered by the elements to form weird and wonderful shapes, for weird and wonderful people like us to explore! These pictures are from the shore no more than 200m from our chalet:
Me on top of the world!

Pancakes as far as the eye can see!

Bernie in Hobbiton!

Lazing in a limestone wonderland!

Fun on the Underground!

2009-07-14T18:37:00.002+12:00

Spending many an hour travelling around London on the Underground has obviously had a lasting effect on us both. Bernie really excelled in the many caves we found around the farm - often guiding me down trickier descents as stalactites fell on my head (I have the lumps to prove it!)

As usual, pictures don't do these justice (and I can't be bothered to rotate some of them - sorry!):

Birds flocking everywhere!!

2009-07-08T14:38:00.002+12:00

Twenty metres form our house is the end of the spit of land on which we live. Despite it being the middle of winter, the days are mostly sunny and warm which makes it so much easier to train and enjoy the outdoor playground in which we live.

Today I'm suffering with a cold, so I took the time off training to take a few pictures of our neighbourhood, as well as a fair few of the neighbours.

As you can see, the snow has begun to fall on the mountains - the ski fields have opened so we'll be visiting them soon!

The water is clean so we eat the fish we catch here:

Pied stilts bob around taking food on the hoof:

Fortunately these birds are common here:

Kingfishers also work the area. They are one bird which has benefited from pine forestry - they successfully hunt food in forests as well as by water so we see heaps of these birds. It's quite hard getting close to one though:

Pied Oyster Catchers

2009-07-08T14:22:00.002+12:00

Those of you who go to Southwold know that I love a drop of the seasonal Adnams beer named Oyster Catcher. I also love watching and listening to the birds who live near and fly over our house at all times of the day and night (yes I know I'm still a geek!). Because they feed at low tide, their 'day' is not dependent on daylight, but by low tide times. I often hear the shrill calls as they fly over the spit of land on which we live as I fall asleep (Bernie is of course completely deaf to this - poor thing!).

Many Oyster Catchers are the typical black and white species you get in the UK, most however, are Variable Oyster Catchers of the South Island and their plumage is mostly (or entirely) black:

And they look quite cool (if you're a geek like me!):

And they have bright red beaks and eyes:

They're quite sociable too!

The Birds...

2009-07-08T14:12:00.002+12:00

These birds were slowly working their way through crustaceans as the tide drifted out, exposing more food:

Some are more shy than others:

Or had seen a mate they wanted to be with:

The birds seemed interested in me... at least that's what I always tell myself...

Alas, all is not perfect in Nelson. We have the MDF factory as an eyesore to the West, spoiling an otherwise spectacular view:

Nelson is soooo Claret & Blue!

2009-07-08T11:49:00.002+12:00

Each evening, we are treated to an awesome sunset. If we walk 20m up the road, we can watch thousands of Starlings flock over the sea, islands and estuary, with snow-capped mountains and clouds behind.

From our house, we don't have a sea view (that costs near-on $1,000,000NZ), but we still get to see the beautiful colours of the sky. On this particular evening, it seemed that the sky was showing it's true colours - those of West Ham United... almost:

As usual, pictures don't do this justice:

"I'm forever blowing bubbles....!"

We were then treated to this wonderful colour change:

Anybody seen Lord of the Rings?!

Can you Hackett?!

2009-07-07T17:31:00.003+12:00

We can! In just 20 minutes (in our old Mini), we can be tramping into native bush along the Hackett track. This undulating path winds its way along a crystal clear river and over swing bridges when there is no more bank left to traverse.

As usual, pictures dont do the place justice. Below is the river which is crystal clear and ideal for swimming in during summer months:

This shows the tight patsh cut into the bank in places. Its hard to believe that 20 minutes away is the vibrant little town (classified a city in NZ!) of Nelson:

Bern's looking towards the horizon with birds singing around us:

Me negotiating one of the swing bridges - Bernie is more fascinated by the structure holding it up than the bridge platform itself - she should have been an engineer!

A lonely, dead tree amongst the lush bush:

Whits Goin' Whale Watching!!

2009-06-23T18:35:00.004+12:00

We have been updating this blog less frequently due to the large volume of training which leaves us tired, hungry and without much more to talk about than distances, times and areas of the body which are sore!

Also we have to factor in the 10-week school terms here in NZ which I, a soft POM (Prisoner of Mother England!) is finding hard to get used to. Indeed, the kids are almost as sick of us as we are of them, and teaching turns to crowd control!

