May 2007- Wanaka

What to do? Knowing that we have 3 months here and probably not going to see much of Greg or if we do, we won’t talk to us because his head is buried in a book studying g.k.w about aeroplanes….we need to find some things to do.
After discussing it with the children we decided to see if we could get them into the local school for a few weeks, not because I don’t think I am doing a great job, but just they can meet some other children.
So off to the localest school, no room, try the main primary school. After talking to the head she said that they would need a study visa, immigration dept wanted $120 each and it would take a few weeks… we only wanted to send them for a few weeks..!! So no go!!
Next place to meet children, after school clubs??

This has proved more successful, Alistair & Rowena have started Karate, Rowena joined the Gymnastics class, a bit basic but she enjoys it, and importantly will get some badges, she already has a T-shirt! After a couple of weeks the teacher asked her if she would like to stay for the next class which is the display class, they do routines and perform them periodically. You can guess what she said! After the first class she was doing cartwheels, handstands, flips on to or rather off the trampoline, and had a wide grin!!
Alistair has decided that he has gone off football and prefers rugby! I wonder who, if anyone has influenced this change of heart?
After talking about the fact that just because he goes training will not automatically mean he will get on the team, he returned from the first training session to tell me he had a game on Saturday!
So we duly trooped off to the rugby ground and watched him tear around the pitch, his first ever game, he touched to ball once, but he enjoyed himself. Since then we have travelled to Queenstown to watch him play surrounded by snow covered hills and then this weekend we attended a 7’s tournament in Alexandra, another trip of 80km to watch under an inversion fog (for those who don’t know what it is- look it up!!! That’s what my father would say!) Just as they almost finished the fog cleared and the sun beat down on us.
We have joined the library and the librarian is very nice and lets the children use the internet for free to do some schoolwork so they won’t have to sit in the garage to do it! The garage being the only place that the internet will work as we are down a dip below some terraces left by the retreating glaciers!
When we were there this week, Rowena got asked if she would like to help with the under 5’s story and craft group so from next week she is going to. She is looking forward to it immensely.

The weather is lovely here, even if it is freezing in the morning it clears up by 10’ish and the rest of the day is clear and sunny, we are doing lessons outside on the deck and got quite red noses the other day. We had rain the other night and in the morning the mountains around Lake Wanaka looked as if someone had been out with a sieve and some icing sugar! Most of it has melted now but the higher mountains are still covered.

We have signed up for ski passes in preparation for the season which starts on 26th June!!
We had a huge pile of firewood delivered and the children and I spent a backbreaking afternoon stacking the logs beside the garage and sorting out suitable kindling. Greg was far too busy studying to help….!!?

There aren’t a huge number of places to walk here as most of the land in private, however we have found a few walks to go on. We left home mid morning with the intention of climbing Roy’s Peak, a mountain which lies on the edge of Lake Wanaka. It was freezing at home and we were dressed accordingly, once at the foot of the mountain the temperature had risen several degrees and we were over dressed! Anyway we decided to carry on up. The path started almost vertical for 3/4of hour then flattened slightly, however after a further hour of climbing we were still 2 hours from the top and it was just too hard! (I have never given up before…!!) By the time we got back to the car our knees were knocking and shaking together, I am glad we didn’t get all the way to the top… Greg is talking about having another go, I think not!

We have had the warmest May since records began and it has been lovely.
Greg went solo in May and now has clocked up several hours and is doing false landings and circuits. Gaining confidence daily. He now has 3/6 exams under his belt he says they are the easy ones.

The children discovered some bike jumps near here and Rowena in particular is getting more confident with her jumping, one of her wheels actually leaves the ground. Alistair is much more cautious.

And so we move into June.