Golden Bay

This is going to be a whistle stop tour of the South Island. I promised to myself that I would at least complete the NZ experience. I think I would like to continue it beyond NZ (is there life after NZ I am wondering?!?) but let's wait and see.
From Nelson we headed North to Golden Bay and the Sand fly capital of New Zealand! We were glad to be joined by Rich, Kath and Amelie in Pohara. The Johnsons found this great 4 bed bach with enough room for all of us to enjoy. We had a great time together. The highlight of this part of the excursion had to be the taxi boat ride around the Abel Tasman National Park from Kaiteriteri to Tonga Bay. Not only was the scenery incredible but we were joined by about 200 dolphins for the trip. This is where Rosie managed to win the "photo of the Amess NZ year" competition!
The only down side to the time in Pohara was that it rained a fair amount. Totaranui was our favourite beach. Rosie and I made full use of staying with the Johnsons by going out to a great local restaurant called "The Penguin". It was a great time together as families in the same house.

Harry's 3rd Birthday

I don't think I have mentioned in the blog the fact that we are leaving NZ in March. It is with great sadness but with eager anticipation that we return to the UK for the next chapter of our lives! It was no mean feat, therefore, to celebrate Harry's birthday properly in the midst of packing up our lives, staying at friends (thank you Mike and Jennifer!) and then house sitting at Paul and Laura's house! We managed it...just!
The main requests from Harry for his birthday were: 1. Opening presents in Mummy and Daddy's bed, 2. Having "Froissants" (croissants) and 3. Mummy's Chocolate cake!
We succeeded on all 3 counts which equated to very happy Harry on his birthday. We also had a little party for him organised mainly by a friend called Nadine (it was a joint birthday party with her daughter Molly). A great time was had by all including a sporting game of "Duck, duck, goose" (unique to NZ I think) which involved running fast round a circle. Harry didn't quite get the rules but it didn't seem to matter! Harry's favourite presents were items of clothing (I wonder where he gets that trait from?!?!) including a pirate's costume and some brilliant tops from various family members. Thank you all who gave gifts.

Tractor time with Dizz and James!

This will surely go down as one of Harry's highlights of our time in NZ. On Saturday 19th Jan we ventured over to the West of Auckland to our friends Dizz and James. They own a beautiful house with amazing grounds in Oratia and we last went to visit them during winter. It was at that moment Harry was introduced to James' mini tractor which he uses to mow the lawns, and ever since Harry has been wanting to have a go on it!
James and Dizz kindly invited us over for a BBQ and official tractor driving time! Harry was in awe and I thought it was rather fun aswell! A classic "father son" bonding moment and I even got to mow the next door neighbour's lawn. (Note to self..I must buy a house with a big garden so I can justify buying a mini tractor!)
Thanks Dizz and James!

Christmas Day

We decided to go for the stereotype NZ Christmas...Picnic on the beach after church, presents and then BBQ! It was a great day although the weather wasn't exactly brilliant sunshine... in fact it rained! We woke up to Matilda and Harry excitedly opening their stocking presents. Harry did wake at 5am but fortunately didn't notice the presents at the end of his cot and it was only when Matilda woke and said "Father Christmas had visited" that Harry realised it was a special day.
We spent the day as a family unit with Paul, Laura, Gracie, Amy and Julia. The extended family in the form of Rich, Kath and Amelie arrived for the evening and the big Christmas day BBQ. Harry and Matilda loved all the presents and the day went really well (apart from the poor weather!).

Mangawhai Heads

Another weekend, another Bach and more amazing beaches. I sometimes have to pinch myself that it is all real because we have enjoyed such a privileged existence in NZ (mostly because of extremely generous Kiwi friends)! 2 weekends ago we were invited by friends Kurt and Sacha (with their 2 great children Cassidy and Brooke) to a place called Mangawhai Heads (about hour and half north of Auckland). We stayed at Sacha's parents Bach which was brilliant. It has its own vineyard which produces some delicious wine (sampled during the weekend). The other real attraction was access to a massive sand dune that only the residents of the private road can explore because there are no other roads to it! This, understandably, was a real hit with the children who loved running down the sides of the dune (surprisingly Harry and Matilda were slightly fearful to begin with but soon got the hang of sliding down!). It was a great weekend with fantastic hosts!

