Another month has passed, and we are still here....

It has been a while since our last post (speaking of post, sorry if you recieved a christmas card at the beginning of November but we were told by NZ post that we had to send them by the end of October!) so we have a bit of catching up to do.
We visited the Christchurch Agricultural and Pastoral Show - similar to the Great Yorkshire Show. Each region of NZ has an anniversary day which is like another bank holiday and in Canterbury it is known as 'Show Weekend'. There were lots of stalls and displays; tractors, animals and rides. Natalie was impressed by the size of some of the animals, particularly the bull that only just fit into its stall. The prize winning rams looked like mutants and were the size of small cows. Another amusing sight were people smelling and stroking the sheared wool in order to determine the best one - they get rosettes and everything!
For lunch, we walked around the food tent, it had a variety of foods on offer from venison baguettes to mushroom sandwiches or whitebait pattties. In the afternoon, we watched a performance by five woodcutters demonstrating the many skills needed to cut and chop a tree. The show made use of old and new techniques, from handsaw, axes and chainsaws. The most impressive bit was a small chair - only 1 foot high - that was created from a log using only a chainsaw.

We though it was about time we checked out our local cinema here in Rangiora. There are multiplexes in Christchurch but the double screen cinema in the old Rangiora town hall is something rather special! Photograph to follow. The films showing that day are displayed on a chalkboard outside and when we went to see 'Wimbledon', we were the only people in there. The cinema has 80 red plastic foam covered seats which looks more like a big room in a house than the local cinema. We are not sure what would have happened if we had not gone, would the film have still been shown?

The biggest event of the last month is that Paddy Mallon came to stay! Paddy was our Baptist minister in Sheffield and he came to visit us as missionaries from 'the Order of Mission'. It was great to spend so much time with him and for us to be able to share some of NZ life with a friend. Paddy was here for a week. At the beginning of the week we visited Arthur's Pass and looked out over the valley where they are filming ' The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe'. We also visited Christchurch and looked at some of the history and settling of this country. We were all amazed that when the first settlers arrived there was no mammals on the islands, only birds!
Over the weekend, Paddy did some teaching on Lifeshapes and preached at the Sunday services. For his last few days, we travelled north and visited Kaikoura and Hamner Springs.
The weather was changed from glorious sunshine to freezing, hailing wet weather on the day Paddy arrived, it did improve towards the end of the trip but it meant that an opportunity to go whale-watching off Kaikoura was cancelled.
In Hamner, we went mountain-biking for a couple of hours, although Natalie decided to try bungee-jumping with out a rope. I heard the fall and returned to find Natalie at the bottom of a 25 foot drop - the front tyre slipped of the narrow track and Natalie fell over the handlebars. Nothing broken, just a few scratches and bruises! She did get back on and carry on, which was very impressive! (Neil is writing this). The best remedy for this experience is a long bath, so we spent the evening soaking in the thermal pools!