February started with Ali going to the Waitangi Day celebrations at Kaiapoi, just north of Christchurch. She went on her own as she was in need of some space from me and the boys!
The rest of the month passed in a blur of football trials and school tri-athlon events (I don't remember those when I was at school) for Matthew and an overnight school trip for Josh. Add in a series of injections and Ali ramping up to the start of her teaching job and suddenly we found ourselves heading towards the end of the month.Last week, I had to drive to work for the first time. In fact, I had a three hour drive over to the West Coast over Arthur's Pass. As you can see from the photos below, there are worse commutes even if I did get stuck in one bovine traffic jam! Apologies to those of you stuck on the M62 or weaving your way through central London, but I am gloating.
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This last week has been incredibly busy, with our first visitors from the UK spending four nights with us. Karin and Taff were at the end of an action-packed holiday and didn't let up once they arrived in Christchurch.
On Saturday we headed over to Akaroa, famed for its dolphins and French connections (no, not the shop but the fact that the French came within a whisker of claiming the South Island as their own. Mon Dieu!!). We decided to hire three double kayaks and head off down the the 10km long harbour in search of the dolphins. The journey down was lovely as you can see from the photo, but after lunch the wind picked up more than was forecast and the tide was on the turn. Our 6.5km (4 miles) journey back up the harbour took nearly three hours as we battled against the wind. Waves crashed over the boats, but we finally made it back to Akaroa tired but elated. The boys were stars, keeping our spirits up and not complaining. We didn't see any dolphins!!!
On Sunday, we woke to the terrible news of the Chilean earthquake. The whole coast of NZ was put on tsunami alert and we waited to see what would happen. There certainly was a bit of an impact around Christchurch, with the sea going further out than normal and then there being a very high tide that created a bit a tidal bore along the estuary and Lyttleton Harbour. The main alert had been lifted by the afternoon and so we went for a swim just after the very high tide. The water was very silted and there was a bit of debris, but no damage.The kayaking and tsunami warning came together when Josh gave his teacher an amusing answer to a question on Monday. When the class was asked what dangerous event had happened over the weekend, Josh replied "We had some visitors from the UK and they nearly killed us kayaking".
The weekend ended in the most exciting fashion. Taff, Karin and I went to see the Twenty20 cricket international between NZ and the Australians. A gorgeous night and a big crowd were treated to a great game. NZ set a massive score for the Aussies to chase, with one batsmen failing by one run to match the highest ever score in international Twenty20 games. Slowly the Aussies crept towards their target until with one ball to go they needed three to win. They got two and the match was tied, leading to a 'one over' shoot out that NZ won to the delight of the vast majority of the crowd. The right result!!
I said farewell to Taff and Karin at the airport on Tuesday as they headed back to the UK via Singapore, while I caught a flight south to Dunedin (where the sight of a dry stone wall reminded me of Yorkshire and the Lakes). It was fantastic having visitors and we were sad to see them go. A little bit of me wanted to hide in their baggage and get back to the UK to catch up with family and friends.
But I'm not homesick. Though we would all love to pop back to the UK for a weekend, we love living here! I suppose that's the curse of most migrants. You love both where you live and where you used to live, but the reality is that you can't have both at the same time. And on that thought, I will leave you for now...
