New Stone Crew Blog

We've made the decision to close down this blog in a few weeks.

But don't worry!! It's because we've created a new blog at a new address. Please update your bookmarks and links to point to our new family blog here:

http://stonecrewblog.com

We'll be regularly updating, but this new blog system will allow us to organize things a lot better. We're categorizing posts and adding some cool new tools...

Keep watching!

Vishal's Visit to Tekapo!

We’re planning to bring our Fiji developer for www.proworkflow.com to NZ to live and work, so he’s been here the past week checking out the NZ scene. I took my boat down to Lake Tekapo in the weekend to attempt to freeze him. Vishal lives in Fiji so I thought the cool minus 2 temperature would be a bit of fun ;-)




Very scenic and no wind! We went about 30kms to the top of the lake. Even had a fish, but not a lot of fish action. Anyway, here's a few pics from the day.









After the lake, I took Vishal to the Salmon Farm to feed some fish. I think he enjoyed that - here's a vid:

Chilling on the Rakaia

Ben Viv and I took off to the Rakaia for the morning to chase Salmon. We didn't catch any but was fun trying to drive the jet-kayaks up the gorge in 100km winds!

Happy Easter!

We had a great Easter! Grandad visited us and Jackson has discovered the marvels of chocolate!

A play in the river...

We had a lovely surprise with Sarah's Mum, Uncle Gary and Auntie Judy dropping in with their bus. They just decided to drive down to Christchurch to surprise us! Awesome.
They stayed for a few days and Jackson loved having them here...

One day, before dinner we decided to take the Jet Kayaks down to the Waimakariri Gorge to have a play. Here's some Photos:


That's Uncle Gary and us just getting ready...


Taking Jackson for a ride around the river...




The beautiful Sarah and charming Jackson take a moment to smile for the camera!


Sarah's mum Shirley just relaxing in the sun!

Playing with Jet Kayaks!

Just taking a new Surfango Jet Kayak for a spin on Lake Hood in Ashburton, New Zealand. We're trying to run in the motor so it's not full steam yet but heaps of fun. This is running a 9.5hp 4stroke motor. We're planning to take these up the rivers and gorges to chase salmon and trout!
That's Ben in the vid - the motor''s running a lot better now we pulled out the ton of weed sucked into the unit!

Sarah & Dan - The Methven Winners

Sarah with Dan (the man) feeling very proud of themselves after cleaning up at the Methven A&P show. They won all these ribbons!

• Reserve Champion Saddle Hack
• Reserve Champion Novice Saddle Hack
• First Open Saddle Hack
• Second Novice Saddle Hack
• Third Ladies Hack
• and Third Best Paced Hack

Apparently Dan gets really excited when he's in the ring waiting for a ribbon - he loves all the attention!

Julians Headshots

These are the headshots I had done today. We're starting to need them for the ProWorkflow business. What do ya think people?

Mum and her little guy!

Just some nice photos of Sarah and Jack. I love my family! They're groovers!

Jack at Airforce World!

On Wednesdays, Sarah takes her wee boy out on adventures. She does this each week and they go somewhere different each time. This trip was to the Airforce World in Wigram which is an Air Force museum. Jack was a star, they fussed over him, dressed him up and stuck him in planes.

They both tried the flight simulator and crashed it... but they had a great time! He's a good lad and Sarah's a great mum!

Ben and Julian at Motenau

On Monday Ben Viv and I decided to take a fishing day at Motenau. It's true offshore Canterbury fishing, and has a tricky shallow bar you need to cross in only certain conditions within a tight timeframe either side of the low tide. Our boat sits about 60cm deep in the water and the whole way down the river and out the water was averaging 50-70cm - so man she was tight!

Over the bar's waves and into the open ocean it was ver clear that the 2 metre swell was here to stay. It was confused sea, coming from two direction in a motion that made us pretty green.

Once over the bar, we are unable to come back for 4hrs til the tide is right, so we decided that we'd get out to the spot. I had marked the fishing spots on the GPS so we drove about 6kms up the coast and 3kms out and got within a few metres of the spot!

The fish were biting, but our lunch was coming up. We both spent about 3hrs vomiting over the side and attempting to fish in between chucks!

We both caught plenty of fish, but Ben caught the 'keepers' and also hooked into something huge that fought hard for 10 mins before breaking off. We think it was a huge shark!

As soon as the tide was right, we got ourselves together and got back in over the bar. Land sweet land!! I think I like Motenau - not a 1st choice spot but I would do it again... Just never again on a 2 metre confused sea!


Some shots above of the river going out to the bar. Very shallow and tricky but doable if careful.

Ben hooking into a massive fish! I wish we could have see what it was! We suspect he had either a shark or a Mack Truck.

The pictures don't show it but Ben's looking serious as we were getting into some decent waves ahead.

The Bar is by the rock. This is about 1/2 way to the spot we fished.

After crossing the bar, coming back up the river...

I've been a busy lad!

I got tired of my firewood stash getting wet, so added an extra cover to the front and sides...


In the office, I've created a foyer. So when you walk in the garage you now see a wall with a door through to the messy garage or to the office. I'll line, paint and carpet this in the weekend.
Also having an awesome alarm system fitted on Monday.

Dad's New Truck!

Sarah and I decided to get another truck as we're both wanting to tow things in the weekends! Her with the float and me with the boat. SO this is the new beast. 3litre 1996 intercooled Diesel Hilux Surf. Should get me up the rivers!

Fishing with Dad at Akaroa!

I took the day off today and took my Dad out to Akaroa for a day boating and fishing. Nice and calm and no wind at all. We caught a few cod and a pile of dogfish, but have a nice relaxing day!

Camping on the lawn

We setup our tent on the lawn today to air it out. Jackson decided to make himself at home as if he was camping. Can't wait to head out camping with him soon!

Clever Jack!

Saying all the days of the week and months of the year! What a legend he is!

Huge hail storm in Rolleston and we missed it!

Sarah, Jack and I were in town for a bit of shopping and while we were out, a huge hail storm hit Rolleston! 2-3cm hail - it smashed our Clearlight verandahs. Would have be awesome to watch!

Molly the wonderhorse!

Liz popped over with Molly to say hi. Jack made sure he got a ride.

Needed a new skipole for the boat.

So I took off to the Stainless Tube factory, got a 2M length and then paid a visit to a local engineer who helped me TIG weld it up!

Visit to Animates...

Animates in Tower Junction - Great place to take a kid as essentially it's a free zoo!