Under good weather

The last time we passed an illness around the house, we had to cancel any plans of celebrating Ryan's birthday. So here I sit, 7 minutes from my birthday, palpating the enlarged lymph nodes in my neck and rubbing my temples. Nausea seems to be the common thread for each of us. Trey was the entertaining one, kicking it off with the gastrointestinal equivalent of fireworks the day before yesterday... in both directions... while buckled into his car seat while Ana drove the streets a good distance from home. Poor fellow. But he was a trooper, and hasn't really acted like he felt badly, oddly enough. He just showed it.
So Ana has pulled out of tomorrow's duathlon, birthday dinner was canceled, the Halloween party across town went by without us, and any activities for the weekend seem too difficult at this point. In fact, we were all asleep by 6 pm! Which explains why I am composing this in the middle of the night.
On a lighter note, last weekend was wonderful. Ana let me go for a weekend trip with the guys, so four of us hightailed out of town on the Friday afternoon of our Labour Day weekend for Picton a port town for ferries connecting the south island with Wellington. After an overnight stay there, we caught a morning ferry to the northern tip of one of the peninsulae formed by all the long sounds through there, then spent two days climbing and descending the hills on the way back to Picton. Company was great, the scenery incredible, and the riding was the best I have had the opportunity to behold. What a weekend.

This is the traffic at the start of a three-day weekend, south island style. The only way it could be made legitimate traffic was by people's irrationally hurried behavior and by the one-lane bridges on major highways, as pictured. This is from the most major route north and south on the island.
These were the fellow travellers. Who knows why we decided to continue wearing our helmets on the ferry. It wasn't a group decision, but it was one less thing to hold in the wind and waves. Anyway, these are Walter Lettick, born in Belgium, raised in NZ; Heath Lash, who spent most of his youth in South Africa, where his father was a veterinarian to all sorts of animals; and Tom McKenzie, best friend of Walter, husband of one of the plastic surgery registrars, who, by the way, is the best friend of Walter's fiancee from childhood.
This was the kind of scenery we had to deal with all weekend. Dangerous when a view like that pops out at you on a downhill! Fortunately there were plenty of steep, gutbusting uphills to take up our time, much of it pushing.
This is one of the examples how we were NOT roughing it. Beers at a plantation-like resort inaccessible by car, just ferry, bike, or hike. Despite the seclusion, there was jazz music playing, all the amenities of a good resort, very good food. This was where we had lunch on day one. We continued on to another resort to spend the night. After hosing off the tons of mud (from both bike and man), we relaxed in the hot-tub before dinner. Night-time entertainment was a hike down from the restaurant at the top of the resort (FAR from the top of the hill however) to the bar on the shore, where the only satellite TV was. The joint was chucker, as people gathered to watch the New Zealand equivalent of the Super Bowl, the rugby union national championship. Canterbury, the district for Christchurch, beat Wellington. The crowd, literally standing room only-- and not much of that-- was clearly bipartisan. We were on the south island, but barely, and Wellington was only about 30 km across the water.

It was interesting at the end of the match how half the folks headed back to their bungalows, the other half got on dingies at the pier and headed out to their boats in the bay.

It was a 71 km journey, and here we are at the finish. Notice how we are not burdened by our packs. The beauty of the trip is that the ferry makes numerous stops on the way back to Picton, so they are happy to ferry your packs along to your stop for the night. Our timing was so good that, as we emerged from the trail into town at the end of the second day, the ferry was just pulling into dock.

Even the ride home was nice. The mountains are still snowcapped in the distance.
Ana has had her own outdoor projects going. She did her first duathlon and the South Island Masters Games a couple of weeks ago and brought home the silver! It was a lot of fun. We put street tires on the same mountain bike and she was good to go. Mind you bikes ranged from triathlon bikes with disks for the rear wheel to decrease drag; to lower-end mountain bikes with knobby tires.
The run was actually on a short road course for cars. Hence the tire barriers and concrete walls.
The kids are getting more playful, as Trey gets stronger and more independent, and as the weather gets warmer. Note the excellent demonstration of the scissor-hold, unrivaled since the days of the Von Erichs.

Trey has found that he can entertain in his own right, with this face of his. All of the sudden his eyes grow huge and he does this Valsalva maneuver. We are trying to catch it on video.

Ryan took it upon herself to don us all with capes. She raided the dishtowel drawer to find us all costumes.
Ryan has started swimming classes and is happy to strut her new swimming cap and the goggles. When she was informed that her teacher was named Zoe, she exclaimed, "Oh good, and Elmo can teach Trey, Big Bird can teach Mommy, and the Cookie Monster can teach Daddy!"

As the weather has gotten better, we have been able to get out into the "garden" on occasion. I had an afternoon of studying, while Ryno brought out a book of her own-- and some dreams.

Let me know if you have anything you would like us to report on, photograph, or answer.

By the way, it is now two in the morning and everyone is awake. Today may be a long one...