We are home!

We are now HOME at 41 Guthrie St, Waiwhetu, Lower Hutt, NZ!

Back in the Hutt we have had the last few weeks settling back in or re-rentry as one of our friends called it! Quick family update, Phoebe is walking - so very cute, Sari has started kindy and can already do the monkey bars there so is looking for the next challenge, Bella loved being back at school for a week and then there were school holidays much to her horror 'I have just had 6 months holiday!', Steve has been back at work at Ignite sport and continuing his work with NZ elite middle distance runners and Caro is trying to find her feet as she adjusts back to routines and sorts so much stuff in the garage it almost makes her feel sick! We lived out of three suitcases while we were away! We are all really enjoying seeing all our friends and family and reconnecting with our church and homegroup family.

To bring you up to speed on the last few weeks here are the final adventures of our big family OE...

After our amazing two days in Paris we stayed in London with my old school friend Mel Grace and her husband Dom and their cute kids Ferdie and Daisy. We explored their local parks and had a lovely weekend catching up. On the Sunday morning we flew out of Stansted airport to Perugia, Italy, north of Rome. We then travelled to an amazing town in eastern Umbria called Spoleto where we stayed for 5 nights. 

Spoleto is an ancient walled city that climbs up the side of a hill to the Rocca Albornoziana - a fantastic 12th Century castle right at the top! 

When we arrived we wandered down to the local Piazza and explored the markets and also met Nick and Steve's friend Piergiorgio who owns the gelato shop and newsstand. Nick and Sierra have based themselves in Spoleto for their last two european campaigns since being introduced to the town by Mariah who was part of the Festival dei Due Mondi, music festival. 

The first day we explored the 'moving staircase' which was a series of elevators that took you up the side of the city. 

We crossed the amazing Ponte delle Torri, a striking 13th-century aqueduct and had a picnic with a million dollar view. 

After creme cafe and orange slushies at the Portello cafe we headed home for siesta. 

The next day we were taken up into the mountains to the Villa Marianna where there was a beautiful pool and no guests! 

We came just at the end of the summer so the busy season had finished and had the pool to ourselves. The  next day we explored the Rocca Albornoziana castle in the morning...

then Piergiorgio lent us his car and we drove through the countryside towards Terni. We passed the most amazing towns perched on the side of the steepest hills and just amazing country. We arrived at the The Cascata delle Marmore (Marmore's Falls) falls at 4 o'clock. 

This is a man-made waterfall created by the ancient Romans. Its total height is 165 m (541 feet), making it one of the tallest in Europe and the tallest man-made waterfall in the world. Most of the time, the water in the canals above the falls is diverted to a hydroelectric power plant, so the flow in the falls is reduced to the level of a creek. Its flow is turned on and off according to a published schedule, to satisfy the tourists and the power company alike. We arrived at 4 o'clock just as the water was released and it was spectacular!

One of the things that Caro liked best was just the Italian way of life; wandering through the streets of Spoleto by herself exploring all the ancient buildings and churches

and taking in all the things that make this an Italian town...the very narrow streets where you had to back yourself into a door way to let cars past

rooftops gardens at the end of summer heavy with grapes 

drinking from the water fountains that were all over the town

and dinner on the terrace of our apartment enjoying some pasta - the restaurants often didn't open until 9pm so we had some great local pizza and cooked some fantastic pasta with the local ingredients!

We had a wonderful time and maybe some day we will return to Spoleto. We caught the train from Spoleto to Rome and then flew to Birmingham airport which is only 10 minutes from Mieke and James house. We had two great days with them. James cooked us a feast that we all enjoyed in the back yard. It was very sad saying our goodbyes and packing our bags.

We all miss Aunty Mieke and Uncle James and Noah and Elijah very much and the girls often comment 'Oooh Noah would like that!'. What a blessing it was to have such a tremendous time with our family.

We had a loooong flight home and we tried to stay up for the whole 11 hour stopover in Hong Kong ....

and then we were back in NZ. 

Freddy goes to Paris

With all the tripping around we have done for Steve's work he decided the girls needed a treat so he took us to Paris.... so from Mieke and James house we went to Dorridge train station where we caught the train to Marleybone where Steve met us! We then took the tube to Kings Cross St Pancreas where we took the Eurostar train to Paris. We went under the English channel and we were in the tunnel for twenty minutes! 

On the first day we went to Disneyland!

Bella outside Sleeping Beauty's castle - you walk through the castle to Fantasyland!

The girls were very excited yet did not quite know what to expect. Sari said she was excited about seeing 'Donald the Duck'. Steve and Caro both visited Disneyland LA as 3 year olds so looked forward to seeing what they remembered. We started with Fantasyland...

Our first ride was the Carousel

Luckily we timed our visit after the school holidays had finished so the crowds were not as big and the wait times not as long as normal. The longest we waited was 30 minutes for the Dumbo ride

Bella rode her own Dumbo, Steve and Sari were in the elephant behind.

On the Dumbo ride there was a a gearstick you used to fly your own Dumbo up and down as you wanted! Steve remembered this from his first time at Disneyland! Phoebe was unfortunately too small for this ride so had to sit it out - you needed to be 1 year old.

