Kaikoura is a peninsula outcrop into the ocean about 3 hours north of Christchurch, and a popular little weekend get-away….and one on which we tried out our two-child-travel-technique recently.  The shallow shelves of rock you see over the bluff were traditional Maori food collection spots–full of fish, crayfish, and paua (a one-sided shell fish). We walked the pathway around the peninsula the first day we stayed there. 

Jeremiah and I visited Kaikoura about a year ago and one of my favorite activities was poking around in the tidal pools. They’re full of snails, kelp, and other interesting tidbits (like dead crabs)….not as colorful and exotic as the spectacular orange and purple starfish in the pools off the Oregon coast, but still fun. Milo towed his boat through the canals for a bit.

Thumbs up Omi and Milo!

Jeremiah’s dutifully being the daddy today, carrying Naomi. There were lots of black wet-suit clad guys dart fishing and collecting paua and crayfish (we’d call them lobsters without the big claws), and Jeremiah watched them enviously. Free diving isn’t really a family activity and it takes a lot of gear, but he’d sure like to get into it.

Kaikoura is known for its seal colony. “Stinky seals” Milo says, wrinkling his nose and waving his fingers in front of it. They surely are stinky! They emit a rank odor of feces, and you smell them before you see them. They were lazing about like giant slugs on these rocks, with the red-legged gulls nesting above.

Handsome birds, but they have horrible manners and cranky voices.

I could spend hours beach combing, finding intricate sea urchin shells and bright orange crayfish legs to clutter up the shelves of our house.

We stayed overnight at this little hotel and Milo took it upon himself to sweep the driveway in the morning. He does like a project!

A former sheep farm on the peninsula has switched gears to agrotourism, in this case twice-daily sheep shearing demonstrations. Pete wears a shirt declaring “Two a day,” as opposed to the typical professional’s 400 sheep-per-day or the record holder’s 800-something per day (that’s one every 37 seconds, if you can imagine that). We contributed to the local economy by taking in Pete’s spiel, complete with multiple photo ops.  Here Pete is shearing a Drysdale sheep, the breed that grows so much wool that it has to be shorn twice a year.

One of the photo ops was with a pair of ram horns from a Drysdale sheep.

Another photo op was with a 5 day old lamb. I’m impressed with how capable a lamb is after only 5 days of life outside, as compared to Naomi.

First breakdown of a car that is. Today we had planned to go out to the very end of the Banks Peninsula and do a barbeque at a beach, but the green car didn’t cooperate. We got almost to the top of the last mountain on a one lane dirt road when steam started wisping out from under the hood. We stopped, hear a “poof” followed by more steam, and Jeremiah’s underhanded comment, “that’s not good.” We poured water into the radiator, waited a few minutes, and started her up again. She stalled soon after. Not good at all. We made some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, gave the car more water to drink, and called the mechanic in Akaroa.  “Why Daddy sad?” Milo kept asking.  “Because the green car is broken, honey,” we kept answering him.  Amazingly, we had cell reception, and even more surprisingly, there was someone at the garage on Saturday on a holiday weekend.  After a good rest the car did restart and make it back down the hill to Akaroa town, a much better scenario than I had envisioned, carrying two children and some water back down the hill in the baking sun. 

Milo had been all geared up to go to the beach, but thankfully there was a beach in Akaroa too. We broke out the sand toys and got grit in every orifice while we waited for the mechanic to assess the car.

Not only was there a beach in Akaroa, but there was also a nice little playground, and a willing Omi to play with. What more could a kid want?

Ice cream of course! That wasn’t even in the day’s plans, it was a break-down bonus.  Notice that he has bitten the tip off the cone–tactical error on his part.  I guess we haven’t given him enough ice cream cones for him to figure that out yet.

Jeremiah got bus tickets on the Akaroa shuttle back to Christchurch, so Milo’s trip ended in an exciting bus ride…even though he was zonked out for most of it.

Here’s the amazing thing: Our car broke down at the TOP of the hill, at a rare location where we could just about coast back down into town, when the weather was gorgeous, and where bus transport was available back to not only Christchurch, but right to Halswell where we live. Thank you Jesus! Milo had a great day, all a two year old could ask for, including the adventure of riding a bus back home and taking a bath in the sink.  Most of our destinations wouldn’t have worked out nearly so well. 

