Uncle Chris Arrives

---

Astrid saw Nayana off on Sunday after a pleasant weekend in Christchurch. I stayed home with Adrianne so that she could attend her friend Hannah's birthday party. The party was held at Paula's local eatery Alfresco's where we often have dinner on a Friday night. While Adrianne was enjoying the party, I had a pizza and drink or two with Hannah's parents Anne and Gareth and Paula out on the deck.

Astrid's brother Chris arrived in New Zealand on Tuesday morning. "Uncle Chris" is adored by our kids and we kept his arrival under wraps. I picked him up in the morning in Christchurch, and made it back to Reefton just in time for the kids return from school. Josh was nonplussed (he apparently had seen Chris' itinerary on the computer). Avery was surprised but too cool to show much emotion. Adrianne screamed with delight for a full minute, while simultaneously jumping up and down. Chris' first few days were spent hanging out in Reefton while he recovered from a combination of jet lag and a cold that he picked up from Avery. On Thursday afternoon, we let the kids skip school and we headed out to the Pancake rocks and the seal colony near Westport. We also fit in a trip to what Adrianne calls "Wonder Beach" by Cape Foulwind. The beach features several prominent sea caves, a wide variety of sea life (anemones, crabs, star fish etc) and fossils. Unfortunately, the tide was on its way in and we got more wet than we had planned on.

On Friday, I took Chris mountain bike riding up to the Reefton Lookout. It was a hot day but he made it up the hill (a 5 km climb up a little more than 200 metres). But on the way down he got his front tire caught in a rut and took a spill over his front handlebars at speed. He collected himself off the track and made it a bit further down before jet lag, dehydration and trauma got the best of him and he momentarily passed causing significant anxiety to me. How would I explain to the kids that I had killed Uncle Chris? Happily, he came out of it quickly and while scrapped up, he was none the worse for wear - although Astrid later had to close one of the cuts on his hand with steri strips.

---

Photos

Reefton Lookout
Chris takes a rest after his ride up to the Reefton Lookout in the heat of the New Zealand summer