Christmas Lights 2013

There is a street in Auckland that has become the place to walk, see lots of lights and have lots of festive fun.  It also wears the boys out so they go to sleep!

Auckland 2013

Our friends were extremely kind and let us borrow their beautiful house and pool so it was a no-brainier to fly back up to Auckland.

Winter in Queenstown

We were back on Coronet Peak today. It was great to see lots of snow again and the weather was amazing.  What I love best about skiing is we do it together as a family.  Even though we are at different levels of ability, it doesn't matter.

In our first season we have really improved. We even ski down black runs comfortably although there is the odd crash!

We regularly pinch ourselves as we can't believe we live in such an awe inspiring place.

School is different but slowly getting to grips with it.  Fran getting work too which is essential with the new lifestyle we live!

Every morning I drive through Queenstown to work, it's tough.

Loving Queenstown

We are loving the winter as we not only get to ski but we are also able to get cosy next to a fire with a beer or hot chocolate, or in the boys case an ice lolly?!

Oli is beginning to make friends and the great thing about kids around here is that they want to do stuff like scooter in skateparks! 

Occasionally we have to pinch ourselves as Queenstown is such a beautiful place.

One of the great things about skiing is that we do it as a family. Even though Alex is going on his own to explore the mountain we still spend heaps of quality time together which was the whole point of our adventure.

Here is a shot of the first time we left school and went straight up to the mountain for night skiing. Fran and I always had the dream that one day we would do that, and it finally happened. :)

GoPro biking around Arthurs Point with Tommy

Coronet Peak with the Hines

June/July

Alex continues to have a passion for cooking, his shortbread was particularly impressive. His bread was also a highlight.

Coronet has fantastic facilities and some cute mascots called Shred and Spike.

The earlier we get to the mountain the quieter it is initially and you can sneak in a couple of empty runs although it has been pretty quiet so far. After a big dump of snow it has been awhile and the snow is quickly disappearing. 

Whenever we get some snow the boys are up and out pretty earlier to get some sledging in. Living in Arthurs Point has it bonuses, we tend to get more snow as we are higher although it does it get colder. Freezing pipes once so far.

Even though we are much colder now we still get plenty of stunning days.

Skiing in July

As we become more proficient it opens the mountains up for us to explore. We can now go to intermediate/advanced runs which worked out really well as Shadow Basin turned out to be one of favourites except when it's icy and then it's impossible! 

Shadow Basin was a challenge but great fun.

The Remarkables adapt their terrain and on this day they built a very exciting tunnel! I lost count of how many times they went through it but it made up for some dodgy icy tracks.

Coronet Peak is still our favourite.  Greengates has some great runs and tends to be a lot quieter than the rest of the mountain. Score! Coronet is also a 15 min drive from our home which also makes it particularly attractive especially when Alex forgets his skis!

Riverton and Bluff

July iPhone photos

Alex has a pass to Cardrona as it was such a good deal so the lucky boy went with his friend Holly where he was shown the entire mountain and hasn't stopped talking about it! Cardrona is about an hour away and closer to Wanaka hence we have passes for Coronet and The Remarkables which is closer to us. 

The Hines popped down from Auckland for some skiing and we had a couple of great days on Coronet and a few nights out. 

We had a fantastic meal and a unique experience at Winnie's.  Every half an hour or so the roof opened which was very cool, would love to do that again as its snowing! The pizza was particularly good.

We had a stunning day on The Remarkables but the snow was icy and hideous to board/ski on. We will put this day down to experience. Got some great GoPro footage though, check out the video!

Skiing on The Remarkables

Snow Day Part Two

The first couple of hours we had snowball warfare around Arthurs Point and then we headed inside to warmup for an hour.  We then headed down to Queenstown which was about 5km and the trip there was a little stressful with the boys moaning every twenty minutes as it was quite windy with heavy snow.  But once we reached Queenstown it was great.  We had lunch and then got our ski passes for the season, very exciting. We stocked up with lollies and headed back, the snow had eased off and the walk back was stunning. We finally returned at 6.30, what an awesome day although it all felt a little surreal.  Fingers crossed for another one!!

1st Snow Day!

It actually happened!  Oli had been dreaming about this moment all his life and when we woke up he stayed inside curled up by the fire!  Alex and Tom were straight out there making snow angels, snow bases and snowballs!  They went crazy running and rolling around in the snow! We couldn't believe it.  School was initially delayed for an hour there was an hour of nail biting while we waited to hear that the school was officially closed for the day, as soon as we did, Oli was dressed and ready to go!