Tuesday 7 July - Brent's dinner

I have decided that it's about time for Brent to start cooking a dinner each week. I know that I am leaving it late but in my defence term time evenings are just chaotic & it is better to get dinner made & the boys to bed as smoothly as possible.

Brent decided to make nachos, which happens to be his favourite dinner at the moment. He cut up the onions & did nearly all of it except opening the tins of chilli beans & tomatoes. Even I had trouble opening those tins!

It was a delicious meal thanks Brent! I wonder what you will cook for us next week.

Snowy Trip to Wanaka - Saturday 4 July

We knew that we might have trouble coming down to Wanaka because a couple of days earlier there had been a heavy dump of snow in the high country. We purposely changed our normal course from the Geraldine/Fairlie/Tekapo route to a Timaru/Waimate/Kurow route. It probably was just as well that we took this route because as we were coming up the slight hill (356m above sea level according to the GPS) between the dams & Otematata this is the view we had. It really was a beautiful snowy scene with the glassy lake in the background. Not long after stopping to take this photo we got a stone chip in the windscreen on the passenger side not far from where it connects with the door column.

We got to Omarama at about 3pm & there was snow lying on the ground so we were really hoping we would get through the Lindis Pass. We saw a couple of huge trucks rumble past us so we knew the pass must have been open so we kept going all the time hoping we would get through before it was closed again. We got through fine although we were driving slower than usual. To our surprise there wasn't much snow lying on the ground.

We arrived in Wanaka at about 5:15pm.

Brent's Choice - Friday 3rd July

I gave the boys the camera for our drive to mum's. This is one of the photos Brent took.

Lovely View

I just love the view from the windows of the house down here in Wanaka. This was the view later in the afternoon once the low cloud had cleared. This is looking straight up at the Treble Cone skifield, one of the 2 skifields near Wanaka.

Sunday 5th July - Bye Dad!

After spending time getting the insurance company on to our chipped windscreen, we went into town to get Scott's ski boots molded to his foot & to get the ski binding adjusted. That took quite some time so we quickly had a DaVinci's pizza before taking Scott to the Wanaka airport. It is a wonderfully small airport & really only small planes normally fly in to this airport except for when the airshow is on at Easter time.

We checked Scott in and then went to the cafe that has a wonderful view of the runway to have a coffee. Not that there was much in the way of air movements to watch. Towards 3pm a little plane circled around the airport & landed. It was the Air NZ plane that Scott was due to fly out on. We walked back to the terminal. Honestly terminal is a very grand term for this little prefabricated unit. It is a one man band kind of place. The same man that checked Scott in went to grab the luggage trolley & drive it to the plane & unload all the luggage & then he just drove it to the side of the building & told people to pick up their luggage. The same man then took the outgoing baggage out to the pilot who loaded it into his plane. Then the man came back & announced (not over a speaker system it wasn't needed in this small area) that it was time to board the plane. Scott then walked out to the plane & climbed up the steps to get into the plane. Once everyone was on the plane the "terminal man" then went out to the plane & put the airmuffs on & asked the pilot to turn on one engine. Once he was satisfied that it was working alright he asked the pilot to turn the other engine on. Then when that was going to his satisfaction he unhooked the electrical cable that connected the plane to whatever & then he removed the chocks & the plane was away.

We saw it take off & then it circled the airport once & it was gone in that low cloud.

Thursday 2 July - Trusses have arrived!

The trusses arrived & got dropped off in the driveway. James would have loved to have seen the truck that had the mini crane attached to it, however he was at school. Brent wasn't really interested (he was home sick).

Tuesday 30 June

James loves to come home from school & check out what's been happening around the house. At the moment we have these colourful tarps over part of the roof. I presume it's to keep any rain off any possible leaks that may be in the roofing iron. The roofing iron is still on but all the ceiling from the master bedroom, ensuite, Brent's room & the toy room is gone so you can now look straight up to see the burnt out joists.

I am writing this at 10am Wednesday morning & a truck load of framing timber has arrived but I don't think they are the joists, they just don't look thick enough to be them. Originally we were supposed to get the joists today but Fred told me last night (Tuesday night) that they are delayed but they should be here on Thursday. At the moment the roofing iron seems to be getting taken down so we really are hoping for fine weather on Thursday & Friday. Any dances to the weather gods or praying for fine weather in my neck of the woods would be appreciated.