The weekend with a scouting trip to Mt Hutt and Tessa's birthday weekend

 Hi,

Happy birthday to Tessa for today. And Abby for tomorrow. Wow - busy. It was also Jamie and Cameron's birthday over the weekend.

And Sept 4th is also the day my family moved from NZ to Aus, way back in 1980. So, yeah. Big day.

Mike and I had lots of fun over the weekend. We went to Barb's leaving drinks after work on Thursday. And that makes me so sad. But she is very happy with her decisions - so yay. She is also already in Bali enjoying a well-deserved holiday right now. So she does not have any cares right now.

Up early Friday (4.15am) to head to the airport for our 6.35am flight to Chc. Made me very sleepy. Hahah. Uber from the airport to the work office for Mike to work for the day. And I continued onto Brodie St. Saw Toby and Tessa briefly then took the van to Torpedo7 and waited for it to open to give them Mike's new (old) skis for a wax and edge and bindings re-size, and my old Atomic skis for a wax and edge.

Then to the new mechanics in Sheffield Crescent (recommended to us by Martyn) for a wheel alignment and balance.

Strange Bandit with Martyn

Hey Toby

Toby and Tessa's flat

Then I met Mike, Martyn, Toby and Tessa at Strange Bandit for brekkie. Then off in Tessa's car to home to wait for the chain gang. And the chain gang was slow to arrive - thought they were not coming so Toby and I went to the New World that is 5 mins from their house. And that was when the chain gang came - but Tessa sorted them.

We watched some TV for a while. Then Tessa went to see her Dad (he arrived around 2.30) with Steph. Mike came after work and picked up the van and the newly waxed skis. Then Toby and Mike and I were off to Methven.

Lovely easy drive down for me. Found the house. 16 Jackson St, Went to get some food - went to a nice burger place called Craft @ Arabica opposite the 4 square. Would go there again. And back to let ourselves into the house. Great place. We had a great sleep, sprawled out in the 9 bed house.

Up early to make brekkie. Then we were off by 8am. But by the time we got up the access road, we had to park in the car park at Rakaia Saddle. And we were the last 4 or 5 cars in there! Wow. We were also in clag and seriously thinking we should just drive back down. Busy, and clag. But Ana and Daniel sent pics from the ski field and it was a bluebird day there. So Mike got changed and Toby and I caught the shuttle with him to see.

Mike got his lift pass - and while he waited in the long queue, Toby decided to also ski. So we got Toby sorted with ski rental. And he was soon skiing with Mike. I went back down to the van to get my gear. And I was skiing by 11am.

Lovely day. The crowds just dissipated. I probably only waited once for 10 mins for a queue. Most of my 19 runs were almost skiing straight onto the lift.

Toby!

No sunburn - just a glow

Staunch

Nice day

Hey there!

Stopped for a snack

Toby is ready

I loved skiing with Toby. Mt Hutt was where we both went for ski holidays together - and it was lovely to reminisce. He hadn't been skiing for a few years - probably since 2018. But it came back to him and we both enjoyed our runs together. We also skied off and on with Mike, Sam and Angus. Saw Tessa and David in the cafe too.

We skied until 3.15pm and then adjourned for a hot chocolate. Then we found Mike and he headed down in a shuttle to get the van and drove back up. Then we tootled down the hill, one of the last to leave. Found the others at the Brown Pub in Methven and enjoyed some chippies before going to the house in Jackson St and nibbling snacks, watching YouTube and chatting away.

Around 8.45pm the others left and headed back to Chc. Toby changed rooms to a more comfy bed and we all had a good sleep. Mike woke next morning (Sunday) and decided to spend it with us instead of skiing again. So Toby gave him some Father's Day presents (Legend mug and hot sauces) over brekkie.

Brekkie

We packed up, tidied up and - the van did not start. When we got down the hill last night, some random dashboard lights including the battery light had come on (which we ignored of course). And this morning the electrics were dead. Completely. But Mike remembered the cutout on the battery for long storage. He popped the bonnet and screwed it down - and it all started. Remember that! It had vibrated loose on the bumpy ski road.

We headed to Raikaia Gorge for some stone skimming. They have cut down all the pines on the bank of the river where we usually walk down to skim stones. They have planted a bunch of natives. It'll be good to see it change over the next 10 years.

Used to be pines here

Skimming action

The boys

Changing landscape

Then we drove back to Chc. Mike grabbed the time to install a new van stereo. The current one had a broken cassette player, a broken CD player and a Japanese frequency radio that could only pick up two talkback shows. The new one has a shiny new screen, Bluetooth music and the ability to fit a reversing camera which will be very handy for backing that large van.

It was much more straightforward to fit than he expected. The only challenge he hit was that the existing stereo was inexplicably held in by two bent shelving brackets. Luckily he had parts left over and carefully stored from the car stereo he fitted to his 1979 Mirage when he was Toby's age and was able to adapt those to hold the new stereo in place.

It works!

Dash all back in place

Cord for camera off to the left under the dashboard

Toby and Tessa's room

Drove to Steph and Sam's and enjoyed a fabulous roast dinner. Then we took Toby back to his flat at 7pm, dropped him and the van off, then Uber to the airport with our 3 checked bags.

Got through to our gate and had an easy flight to Wellington. Home by 10pm. Cats happy to see us.

Good sleep for us back in our own bed. Mike was up for PT with Quentin. And I am WFH.

Have an awesome week ahead!

Love,

Angela