But luckily she grew by three months in time to ride the spinning Tea Cups!
Sari had to be coaxed on to this ride having met Captain Hook on the way from the Dumbo ride. We had to convince her that he was not a real pirate and he was actually a man dressed up!

We found the NZ doll and the kiwi in Its a Small World! 

Sari loved Its a Small World ride and Caro even remembered this from her first time at Disneyland - who wouldn't love watching singing and dancing dolls while riding in a boat!

We rode the steam boat the Molly Brown in Frontierland and the girls thought this was very special as their good friend back in NZ is Molly and their Nana is Molly too!

But even in Disneyland a good old playground can be just as fun - maybe it was because there were very few people and no obnoxious Disney music blaring out! We really enjoyed our Disneyland experience and came away happy but very tired! 

We stayed two nights in Paris in an apartment in St Ambroise which was very central. The apartment was on the 6th floor and there was no elevator! 

It was just next to a playground...

And had 5 balconies!

If you stood on this balcony you could see the church of St Ambriose and if you went on tippy toes you could see the top of the Eiffel Tower!

We bought our baguette from the local bakery and headed off for the Eiffel Tower early on the second day. We caught the Metro to Trocadero and as we rounded the corner of the Palais de Chaillot we saw across the Esplanade du Trocadero to the Eiffel Tower shining and beautiful in the early morning light! It took our breath away!

We wandered down through the Jardins du Trocadero where we stopped to have some breakfast, across the River Siene 

and under the Eiffel Tower!

After a bit of discussion we decided that Caro and Bella would climb the Eiffel Tower and Steve, Sari and Phoebe would find a park and some ice cream.

The view from the top of the Eiffel tower to the Parc du Champ du Mars. Steve, Sari and Phoebe played in the playground on the left a third of the way down. 

Bella and Caro found the climb up the 647 steps to the second level not too bad. They then had to take the lift to the top - they would have done the steps if they could have but there is no access to the steps after the second level. The view from the top was amazing! 

Bella and Caro at the top with the River Siene to the left.

After the Eiffel Tower we then took the Metro to the Gare du Nord and caught the Eurostar train back under the English Channel to London. What an exciting and amazing time we had in Paris! Tres extraordinaire!

 

The Paralympics

The Paralympics are now over. Tim placed 6th in the 1500m and 5th in the 800m in the T13 category. Steve said the standard has increased across all the events at the Paralympics and in Tim's events it has had a huge jump - Tims times at this Paralympics would have won the IPC world athletics champs in Christchuch last year and gold in Beijing in 2008. This was Tim's third and final Paralympics and he did amazingly well to reach both finals and run so well. 

We all enjoyed watching the different events and highlights were the Long Jump and High Jump in the T44 T42 category which is above and below the knee amputees - just remarkable how they could jump so far with the prosthetics and in the high jump how they could hop with one leg then generate enough power to clear 1.74m!

Bella was lucky enough to join Steve to watch Tim's 800m final in the Olympic Stadium. The highlight for Bella was that she could see the medal podium from her seat and she loved getting up and down for the medal ceremonies and watching the athletes get their medals. 

Bella in front of the Olympic Stadium!

A long weekend camping in Wales

Last week Steve went up to Swansea in Wales for the NZ Paralympics training camp. Tim Prendergast was there so Steve spent a few days training with him and doing the last few key sessions before the Paralympics. 

Tim training in Swansea.

Swansea is about 45 minutes from Cardiff in the South of Wales and is right at the start of the Gower Peninsula. It was a bank holiday weekend here so we decided to go camping and thought we would pick Steve up on the way through. Swansea is about 2 and half hours from Solihull and we carried on to the end of the Gower Peninsula to Rossili Bay and Hillend Camp ground. 

We climbed up the headland above the campsite. You can see Rossili beach on the left then the camp ground dotted with tents behind us.

At the top!

Sari leading the way!

The view from the top looking down at Worms Head

Walking back down the ridge 

We met a family of wild ponies on the way back down and they were not worried about 3 little kids at all. 

We had a wild weekend with beautiful sun and torrential rain. But we always had dry places to sit and sleep and lots of fun walking and swimming and sitting around the bbq.

 

Our awesome campsite.

The campsite was really a big field and it got a bit wet underfoot by the end of the weekend but this was lots of fun for the kids to play around in. James caught a couple of waves and Steve and the kids had fun in the sea in their wetsuits! Mieke and Caro liked being able to read in the tents and go walking and exploring the local town and market. Bella made friends with the girls camping around us and exploring with them, Sari enjoyed the adventure playground and walking barefoot through the mud. They both loved meeting wild ponies on the walk we did up the hills above the beach. Phoebe spent a lot of time playing around in and out of the tents and on the canoe parked on the grass with her cousin Elijah! Unfortunately it was too rough to get the canoe in the sea! We are back at Mieke and James'  now and Steve heads into London tomorrow to spend the next week with Tim as he prepares to race on the 3rd and 4th of September. We went into Swansea on Sunday and saw Tim run a great 800m so can report he is in really good shape for his upcoming races. We also got to watch one of Tim's teammates Holly throw the javelin. She was awesome and the girls really liked her so watch out for her in the Paralympics Javelin. 

Bella with the campsite behind