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Vonda and Chaz passed back through Christchurch yesterday/today, so what else was there to do to fill in an hour or so today but add to our Christchurch mini-golf course review! Today’s choice, the outdoor course at Wild West Mini Golf (I think they need some of my help with their web presence…)

And the ratings:
Course Difficulty: Medium. Some trickier holes, and a bit of scoping of angles needed, but nothing really impossible. The par score was bout 10 higher than the Pirate’s Island course, so that tells you something.
Course State: Average to good. Everything worked fine, though we missed what might have been the best bit of kit that managed to pop the ball across from a track to a vat… Surprisingly there’s not much road noise given it’s by one of the busiest roads in town. The high fences and the running water everywhere mask that quite well.
Price: Reasonable with a two-for-one voucher. Slightly more expensive than the others, but the it’s a bit closer where we were in town.
Playing company: High class, as always!

Trying to decide between this and the Ferrymead course is tricky! Ferrymead has maybe a nicer environment to be out in, but this one was a bit more of a laugh (and closer to town…)

As you might have guessed from the lack of regular posting on house matters, there’s not a lot of action going on at the ranch at the moment. For those of you in the Northern hemisphere remember that currently we’re at the height of summer, and everyone likes to have a bit of a break to get a few barbies under their belts around this time. We’d hoped that everything could get to a stage that meant guys would work though to either get the extra cash for New Year’s eve, or to pay off the credit card from the rash choice of offering to pay for the top-shelf round on NY eve, but it wasn’t to be.

But that doesn’t stop us having to go and water the plants every now and then anyway. Today’s surprise was the butternut squash that had taken off and seem to have a few baby butternuts on them. So given nothing else has been going on you can have four photos of them! Aren’t you lucky!

Go on. Vote for your favourite! Then one or other of us can gloat that we took the best one…

We’ve had a couple of days now to think about whether we own up to this or not, but as you’ve been starved for anything new from us for a while we’ve decided to ‘fess up and admit that yes, we did indeed attend the 20-20 match between NZ and Pakistan.

Whether our attendance had any impact on the match we’re not going to delve into here today, but limit ourselves to the venue and the company: Both good. In fact the Tui stand provided more entertainment than the game for some of the match.

I think we might leave it there! I suspect there’s quite a few other Kiwis that might want to forget about the night too… I guess the only thing we’ve got to to feel good about was that we were there on a night when a Kiwi team broke a record!

(clicky so you can blow it up and see the score more clearly… Sigh. )

Twas the day before Christmas, and another pearler it was too! So we decided to get out and get some sun, and also continue our tour of Christchurch mini-golf courses that we started some time ago.

Pirate’s Island was the day’s choice. And Bec’s Brother Mike the day’s company.

A fairly competitive round was had, with the regular golfer whipping our butts, with Bec whipping mine. Oh well. Next time!

A fun day out, but it seemed like it was over a bit quickly. I can maybe see why they were offering half price same-day second rounds… But it kept us busy for a bit, and got us out in the lovely sun.

And the ratings:
Course Difficulty: Easy. Only a single trickier hole. Most were par 2’s, so we whipped around it really.
Course State: Average. A bit of work needed, and the water that should have been surrounding holes and flowing down the waterfall was decidedly missing. Toilets were a bit icky too.
Price: Reasonable with a two-for-one voucher.
Playing company: High class.

Consensus is that the Ferrymead course is still ahead at the moment.

As our obligations to babysit last weekend vanished, we made a call and escaped city life to have had a really nice weekend “over the hill” with T&G, enjoying the obligatory Akaroa fish and chips, chicken life, getting gardening ideas, sipping some nice wine, and enjoying some really great company. Another masterclass in relaxed hospitality, and on short notice too. Just what we needed for a quick change of pace. Thanks guys!

But then it was back to our “normality” on Tuesday with another trip out to see what had happened since the concrete set over then weekend. This trip some large piles of timber had grown around the place.

I really hope they’ve got some sort of numbering or references on them so they go in the right place! Looks like a fun puzzle to try to put together. A bit more complicated than the shed!

And while we were waiting around a bit to see if they were actually going to put a frame up, with the “help” of the builder’s dog we managed to clear the rest of the lambs ears, and accumulate all the various piles around the place into a single heap. That took a few loads in the back of the wagon. The photo really doesn’t give the right idea of the size of that mound!

