Big Wet

Matheson's Bay this morning after the torrential rain that lashed down overnight.

Trickle to Torrent

Lush wet summer

More shots here.

Ginger Bread House

Having a go at some food photography. One of the of the family went all out in their Christmas day baking and constructed a ginger bread house.

I was impressed! It ate as well as it looked.

Christmas Day 2011

Every year around Christmas I try to get a story of photos together of the kids in action opening their presents.  I took too many shots over Christmas, but I think I only needed these three.

Amelia and her cousin sharing the opening of an anticipated present.

Anticipation

Surprise

Pleasure

Penguins

Managed to fit in a quick trip to the Antarctic just before Christmas day. 


I wish. Kelly Tarlton's had to do.

More shots here.

Christmas Eve

Waiting for Santa to deliver the good on Christmas Eve.

Waiting for Santa

The Running of The Goats

Over the weekend was the 8th annual running of The Goat. The Goat is a mountain run on Mt Ruapehu from Whakapapa to Turoa ski fields.

It was the first time I've entered, and apart from expecting it to be pretty tough terrain, I'd had no real expectations of the exact course.  Training had gone quite well, over the previous 3 months, and I was feeling in good shape and eager to go.

The trouble was, apart from running the course itself, it turns out to be devilishly hard to train for. This became apparent within a few kilometers of leaving the Whakapapa mountain road.   The course is less about running fitness, and more about rock hopping skills, hence the name.  Even on the sections that are runnable, the runner is constantly negotiating their route over and around rocks, boulders and scree.  Then there is the river crossings, mud pits, muddy ledges and gullies, bush bashing, waterfalls and rocky boulder stream beds that must be tackled.  All up there is probably only about 1/4 that is easy clear terrain that can be run at full tilt. 

It certainly was an experience. While base fitness was reasonable, the fitness to run in such terrain was certainly not able to be trained for.

The course ran was here: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/132503380

Make sure you go into satellite mode and drill into the terrain. It looks pretty flat from a birds eye view, but if you look at the elevation plot you will get a better idea.

The first half of the course was mostly spent getting orientated about how to most efficiently run the terrain.  I ran every thing runnable, but I walked the steep uphill scree and rock sections that required a climb and scramble.  I've found that I'm slow to walk up hill in comparison with the other runners, but seem to go faster when running downhills and rock hopping down.  Which meant lots of overtaking and them being overtaken like a game of snakes and ladders over rocks.  However passing on the trail was almost as hard as running it. Overtaking lanes where few and far between. And when taken usually leading to a wrong turn.

On one occasion, I spied a passing option, followed a runner ahead only to find her turn around with a wide eyed look and declare, "Don't follow me!", as she jumped off a ledge, landed a metre down on her rear and then skidded down a 5m muddy small cliff to land in a deep muddy bog beneath. Of course I followed, as did about a dozen behind me, leaping off to gain precious time like demented mud encrusted lemmings.

On previous runs of the Kepler, forcing down the food intake early enough had be my typical downfall.  This time I was determined to be entirely disciplined about it. Even though I struggle to eat on races, I made sure I was armed with some new PeakFuel gels.  These where perfect, quick and easy to access and consume, avoiding long chewing etc. Once taken 10mins later I was hitting top gear and feeling great.

Over halfway through I was still feeling in good shape and was well into the food.  A step scree slope slowed me down but the pace picked up once again on the decent down past Lake Surprise and down a subsequent boulder ravine. Through an alpine plateau, still in good time and I was pondering about opening up the throttles, thinking it was just one manageable climb left.

Then I emerged out of some bush from a small rocky ravine and looked up. My heart dropped with my jaw. Still to be negotiated was the remaining formidable terrain which was what make the Goat what it is. Before me was a slow line of runners gradually scrambling up a waterfall that went straight up into the sky.   All illusions of a faster than expected time went out the window.  It took about 30mins of hard graft and peak lung capacity.  While immensely scenic terrain, it was a total gut buster. At the top each runner was rewarded with a woman in a costume, flagellating runners with a fake cat-of-nine-tails.  The whipping seemed a pleasant and generous reward in comparison with the agony of the climb up the waterfall itself.

The final downhill and long slow shuffle up the last km of the Turoa mountain road was a long exhausted blur.  In fact much of the first half sections of the race still remains a blur of random terrain. I got into a slow sprint race crossing the finish line, and that I can remember in absolute clarity.

At Play

Some shots of the girls getting out into summer on the Sunday. They rode and scootered their way around the water front to drink in the sun and air.

Afterwards, they stopped at the water front play ground where Lucy got some tunnel vision.

Both the girls enjoyed hitting the ropes, but Lucy gave it a good go for the first time and was clearly relishing the action.

More of the shoot is here.

Cape Palliser

We drove over for an interesting visit over to Ngawi and Cape Palliser on the weekend. 