Tawharanui

The next weekend after Papamoa was a trip slightly closer to home to Tawharanui Regional Park (an hour north of Auckland). We spent our time at this incredible bach in a place called Christian Bay (aptly named with lots of sheep on the hillside and next to the ocean...Jesus would have approved I am sure!). We spent the weekend with Rich, Kath and Amelie and enjoyed catching up/discussing life/enjoying good food and wine! They knew the owners of the bach and we managed to tag along...result!
The highlight was going to.. yes you've guessed it...Tawharanui beach which was almost empty when we went to it. The other great fun event was enjoying Matakana farmers market (pretty famous in NZ) and buying some lovely bread and salad dressings. (I must be getting old to enjoy things like salad dressing!)

Fun with Friends

Having Paul and Laura over has been a perfect excuse to do some fun things (not that we really need an excuse). I have really enjoyed having some blokey company and managed to go out to see The Bourne Ultimatum with the boys. Paul and I also found this great place to play golf in the centre of town. It had amazing simulated golf courses so we can now claim to have played Pebble Beach (a famous US golf course) in Auckland..crazy!
The 2 other highlights were a day trip to Piha Beach and a great 8th wedding anniversary/farewell to P and L meal at the top of the Sky Tower. The fun thing about dining in the Sky Tower is that the restaurant is revolving.....well some may call it fun.. but others might say it does provoke a sense of low grade nausea especially if you're really hungry! Despite this it was a great evening. Comedy of the night was watching the girls (Kath, Laura and Rosie) try to fit a whole glass into their mouth! We waved goodbye to Paul and Laura the next day..very sad ...particularly for Matilda who for some reason found Paul's magic tricks vaguely entertainly! The old money behind the ears gag is always a winner!

Paul and Laura Visit NZ!

Paul and Laura Oxley (not Kingsley-Smith!) have been staying with us for the past 3 weeks which has been an absolute blast (quite literally for Paul having ate something dodgy in Bangkok!). We enjoyed showing them the sites in Auckland for their first week before they set off for the Coromandel Peninsula and Rotorua.
We really did have a lot of fun but the highlight of the trip had to be a 4 day break in Turangi (next to Lake Taupo). We went down with Rich and Kath to meet up wih the Oxley's and enjoy a bit more of the North Island. The main reason for heading down to Turangi was its proximity to Mount Ruapehu and the snow!
On the first day we trekked down to Ohakune. The weather wasn't exactly ideal but we still managed to do a bit of sledging despite the freezing winds. The next day, however, we went to Whakapapa (the Maori "Wh" is essentially a "F".. and ..as you can imagine there was great hilarity with this word especially when Matilda and Harry decided to have a go at pronoucing it!). Anyway, we had an absolutely stunning day up Whakapapa (excuse the pun)...the weather was great and the company not too bad either. Harry and Matilda spent time sledging with Paul and Laura which gave Rosie and me the opportunity to ski together. We always vowed to go skiing together before children but failed so this was a bit of a dream. We were a bit rusty to start with but soon remembered the basics. We both thought to ourselves..this is why we came to New Zealand!
Another bonus at Whakapapa was that the children were allowed to go on the chair lifts..great fun.

Visitors and Auckland best venues

It has been great to welcome visitors to Auckland. Obviously the main visitors have been Granny and Grandpops (Rosie's parents) but we have also had James and Dawn Wilson to stay (James was Rosie's housemate in Sheffield).
I would say we have 4 favourite Auckland attractions that we like to visit.
1. The Sky Tower. This dominates the Auckland skyline and is the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere!! We went up with Rosie's parents and had a great time looking through the glass floors.
2. Cornwall Park and One Tree Hill (Made famous by the U2 song). Always a great afternoon trip. The views from the top of One Tree hill are stunning (although it is now no tree hill because some joker cut it down in protest for Maori rights!!). This was the venue for Grandpops' Birthday breakfast.
3. Mission Bay, St Heliers, and the Kahve experience. A great cycle ride and big breakfast! We did this twice when James and Dawn visited because we love it so much!
4. Mt Eden. This is an extinct volcano with a big crater. It has great views but also a fun park at the bottom of it. Matilda and Harry love the zip wire.

The Coromandel

During our first month in NZ we visited the Coromandel (the sticky out bit to the east of Auckland!) with our great friends Rich, Kath and their little baby Amelie (our God daughter!). We stayed at a beautiful bach in a place called Whangapoua just 2 minutes walk from the beach. It was incredible and also fantastic to catch up with our friends (who have been living in Auckland for 2 years now). The highlight of the trip had to be walking from Whangapoua to New Chums Beach. You can only access this stunning beach by foot and it takes 30 minutes to trek through the jungle to get to it...worth every second! The children loved it and pretended to look for tigers to pass the time!
It was truly a fantastic break.