And while we work hard up the mountain Jenny works hard back at home............

November comes around and we have one more week of skiing left before the mountain is closed. A blue bird day so we head up again (Alex and Angus, Olie playing cricket!) A climb to the top of Ruapehu is on the cards. A good hours climb and we make it up, well worth the hard work, the views are.....well what do you reckon?

So at the end of the week we left Ruapehu looking beautiful and Olies' smile the way it has always been!

...and of course the kids did no jumps or other dangerous activities......

Just to make Jax happy that we weren't taking the kids anywhere risky..............

First week of the school holidays Olie goes up to spend a week skiing with Briar, John and Angus. 2.30pm on the first day I get a call at work to tell me Olie has had a slight accident!! Racing Angus he wiped out and his ski tips made themselves acquainted with his front teeth! 9am the following morning he was at the dentist, 10.30 and his teeth were rebuilt almost as new. Amazing. Three days later I took him back up the mountain(BAD father!!) and we had an amazing end to the week in perfect snow conditions.

August and after one of the early big dumps I took Olie, Alex and Angus up to sample the delights of Ruapehu under a blanket! An absolutely awesome day finished off with the boys insisting on messing in the snow on the way back down.

Tempus fugit and all that... We survived the winter!! Long, cool and pretty wet. But buckets of snow up on Ruapehu. We hit a snow base of over 5m this year, normally a good year we are on about 2.5m so WOW!! did we have some snow?!!

Jenny was the only one who got some winter sun, her school choir were invited to perform in the Sydney Opera House so mid-winter she pottered off to Sydney. They had put together a musical arrangement of traditional and contemporary songs that told the story the ANZAC soldiers through the ages. An awesome arrangement which we hope to get on Youtube at some point for you all to see!

They all seemed to have a great time, they had some spare time so they did some of the Sydney beaches and the Home and Away location. Apparently they were challenged by a fellow passenger on the flight over to Sydney so they gave an impromptu performance on the plane!

New skis and Alex was the happiest boy on the snow!

Winter's upon us and Alex insisted on going up for opening weekend inspite of the lack of snow, Ruapehu smiled at us as we came up the Parapara highway from Wanganui.

Oliver made captain of the 1st XI footy team and we headed over to the Hawkes Bay to play a prep match against Lindisfarne School in Hastings. Ollies first captaincy for a prep game was a win 3-0 with Olie scoring 2!! Chip off the old block obviously......... Group photo post match of St Georges' and Lindisfarne.

..brotherly love!......

Jax and Lily take in the show from a safe distance, Sundays are about relaxing after all!!

Environmentally friendly beach games! Totally undisturbed sand and surroundings........

Jen joins in the fun on a quad bike

Alex the hoon!!

One of the favoured passtimes for South Beach is hooning up and down the beach on motorbikes or in a 4x4. So I took the safe option and the boys jumped on the bike...........(Speed limit on NZ beaches is kept to 100Kmph.!!!!)

Early winter trip to South Beach saw the boys +Angus building a driftwood shelter. Suspect it might need a few more improvements before it's weather-proof!

The new addition to the family, Lily is a Labrador/Huntaway cross. cute as pie and well behaved but having started out as an outside only dog the softies in the family have surreptiously wangled her a pass to the inside!!

the final leg, after five hours only another 8kms to the car park that is at the end of the road you can see on the flat at the bottom..

Olie holds court at one of the stops!

descending from Tongariro towards the Emerald Lakes where we had afternoon tea next to the sulphurous pools. mmmmm

looking across North Crater to Red Crater with Ngarahoe overlooking and Ruapehu in the distant. Not a bad view?

..oh and Alex forced me to take him out of school for the day too!

Briar at morning tea with Ngarahoe in the background

The snake forms at the beginning of the day, managed to finish the day with the same numbers we started with!

Next stop Olivers school summer camp to Mission Bay on Lake Taupo. Five days away form the family doing loads of dull stuff: Water skiing, high wires, paintball, archery, slug guns...abnd a day ling tramp over the Tongariro crossing. I joined them for the day and had a great time, neat to spend time doing this sort of thing with the kids and watching them interact with their peers, teachers and other adults.

NZ won the tournament and awarded all the attentive members of the crowd with a winners Haka.

End of day one we headed off for a slap up meal at Martin Bosleys' Yacht Club. A scruffy, little back street number that was awarded "restaurant of the Year " award by Cuisine magazine 2007! ( http://www.martin-bosley.com/ )Six Gordon Ramsays turning up obviously put the wind up the chef but he performed fairly well under pressure, not sure whether they will let us back in again. How would Sarah and Lino cope? So this is a little snap of us just after we signed a plate for Martin(Marty to his friends!) which now adorns his kitchen wall, and just before we were advised of the exit routes!!

Great weekend of the usual silliness, normal array of funny, silly, bizarre and surreal costumes but found ourselves sitting behind the same group of nuns that we sat next to four years ago. Just as irreverent as before!.............

..and once we got rid of the Woods(!) it was time for a short week at work and then down to Wellington for the NZ round of the International Sevens. Costumes this year were obligatory (three line whip from me!) so we cobled together a set of chefs whites and printed some F-word t-shirts and went as Gordon Ramsay!

after the last supper!

The final farewell :(

Fran and Rich caught in the act...

Jonny and Rich do their Morecome and Wise impression!

an ever popular passtime of jumping off the Kuratau jetty, Rich trys the "walking on water" trick; momentary success!

Rocky proves his Scottish heritage by spending a record ten(!) minutes in the water without the use of neoprene, goose fat or whiskey. Well done Rich, have you warmed up yet?

head off to the Crystal Pool again where Alex braves the water whilst I mess up the photography!

the kids do their first farewell as we leave home in Wanganui to head up towards Taupo

back over The Cooks Straits to Wellington and home