It was fairly steep climb up the lighthouse steps, all 260 of them, but the girls took them on at a run. They weren't still running at the top however.

The view north, along the Cape Palliser coast line from the lighthouse. The sea receives a lot of sediment run off from the clay soils draining out of streams, giving the sea an interesting blue milky shades.

The Cape Palliser seals where in an obliging sunning mood, making some chances available for some good shots.

More shots of the day are here.

Lucy in a saddle

Lucy on her first horse ride out a Trentham.

After watching Amelia have a ride on the pony she was very keen.

Lucy saddles up.

And couldn't be held back.

Lucy in the saddle.

Overall she did well, no falls. I was only a small pony, not too far to fall anyway.

As kiwi as

On the way back from a visit to Turangi, driving back to Ohakune we stopped off at a site of an old maori dwelling next to Lake Rotoaira that I've always wanted to visit.

The maori dwelling and the back drop gave way to an unexpectedly good shot with the snow covered Mt Tongariro in the background.


Its got maori building architecture, cabbage trees, toi toi, bush, snow covered mountains sitting under sunlight piercing through the cloud.

Site of maori dwelling, Lake Rotoaira

Its as kiwi as. Mate.

Found

The kids love playing hide and seek in the nearby field in Ohakune. He's a shot of Lucy being found from behind a tree.

Found

Lucy hits the snow

An amusing shot of Lucy one morning, getting geared up to hit the snow.

Toddler fashion

Good wind. Bad wind.

Holiday weather was pretty patchy this time of year up at the mountain. Lots of half days catching breaks in the weather.  To fill in the down time on windy days, kite flying in the fields nearby is a good past time to enjoy.

As you can see from the expression, kites are fun to fly when the wind is steady.

Good wind

However not so when the wind annoyingly fades and drops - along with the kite.

Bad wind

Hot Water

Recently we were in Ohakune for school holidays. On an off day from skiing we drove the kids over to Taupo for the day to be a tourist.

Crater's of the Moon was worth a visit.  Its a scrub covered valley full of geothermal activity, consisting of vents and hot pools. It made for some interesting shots. The trail weaves, ducks and dives through a hot and streamy landscape.

Lots of stream flowing around, scrub, craters and volcanic soil.

The compulsory, boiling mud pools shot. Lots of hot mud going bubble, plop.

Boiling mud.

Finally we stopped off for a visit at the prawn farm. Excess geothermal energy is used to heat ponds that contain prawns. Prawns are tasty, and anything tasty that swims you can fish for. So of course Amelia gave it a crack.  I thought it would be easy, but surprisingly they are harder to catch than first thought. The angler needs to wait about 30seconds after getting a bite while the prawn puts the hook into its mouth using its claw. However, natural fishing instinct is to strike soon after the first hit. Its hard to stop.

Amelia, fishing for prawns.

Naval Visit

During the weekend the New Zealand Navy, pretty much the entire fleet, visited Wellington harbour to take advantage of the Rugby World Cup games to draw in some crowds.

And draw in they did. The thronging crowds where truly epic, however it was a good walk around to look at the ships, plus the chance to get some photos.

The looming bow Te Kaha, one of two frigates we have which sum to our total combat role ships.

Te Kaha's ensign.

The girls, enjoying some salt air out of crowds.

Amelia in Action on Skis

Last weekend we were up in Ohakune with the Bergquist and Cakebread families to get some skiing in. Despite the weather forecast the morning turned out fair enough to take the girls up for a ski during the morning.

I'm not so great at movies by any stretch, however I tried my hand at getting a movie of Amelia skiing for prosperity. I took it using my phone, while skiing backwards down the Alpine Plateau on Turoa. So the quality is not great, but you get the general idea of how Amelia is developing with her skiing.

Here goes.

I'm not sure which was harder, holding the phone steady and keeping Amelia in shot, or skiing backwards while trying to avoid the others on the slope.

Its good to see Amelia using balance by holding hands forward to keep her weight over the centre of her skis and seems more or less under general control of direction and good control of speed. Its starting to come along for her now.

Ski Turoa

Saturday was a very good day indeed. I'd taken some time away to be up at Ohakune to get some skiing in.  Thursday and Friday had seen some fantastic midweek skiing but cloudy afternoon conditions had kept my skis reasonably with in view of the area boundaries.  However the weather smiled on Saturday with reliable clear sky and a low risk stable spring snow pack.  This made a afternoon ski tour an immensely attractive option.

During the morning I'd made use of the short lift queues and spent an enjoyable morning hanging out with the Turoa Hosts exploring the new groomed faces on the South East Basin where the old High Flyer is due to be re-located. The run that has opened down the Cinch and runs out through Once Only is a new favourite. It will be a great entree for Turoa visitors in the future to get a taste of the backcountry without having to put on skins or climb for it.  The host I was skiing with, Jason, had a cunning plan that exited Once Only at the lower car parks. So we hung out for a few minutes and caught the Turoa shuttle back up to the base. 

