Our evening view! Pretty stunning evening looking out to Plimmerton. Oh to be on the water...

Neil Calvert
Explorer Graphics
neil@egl.co.nz
+64 27 552 9702

The view from our new place. Lovely... More pictures to come soon...

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Saturday mornings...

...have suddenly become quite busy with no chance of a lie-in ever again!

For the past 3 weeks Max has been attending Dash swimming club at Canon's Creek Pool. He is in the Jellyfish class and at the moment has his instructor, Natasha all to himself.

Jellyfish is all about water confidence and by the end of his 10 week course, Max should be able to float on his own.

For the first 2 weeks Max wanted me in the pool with him. Understandable really, a strange person who he had never met before getting him to put his ears and face in the water...

Last Saturday was week 3 and on Friday afternoon Max declared that he was going to swim with Natasha "all by myself". Max kept to his word and on Saturday morning he got in to the pool with Natasha on his own and did everything that she asked him to do.

At the end of the session, Natasha dropped some weighted coytes into the pool and asked Max to pick them up - she was trying to get him to put his face into the water. Max's solution - hook them with his foot and raise them to the surface! Problem solving in action.

After swimming we have a mad dash to Paremata Plimmerton RFC where Max has joined the nursery group. Last Saturday was Max's second week and finally he was given his team shirt. It was all he talked about since the week before when they didn't have one for him so his face was a picture when they gave him his new shirt. You'll have seen the previous blog post of Max in his kit, so here are a few more pictures and some video of the training session.

Max immediately starts ball tricks!


"I love my new rugby ball"

Running with the ball in 2 hands...

Now getting ready for a hand-off...

Even at 3 years old they have to wear a gum shield

Paremata Plimmerton RFCs newest player...

Ripper Rugby game 1 (music is "Run" by Sash)

Like I said - Saturday mornings will never be the same again!

Max all ready for rugby! Very happy that he finally has his team shirt! Let the tackles begin...

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Sunrise! The sky this morning is neon pink. Wonder what the farmers have to say about that?

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Freshly speared Blue Cod for tea tonight! 1kg and 42cm long. A good size. Should be tasty...

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Wellington Emergency Service Open Day

Today in Wellington was the Wellington Emergency Services Open Day, a free event in the heart of the city attended by the Police, Urban and Rural Fire Brigade, Wellington Free Ambulance Service, Coastguard and SPCA (!).

All of the vehicles were open so the kids were free to climb in, push the buttons and generally have a good time. Of course, Max the transport nut was in his element and had a very busy time 'driving' every vehicle that he could...

Max's favourite Fire Engine was the Wellington Airport one which he visited 4 times. I think he would have still been there had I left him to it!

At one point there were a dozen children in the front of this!

Max the Paramedic...

Max the Policeman...

Max the Heli-fireman...

Max the Rescuer...

Max the Ambulance driver...

The Helipro helicopter attended the event and drew a large crowd around the arena.

It did various displays with several of the teams that use its service; the Armed Response team did a 'fast rope' and the Rural Fire team did an abseil and a winch exercise. They were going to demonstrate the monsoon bucket but the wind got up a bit - this is Wellington after all, so that was cancelled.

An Air New Zealand flight leaving the airport narrowly misses the Helipro helicopter!

The Rural Fire team abseil from the helicopter

Some video of the Helipro Helicopter in action. It was very exciting!

Max came home a very happy, but tired little boy.

Max hanging out in the Wellington Airport fire truck at the Emergency Services day in Wellington!

Sent from my Windows Mobile phone

Mana Island and in the background South Island silhouetted by the sunset. Simply stunning.

I was in Plimmerton this evening for a meeting and there was a spectacular sunset. Mana Island in the foreground was very dark and behind it you can see the outline of South Island. It looked like an oil painting. The only camera that I had with me was on my mobile phone, but I think you get the idea...

Max's pre-birthday dash and 3rd Birthday party

With a 3 year old Birthday party looming, we thought it was a good idea to take Max out to have a good run around in order to burn off some energy before his friends arrived to celebrate his Birthday. Max & I headed to Aotea Lagoon to do some cycling and climbing. The Lagoon is a good sized inland lake with a path around the outside but even better, there is also an excellent play park with lots of slides, climbing, swinging and 2 wobbly bridges.

For the past few months Max has become a bit of a Fireman's Pole expert and finally I had a camera with me to capture his technique...sorry about the music - it just seemed quite appropriate!



Then of course it was party time. Here are a selection of videos with Max and his friends hard at work having a very Pirate time...

Oakley on Max's Birthday

Oakley is of course a very important part of our family and he is involved in almost everything that we do.

Today as we opened Max's presents Oakley didn't seem to want to be as involved as he usually would be. Then we realised why...

Our new truck! SWB Pajero...it will go anywhere. Had one in the UK so it's great to have another.

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Max's 3rd Birthday

Would you believe it - Max is 3!

We must have had a bit of a moment, because before we knew what was happening we seemed to have been persuaded by said 3 year old to host a Birthday party for him and his nursery buddies. We ended up with 7 children, all around the age of 3 and 14 adults!

It was actually great fun and everyone had a good time, with party food prepared by Kate while I kept Max busy at the park.

Here are a selection of photos from the party. I will upload some video tomorrow.


The Jolly Max. I had seen a Pirate Ship birthday cake on the web and thought that I would try to do something similar. It worked out well in the end!


Jack Sparrow and 2 Pirate candles added to the finished cake.

The canons are chocolate covered liquorish and the canon balls are maltesers.

I even made some sea!

The party in full swing. Lots of parents and kids turned up with Pirate attire!

They all made Pirate hats.

The Mums did lots of chatting!

Lucy - Sean's sister joining in with the hat making.

Caitlin had a great time making and colouring in.

More chatting...

Even more chatting...

Sean, Lucy and Mum. Sean goes to nursery with Max.

Max's best friend Devante. Not looking too sure about something? I think he is waiting for the food!

Max and Devante getting stuck in to some low loaders and various other vehicles.

Max even found time to open all of the presents that arrived. He is a very lucky boy!

Getting there...slowly!

Devante with another vehicle.

And the chatting continues!

Devante has spotted something that he likes.

Max and Caitlin playing very nicely together.

Max has just opened the 'poppers' from Grace. They are very funny and Dad thinks that they should be in his office!

Oakley dog loved it - so much attention and opportunities for mine sweeping after the party food.

The party in full swing. Must be time for cake...

It did look too good to eat, but we carved in to it all the same. Lukas was obviously very keen to get his slice.

Max couldn't wait.

Cheeky Pirate Max.

Thankfully the cake tasted OK too.

Lukas eyeing Mum who had just been given some cake.

Mast removal...

Happy Pirate Max.

It's all over and everyone has gone home and Max has just noticed Kate's pirate earrings!

Max & Mummy.

Thank you for my party Mummy.

We left the opening of family presents until the actual day; Sunday 11th April.

Max got a big shiny red fire engine from Mum and Dad...

...complete with fire fighters.

4 months on from Christmas and Max has perfected his wrapping ripping technique.

More and more parcels came out of the box.

A very good present haul including many vehicles, some lovely clothes, books and plenty of other toys which should mean that we can recycle some of them!?

I have lots of video to upload which I am working on now, so look back soon...

Max says thank you to everyone for his lovely presents.