Now we just have to watch that bit of ground to see if they’re going to try to escape from there!

Oh, and while we were lurking around they didn’t put up a frame – either there was a bit of prep on site still needed, or they just didn’t want us watching while they all stood around scratching their heads trying to work out which bit goes where to start things off. We just left them to it!

So here we were, all out in the backyard having a nice evening around the BBQ, wondering where the wind had gone and wasn’t it a lovely evening, and then, above our heads…

Three ducks decided that having a birds-eye view of our proceedings was necessary, and parked themselves on the roof for a bit, hanging their heads over the edge to say hello. And they didn’t even have an invitation!

Have I mentioned that the weather has been fantastic here lately? While the rest of the country seems to have been hit with rain and other grot, we’ve been lucky enough to get away with the occasional blustery day, with the rest being blue-sky stunners!

We decided that last night was just too good to waste, so a quick trip to the supermarket later as a happy troup of four so we could consult on the purchases, a bit of a scrub up of the BBQ, and we were good to go with the first BBQ since we’ve been back.

Normal division of labour was maintained, of course. Women in charge of the salads, and a bloke on barbie duty, but I think that worked out well! Bec does like her salads, and Nathan looked right at home with tongs in hand. I just handed out the beer, really.

Just a tad too cold to eat outside, but it won’t be long till we can hang out in the backyard all evening, I suspect. YAY!

Well, things have been a bit stressful over the last few days. We’ve been experiencing the aftermath and aftershocks of the earthquake (really glad we missed the main event!), and also putting our uncling and auntying skills to the test child-minding (they’re not babies any more) for a few days. Not sure which has been the more nerve-racking! But what better way to forget all about that for a while when we got a break than to pick up another couple of folk also at a bit of a loose end and head out for a round of mini-put. Or put-put if you prefer. Whatever.

Initially we were thinking the weather wasn’t the best so we should head to an indoor course, but when we got there we found that although their website said they were open seven days, the seven apparently don’t include Mondays. Hey ho. Outside it was then, at the Ferrymead golf complex. As it turned out it became a fantastic day, just right for mini-put. Sun in the sky, but not too hot. No wind to speak of to compensate for. Pearler! Only problem was that the course had been rained on fairly heavily the night before, so there were a number of water hazards on the course that made life a bit interesting. But the really best part was that for the entire time we had the entire course just to ourselves. Our own private course! Fantastic.

Competition between Bec, Megan, Nate-Dog and myself was intense, and it was only going through the back 9 that a clear winner emerged. And that would be Nate. We’ll keep you guessing about the minor places and the actual scores…

Looks like we might have to have another similar trip out soon, so I guess we should have a record to compare them against. Our assessment of the course is:

Course Difficulty: Easy to moderate. Only a couple of trickier holes.
Course State: Average. A bit of work needed, and the greens could have been swept a bit, but generally well maintained.
Price: Reasonable with a two-for-one voucher, but we’re still getting used to NZ prices.
Playing company: High class.

One of the nice things about a visit to mum’s is all the bird-life in the bush around the place. At least it’s a nice thing at this time of year when the sun doesn’t rise too early, and the dawn chorus still starts at a reasonable hour!

This time for some reason there seemed to be a few more varieties of birds around, or maybe I just had more time to stare out the window or to go out and track them down. I can state definitively that while we were there I managed to spot:

• A huge number of Wax-eye/Silver-eyes
• Many European Greenfinch
• A family or two of Tui, including a couple that were quite happy to come close and display themselves to me
• The usual complement of Blackbirds
• A couple of fantails, including a black fantail that I didn’t even know existed. These were just way to fast in the dim light of the dawn/dusk bush to even get close to a photo of
• House Sparrows, of course
• Noisy Bellbirds
• A few Doves
• Some starlings
• A Chaffinch or two (not as many as last time though)
• A couple of Wood Pigeons (I think it was two different ones, not the same one twice)
• Oh, and 3 chickens!

Apparently I missed out on at least the Brown Creeper, Grey Warbler and the Song Thrush, but that only gives me something to track down next time! And there’s still a large number of other birds to track down elsewhere too. Who needs a job!

Help in the kitchen is normally appreciated, but in this case…