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!

Early Morning Wakeboarding!

We took off this morning at 7:30am through a cold southerly drizzle for a morning wakeboarding at Lake hood. It was Julian, Sarah, Jackson and Ben that went. Sarah's first time, and she did really well! Here' a vid of me playing around...



And here's Ben having a blat!

The Stones and Vivian's take to the water for the day! To nice to stay home!

The Stones and the Vivians took off today to Lytleton for a wakeboard session and picnic on the beach. We were in a nice bay behind Quail Island. 18 degree water – nice and warm! We all did a bit a wakeboarding and got in some good jumps!

Here's some highlights from the day...

* Julian forgot the clamps were on the boat when launching (so was stuck on the trailer)
* Rose got up on the wakeboard for the first time! Did great!
* Ella and Jackson had a cuddle
* Sarah busted the traler light on a rock
* Ben did some supreme jumps
* Julian tried a 360 jump which I spectacularly failed (got to 270)
* Jackson held his first crab!
* Grace was just cute as normal
* Good bit of chop coming back to the ramp

Jack just hanging in the sand!


The kids enjoying the day! They were all very well behaved and had heaps of fun.



Sarah, Ben and Rose chilling! We all work hard so it's nice to take time to just relax once in a while.


Jackson stealing a kiss from Ella!

Our new pet Magpie!

We were in the paddock the other day and this friendly magpie came up to us. No idea where it came from, but it thinks I'm it's Mum and keeps knocking at the door for food. It's really tame and I've already taught it to be patted.

To hot to work! I'm off fishing!

I started back at work today. Got bored, looked at the lack of wind and decided to head out fishing. I called Graeme Evans (mate of my dads) and took off with him to Lake Coleridge for the day. It was about 30 degrees and the water was like glass. Plenty of fish in the lake but they weren't very obliging! However, he caught this nice Salmon...



Oh! and this little one below. He went back though as he was too small.



This is the general condition of the lake...



Glas, glass, and more glass! We had a great day!

Christmas at the Stones!

We were woken up this morning at 6:30am by a Christmas call from Sarah's sister Jess. It was great to hear from her. Seeing as we were up, we went and woke up Jackson. He was excited when we gave him a Christmas bag filled with pressies!
All of us sat on the bed and opened them! I think he was overwhelmed!


Here's the tree with a big pile of pressies under it. Christmas is fun when you have a kid!


Jack checking out the boat Dad built him in the workshop. The trailer attaches to his trike so he can tow it around.


Mum and son hanging out. Jack's sitting on mum's new sunlounger. Hopefully we'll get some sun so she can relax!


Jackson's backside... :-)


Another bath toy - yup! it's the famous BP inflatable boat!


Sarah has been saying that she wants to try some Dressage to music, so I built her a 4WD paddock stereo. This is super rugged, but will be able to blast so loud that both her and the horse will hear it down the paddock. I think Sarah wants to get the horse dancing to trendy modern music ;-)

Mum turned on some cool music whilst at the house and Jackson decided to have a groove!




Want a pressie anyone?


Even a horse (Luke) got in on the act!


After feeding horses their 'Reindeer Nuts' this is Jack wandering back to the house with Pooh under his arm for a Gingerbread boat (Yes, I built a boat shaped biscuit cutter!)