Road trip to Gisborne

As a surprise birthday treat for my fiftieth, Matthew organised a three day long weekend away. I had no idea where we were going and looked forward to it with a little trepidation! As it transpired Matthew drove Joe and I all the way to Gisborne and back, a 16 hour round trip! Although rather a long way to go just for three days, it was a great opportunity to see a remote part of NZ which we may never have got around to seeing. The last two hours of the trip to Gisborne entails a winding gorge road with dense rain forest where wild boar roam. On our way home we rescued a truck driver who had broken down in the gorge.

Gingerbread Houses

Every Christmas it is a family tradition in the Cole Carter household to make a gingerbread house! December 2010 we made a rather large house which was very difficult to put together and kept collapsing. This Christmas 2011 Matthew spied a kit in the local New World supermarket with pieces already baked, which resulted in a rather more 'tidy' house as you can see from the photos. Also the trick to make the pieces stick together is to use melted sugar and not icing sugar.