The last weekend of winter

Kia ora! How are you?! We’re just back from a few days skiing – more on that later, but it was a BRILLIANT holiday. It has been many a year since I skied in New Zealand. We’re very lucky to have a ski field within driving distance!

Now we’re back, I came across these photos that we took just before our holiday. You can see that spring came early for us this year! These photos are actually from the last weekend of winter, but it was just so warm and lovely; definitely not wintry at all. We went to the beach on the Saturday (of course, where else?!) and then on the Sunday Amelie and I went to the playground for a picnic lunch. We’re still playing it kind of safe with the whole Covid-19 thing coming back I guess? I’m feeling far more confident now, seeing the number of active cases in New Zealand go down every day – it seems like the outbreak is pretty well contained and we seem to have a handle on it. Two weeks ago I was still kind of wary though, and therefore we were acting pretty cautiously, avoiding busier places like the market etc. I’m feeling very thankful for the beautiful weather making that so much easier!

We love this beach so much. Every time we go we discover something new. About five seconds after this was taken Amelie jumped up and sprinted off to put together a wee collection of shells…

…which she presented to us in her sandals. Okay. Oh, and before we left we got to see an octopus! Just a little one hanging out in the shallows in between a couple of rocks. blinking up at us (blinking? Winking?). It was so very cool! Lots of people went over to visit it but everyone was incredibly respectful and kept their distance from it – it was so good to see. I will never cease to be fascinated by ocean life.

At the playground on a slightly cloudier but still warm day! Thank goodness for weather that’s balmy enough I don’t have to have an argument with Amelie when she pulls her sandals out. She loves wearing them but in the interests of keeping her little toes from getting frostbitten I am pretty stern about closed shoes in winter!