Awww, It Snowed!

Grandma and Grandad sent some photos recently of the snow at their house in the UK and Bethany has never stopped talking about it since.

So this is what happened whilst filling some beanbags which she got with her new bed:

It was just too much of a good opportunity to miss, and after a few 'snow angels' it was even worth the cleaning up time!

ANZAC Day 2008

The sun was blazing in Wellington on Anzac Day, a day when many would remember those from years gone by, and a day when I sat watching our heroes of the future playing on the swings, whilst remembering our heroes of the past.

Last year was a whole different affair, we had the most amazing time in Otaki and Raumati and sadly this year poor Mr D was working. Yet Bethany and I soldiered on and managed to have a fantastic day together.

It was Craig's last day in NZ (for now!) and so we met up with him and Chez Lee in town to say our goodbyes. Just before meeting up with everyone we stopped off to buy some tickets for the circus that's in town, I am sooo excited by the fact I managed to get front row VIP seats, although a bit worried what that entails - anyway next Thursday night we will find out!!

So after meeting up with the lovely Craig and the gorgeous Lee's we had a wander round the stunning harbour and then onto Te Papa where we indulged in a fantastic lunch. Of course ending the wonderful get together magically with some delicious ice creams from Cafe Eis.


Craig and I said our goodbyes to Chez Lee and then had a wander over to see Michael at work. The boys quickly set about talking 'shop' and Bethany entertained herself by drawing a whale with spots on the white board as I people watched from the window.


Sad goodbyes as Craig finally had to leave to get his plane, it's been fantastic to meet him, feels like we have known him forever and we cannot wait for Craig, Rachel and Myles to finally join us in the next few months, it's going to be amazing!

I was intrigued by the stunning war ship that was docked in the harbour, and so I took Bethany to investigate further. Being Anzac Day it was very busy but still we wanted to be part of the action, and so as we approached Frigate Vendémiaire we were invited aboard to have a look around.


An amazing deck offered awesome views of Wellington and we watched in awe the Helipro helicopter land and take off literally metres away from us.

Inside it was interesting to see the corridors, tiny doors and the scary 'emergency' or 'urgence' (in French!) area with full on chemical suites and masks!

Back on deck I could breath a little easier and enjoyed the views once more. Heading off the ship on the very steep ladder Bethany held up the queue so badly that the suited French man at the bottom came up and carried her down! I muttered a 'Merci' on my way past and he gave me a Top Gun smile, it's all been done before!

Meandering back through the city we enjoyed all it had to offer, the ocean, the blue skies and the amazing people. Everyone busy enjoying life, everyone doing and being their own thing, being free and living life to the full.

It was a magical day to reflect on the past, welcome new friendships, bond with old friends, appreciate life and love my daughter more than I thought possible, on Anzac Day this was the perfect day to do all of this.

Technical Fault

OK, so a few people have reported problems accessing our blog recently. To see if we can find out where the problem lies, I'll need some detailed information from people with issues and even those without: (and by issues, I mean issues accessing our blog, we all have issues at the end of the day!!)

• Do you browse to http://dawesinnz.blogspot.com or http://www.dawes.co.nz ?
• What time of day is the problem?
• Is it just our blog or is it any other google blog site?
• If you have a problem, who is your ISP?
• If you never have a problem, who is your ISP?

Answers on a postcard to info@dawes.co.nz

Thank you for your co-operation, all information appreciated!

Staglands Wildlife Park

As it is now the kids two week break from school and kindy, it means trying to find some type of entertainment, of course living in Wellington that isn't hard to do!

Since moving house I have made the agreement with the Jo, Susan, Joan and Jenny that I will go to their homes as normal every Tuesday, but when it comes the holidays they will come my way, and so of course came the idea of Staglands.

We have been before but it is an amazing place that the children just adore. It's basically and open wildlife park where you can get up close and personal with the various animals. It really does however amaze me how this place operates, in the UK it would have just been stamped with 'health and safety risk' and shut down. It's amazing how these Kiwi's have a better outlook on life, so comes the saying I suppose of 'Oh it will be alright mate'.

A bit low on numbers today as only Susan and Jo could make it, but that wasn't going to dampen our enthusiasm. The weather was good to us as we had an amazing wander around the park, first off it took us via the ducks and huge population of peacocks. Then down past the river to see the pigs, donkeys and for the children to have the chance to enter a den for rabbits and Guinea pigs and actually pick them up. Like I said, people are trusted to have common sense here and treat things with respect...not so sure that would happen back in the UK?

Not much further round was the Trout pond where the biggest Trout twirled in the water. Along with them were 3 eels - massive black eels. Sammy who was wearing bright pink sat by the waters edge and the only three eels in the pond came over to her, and not only that they wanted to get out! Either they liked her bright pink colours or she is the Queen of Eels!

Heading through various aviaries we were greeted by the cutest little birds, some of them with new babies as we could hear the little cheeps in the trees, and we could even get face to face with some of the most beautiful Kea's.

Along came a little pony called Brook, such a cute little thing, heading towards 13 years old and still enjoying life every day. Each of the kids took turns to ride him and they even managed a little trot much to the delight of all of them!

Onwards through the very spooky 'Olde Town' where I'm sure a horror movie could be filmed here quite easily, it has that certain eeriness about it!

Then onto the kids favourite part of the railway, where I pushed them screaming along happily in an old cart. If only the children could have then mustered up enough strength to give us ladies a push too - now that would have been awesome.

Finally we reached the last stages, coming face to face with the most magnificently massive Shirehorse called Bob, some rude donkeys and a hilarious goat that just wanted to be Jo's best friend!

