Family Life

Yesterday, 5.45pm, the hallway floor. Marvellous Mae vs Dangerous Daddy a showdown at 4 metre crawling intervals. Head down, arse up. Her cadence is too good, and she swerves, slamming me into the wall, my shoulders too big for this narrow space, overweighed, like the Goblin King in the Hobbit, I stumble and fall in slow motion. She sits up straight, chortles and claps. Relentless.

Just now. I look at her on the other side of the room tearing into a pile of magazines. She makes eye contact. I wave. She blows me a raspberry. Oh well, clapping is more important, especially after my guitar solos.

In case you haven't gathered, we adore our little girl, it has been a great 8 months getting to know her. She is cute:

 She is also very energetic:

And she is pretty tolerant:

She loves being naked in a sink:

And she has a great poo face:

She is an excellent tramping companion:

And hut companion:

She adores her Mum:

And she puts up with sandflys even when they disfigure her:

What more could you want in a girl?

In related news Dangerous Daddy is now fulltime at home, so perhaps a few more write-ups coming up. Firstly perhaps our recent expedition to Kahurangi point lighthouse.

Kia kaha!

Comings and Goings

We had a daughter yesterday, Mae Elsie. One name just because we liked it; the other after Penny's grandmother who is an amazing lady. She was born just before lunch time after a long night of labour. Penny was incredible: focused, stoic and calm. What a woman I have somehow ended up with.

Mae is a delight, she has startling eyes, that pop open suddenly, and long delicate fingers that get lost in the long sleeves of her ill-fitting one pieces.

I lay down tonight with my daughter on my chest, a beer in my right hand and phone in my left and felt the closest I ever have to contented. Time slipped away.

For the last 10 months since we returned from Nepal time has been predominant; 60 hour working weeks for Penny; myself trying to keep buses and drivers on schedule. Weekends have been spent trying to catch up (rather than do stuff) with friends or keeping on top of the garden.

Yesterday with about an hour to go in labour. The reality of our situation overcame me and I cried. Not the burping and the feeding and the changing nappies. The reality that when a child comes into the world a little bit of us is passed on, and soon that will be all that is left. When Mae Elsie entered the world a little bit of my grandads that have both passed on were reborn. I look forward to searching for their quirks as time goes by.

In the meantime though I am enjoying my wife and daughters needs being my only timetable.

Kia kaha.                                                                                                                                                 

The Last Throes - Gokyo to Lukla

I recently got my hands on the final photos of our last Nepal trek - the "Three Passes" of the Everest region. I have blogged earlier about the Kongma La and Cho La, but finally a few words and photos on the final pass the Renjo La.

Our tight-fistedness had finally worn us down. Reaching Gokyo I would have been down under 80kg for the first time since my mid-teens and I was wondering why I wasn't so keen to go exploring in the beautiful mountains. Even the wander up the valley from Gokyo to "scoundrels view", the easiest view of Everest had seemed a challenge. In this context lugging our bags over the 5400 Renjo La seemed a bit of a challenge. In the end we suffered away and it wasn't that hard. The eastern side has a well marked track through the choss while the steeper western side has had steps cut in recent years lowering the difficulty several notches on any scale. The weather also held for the crossing of the pass, and the views were simply stunning.

The snippets of view on the way up though, were nothing compared to the vast expanse of mountains which greeted us on the Renjo La itself. Wild, strange forms of ice, rock and snow...

Looking back east to Everst, Lhotse, Makalu and company

Looking west to nowhere in particular.

We were had it, well Sam was actually cranking it through alright - it must have been those extra fat stores he started with paying their due.
Photography, discussion and even contemplation were at a minimum, it was down into the valley towards the village of Thame, where in the mist we found a guesthouse, then onwards down again to Namche Bazaar, then Lukla and out. The most dangerous airport in the world one last psychological hurdle to overcome before we were suddenly plonked into the middle of Kathmnadu. Crazy days that like them all eventually come to an end. What have we gained from our travel in Nepal...I'm unsure...we didn't push our boundaries as such, or gain a new perspective on life we hadn't had before, we were certainly reminded of our fortune in being kiwis, with coin, but what does this really do for you? We certainly got to spend some awesome time with my side of the family, which was amazing, we were reminded that simple lives can be happy (although hard) and we saw once again that humans will occupy every single niche in nature given half a chance.

