Sophie beat her personal best and rode 10.6 km on Sunday!
We’d spent Sunday morning enjoying the delights of the food market in the city, but when it came to head home Dan and Sophie took to their wheels!
Charlotte and I took Alice home for her nap and had a restful hour or so, before reuniting with the amazing super biker girl Sophie and her awesome Daddy down at Lyall Bay.
Charlotte then joined them in cycling a shorter distance round to Princess Bay.
(She didn’t want to over-exert herself as she was saving her energy for the ‘magic mountain’ – Mt Ruapehu! Seeing as her school was closed for two days, Monday & Tuesday, her Dad thought it was time for a bit of a ‘father – daughter’ road trip and some real snow action!)
At Princess Bay we enjoyed a wonderful family time, gazing in awe at the snow on the Kaikoura mountain ranges on the horizon.
Charlotte took some beautiful photographs of her sister Alice and me playing in the sand and looking in the rock pools. We found a huge black-backed gull feather.
And someone had fun throwing the biggest rocks he could find into the sea to make big splashes! Ba doom! Splash!
We then took it in turns to turn the camera on each other for some family portraits (of course Alice features in all of the photos!).
First photographers’ Charlotte and Sophie take a turn each…
And then I get a go at trying to capture my lovely hubbie and his cheeky daughters in a few family pics…
Finishing up with photos from Dan of his girls…
As you can tell we had fun and enjoyed the sunshine! Such perfect weekend weather with which to recharge.
Dan and Sophie finished up by taking a walk over the rocks from Princess Bay to Houghton Bay, whilst Charlotte, Alice and I took the bikes home.
They saw a beautiful Shag sitting on the rocks, (Sophie and I were fortunate to see a fur seal the last time we climbed those rocks, which she wrote about here!).
Charlotte, Alice and I drove the bikes home and then met up with them for a final play at the local park before the sun started to dip down for the evening (It was amazing Sophie had any energy left, but she did! Incredible!).
Half the neighbourhood was at the playground, making the most of the fine weather. It’s only a few weeks till we turn our clocks forward and come fully out of hermit status for spring – whoop, whoop!
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It’s always great to hear how you all have such fun family times. They will be memories you will keep forever. I’ve gone through a few years when my role simply seemed to be housekeeper, taxi driver or provider of money but recently we are spending more time with our boys and their girlfriends and enjoying each others’ company.
How exciting to spot Orlando Bloom. As someone who is a big LOTR fan I would have been all of a flutter but like you I wouldn’t have intruded on his family time.
On our recent trip to Lundy we saw lots of shags including many young ones some of which were still being fed by their parents. We also saw quite a few seals though not as many as last year. We also had one swimming around us on our snorkel safari. The sun is shining right now and outside I can see the giant dragonflies patrolling the garden. I might just have to spend the day working outside.
What a fantastic read up about all the going ons there….the biking is excellent and the scenery amazing as ever….can’t wait to see it again for real !! Love the photo of the ‘girls’…what a lovely picture you make for the man of the house….just adorable!! The swimming looks as though it is being enjoyed and amazing stuff!!
Gorgeous pictures – it looks like a great time was had by all 🙂
Wow, that is certainly an achievement for Sophie… such a long way! Gorgeous family photos and they really capture the lovely weather we are having at the moment….. now is the time to make the trip to Mt Ruapehu, its looking gorgeous….. the snow is very low…. and the schools are making the most of it with snow trips. They will have a great time 🙂
you all take wonderful photos
what really blew me away was how far Sophie rode!!!!!!!!!!!
They are stunning photos, it all looks awesome
Well done Sophie on your cycle ride, Love your family photos, the colours are magical!!
Such amazing pictures. I love the collages. So many memories x