It's mid-April already!

It's mid-April already and it has been a busy 3 weeks for us all. Much has been going on and I have fallen behind with the blog so here we are with an update at last.

A few weeks ago I headed out into the garden to mow the lawn as it was becoming a bit out of hand. The slope is a challenge, but the petrol mower that the owners left was more than a match for the lengthening green stuff!



Kate took the opportunity to take a few photos of the garden here at 6 Ensign Lane...


Oakley enjoying the fresh air


Wild Rosemary


The fishpond

A plant - and don't ask - I have no idea!

Our Lime tree with its single Lime! Looking for the Tequila tree now...

The view up to our deck

We have also tried to make sure that we get out on a Friday evening to the local shorefront at Mana which is just 5 minutes down the road from the house to give Oakley a swim. This is becoming more difficult now that the clocks have gone back an hour, but when we do manage to get there is really is fantastic. There is a good sand bar which means that Max can paddle quite safely whilst Oakley heads out a bit further. As you can see, Max is getting very good at throwing the ball for Oakley...


Me and my dawg


On the rampage


Kick the ball Max

Thank you!


"I like it here" shouts Oakley!

Kate has also been out and about with Max introducing him to various people and making some friends of her own at the same time. Here is a day in the life of Max (over a few days...spot the pre and post haircut photos!)

7.00am - wake up, but a bit like my Father getting out of bed is sometimes a struggle. It's good to have a doze and enjoy a lie-in...


Get that camera out of my face

After a bit of breakfast it's time to get on with the hard job of playing. First up I had better go and inspect my property portfolio. Amazing that International Movers are able to just ship your house across to the other side of the world!

Morning hair


Who needs to use the door!?


When the window is this much fun!


The FTSE 100 is still falling


Good job I moved my property here to New Zealand Mum...

I also need to call a few people to make arrangements for my social gatherings for the rest of the day.


Yep...yep...uh huh...OK, see you later

I had better include Oakley in the conversation too - just to get a well rounded point of view on what's good to do today; park, swim, sleep, walk, sniff, etc. So many options!


Oakley suggests that the Mana shorefront would be a good bet

Mum is taking me to 'Kindy Gym' this morning to burn off some energy. It's a short trip in the car into Porirua so hopefully I will get to go through the garage. The automatic garage door is just sooooo cool!

Kindy Gym gives me the chance to meet up with some of my new pals. Mum seems to have a good time chatting to the ladies too - I think she has even been out into town with them for an evening out leaving Dad in charge at home!?


OK - if I can just squeeze this guy out here...


...then I can do some REAL bouncing!


Check it out ladies...

I'm also a dab hand at negotiating the slide

And despite my size can Slam Dunk with the best of them...


Oy! Bring my ball back!

Does this look cool? Not really sure that it does?

Actually the chicks love a guy with a cold nose and whiskers...at least Oakley thinks so...


A much needed drink after all that dashing about


Followed by a leisurely drive in my car...

After all that exercise it was time to head home and chill in front of the TV. My current favorites are Postman Pat; well, I like Jess that cat, but don't tell Oakley. I'm also in to Tractor Tom and Tractor Ted. The Nightgarden is so yesterday.

Telly addict!

In an act of complete randomness I decided to see what it was like to wear Mr. Potato Head's glasses...
Well I thought it was a good idea. Mum has hers on all day and they look pretty good.

I thought glasses were supposed to make things look clearer??

So this is an Oakley eye view...

After my post-lunch snooze (does that sound old already??) it's time to head out for the next adventure. Mum & I have been visiting Michelle and Zack. When Mum and Dad are at work I get to go and hang out with Zack and his house and play with his toys. He's the same age as me so he's good fun to play with. He has lots of different toys that we can play with too. He has managed to buy his own property too. Not sure that I agree with his choice of colours, but there you go - each to their own!


Hey - do you know about the not using the door thing? Check this out...