However despite all the laughs, some tears (my child as usual) and the odd rude word (I can't repeat what Jo said to that goat!) it was all brought to a magnificent end with a fly in my tea.

And then wine.

It always ends with a wine!

No Sleep, Just Slide!

Bethany's room was just getting too cramped. She had a double bed and although she loved it, she just didn't have any room to do anything else. So the search was on to find a new bed for her.

Bethany has been amazing with her bedtime routine, she goes to bed well, has been fully toilet trained forever now and rarely gets out of bed through the night. But the major achievement being she turned into a moving house super duper star without any problems at all.

So of course it was time to reward her, I have mentioned before how we find it difficult to 'justify' what we buy to her at random times of the year (and to anyone else who feels they need to stick their noses in) but as she has her birthday and Christmas 3 days apart, the rest of year is left a blank for her which is a little unfair, and to be totally honest, well I just don't give a stuff!!

So check it out, we bought it from a gorgeous company called Cilek and they have a huge range of 'discovery beds' to suit any needs.

Super new funky bed arrived and was assembled whilst Bethany was at a friends house (well done dad for 4 hours of a flat pack nightmare!). We still have some re-arranging of her room to do but at least it was ready to go, and lets just say that despite it already being late when she was finally allowed the viewing, there was another hour of slides to do before she finally gave up to the sleep fairy!!

Sci-Fi Sunday

After a wine-fueled Saturday, Sunday was a chance to relax a bit. After not actually relaxing because lets face it, with a 4 year old you can't ever relax, we headed for another afternoon out.

We'd been feeling the cold recently, so opted to spend some time looking at wood burners. Having already been over the see what the BBQ Factory (my favourite shop) has to offer, we headed over to Ablaze in Grenada North. This was, as we were to find out later, to be the downfall of the day!

After standing around the flames in the Ablaze office, we headed out towards Wellington for lunch, aiming for another of my favourite places - The Black Harp. After that, came the usual coffee from Cafe Eis and some time for Bethany to burn some energy at Frank Kitts Park
.

After seeing the 3rd nerd walking past the park in a Star Trek outfit, we decided to find out what was going on at the TSB Arena and meandered in. We walked into the Armageddon Expo - a Sci-Fi extravaganza! The show was packed with trade stalls selling comics, books, movies and games, as well as showcasing game consoles like the Playstation 3 and our favourite, the Nintendo Wii. We only had a mobile phone camera to snap some pics, and here are the few that didn't end up like a mass ball of blur:

Being at a Sci-Fi based event, we took the opportunity to purchase the ultimate cool geeky item: A flashing LED SpongeBob SquarePants badge!

After all that, Bethany took around 30 seconds in the car to fall asleep, and stayed there until we got home. As I mentioned earlier, going to Ablaze was to be our downfall. It wasn't until we were putting Bethany to bed that we realised the favourite teddy Whitey was nowhere to be seen. After some detective work, we managed to narrow the options down to Ablaze or the pub, thankfully it was at the fire shop and was retrieved the next day!

Wonderfully Wet Wairarapa!

We have had a gorgeous weekend, it has really felt like we have been on holiday this weekend, enjoying fantastic family time together and making the most of what New Zealand has to offer.

Craig joined us on Friday night, we enjoyed a lovely meal and then the boys headed out to the pub. When they returned we spent the night laughing hysterically whilst playing Wii Sports and drinking wine, I think we all turned in for bed just before 2am!

It was also fantastic to meet Rachel and Myles via Skype, it was lovely to see them and finally put faces to names, Craig is a very lucky man, he has a gorgeous wife and son!

Saturday morning we rose early (thanks to Bethany!) and after breakfast headed towards the Wairarapa. The morning had been blue skies and blazing sunshine but typically as we hit the motorway the rain started.

We decided to stop off at Kaitoke Regional Park and have a wander in natures finest - and as we took our first steps onto the wire bridge the most horrendous hailstone storm lashed down on us and we were trapped! Needless to say it was the funniest moment despite being soaked to the bone.

After a quick (and I mean quick!) trek around the forest we headed onwards for Martinborough. Craig likes a wine or two so we knew this would be his thing. With the rain finally letting up we rolled into Martinborough ready for the challenge!

We have a decent little route which we always enjoy as we get to sample wines from the most respected wineries, down to the smaller less recognised ones. First stop was Burnt Spur where although we were slightly put off by the over eccentric host we still enjoyed a tipple of the good stuff. Purchase: one beautiful bottle of Olive Oil!

Next up was one of our favourites; Tirohana Estate. We have been numerous times and last year when my parents were here we visited and were photographed for a German Tour Book - sadly the winery nor us ever heard from them again - such a shame!

Here we enjoyed the company of the amazing host (the son to the throne of this empire) and tasted a very special award winning Pinot Noir. Purchase: of course a bottle of this amazing creation!

After that we stopped off at Shuberts, we didn't particularly enjoy our visit here last time as the host was, well, lets just say strange - kind of like the Norman Bates type of strange! Anyway, from the last visit I bought some Dolce and I absolutely loved it, it helped me through an illness really easily! Purchase: One bottle of white, one bottle of Dolce!

Final stop was our absolute favourite where we have spent beautiful days with our families - Margrain.

We once again enjoyed some fabulous wine tasting and then a lovely meal in the restaurant. Being with Craig was brilliant, such a wonderful man and we have all connected so well. We feel like we have known him forever with Bethany definitely taking a liking to him!

On the way back the two kids; Bethany and Craig enjoyed a snooze and we finally had some quiet time!!

Such a magical time, we really loved being able to show Craig one of our most favourite places and we hope he had a good time and can return to England next week with some beautiful stories...