Weekend at the Snow

Last Friday Will & I drove up to Ohakune for the weekend. Will had bought some skis off Trade Me from a local and had arranged to pick them up Saturday morning, then spend the day on the slopes testing them out. We  obviously had an 8:30pm deadline to get to our accommodation, so we could watch NZ's opening game in the world cup. We made it with about 5 minutes to spare. It was a good trip up, including some of the best fish & chips I can remember in Taihape!

Will had a magic day on the slopes. As you can see from the pics, conditions were pretty much perfect. He gave his skis the thumbs up. While he was up the mountain I chilled out in Ohakune. I went for a wander to the carrot which has been given a world cup make-over...

I also went for a nice walk along one of the river paths, giving spectacular views of the mountain. It really was a glorious day. I spent most of the afternoon sitting out in the sunshine reading the weekend newspaper.

Will & I have been doing a bit of work in the garden lately, taking advantage of any available sunshine. We have had several blooms on our Cleopatra magnolia.

While pruning the roses I came across the biggest stick insect I have ever seen! It was very very impressive... Will was brave enough to pick it up & relocate it to the native tree patch at the front of our section.

Last Tuesday afternoon we had an amazing hailstorm in Wellington. The ground was still covered in white when I got home from work. The daffodils & tulips took bit of a hammering.

I don't know what the poor old chooks made of it... Especially since one of them had popped out the very first egg that morning! We are loving the chooks, they are now really tame & will eat out of our hands. As soon as they hear as coming down the steps to their area they come running. All of them are now on the lay so we are getting 3 eggs a day.

This weekend has been a good one, starting with the AB's win over Japan on Friday night. Mum & dad went to the match as it was in Hamilton. On Saturday I had my badminton club champs. I did OK, losing the doubles final, & losing the mixed doubles semi-final. I decided my body wasn't really up to playing singles... On Saturday night Will & I went round to Geoff's place to watch the rugby. Grant, another of my friends from badminton, was also there. We had a very enjoyable evening watching Ireland beat the Aussies!

Will & I had a lovely sleep-in this morning. It was pouring down with rain so we didn't feel too guilty about not being up & making the most of the day! The weather got better & better as the day progressed, & we managed to make it into the garden. We were quite concerned about a little baby green finch which really didn't look too healthy. It was just curled up into a tight little ball on a branch of the cherry tree.

It just wasn't concerned about me getting right up close to it. At one stage it did manage to hop onto the bird-feeder, but it wasn't at all interested in the peanuts.

A few minutes later we found it sitting on the ground, again curled up into a tight little ball. We figured it wouldn't last too long there with the neighbourhood cats, so I picked it up & put it as high as I could reach in the cherry tree. When I looked again it had disappeared, so hopefully it was OK...

This afternoon I had an afternoon tea baby shower for one of my friends from work. It was at Finc cafe in town & was a really nice afternoon. Lots of yummy food. The cafe was near the waterfront so afterwards I managed to convince Lucy, who had given me a lift (& who really ISN'T a rugby fan!) into wandering down to the fanzone to check out the Wales/Samoa game on the way back to the car.

I hadn't been down to the waterfront for ages, so it was also the first time I saw the sculpture that had been installed for the world cup. I really like it.

That's all my news. Two more weeks of school, & then I get two weeks holiday. Bring it on!