Author: dave

everyone was up quite early this morning, but not overly so given our visitors jet laggery (they’ve coped very well).  

whilst we waited for a man to arrive and then mend jane’s car’s aircon the youngsters played nicely

 

then we all headed in to town, initially to go up skytower

but by the time we got to the queue at the bottom we realised we probably didn’t have enough time, so we decided to come back a different day

instead we had lunch in the shade before catching our bus for the harbour cruise

a few of today’s photos are from Andrew (check the photo file name and they are the ones with 100’ in the middle)

we’d been on this cruise when we came for our reccy trip back in easter 2008 so it was good to go back now we know the places either side of the harbour

and it was good going under the bridge rather than over it for a change

the trip included a 10 minute stop on Rangitoto volcano so people can say they’ve set foot on it

everyone was flagging after the boat trip, so we headed back home for some afternoon tea

then we headed over to Long Bay for a swum and some sand sculpturing

after swimming the big girls built a sand boat

and the littlies build sand bobble hats

i was a guest judge at the end and the quality of workmanship from both entrants was very high

 

and then it was home for tea

here a few more shots from the day

 

 

we’re going to try again with the Sky Tower tomorrow !

very exciting day today – our good friends the laughlands arrived in auckland

after various organisings first thing we drove over to the airport and waited for them to emerge from the international arrivals door.

which they eventually did

 

then it was a drive back home for chatting and belated xmas gift exchanging

i got some uk bic biros – hoorah !

the rest of the day was spent chatting and game playing by the kids and trying to stay awake (very successfully) by our visitors

here’s kezia in a fancy new xmas top

oh, and andrew and i took the kids on a walk in the rain this afternoon which involved some scooters and a few slides on the flying fox.

it’s 9pm and everyone is feeling a bit jet lagged (including the simpsons bizarrely) so that’s it for today.  see yas

we went to tawharanui today.  it’s still our favourite beach and is just an hour’s pleasant drive from home

we went with our friends mara and rodney (who we saw on xmas eve) and it was really good

it was mostly an overcast day with a nice breeze which meant you had to watch the sun

the grown ups took it in turn going out body boarding with the kids, sitting around and going for walks

we introduced them to geocaching

 

in fact our geocaching finding ended up turning in to a massive walk around slippery rocks and up and down hills.  i’m pleased to say i managed it all in my jandals which is surely a right of passage

 

here’s a lone flowering pohutukawa

and these chaps were playing volleyball.  in true kiwi spirit they’d marked out the pitch nicely with shoes

then it was back to the car

and off for ice creams at our favourite ice cream shop on the way back.  we arrived just in time and were the last customers served before the people packed up and went home !

here’s some surfing.  not sure why youtube makes the first bit of the video go wobbly.  that wasn’t in the upload

the day started with various skypings – first to jane’s sister and our nephews and neice, together with jane’s parents who are visiting them for christmas

it was nice to catch up with them and then we skyped our friends the newells

then it was time for some chores before our friends the andersons came over

  

the adults had morning tea outside whilst the youngsters played card games inside

then we went for a walk at a local bay and did a spot of geocaching

then we had lunch at wendys

the next couple of hours was spent driving round in circles (or so it ended up) as we found a place that sold replacement car bulbs as our brake light had gone, then worked out what sort of patio heater we wanted and found a shop which sold it

that then required some construction which i did whilst jane was out shopping for visitor getting ready things and the girls did some scootering about on their festive scoots.

here’s a cicada.  they haven’t started singing in earnest but it won’t be long now i suspect

then this evening i made a meal of cutting the grass but got there in the end !

 

we’ve just had an excellent christmas day

it started at 7am with stocking presents in our room

 

then we skyped my mum, brother and jacqui.  here’s a family portrait

esther got me a voucher for a tobacco pipe as we both find them really funny.  jane wasn’t sure if i’d actually want one so decided a voucher was the best approach.  i’ll cash it in soon (but don’t worry i’m not going to smoke anything, it’ll be strickly a fashion item

 

here’s one of jane’s presents.  it’s a teapot teacup which is quite popular over here

then we walked over to the local presbyterian church for their xmas morning service (our church doesn’t have a christmas service because it meets in a school)

then we whizzed home for a spot more unwrapping

then we went to long bay for our dinner in the restaurant there

it was a buffet and great

 

 

then we went to the beach and the girls had a swim.  i’ll not lie and say it was really warm because it wasn’t.  and there was a bit of a wind too 

i went in up to my knees, and i have worn my jandals all day including whilst driving the car

here’s a christmas sand man built by kezia instead of a christmas snow man

and its christmas so of course all the pohutukawa trees are in bright red bloom

the beach was really busy (by kiwi standards)

here are the instructions for the girl’s scooters.  don’ use scooter at night.