Fortunately, the long slog is nearly over and we break up for a two-week holiday in just over a week.

We are approaching the 1-year anniversary of us arriving here (July 25th) and our thoughts are going back to Bernie's first ever trip into the NZ wilderness. How we were spoilt with a very close encounter (it surfaced within 10 metres of us!) with a beautiful Southern Right Whale on the first kayaking trip Bernie enjoyed here!

Below is a picture of a Southern Right Whale I would love to see in it's entirety:

Despite its tranquil and green reputation, New Zealand has a turbulent and dark (albeit brief) history including a booming Whaling industry, which only finished 46 years ago! This country made fortunes exporting blubber, oil, soap, baleen and bones around the world for many decades - that's not in the tourism brochure for some reason!

Of course times and education has changed the public view on this and Whales are loved by one and all. Although nearly half (22) of all the world's whale species (47) can be found in our waters, only relatively small populations still exist. Although estimates are very hard to formulate, predictions are that there are less than 30 Southern Right Whales which come close to the mainland, so we were really fortunate that day last winter.

Another fact for you - NZ has as much coastline as the USA - seriously! As a result, we have plenty of dolphin and whale stranding's. In light of the anniversary of our first whale encounter, we are going to go on a trip which guarantees a first-hand encounter with the world's largest (ever) animal - the Blue Whale. Sadly, the poor cow was washed up dead 2 hours away from Nelson a fortnight ago. The 27 metre beast is too large to carry out a post-mortem on, and has been left to decompose naturally. It is on a remote piece of coastline well worth exploring so I might just take Bernie there for a romantic break - romance has no nose!

Still, it will be fascinating (for me!) to have a look at it and the huge chunks reportedly taken by sharks. The Paua fishermen who found the carcass abandoned fishing for fear of a shark attack - and the call us POM's softies! The area also promises to be rugged and remote, with birds, plants and landscapes to gasp at.

Here she is, guts 'n all:

It would be awesome to see a live Blue Whale one day... hopefully Bernie is a lucky charm!

Further to my ramblings on the wonderful wildlife here in New Zealand, I have got the green light to start up a Conservation course at school next year with senior students. Over here the education is standards based - teachers tailor courses from a raft of different units which gives us flexibility to make course more academic or hands-on. My plan is to get students involved with local conservation projects - for examle there is a sanctuary in Nelson with a fence soon to be installed to protect many rare species of birds and lizards. There are also a wealth of larger and more significant parks and programs in the surrounding area which we should be able to study, complete reports on and assist with.

I still have to get a viable number of students to sign-up for the course and commit to. If successful, it will begin in January 2010 and will give me more to do than just teaching which is what I'm doing at present - not that I'm complaining!

Bernie is still working at school, they have reduced her hours to 20 per week which is great for her triathlon training. Her boss (head of HR) has begun talking about full-time permanent work so we'll see what develops. I recently recieved a permanent contract, but I'm not guaranteed full hours next year.

Other than that, we are both fit and healthy and hope you are too. We're still getting up at 5:30 three days a week and there have been a few frosts recently - most painful in a house with high ceilings, no cetral heating, boards for walls and no insulation! However, the days are stunning and we have been running and cycling with beautiful sights of the coast, mountains, bush and sunsets!

We now have 79 days until we fly to Australia for the World Champs, then it will soon be time to fly to the UK for 3 weeks of debauchery! We're going to be complete light-weights by the time we get there!!

Train-tastic!

2009-06-10T18:16:00.002+12:00

The past 4 weeks have been the most one-dimensional ever in the WWW. Not only have we been training up to 15 hours a week, but we have had several Triathlon Club meetings to decide upon the future development of our club.

New Zealand is a rugby nation, but catching up with this obsession for a silly-shaped ball is Triathlon-ing and we are having to cater for larger and larger crowds at our relatively small events.

Without boring you with details of yet more lycra and race calendars, the club is doing well and we are pleased to be able to help plan and organise events, club kit and membership despite it taking up even more of our ev er diminishing free-time.

Not only do we have to train several times a day, but we also have to spend large amounts of time preparing/fixing bikes and kit, washing mountains of sweaty clothes, cooking vast amounts of food and getting changed / showered! Needless to say we have not once watched TV for well over a month.

