Martins Bay

We dared to travel north of Auckland the other day! We found yet more spectacular beaches and stunning scenery. We travelled about an hour to a small town called Warkworth and then drove on to Martins Bay on the advice given by tourist information ("Snell's beach is good but not as pretty as Martins Bay").
The beach was beautiful and weather particularly good for early Spring. I was almost tempted to get into the sea but fortunately had not packed any swim gear! Martins Bay had the added excitement of trees invading the beach area which doubled up as great climbing frames for Matilda and Harry (and me!)
After a brilliant morning we went back to Warkworth for some fish and chips and a play in the park...what a great way to spend a day!

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!

Gym

There are many things that NZ does very well. Coffee is one of them but another great Kiwi attribute is it's devotion to an active life. So many sporting pursuits are much more affordable (and better equipped!)in New Zealand and that is why we have signed Harry and Matilda up to go to Gym lessons.
Unfortunately, I have never actually been to see the children at their lessons because I am at work, but by all accounts it is something pretty special! Rose has drafted in the help of a new friend called Rachel to supervise the children during the sessions. She also took the opportunity to take Paul and Laura (O not KS) while they were here and managed to get some fun action shots. Matilda, in particular, loves it and has shown some real talent. This is definitely from the KS side of the gene pool since I could only just do a rolly poley (not sure of the spelling!)!

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.

Whangamata 2!

Took loads of photos and couldn't decide which ones to put on the blog...so here are a few more!

Whangamata

"Uncle" Paul's birthday came at a perfect time this year. One week after a hectic moving weekend we celebrated Paul's 27th birthday (is he really that old?!?!) at a bach in Whangamata (in the Coromandel). The weather was brilliant and the company not too bad either! The New Zealand coastline constantly impresses me. It is always a joy to go to amazing beaches but even better is the fact that there is nobody to share/spoil it! Call me anti-social but who wants to holiday with other people (apart from the group you are with). It's also great not to have to walk a mile or 2 to get away from the crowds especially if you've got loads of kit for the children! If only I could transport this part of NZ back with me!
Anyway, the weekend was really great. We played far too much Settlers (a strategy board game and great fun but not so good for your marriage if you're competitive!) and enjoyed some good coffee and fantastic pizza. The other highlight was flying a kite on the beach. I don't know about you but I haven't ever been able to fly a kite for more than 10 seconds. I remember spending many a frustrating time with my Dad and then with my children unable to get the stupid kite in the air. I think I have now cracked it...thanks to a little tuition from my brother-in-law I would now consider myself almost competent!

On The Move Again!!

It has been a while since the last blog note and this is probably due to moving house again and settling into a new area. The seaviews were fantastic but in reality the house we moved into in Hillsborough was a bit too big for us and slightly too isolated for a young family. I will miss the proximity to the sea and it was great fun for a time...but Mount Eden is the new hunting ground for the Amess family!!
So ...on the 20th July... the Amess family moved again! We hope this will be the last in New Zealand because I don't think my back will cope with another!! The day was actually really good fun. We hired a knackered old lorry (for about 35 GBP equivalent) and we shifted all our stuff in the space of about 5 hours. We couldn't have done it without the help of Paul, Rich and their better halves. I really think we could set up as a removal service...or perhaps not!! The highlight of the move had to be the "burgerfuel"(best burgers in NZ) at the end of the day. Class!!