Then off to the park with Mum where I get to do some serious climbing.

I'm into free climbing at the moment; no harness, no rope, that unbridled feeling of freedom, the fear factor - for Mum anyway. I'm currently hoaning my skills on an E3. It's called 'The Hole' - I think I am getting there...

I learnt this move from Zak Bonney!


Getting the 'mantle' right is difficult with short legs...

The southern face has this tricky bit...I just need to get my foot up here...

A quick run in the park and a snack to keep my energy levels up and my day is beginning to wind up. Boy it's been a busy one!


Quack quack...

Mum - are you sure it's OK to dig in here?

Look at what I am eating!

Me and a tree

In the boot with my dog...

Given that it is so sunny here in New Zealand I finally managed to persuade Dad that I needed to look a little more like him when we are out and about on the town.

All a bit Miami Vice...

So that is my typical day...pretty full on but it keeps me out of mischief at home!

Dad says that the next blog post will have pictures from my 2nd Birthday when we went camping on the East coast at Napier. It was great fun, so look out for that post soon.

Thanks for reading and see you soon!

Earth Hour

Tomorrow night at 20.30 New Zealand will turn off its lights for an hour in support of action against climate change. We'll be with candles for the hour...as long as we go and buy them tomorrow.

Many cities around the world are taking part...are you?

Seemed only appropriate to add a map!

I've added the good old Google Map to the blog...
You'll find it on the right hand side and I will try to make sure that the locations are updated as we spread our wings and explore this amazing country.
Hopefully it will help you to get some idea of what it all looks like.

Careful though...it will make you want to come and visit!!

Can you believe that this is our 5th weekend here??

Wow! Doesn't time fly when you are having fun!

Firstly here are a couple of photos that I missed from last weekend when we headed out to Lake Wairarapa - about 60 minutes North East of Whitby towards Marlborough - wine country.
We dropped down to the lake to have a wander. It is only a couple of feet deep so Oakley had a great time running through the water.


Kate and Max


Max walking in the sunshine

On Saturday we headed into Wellington to watch the Dragon Boat racing.
Max fulfilled a lifetime ambition and got to travel on a train! He has been 'Choo Chooing' them since we have been here so it was about time that he actually managed to travel on one.

The Dragon Boating took place at the water front in the city centre near Frank Kitts park so there were of course the usual food vendors and fairground rides that I am sure would be condemned in the UK! Max decided that he wanted to go on the cars strung to a metal wheel by string...and then proceeded to shout 'down!" (I want to get off please) after the 2nd rotation! Poor lad - I don't think it met his expectations - he probably thought that he was going to get to free drive around for a while in his own car!



Down!

After that 'experience' we quickly settled him with an ice cream - that always works...


What does ice cream do Max? Brrrrr....

Seen as we were there for the Dragon Boating, we thought we ought to watch a few races. It was as one might expect. Adults dressed in various garb paddling for all they are worth along a 100m course. The crew here did a good job with their costumes - Doctors and Nurses from Wellington Hospital.







At the same time there was a Power Boat race taking place in Oriental Bay which brought the boats up to the Wellington harbour area, so the grunting from the Dragon Boats was occasionally drowned out by Horsepower!



Today, Sunday, the weather wasn't great - winter is coming of course, so after doing a food shop in the morning, once the day had dried out a little, Max, Oakley and I drove over to Titahi Bay and we went for a blowy wander around the coast. Max likes his backpack which means that we can get a decent amount of ground covered.


Checking out the view

The views around the bay are great; looking back over to Parameta and Whitby and North into the hills.


Looking North


Back towards Porirua City


The train from Parameta to Wellington; Choo Choo


Oakley on the beach; sniffing for dead fish!


Pampas Grass

When we got home Max decided to play 'Bob the Builder' with his many Bob machine toys and his hard hat of course!


Scoop!


