Ok, so it's over a month since I last updated the blog. We've been busy.

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.

.
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...

Juggling dates and balls

It's hard to believe, but tomorrow it will be six months since we arrived in New Zealand. As usual with these things, it seems just like yesterday in one respect, but a long time ago in other ways. All in all, it's been a very positive and refreshing time that has brought us closer together as a family. We've had new experiences, met new people and faced new challenges.

The boys go back to school this week after nearly seven weeks off. It will be a shock to the system! Matthew starts at intermediate (Y7 & Y8), while for the first time Josh is facing up to not having his big brother at the same school. It's going to be interesting to see how they settle in the coming weeks and we'd value your prayers for both of them.

The week after returning from New Wine was tricky. Bad weather, post-holiday blues and news of illness back in the UK combined to leaving us all feeling a bit low. But a good weekend revived spirits and the weather has even decided to cheer up as well.



Christchuch seems to have a never ending cycle of festivals and events, but this week's diary seems to have been particularly busy. There's been the week long Buskers' Festival, with shows throughout the day and evening and various venues around town. The boys did a juggling workshop last Sunday and then spent Thursday in town with Ali taking in a great range of acts. One act was by a group that had instructed at the juggling workshop. They recognised the boys and decided to co-opt Matthew into their routine!


With glorious weather this weekend, Matthew's been able to celebrate his first 'summer' birthday. But when was his birthday? He was born at 11pm in the UK, which would have been 12 noon on the following day in NZ. So was his birthday on the 29th or 30th? Whichever, we celebrated with trips to the beach. We were pounded by the surf at Taylor's Mistake yesterday, then headed to New Brighton for the kite festival today.


Sandwiched in between was a trip to a football match last night. Yes, football as in 'soccer'... with a round ball! New Zealand has one professional side who play in the Aussie league. The Phoenix are based in Wellington, but played their 'home' fixture against Adelaide Utd here in Christchurch at the newly refurbished AMI Stadium due to a concert being staged at the 'cake tin' in Wellington. In this hotbed of partisan rugby union, the Christchurch public turned up in great numbers and a noisy crowd (yes, those really are people with yellow buckets on their head in the picture) of over 19,000 cheered on the Phoenix to a 1-0 victory.

I played by first round of southern hemispere golf on Friday. Sorting out my clubs, I found a number of items that I hadn't seen since we packed off the container in June. Would you believe that I'd decided the safest place to transport lengths of model railway track was in a golf bag? More worryingly, I found a compass whistle and survival bag in one pocket. That must say something about the standard of my golf! I will leave you with that thought. Bye.

The tent is drying!

It's been brought to my attention that it's three weeks since I last updated the blog. Apologies to the Facebook generation, but I've been busy in a 'holiday' kind of way so there haven't been any updates.

As you can probably guess from the title, we've just got back from camping and the weather didn't behave itself! We spent four days just outside Hanmer Springs at New Wine NZ a Christian conference/festival. We'd been to New Wine UK in 2008 and all thoroughly enjoyed (and were challenged by) the teaching, worship and seminars so thought we'd give the Kiwi version a go. Hanmer was on a much smaller scale (450 as a opposed to 5000+ attending) but we are glad we went and the boys have come back buzzing having made new friends and explored our faith at their own pace and level.


As with any conference, Ali and I got more out of some sessions than others and preferred some speakers to others. For me, I particular learnt a lot from the main speaker David Parker of Desert Vineyard church in Los Angeles County.

Despite the weather being a bit grey, damp and... well, how can I put this... English, Hanmer was a great place to stay. We spent Thursday afternoon in the hot pools (the hottest and smelliest being a sulphurous 41oC), unexpectedly bumping into some Australian friends from Christchurch. Ali had a minor panic when she realised the sulphur had tarnished all her silver necklaces to a dark grey colour. It's obviously a common occurrance as the girls on the Reception desk produced a tin of 'silvo' and restored them to their original colour!

On Friday morning, I took my bike for a 25km trip over Jollies Pass and down to the Clarence River, then back over Jack's Pass to Hanmer Springs. I freely admit to having to walk part of the way up Jollies Pass, which tops out at 800m. But the scenery and isolation were stunning as I bounced along dirt roads, through fords and back down the bone jarring descent from Jack's Pass (photo below is from the summit of the pass).
On a personal note, going for the cycle ride gave me a chance to draw a line under an interesting three and a half years. In June 2006, I had a great weekend doing the English Coast to Coast cycle with a friend Steve and a group from his Round Table Club. It was the last time I'd done a challenging ride and I'd thoroughly enjoyed it and the camaraderie.

But that weekend marked the start of a period of big changes for relationships with family and friends and at work. I'll spare you the details but could I have seen these things coming and could... should I have acted before? I'll probably never know the answers, but it was the culmination of these things in 2008 that led us to re-evaluate what we should be doing with our lives and make the decision to come to New Zealand.