We take a multitude of Tupperware boxes to school each day with protein shakes, pasta meals, cake, biscuits and fruit in them. Bernie prepares most of it herself, although I do pride myself on the huge mounds of pasta I boil up each evening!

We finished work yesterday and headed off for a 2-hour ride up a lovely valley (50km round-trip) before hopping off the bike and running for an hour (about 12km), eating dinner and going to bed. We got up at 5:30 for an hour and-a-half swim (3.5km) before going to work...

The days are colder but Spring feels as though it is on the horizon already as most days are sunny and warm. September and the Gold Coast are only a few hard weeks away so pasta and pain here we go!

We're really looking forward to seeing so many people in the UK this Sept / Oct. We both hope you are all well and wish we could head over more regularly...

Donors wanted!!

2009-05-12T20:01:00.003+12:00

Due to a small population size and lots of land to manage, NZ isn't the richest nation and doesn't have a huge lake of money to throw at amature athletes who want a 5 day jolly to one of the World's most popular beach resorts!

As a result we're pimping out pictures of us partly-clad in Lycra in the hope that some of Nelson's businesses are keen to give us their hard earned (Global recession affected) money!

A friend from our swimming club cut one of his fingers off recently and (naturally) took up photography (he didn't cut all his fingers off!) to pass the time. He kindly donated the action-shots below and I include these to give you an idea of the wonderful poses and grimaces we sport whilst thrashing our bodies around Rabbit Island.

I begin with Bernie looking far too pleased with herself as she completes the final stage of her tri... hence the smile!:

This is more typical of Bernie running at full tilt - working the arms = good bio-mechanics, the juice bottle belongs to a man in a red t-shirt... he's got some catching up to do fortunately:

Bernie was obviously quite hungry during the cycle and took to catching flies :

Here's me trying to look serious - worrying that I have packed my lunch-box too conspicuously...

This is me in the "Aero" position - using front-mounted bars to gain a more aerodynamic position... but having absolutely no control over braking, gears and steering... I've got my eyes closed too:

This is my Baywatch moment... in reverse... not a bad venue is it?!

Today we began by cycling at a frosty 6am to the pool, back to school for a day's work (a real inconvenience to our lives at the moment!) and then off for a 70km / 50mile bike ride through the vineyards outside Nelson. Tomorrow will be a running day as I have parents' evening until 8pm - not fair at all!

Bernie will resume a relatively normal life again now her boss is back from the UK. Bernie has done an excellent job standing in for the Principal's PA for 6 weeks - especially as the Principal himself resigned, leaving the 4 assistants to scramble around trying to do his job. By all accounts, this would have been impossible without the calm and efficient Bernie on hand! She will hopefully gain a part-time contract soon, enabling her to train, bake and busy herself around the house as she pleases rather than cramming it all into the evenings and weekends.

There are still two spare beds downstairs waiting for visitors from overseas. So far the O'Donnell's are the only ones who have made from Blighty and what a time we had! Both sets of our parents booked in early next year but there are plenty of free weekends. Of course by coming to stay with us, you will be obliged to follow our training and race schedule and to eat your own body weight in baked beans each week - fortunately we do have good ventilation... however, we get regular tremors or mini-earthquakes... cant think why?!

I hope this blog enthuses you to all go out and train like never before... I honestly think I'm become addicted to endorphins:

Endorphins are endogenous opioid polypeptide compounds. They are produced by the pituitary gland and the hypothalamus in vertebrates during strenuous exercise, excitement, pain, and orgasm, and they resemble the opiates in their abilities to produce analgesia and a sense of well-being. Endorphins work as "natural pain relievers", whose effects may be enhanced by other medications.
The term "endorphin" implies a pharmacological activity (analogous to the activity of the corticosteroid category of biochemicals) as opposed to a specific chemical formulation. It consists of two parts: endo- and -orphin; these are short forms of the words endogenous and morphine, intended to mean "a morphine like substance originating from within the body."
The term endorphin rush has been adopted in popular speech to refer to feelings of exhilaration brought on by pain, danger, or other forms of stress, supposedly due to the influence of endorphins. When a nerve impulse reaches the spinal cord, endorphins are released which prevent nerve cells from releasing more pain signals. Immediately after injury, endorphins allow humans to feel a sense of power and control over themselves that allows them to persist with activity for an extended time.

(From my beloved teaching bible, Wikipedia)

Going for Gold (Coast!)