Rub a dub dub. We didn’t quite get the sand out of Milo’s and Naomi’s ears, but the rest of their bodies got cleaned up.  A happy day after all. The mechanic thinks the car engine is probably ok, no cracked heads as far as he can tell, but we had a hole in a radiator hose and in the radiator itself, so the green car has stayed on extended vacation in Akaroa until repairs can be made. 

Every morning Omi gets up with Milo around 7:00, letting Naomi and I sleep in a bit. She and Milo love reading books, many of them the same books that I remember her reading to me as a kid.

Milo and Omi are admiring Naomi and her funny expressions, yawns, and wiggles. Milo hasn’t asked to send her back yet, and in fact he still likes to hold her and watch her diaper changes. We’ll see if that lasts…. It’s really great that Omi can be here to give him lots of extra attention.

Justine, who watched Milo while I worked (though not now because I’m enjoying maternity leave), gave Milo his new shirt, “World’s Best Big Brother.” He’s proud of that role!

The long-awaited day has finally arrived–Omi’s plane came in this afternoon. The whole sequence worked just like Milo had planned “Baby come out; Omi comes, Plane; Pick up Omi, Red Car.” Mom actually had a surprising amount of energy after her 30-something hour trip, so we went to Hagley park, played on the playground, and got celebratory smoothies. About 7:30 the trip caught up with Omi. Here she and Naomi are cozying up, keeping each other company.

Naomi will be a practical little chickie, wearing Milo’s perfectly good newborn (and onward!) clothes. But I must admit that when my coworkers sent us two pretty wee girly sweaters and I put on the matching headband with the flower, I was smitten.

Jeremiah made scrumptious chocolate cakes in honor of Naomi’s coming home from the hospital, and Milo was more than happy to help stir and lick the spoons!  I sat on the couch and chuckled as Jeremiah learned the impossibility of setting a bowl of interesting batter in front of a 2 year old, along with a spoon, then instructing him to “not touch.”  I think the separated egg whites got dumped back into the bowl too, but the cakes came out great anyway. 

Christchurch library gives a book to every newborn, and Milo’s proudly reading Naomi her book. It didn’t bother him in the least that she was fast asleep for his performance!

I’ve reached that point in pregnancy where I’ve even stopped wondering if it’s a girl or a boy….I just want it out. I can’t even remember what it was like to trot out for a nice long run, or bend down effortlessly. Due date is this weekend but I’m not holding my breath, since the range of normal extends nearly two weeks beyond the due date. Childbirth is a bit of an anomaly in our otherwise predictable lives filled with calendars and schedules. Usually a momentous life change (new jobs, moves, etc) have a known date to work towards.  Perhaps this waiting for the unknown date is more familiar to farmers, where weather and markets regularly rearrange plans.  Ah well, it’s probably good character building, but I’m not enamored with the process.

Look at that happy face! Kids love to climb in trees, though Milo still needs a leg up. This is actually an olive grove, a little home garden one, at a house just outside Christchurch. We went for a barbeque this afternoon as our friends are house-sitting here, and Milo spent a happy time jumping on the trampoline and eating carrot cake. This was after we went to Dad’s day at playcenter in the morning where he moved wood chips with a wheel barrow and pounded nails into wood.  It’s a kid’s world!

Jeremiah is waiting for Ian to zoom in and hand over the team number so he can run the last 10 kilometers to the finish in Methven.

The mountain bikers coasted in completely bespeckled with mud, faces and behinds. Apparently the rain/sleet on the mountain made visibility tough and the ride a challenge.

The Rangitata Diversion Race (irrigation canal) is the main reason Ian pulled together a team for this year–he wasn’t interested in the cold swim! Milo and I watched as runner after runner dove (or belly flopped) into the silty water and clambered shivering up the other side. The weather that day was as cold as it looks–maybe 50 F tops.  Jeremiah made nice gasping noises when his head came up, much to Milo’s amusement, and you can see him climbing out the far side as another runner makes his dive.

Doesn’t that look nice and inviting? Thankfully it was toasty warm inside the pub at the end, and plenty of shivering runners recouped with a pint or two.

Emma (front left) and Ian (front right) made up the race crew with Jeremiah (in the back, still trying to raise his core temperature after that swim). The rest of us were support crew and along for the good eats at the end.  They actually did remarkably well, second place in the mixed men/women teams, earning them a few boxes of beer and a goodie bag.

With his belly full of snacks and french fries (they call them “chips” here, Milo’s about ready to sleep the ride home.  Jeremiah had a good day and started looking up other “adventure races” to do in future….he totally mystifies me but I guess it tells you how differently we’re wired.