New Wine NZ and getting on my bike over Jollies Pass has allowed me to draw a line under this period and move on without regret or bitterness. Though I deeply miss seeing many of you, moving to New Zealand has been fantastic. I just love the country. So that's the heavy stuff over with. Let's get back to the usual 'wish you were here' kind of stuff...

I'd enjoyed going over to the Clarence River so much that I persuaded Ali and the boys to throw a picnic in the car and retrace my tyre tracks. As you'll see below, Ali doesn't hold back when behind the wheel.



It had been a mixture of work and play between Christmas and New Wine. I was at work fromthe 5th-8th Jan, but before that we'd alternated between days at home and days away to the zoo, Okains Bay and Glentui. The picture below is of cloud 'dolphins' at Okains Bay.

At the zoo, I particularly liked the kea enclosure where we could get up close to New Zealand's cheeky alpine (they use their peak as an ice axe!) parrots. Here one 'man-handles' a log.



Last weekend, we had to put up with the minor inconvenience of temporary road closures as the National Road Race Cycling Championships were staged in our part of Christchurch. Below, Ali and the boys look on as the elite women's race streams past the house on their first lap. We are well used to cyclists passing the house as every mornin, evening and weekend hundreds of road and mountain bikers pass on there circuits of the 'Long Bays' (around Lyttleton Harbour and over Gebbies & Sumner passes) or heading up onto the Port Hills.


Just when I need a lie-in after four nights in a tent it's back to work tomorrow. And finally... I'm not a bit jealous of all the snow that there's been in the UK. OK, I lied and I am jealous. Take care and God Bless.

Christmas Greetings

While it's still just about Christmas Day the Americas, we're well into Boxing Day here in NZ and enjoying being very lazy. So semi-belated Christmas Greetings to you all. In typical antipodean style, we celebrated our first southern hemisphere Christmas with a BBQ after having been to church in the morning.

Christmas could have been a difficult time, being so far from family and old friends. Indeed we have all felt fragile at times over the last week, but yesterday turned out to be fantastic. We'd been invited to join the Smith family from Woodford (who we'd stayed with when we first arrived in August) and their extended family and in-laws. Add in a family of Australian guests and there must have been about fifty of us at South Brigton Park for the afternoon. In a sheltered glade among the pines, the BBQ and tressle tables filled with food as everyone 'brought a plate', while the kids (of all ages!!) played. The sun shone!

We then spent the evening back at the Smith's opening presents, playing games and eating more food. The chocolate fountain proved a great hit with all ages, though I'm sure that chocolate covered crisps (chips) will ever have universal appeal. We eventually arrived home at 10.30pm, thirteen hours after having left home in the morning. A long but thouroughly enjoyable day, followed by a good night's sleep and a lie-in.

Unlike Mary and Joseph there was 'room for us at the inn' this Christmas as even though we were a long way from home the Smiths and Buxtons welcomed us into their family with open arms. It was a real honour to spend the day with them all and proved once again that the best present at Christmas is love, whether it be from person to person or from our Father in heaven.

And so with that thought, I wish you you all peace at this time and thank you for your thoughts and prayers during what has been an amazing year for the Laws.

Season's Greetings & the world's wackiest airport

I hear that it is Christmas in a couple of weeks time. It certainly seems strange to be preparing for the holiday as the days get longer and the tomatoes are flowering on the patio. Fortunately, Ali's organised and we manged to send our Christmas cards to the other three corners of the world in time. It's been great to receive cards and letters from family and friends. To all of you, we hope that you will know peace this Christmas wherever you are.

The weather has been unseasonal here today, with low cloud and a bit of rain in the air. How different from earlier in the week when I was on the North Island for three days. The sun shone down as I spent long days working on one of the rivers in the Bay of Plenty. Two days on a jet boat and yet we didn't get anywhere near any rapids, just lots of water quality monitoring in an estuary! Still, it beat being in the office and gave me a chance to top up the tan.

I flew home yesterday from what must be one of the most bizarre airport 'terminals' in the world. Yes, that really is Whakatane (fa-ka-ta-ne) airport building the picture below. I think this is time to start a little competition. Can anyone else propose a better candidate for the title of World's Wackiest Airport?

The flight to Auckland was on the smallest plane in Air New Zealands's fleet. It's the only time I've looked out of front window of a plane on a scheduled flight and been able to watch every move by the pilot.

While work's been busy for me, the rest of the family have also been incredibly busy. Both the boys have had end of year trips with school to outdoor swimming pools. And last Sunday was a busy day for cubs and scouts. Josh went sailing in Lyttleton Harbour while Matt cycled 23 km along the Little River rail trail.

Lots of people have asked us if we've been surprised by anything in New Zealand. The answer is nothing major, but there are a few little things that took a bit or working out or that we hadn't expected. So here are two of them:

• Traffic lights turn straight from red to green, with no amber to warn you that they are about to change.

• Department stores have 'Manchester' department, which sells bed linen, towels, etc.

With that next to useless information I will leave you to your Christmas preparations. Bye

The most beautiful view in the world...

