Wonderful Whitaker Walk!

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

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!!

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

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