At the altitude it is, the spring now just starts to release earlier than the rest of the off trail runs higher up. It was such a good mid morning option that we all had to repeat it straight again after.

The Cinch, South East Basin, Turoa.
New groomed terrain for 2011.

By lunch time the skins were itching to get on the skis so I took them out for a trip over far west into the Mangaturuturu Glacier.

The snow was classic Turoa spring corn, varying from firm packed wind drift up to 5 - 10cm deep soft corn. Sweet and untracked.

Skin tracks pointing the way behind

After about a 2 hour ski tour on skins and a reasonable climb on feet to gain altitude I crested over the saddle above the Mangaturuturu. I was rewarded with a quick view of the crater lake at the top. Unfortunately, as you can see from the photo, cloud around the summit plateau was starting to encroach so the visit was all too short.

View of the Mt Ruapehu Crater Lake from the SW saddle.
Cloud encroaching.

However I took the moment to get a decent shot of the southern head wall above the crater lake and the way the snow ridge line curves around to meet the saddle.  Taurangi Peak, the summit that sits above Turoa, is in the background.

South headwall of the Mt Ruapehu Crater Lake.
Tahurangi Peak in the background.

The following shot shows the way out and down the glacier. The top of the saddle is covered in interesting delicate sastrugi and ice formations. While nice to look at they are not so interesting to ski on though.

View down the Mangaturuturu Glacier from the saddle.

After working through the sastrugi, the ski out was epic. Untracked virgin spring corn, with not another soul in sight. Wide open bowl with pristine creamy corn.

First and only tracks in Mt Ruapehu spring corn
on Mangaturuturu Glacier.

The final shot shows the rest of the way out in the untracked open bowls.

Creamy spring snow awaiting tracks on the
Mangaturuturu Glacier.

Needless to say the run out back into the Turoa lift terrain was brilliant and relished with a vengeance.

This is skiing.

No people, no tracks, no queues, no noise. Just simple freshness, freedom and farness to the sweet rhythmic sound of the skis arching and carving round symmetric turns in the snow under boot.

Ohakune Dusk

Was up in Ohakune for a long weekend.  The rural backdrop over the fence catches some picturesque dusk light. I got these two shots of the sun setting on fence lines and farm buildings.

The range of dusk colours in the first shot was what caught my attention.

The second shot is all about over use of lens flare.

Skip Training

Amelia learning how to skip from the experts.

Ngaio Snow

Last week in snowed in Wellington, which is a very rare but welcome event.  The snow was only a few cms worth and very, very wet, almost slurry. However it was snow. It came on the Sunday, and snowed on Monday and Tuesday and Wednesday, each time in the evening.

I've included an few shots of the snow, just for the record. They are not terrific shots but never the less, here they are.

The first is looking from the back lawn, over the house and onto the Ngaio hills behind.

The second is over the lawn while the snow was heaviest, on Monday evening.

 Finally, overlooking the Ngaio hills on Tuesday morning, with the moon setting.

There are more photos of the snow around the house and hills are here.

Long Weekend at Ohakune

Last weekend we took off on Thursday evening for a long weekend at Ohakune with our friends the Cakebreads. Friday was cold and windy but Saturday was calm and clear so we took the girls up for a ski lesson. The lesson was a roaring success for Amelia and Lily and seemed to build quite well on their skills learnt to date.
More details are in a previous post.

However four kids take some entertaining when not on the snow.  Luckly there is a great climbing wall that has a perfect set up for kids in Ohakune. Here is a shot of Amelia getting into a new found sport she is really enthusiastically enjoying.

In a near by paddock to our house there are a herd of cows that are sometimes grazing. The girls, particularly the young ones, are fascinated by them; Lucy loves to practice her "mooing" on them. The livestock are pretty vocal back for a reason known only to themselves.

A major snow storm was forecast for the country on the Sunday. So we got out of Ohakune before we got snowed in. Here is a shot of the rain setting in before the snow hit. 

Cold Day on Turoa

Caught this shot while hanging out in at the High Noon cafe on Turoa last Friday. It was a cold blustery day, but with lots a fresh dry snow on the main trails.

It was a balance between enjoying the snow and tolerating the cold wind chill on the lifts.  As you can see by the shot, there were not many people up to tolerating the conditions, but when the sunlight managed to pierce the gloomy snow storm it produced a interesting ethereal light.  The tables look like they are lit artificially from above.

On Saturday I took the girls up for a lesson. To fill in time before getting in skis, Amelia decided to make a snow angel.

Amelia and Lily improved dramatically during the lesson. Now they can ski and navigate a way through the masses on the Alpine Meadow top to bottom unaided. Almost even better they load onto and unload from the ski lift by themselves.

Here is a shot of the girls enjoying themselves afterwards.