2009-05-09T15:21:00.002+12:00

Bernie and I are currently trying to squeeze more training time into our life. We are fortunate enough to have so many things on our doorstep and we were looking forward to a winter of tramping and exploring more of the mountains and bush inland from Nelson...

Selection has changed these plans (not that we're complaining) and we have stocked the pantry with increased rations in anticipation of the huge amount of feeding we (or I) will devour as a result!

If you want to get a better idea of the event, there's a half-decent youtube video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=DLydEaLdw70&feature=channel_page

I played football for the first time in over a year yesterday and have many aches as a result! I have also been swimming today for the first time in 2 months and felt that too. There's race 2 of the Rabbit Island Duathlon series tomorrow and some of my students want to beat me - I think I'll need some strong coffee at 6am!

World Famous (in New Zealand)

2009-05-08T22:52:00.002+12:00

Nelson, like much of the rest of the country, likes to claim that all good things from it are "World famous in New Zealand."

It would also appear that the city (of just 50,000 people!) has two new(ish) people who are also trying to make an over-zealous stake on the place. Due to our Tri club (of which we are now joint Secretary) founder being high up in the local press, we have regularly found our way onto the pages of the Nelson Mail, in between stories of Grandma losing her hair-clip and a sudden influx of jelly beans from an unknown origin....

On our first day in New Zealand, my new boss took Bernie and I to the (World Famous) Nelson market and Bernie began her love affair with Pic.... well his peanut butter.! Each week we would have to purchase a new jar because Bernie had bosched the lot! We now buy 1kg jars of the stuff and go for regular refills! A a result, Pic put us on his (World Famaous) website: http://www.reallygood.co.nz/Buy%20Peanut%20Butter.htm

We are still buzzing about getting into the World Champs and hunting out cheap flights. We'll stay in appartments with the other 10 Nelson Tri Club memebers who made it in - not a bad return for a City of this size...

If anybody is feeling a bit heavy in the pocket, I want a NZ silver fern mankini for the event, much like the fluoro version sported by Borat... I'm bound to win wearing that...

Alas, I've now become a bit of a techno geek (technology not music for a change) and drool over bike magazines with pictures of carbon frames and Zipp wheels.... dont get me started!! Carbon will shave minutes off (people are also trying to talk me into shaving my legs - I dont joke!) a race and I quite like racing cars around the vinyards surrounding Nelson - more carbon = more speed...

The timing of the whole event is also quite tasty - 4 months of hard training, 5 days in the self-styled "Surfers Paradise" laping up the Triathlon Festival (racing on the 4th day), 2 days back in NZ before flying out to the UK for 3 weeks of debauchery... BRING IT ON!!!

Thanks for all the well-wishes, but please give generously to the "World Famous Mankini Fund"!!

Triathlon World Championships on the Gold Coast!

2009-05-06T12:31:00.002+12:00

This is the location for the World Champs - it will be Spring when the event takes places so it hopefully wont be too hot!
We'll be able to take a few days off to enjoy the whole event and the location which is a bit stark in contrast to the green South Island of NZ, but it's all about the beach at the Gold Coast!

We're still looking for flights - other Nelson Tri Club members have picked up real bargains in this turbulent time for flight operators. We'll be staying in one of these apartments on the waterfront:

We have a meeting with the Tri Club tonight and will be laying down suitable training programmes for the both of us. It's going to mean 05:15am starts in time to go swimming 4 mornings a week and less tramping / kayaking etc again... What more motivation can you get than this?!

YEAH BABY!!!!!!

2009-05-06T10:35:00.002+12:00

Bernie and I have both been selected for the New Zealand team to compete in the Triathlon World Championships this year!

We are not elite athletes of course, but once a year there is a huge event (in a different country each year) where elites and age-groupers from around the world rub shoulders and compete on the same course!

The reason we have worked so hard to get into this in our first season in triathlon is because the event is taking place on the Gold Coast, just across the pond in Australia. http://www.worldtriathlongoldcoast.com/

It is in September - just a few days before we fly to the UK for the mother of all holiday's!! So, no more boozing 'till Britain!!

Bernie was selected for the Standard or Olympic distance (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run) and me for the Sprint distance (750m swim, 20km bike, 5km run). The events mirror ourselves - the Olympic is long and lovely, the Sprint is fast and frantic!!

Pictures and more details to follow!!