and don’ think that using an apostrophe means you can miss out letters

we didn’t watch any telly today, but if we had we would have noticed that there are no commercial adverts on television on christmas day, or easter sunday.  how quaint is that !

anyway, after doing some more unwrapping we went round to mike and julia’s house where we had a lovely couple of hours chatting with various people and the girls had another swim, this time in their pool.  and we player boule (which they pronounced ‘bool-ay’ for some reason)

we also had some dessert

 

and then we went round to our good friends biffy and malcolm from church for evening card games

it was just our family and their family (including malcom’s dad shown below) and was a really nice quiet way to finish the day

so all up a great day – eating at the restaurant was a great plan and it was lovely spending time with friends.  hoorah for christmas.

we were up early this morning to do chores. 

jane and esther took our car insurance claim in to the insurance place whilst i took the car to get a new aircon filter replacement.  we were out of luck on our filter (so have a man booked to come to us next Wednesday morning).  And we took the car in to local panel beaters where, as luck would have it, an insurance assessor man was already booked for that morning so he could assess our car too.

jane also did our christmas food shopping in the supermarket which was quite horrendously busy apparently

then we went to mike and lizzie’s.  they used to rent our house before us and are also poms.  in fact they had a house full of brits for mulled wine and mincers.

after various talkings we headed home and i had a power nap whilst jane made some fantastic profiteroles.

 

then we went to some other friends’ house for a meal

it’s been drizzling most of the day but that didn’t stop the bbq or the girls spending hours in the swimming pool where they live

 

the rain stopped enough for us to sit outside for hot drinks whilst the girls threw themselves in the pool a second time

and then it was back home to get the girls in to bed and do some chores

 

because we all know what tomorrow is …

i finished work today as the office shuts down until the 10th January which is excellent

the girls had spent a day doing chores in preparation for christmas and visitors so we went to Long Bay early evening

jane made us a nice picnic and we were the most organised with proper seats and even a picnic table on which to put our cooked chicken.  excellent stuff.

then we threw ourselves in the sea for a spot of body boarding where we managed to catch a few of the 20 centimetre waves which lapped by !

we’re back here on saturday for our christmas dinner in the restaurant which is just out of sight down on the right somewhere

the water was really nice and warm at nearly 20degC

and i wore my wet suit for the first time and that was successful

my last day in the office was punctuated by a couple of stops for champagne and mince pies which was nice

that meant i was home by about 3pm which gave me time to sort out the final photos from my photoshoot for the company magazine which you can see here

here’s a santa all on his own outside the local chemist

esther cooked us dinner tonight under her ‘gar brill’ brand.    she’d made us funky menus and everything

delicious

and the desserts were out of this world !

meanwhile i had a photo assignment at work.  here’s a test shot of sasha who i sit next to at work and simon behind him

the subject of my photo assignment (for our company magazine) was … my boss !

 

i threatened revenge for the the mind games she played on us at the seminar she ran last week, but in the end the threat of an unhappy boss as review times convinced me to attempt to take some decent photos !

it being our last full day in the office today, we went out for lunch to a new restaurant we found.  it was very good, so we’ll be back there .  here’s a message from today’s bus driver:

jane and the girls spent the day driving all over the place doing chores and busyness and have got on very well with crossing items off their list.

however, jane’s car got scraped in a carpark, but luckily the person who did it was still in their car so we got their insurance details and we’ll have to get it repainted.  it was stationary at the time so no harm done.  just lots of inconvenience thanks to insurance things and us having visitors until mid feb now makes it tricky to work out when we’ll do mending.

and it’s aircon has also gone a bit weird.  i managed to find the airfilter this evening which we cleaned so hopefully that’s all the problem was.

 

last day at work for me tomorrow then the office shuts down until 10th January.  nicely !

sorry for leaving you hanging about waiting for yesterday’s update.

i walked past this boat in the morning, which is a new cruise liner which is based in auckland.  everyone is very excited about that.

and at lunch i had a wander round some of the streets near my office to see where we’d park in the evening.  i found this scrub land which wasn’t where we parked.

meanwhile during the day the girls went to visit some friends with a swimming pool and ants ate this dead dragonfly

 

then in the evening we went to arena to see the gorillaz who really were excellent.

on the way we popped in to the free party that was going on to celebrate the pacific pearl.  the super mayor of super auckland said hi to jane as we walked past him (having somehow found our way down the VIP exit way!)

we were in the standing part of the arena for the gorillaz gig which was a bit tiring for our old legs

it was still very good, and we didn’t miss too much thanks to the large video screen

 

and as we walked back to the car we saw some people taking in the last viewage of the pacific pearl

hi, jane and i have just got back from a concert in town and i’ve got work tomorrow so i’ll do a catch up update tomorrow.  see yas.