Old School Style!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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!

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?!

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

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!

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!!

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