Post No. 89 - Boxing Day

We hope you all had a great Christmas!

We went to the beach yesterday - armed with barbeque, Santa Hats and a chilly bin full of sausages and burgers....arrived at the beach to find a total fire ban sign...had a debate whether barbeques would be considered fire....spotted the police cars on the beach and debated some more...walked along the beach for a good spot....realised how windy it was....took some photos and came home!
The barbeque on the balcony was even better then it would have been at the beach though, it was a great day!

Santa was very good to us and we had some lovely presents.

Today we went and bought a frisbee and ball and spent a couple of hours throwing those around, eating ice lollies and playing cluedo before lighting up the barby again for round 2!

So a lovely couple of days. Hope you had the same!

Post No. 88 - 'Twas the night before Christmas..

...and all throught the house, no creature was stirring, not even a mouse

Would you look at that mean mean sky! This was taken yesterday from our balcony - one side of the house had those dark mencaing clouds and on the other was bright sunshine - which is why the white house looks so bright!

Wow! Its Christmas Eve! Hope you are all having a safe and enjoyable holiday.

It's been a great day so far. After a long lie and a natter with Mum we headed out for a 2 hour walk from the Park alongside the Manawatu River...



Now we are back at home, getting ready for dinner, having a wee tipple and playing song quizzes!

We are hoping that tomorrow brings good weather for a day at the beach....after opening our pressies of course! And me and Graeme have the next fortnight off work - woo hoo!

Post No. 87 - Well, Blow me down

It so doesn't feel like Xmas.

It's so weird....it's hot, Mariah Carey's All I want for Christmas is NOT playing in the shops (how disappointed am I), the Woolies advert isn't on every other advert and I don't have an advent calendar. Its just all so totally wrong! But kinda good too!

Me and Dad strung xmas lights up on the balcony (photo to follow when we take one!) and they are about the only xmas lights I have seen.

But the cool things about Xmas in NZ...practically every morning this week, we have opened our front door to find a parcel on our doorstep, BBQs (I don't think I need to say anything else about that do I?), the birds singing, the sun shining and the prospect of spending Xmas day on the beach (definetly photos to follow on that just to rub it in!)

Of course, we have never had to worry about getting sunburn in December before...leading to us having plenty of sunburn! Whoops!

Yesterday we took Dad out to the Wind Farm....the one which we eventually found after weeks of searching and we didn't actually have the camera with us - d'oh!

Well we had a camera yesterday and got some photos. It was a little strange though as there was no wind on them there hills, its was so still and the rain was bucketing down. Hardly any of the turbines were going around.





So there you have it!

Post No. 86 - Was that the weekend speeding past us?!

Time is flying. And it shows no signs of stopping!

My dad flew in to Auckland the last weekend in November and it just hasn't stopped - and even before that, time seemed to be getting away from us (hence lack of posts!)

We drove up from Palmy to Auckland on the Sunday - took about 6 hours. And it just doesn't feel that long at all, the scenery is amazing! We drove along the desert road which takes you into the mountain range, past Mt. Ruapehu which is an active volcano and was used as Mt. Doom in LOTR. And then through the Waikato region which is like Hobbiton!

Sunday night we went up the Sky Tower and Monday we took in the Auckland Domain gardens and Mt. Eden - an extinct volcano.



On Tuesday, we headed up North to our motel in Paihia. From Paihia we went out on a half day boat trip taking in the Bay of Islands - we saw dolphins and what at first glance, Graeme took as a HUGE dolphin - but no, in fact, it was a whale!

We also took an all day coach trip to Cape Reinga - the northernly most part of NZ. It was great, we tried Sand Toboganning, had lunch at a fabulous beach and drove back along 90 mile beach in the coach - FAB!



On the Friday, despite much misgiving on my part, we hired a wee boat and took it out to sea! Scary experience! Was fun, but scary.....and the sea gets awful choppy in the afternoons in the Bay of Islands! The true moment of panic was when the engine suddenly cut out and we didn't have a clue why....turned out we needed to change the fuel can over - phew!

On the Saturday we drove down from Paihia straight to Lake Taupo and another wonderful motel. It was a two minute walk to the waters edge - wow!



And then Sunday came and with it, our journey back home to Palmy - it was a fabulous week, we had a great time and we all got to see lots of beautiful NZ!

Post No. 85 - Busy bees!

Hello! It's been a long time and we apologise. Thanks to Tawny for the reminder of how much we have been neglecting our faithful reader(s).

I promise to get something up here at the weekend to explain our absence! In the meantime, heres some piccies of our recent trip for you....

Hole in the Rock, Bay of Islands


A gorgeous beach near Cape Reinga (NZ's most northernly bit!)
Hope these keep you amused and please check back over/after the weekend for a longer post!