Cromble Holiday - part 1

Andrew initially had a hard time saying "Cromwell". We got away on holiday a day late after cleaning up from the earthquake.
Our route to Cromwell was via Lake Tekapo, were we took the obligatory photos of bronze dogs and churches. This one, in between bus loads, turned out quite nice.

On Monday we went to Stuart Landsborough's Puzzling World, and got lost for a while in their maze.

The kids grew up quite a bit, and quite quickly - it's amazing what running across a room can do!

On the way back to Cromwell, Stephen stopped to sample some wine at The Lazy Dog (near Mt Pisa), while Kathryn took photos of the wine-making equipment. It was a fortuitous stop, as one of the vineyards we'd been keen to sample - Bannock Brae Estate from Bannockburn - have closed for tastings, making their wine available at The Lazy Dog instead. They also had 2 Degrees, Locharburn, Misha, and Valli (I think) wines for sampling.

Cracker of a Morning

Here are some of our photos showing the minor damage we sustained.

The pantry had opened and emptied itself. This photo also shows the oven on a lean, which was easily fixed by moving the supporting pieces of wood back in place.

The last of Kathryn's ClickClack was destroyed. Tupperware survives earthquakes much better.

The other side of the kitchen was covered in mixed-spice, of our own secret recipe. The earthquake also broke one small coffee plunger, and one small coffee cup.

Andrew located our biggest crack - at about the line that the downstairs concrete blocks stop. This one extends around the corner of the stairs.

This next one is above the sliding door in to our kitchen. Most of our windows and doors have got cracks, presumably where the jib board joins, but not as bad as this one.

We'll be replacing our picture hooks with stronger ones, since they mostly look like this now. Thankfully none of the pictures were damaged.

Christchurch Earthquake

We had a rude awakening this morning, due to a massive earthquake.

We're all ok. We seem to be much better off than many of our neighbours. None of them have brick chimneys anymore.

We had spilt food & minor broken glassware in our Kitchen, a shelf in the laundry came down, and the plaster has minor cracks around a number of doors and windows. Our oven is on a minor lean, which we'll be looking into.

Carolyn & Matt's place sounds about the same.

Margaret & Murray's place had a number of broken windows, and some cracks in the brickwork.

Our Future fashion designer

Here is Rachel's outfit for the day. Note the blue tights under the purple skirt with the yellow dress over top. The inspiration started when she decided that the yellow dress was the outfit for the day. It is a little cool to wear it on its own.

The Rubberband guys

Tonight at dinner we had Andrew's version of the Good samaritan story as follows:

"The man got hurt by the rubberband guys and they took his money. But a good guy came and he took him to a place [pause] a museum. And when they had finished they called him [possibly the good guy] a comforting guy."

Last week we were looking at this story in our nightly bible story and then it was also the topic for Andrew's group at Church this week.