The team with Everest on the Renjo La

Down into the valley with prayers...

Into the seasonal yak herding grounds in a high basin

Yaks, mountains and huts

The village of Thame below the Tashi Labsta

A place to call home

Namche Bazaar

Sprint the Bay Slideshow

Red Rocks

I think I'm still overexcited about our new camera. I can't run right now, so last night at Red Rocks I had to sift around taking photos while Penny and Elo went running. It was cool just sifting around appreciating things and looking for points of interest and beauty in terrain I normally run through appreciating the more raw sensations of flexing muscles, rain in my face, throbbing wind in my ears, etc.

Well, its always easy to find beauty hanging around with Penny and Elo.

There I was thinking about how a type of seaweed looked like Rimu...and the interpretation centre confirmed it.

Trying to explore the  natural, and not so, lines

Stewart Family Holiday - Annapurna Basecamp

Getting these Nepal blogs done is like pulling teeth - except that I have a few less teeth than Nepal blogs to pull.

The ever so slightly intrepid Stewart family followed on their exploration of the Kali Gandakai with a ten day trek from Tatopani in the west to Dhampus in the east with an excursion to Annapurna basecamp thrown in. Slightly more ambitious than we had planned, but once you're committed there is no going back.

We came from the left - up and down the valley - then down to the right

The lower parts of this trek were through much more heavily agricultural country. The homeland of the Gurung people. This is part of the original "Annapurna Circuit" but in the most part its popularity is waning due to the development of the Kali Gandaki road. This meant there were copious and competitively priced guesthouses for us to stay in at most places. The scenic shit hole of Tadapani being a notable exception. During the trip we lost Gemma, I dropped her off one day down at the nearest road end (bottom middle of above picture). Mainly my memories are of relaxing times with some stunning views and some lovely forests, a beautiful little part of the world.

Heading towards Shikha

Gurung Villagee

Mum and drying corn

We did the whole "Poon hill" thing, getting up early with the crowds of people, and enduring the early morning chill as the sun rose over the Annapurnas and Dhaulagiri. Not too shabby a view, with some interesting clouds.

Annapurnas on left - Macchapuchare on right

The sunrises over wooded ridges

Rhododendrons, Annapurnas and Clouds

From Poon Hill the walk really was mostly downhill. With just a few little ups. We certainly saw some extreme suffering of people heading the other (wrong) way. We cruised through the rhododendron forests, the millet fields and the terraced valleys and on up the Modi Khola towards Annapurna basecamp.

The last good team photo before Gem left us

Dad and Dhaulagiri

Mum giving instructions

Mum in the Rhododendron forest

Looking up the Modi Khola

A reminder of conflicts (hopefully) past.

Trailing porters to Annapurna Basecamp.

Our eventual arrival at Annapurna Basecamp was quite a momentous occasion for the family. we have always had a copy of Herzog's "Annapurna" in the bookshelf but despite this it almost seemed a mythical place, far far away. There was a huge sense of satisfaction at having made it, which was awesome. As Mum pointed out this was sort of like the climax of our trip, it was all (literally) down from here, and it certainly felt like that as we turned our backs on the mountains and headed down. You can almost see it in our faces I think.

Annapurna Basecamp 4130metres

Annapurna Basin posefest.

Turning our back on a mighty mountain

The walk out was peaceful. It actually only took three days, we must have been getting fit. I can't remember much about it, and we don't have many photos. Quite a bit of wandering along, not saying much, looking forward to getting a massive cheap feed in Pokhara. Kids on the track singing for money. Sun and butterflies.

And lots of marigolds everywhere

And a fair bit of rice ready to harvest.

A very memorable and fulfilling piece of travel indeed. A few weeks that I am sure we will be remembering in our family for a long long time.