Blind date

The clocks went an hour back last night, so we have the usual time difference with Europe again.

Just as well, as we had a 10:30 blind date with another family from the Families on the Move Facebook group. With our record of early rising there is no way we could have made it in time without the clock change. As it turned out we were only 10 minutes late. We were hooking up to have a picnic and hang around around the gardens next to town.

Lucas hit it off immediately with the two boys, but Aisha felt a bit left out. They were a bit older, and the three of them were doing too many "boy things" for her liking. But we all had a great time, even her, and were sad when they hit the road after lunch (it was their last day here).

The gardens are pretty amazing, a combination of tree area, gardens, bowling, and a course of frisbee golf. They come up with all sorts of outdoorsy activities down under. It involves throwing a frisbee various times down a "fairway" to finally trap it in a set of chains which counts as the "hole". Normal golf must seem too tame - apparently they also play a version with a rugby-shaped ball (dimples and all) instead of the normal round one. Another activity we've seen here is the shark, a sort of crazy enclosed cross between a jetski and a small speedboat - the aim of the driver is to get the passenger to cack his pants or bring up his lunch by jumping in and out of the water and turning 180 degrees at breakneck speed.

Spent the afternoon looking for scooters or bicycles to buy the kids but no luck - couldn't find what we were looking for (something cheap, usable and transportable). We also looked into some of the activities. We'd love to do some family-friendly white water rafting but it will set us back 500 NZD so we are thinking about it. We have to combine cool activities with staying in budget. We don't want to miss out on anything (saving a few bucks after all we are spending on the trip doesn't make sense) especially stuff we never might get to do again, but can't go overboard.