Max the Builder

Another great weekend behind us and another exciting week ahead.
Having successfully had Skype calls to Blackthorn, Romsey, Weedon and Satellite Beach, Florida we are all set up for video calls should you want to give us a call. Our skype name is kiwicalverts - add us and we'll respond when we are on-line.

We've found Max some childcare so Kate will be taking him to settle in this week. Just a few hours here and there. I am sure that he will be fine - he really enjoyed playing with Zak last week when Kate went to see the house.

Kate is preparing a job application for her 'dream' New Zealand job. Hopefully that will all go OK and she will get an interview... Fingers crossed.

I have a typically busy week of fixing to do having been asked to work out a Disaster Recovery Plan (interesting when you have to take into account Earthquakes and Volcanoes!) for our IT systems delivered to SLA customers...nice!

Have a good week everyone - more from us as the week goes on!

Love from us all.

An interesting day...

Yesterday was my 37th Birthday. It was an interesting day to say the least.

I got up early to walk Oakley and then managed to have a little time with Max and Kate opening my presents and cards; thank you all who sent me Birthday greetings, before heading off to the bus - I have become a slave to the bus timetable!

Then it was a quick commute into the city for an easy catch up meeting with MAF (Ministry for Agriculture and Forestry) to go over the final issue that we have to fix for IRS (Incursion Response System) which is the application that assists in the management of any BioHazard incident which may occur across the whole of New Zealand.

After that I wandered through town and spent my Birthday money on a 32GB iPod Touch. I supplemented this with the money that I got from ESRIUK when I left. It was only fitting that this cash was spent on a new gadget. I am sure that people would expect nothing less!

It was then a regular day at work; I'm working on productising the Eagle SLA offering at the moment and using 2 new SLA customers as Guinea Pigs.

Then at 4pm I headed off to the dentist to have my new tooth made. You will recall from a previous post that a few weeks ago my last remaining milk tooth snapped off whilst eating a carrot! The dentist had used this detailed X-Ray that I had taken last week at an Orthodontist to order to right sized bits for my implant.

After the insertion of what felt like a litre of local anaesthetic, much prodding and pulling, some grinding and more prodding he drilled the pilot hole. Thankfully I didn't feel a thing. Then Rob carefully started to screw in a titanium self tapping screw; approximately 3cm long and 2.8mm diameter into my upper jaw. Nice! That took about 20 minutes to complete with 4 intermediate X-Rays taken - I guess to ensure that it wasn't going in too far! I am trying to get hold of copies of those X-Rays to supplement the one above.

*** Update: 14.20 on 20/03/2009

Here are the X-rays that were taken during yesterday's proceedure!

The gap...

On its way in...

Almost there...

All the way in!

***

After the screw was in Rob started to build a new resin tooth and fit it. This took a little time but after more prodding, pulling, grinding and polishing I left with a new tooth fitting the gap!

Then the local wore off and I immediately dosed myself up with Nurofen and Panadol!

My darling wife and son collected my from the dentist and we headed home to enjoy and rather excellent Chinese Takeaway and Chocolate Mud Cake with fresh coffee! Hmmmm...lovely.

Today it's a little achy and I guess will be for a few days...but I have no more gap...hoorah!

This afternoon we are heading to the beach for Max to have a post dinner paddle and for Oaks to have a swim.

Tomorrow in Wellington harbour is the Dragon Boat festival (Max will finally get the train ride he has been desperate for) and on Sunday we will more than likely head back up the Kapiti Coast to go to the beach for more walking, paddling and no doubt a late breakfast.

Marvellous!

Have a good weekend one and all and we'll catch up again after the weekend with more photos.

2 beautiful Kiwi things...

No. 1: Mac's Brewery, especially Sun Dance ale and Great White wheat beer
No. 2: Pavlova! The Kiwi's love it so yesterday for our first "Out on the Deck BBQ" I made a Blueberry one

Both are delicious when served outside in the warm Kiwi Autumn sun!