Retreat to Mt Hutt

Matt and Rachel are friends with people who run a retreat in Methven. They invited us to spend a night with them there, so yesterday after lunch (and after Nick got in as much prep as possible in the morning) we piled into Carl and Miriam's graciously loaned 8-seater, and Matt drove us the 1 1/2 hours to the venue. It is settled in the foothills of Mt Hutt and extremely pictureseque. We had an awesome 24 hours of fellowship and activity ranging from abseiling, archery and the "Flying Fox" to watching a movie and reading quietly. Our hosts, Steve and Monique and their children Megan, Moriah and Blake, were excellent to get to know and we enjoyed the time spent with them as well as the Camerons. All the boys, including little Blake, did superbly with the abseiling. This was a first for Caleb and Aaron who sailed over the edge with no worries. Aaron made us nervous with his totally relaxed approach to the edge, in fact! The archery was also great and the boys loved using a REAL bow and arrow. Turns out their mom was a pretty good shot. After some target practice we let fly with some distance shooting into the field. I think Nick was the winner at that!