... was not on show when I went to see it on Monday. I was extremely fortunate to have to go to Milford Sound with work, but unfortuantely it rained heavily all day and the cloud was low, so the famed view of Mitre Peak (http://tiny.cc/6Q73l) was nowhere to be seen. However the water streaming off the valley sides was spectacular in its own right and probably far more useful for me to see as a hydrologist! And I did get my first ever ride in a helicopter.

Maybe I'll have to go back again, but take Ali and the boys with me next time. I've been very lucky to see so much of the country with work, but it would be lovely to share the experience with the family. Under the current arrangement, I'm charged with having to bring back a badge each for the boys, which Ali then has to sew onto their blankets. She gets the rough end of this deal!

Two weeks ago, we had another long weekend to celebrate our regional Canterbury Day. Friday was a statutory day off work at the end of 'Cup and Show Week', so we planned to go to the Royal New Zealand Show, which is held about two miles from home. Unseasonal gales and wind put paid to our plans and so we had a lazy day at home.

The good thing about Christchurch's variable weather is that the rest of the weekend had good weather. So on the Saturday we took the foot ferry across Lyttleton Harbour to Diamond Harbour and had a good day with friends walking and playing games. Then on Sunday we popped over the hill to our local beach at Corsair Bay. It's a lovely sheltered cove with a gentle slopeing beach and places to jump into deeper water further round. The perfect spot for a Sunday teatime.

That Saturday night also saw me and the boys cheering on the 'All Whites' from the comfort of the sofa as they won through to next year's football World Cup. Suddenly, this rugby mad country was talking about football. Normal service resumed last weekend as the All Blacks took on England at Twickenham and won. It would be telling to say who was cheering for who as we watched the replay during breakfast on Sunday.

Ali has continued to pick up some supply/relief teaching work at the boys' school, which is giving her some good experience. She enjoys being back in the classroom and the challenge of adapting her British resources for the Kiwi curriculem. Talking of school, Matthew brought home a lovely Maori-design fish hook that he'd carved from soap. He was able to tell us the meaning behind the different symbols he'd carved.

I joined Josh and the rest of his cub pack on Saturday for an afternoon's climbing up at Rapaki Rock on the Port Hills. A warm wind blew and the sun shone on a great afternoon where all the boys had a go at some quite tricky climbs. I spent the afternoon on the other end of a rope, belaying the intrepid boys. Josh gave it a good go, even trusting me to belay him on one climb! We then walked back down into the city down a valley that could easily have been in the Pennines. At the bottom of the vally, we were met by the unmistakably smells of that Kiwi institution - a sausage sizzle - that Ali and Matthew had helped set up.



We were all out with cubs again last night as parent helpers on a cycle ride to one of the local parks. It was like herding cats!

So that's an update of the last two weeks. It's been busy but fun. And thank you for those that have been asking for an update. It's nice to know that I'm not just writing for myself. Bye.

Hubble Bubble & Fireworks

It's been a busy couple of weeks. In the week after we got back from Tekapo, we all felt a bit down. Was it homesickness for the UK or just one of those lulls in the vibrancy of life. Something we've learnt is to take stock and find the real reason if things seem bad. It's so easy to jump to the conclusion that it's because we're in NZ and it's easy to forget that we all had bad days in the UK. But I'd be lying if I said that there weren't days when we miss people, places and things.

One thing that we certainly haven't missed has been Halloween. I always found it a dark period and hated the piles of tacky evil merchandise in the stores. Fortunately, Halloween was very low key here in Christchurch. There was hardly anything in the shops, a bit of a debate on its growing influence in the paper and (Hallelujah!) no 'trick or treaters'.

On Thursday, I was up in Rotorua on the North Island. Fortunately, the timing of my flight home gave me chance to have a quick look at the thermal pools in the city centre park. While the video clips will give you and idea of the sights, you are fortunate that 'smellyvision' isn't yet available. The eggy sulpherous smell around the park and at various other places in the city certainly leaves an impression. The only other time I've smelt anything similar was near a chemical works in Rotherham!



Bonfire night is celebrated here and we missed no opportunity to share the news that old Guido Fawkes was a son of York and had been baptised at St Mike's. Oh, why do we celebrate proximity to notoriety? Ali and the boys picked me up from the airport and we whizzed round to the beach suburb of New Brighton along with half of Christchurch to watch the City Council's firework display on the pier. It seemed strange to be walking along the beach to watch fireworks. The other difference is that we had to wait until 9pm for it to be dark enough for the fireworks as we are now in southern hemisphere summer.


Having settled me and the boys into work and school respectively, Ali got the chance to return to the classroom for paid employment this week. Having volunteered two days per week at the boy's school for the last few weeks, she applied to go on the supply teacher list and almost immediately was asked to cover Wednesday afternoon. A phonecall at 7.30 on Wednesday morning saw her teaching all of Wednesday and then again on Friday. Class and teacher survived!

Anyway, it's Saturday morning and there's a lawn that needs cutting, so I'll bid you farewell and look forward to hearing from you with your news.