A brief holiday in Taupo.

So it's the new year and we have been at work for just 2 1/2 weeks and then took another 2 weeks off to spend time with the boys and have a bit of a break. We've spent many lovely summer days at home and then decided to go to Taupo to visit Nigel's sister and hubby and baby girl, Saskia. It was a lovely couple of days.

To keep the boys entertained we found an adventure activity called "Rock 'n Ropes". It is a high wire, climbing/confidence course. You could choose from several different activities so we paid for the boys to choose one. We could have saved money and allowed them to choose 3 different ones to do but secretly we believed that they would freak out too much and not actually do it at all. Man, did they surprise us!

Here's Caleb:



This one was called the Trapeze. He had to climb this pole, stand on top with nothing to hold and then leap to catch onto the trapeze to the left. It's a frightening thing! The woman who was holding onto him with his safety rope was amazing and instilled confidence in him. She said that he had chosen to do the most mentally challenging activity on the whole course. I watched him as he scurried up the pole then stood at the top quite confidently. He quickly counted to 3 then leapt! He missed the trapeze but floated down on his safety harness. He had another go at it and this time everything seemed to go quicker. Before I knew it he was up the top and jumping as high as he could. This time he touched it and was really pleased with himself. Man, I couldn't do it!!!

Here's Isaac:



Isaac spied this activity and convinced himself to do it. It was the most physically challenging event and there is absolutely no way I could do it. It was a series of swinging poles, ropes and tyres to climb up, through and on until you reach the top and sit on the final tyre. It was interesting to watch him work through it all. He scurried up the pole and then had a wee freak out at the height he was reaching and the movement of the poles. He was quite upset but he wasn't going to let it stop him. He pushed through his panic and carried on. As he reached the first tyre he again had a panic attack and again he took control of himself and his emotions and carried on. You could see the battle that he was having with himself and the real temptation to give into it but he wouldn't let himself give up. Near the top he had quite a severe panic attack with hyperventilating and many tears. I was sure he would jump off and float to the ground on his harness but he surprised me and moved onwards and upwards. As he climbed into the final tyre and sat on the top he had the biggest grin I have ever seen. He knew that he had pushed himself to his physical and emotional limit and not given into the fear that he has lived with for much of his life. I couldn't have been prouder!

My boys are pretty cool kids when I think about it. They are indeed a blessing from God, even in the hard days :-) They teach me new things every day and I am very proud of them.