The Big Countdown

I know right now I am sat in front of the laptop blogging, but to be honest that's what happens when you have children, no more wild nights! However we have so far had an amazing night which I will follow up on a new post tomorrow.

We have had a cracking weekend, the weather has been fantastic and we have loved the family time we have had. On Saturday we started to pack up some of our things, we suddenly had the realisation that we only had 14 days till we move house! We took all of Bethany's art work down in the garage and I will be honest and I say I felt a little sad and emotional by the whole thing. It looks all so bare and sad!

So to have a break from that we headed down to Oriental Parade so Bethany could have a blast on her new bike. She really has taken to it fantastically well, and the confidence and freedom that has come from it is inspiring!

She managed to ride the whole length of Oriental Parade, stopping off for an ice cream and a relax on a bench and then rode the whole way back again, beeping her hooter to everyone who went past!!

Sunday again was another beautiful day, and again we did some more packing. Its all a little awkward though to try and keep some type of order whilst all the Christmas things are up and around us!

On the afternoon we headed over the road to the newly and still being developed nature reserve. We took the top path over Tawatawa Ridge and climbed up and up and up and up until we reached the top where we were mesmerised by the amazing views.

From our house we can see a monument and we had always made it our mission to one day go up there. We are so glad we did as it was a fantastic sculpture. Its called the 'Heroes On The Hill' by a very interesting man called Bruce Stewart, it is to commemorate Te Rauparaha and Te Rangihaeata who were both Maori Chiefs in the early 1800's and the meeting of the Pākehā (people of British or European ancestry).

It was worth going to see and worth the pain that came from climbing up so high!!

Now I am off to celebrate, the big old countdown is on for 2008. I wish you all well, go forth and prosper, be who you want to be and go where you want to go. Only you can make life the life you will want forever...

But I Live Here!!

One thing we are very proud of is the fact we live somewhere that people want to visit. Tourism is big business for New Zealand with the statistics of visitors climbing every year. I love the fact I am always presumed to be a visitor and when I say we now live here the awe, admiration and overall interest that comes with it fills me with such pride.

However a new note to brain would be not to attempt going to Te Papa over the Christmas holidays!! The weather was pretty horrible on Friday morning and being unable to meet with Annemieke because of it I took Bethany to Te Papa, thought we could have our lunch and have some fun.

When I arrived the 'car park full' sign was up and so straight away I should have known. However I spotted someone pulling out right next to the entrance so was very lucky! But as we approached the main doors we saw a queue, at first I thought it was a tour group - but no, it was the queue for the restaurant!! I have never seen a queue like this here before and they were starting to turn people away.

As it was already after 1pm we headed upstairs to the cafe where again it was very busy but just had to get something to eat. I asked a couple who were at a 4 person table if we could share and was rudely told there wouldn't be enough room! Luckily another table became free so we grabbed that. I spent $26 on two tiny sandwiches and a tea which finally arrived after 15 minutes. Overall a miserable lunch!

Wandering round was near impossible, couldn't really get near anything to view it, and then we queued again (we never queue!) for 10 minutes for the magic lilo's! Afterwards I was pushed in front of while I was in the queue at the advice station, not once but three times, bumped into numerous times without a single sorry and stood in front of at the exhibitions I was reading!! All I wanted to do was stand there and shout at the top of my voice 'BUT I LIVE HERE AND YOU ARE SPOILING IT!!!!!!'. Harsh, but true.

However despite my low mood we did enjoy some time in Story Place, where the theme was 'Lets Go Camping'. Bethany really enjoyed listening to camping stories round the fire and sitting inside the tent. Then she went fishing and gathered the supper for her and the other children!

I did leave Te Papa sadly feeling very harassed and deflated. Its a magical place which we love immensely but I don't think we will go for a while, and especially not over the Christmas holidays!!!

Turkey Anyone?

Go on, admit it, who still has Turkey left?! We finally got through ours yesterday!!

Boxing Day was a fantastic day, we were invited by Sarah and Dan to celebrate Sophie's 2nd Birthday. As we know from having a birthday so close to Christmas it can be a very awkward time trying to separate the occasions, but Sarah and Dan did a fantastic job, with party games and gorgeous food for the children and adults. Check out their blog post for a video from the party.

On the afternoon we headed to Jo and Lewis's to celebrate with a BBQ and meet all of their family. It was so kind of them to invite us and we had a great time. However the weather was horrendous! It absolutely poured down. Jo and Lewis live up a steep driveway and up a huge pathway and so you can imagine when it was time to leave, running down a steep pathway in flip flops with no coats was just crazy - we were completely soaked.

Thursday I got sunburn! Yes that's how mad the weather is here at the moment. As the day was nice and Michael was back at work I packed up a picnic and headed off to the Wildlife Sanctuary.

We had a beautiful walk around, this being one of our most favourite places in Wellington. We saw Tui, Weka, Tuatara and Weta's, but typically the animal which had the most fuss made over it by Bethany was plain old duck!!

Bethany was a fantastic walker and we even managed to make it up to the highest point at the Sanctuary and look down over the dam.

Following the track back down we went over the dam where Bethany had her obligatory turn at looking through the giant binoculars the wrong way round!

We headed down the track which goes back through the forest. I stopped off along the way to take some photos of the plants and trees - the last photo here I took after I stopped to put Bethany's shoe back on and I noticed these little tiny spiders.

We played 'Pooh sticks' (with leaves) and Bethany picked this one up, demanding we take it home as it had a baby Stingray on it!!

A fantastic day in the sunshine, well deserved after all the rain we had. This was also a well deserved back to nature one on one day for us both.

Jingle Bells NZ Style

Merry Christmas everyone!!

Its been a fab few days, Christmas in NZ! Yey! We are so excited to be here and enjoying our second Christmas.

Our morning started off as it would anywhere in the world; with an early wake up call. Bethany bounded in shouting 'morning...has Santa been?!'. Michael jumped up and ran upstairs to allow some more setting up for 'Santa' and soon the show was on:


We had the most amazing morning, we spoke with Grandma and Grandad Lee and they watched Bethany open her presents from them, then Grandma Dawes and then Grandad Dawes later on. Being able to interact and 'be with us' on Christmas Day was just so special. I really wish I could write this now though and say Bethany was the most gorgeous amazing child spending time on each present, appreciating it and then thinking about it...but sadly she couldn't wait to get through them all! Even getting sad at the end that there wasn't anymore!

But at least she did spend time afterwards asking who each one was from and then reminiscing with little memories that she had of each person. Bethany has the most amazing memory, she remembers things from being so tiny - it amazes us so very much. She holds memories of her little friends in the UK so close to her heart, she talked about Ady and remembers playing in her kitchen, and even told us about Michel (Ady's daddy) taking us to the airport the day we left for NZ and making a clicking sound with his voice!

She wanted to call Joseph and speak with him (my best friends little boy) and was sad when I explained they were in Latvia for Christmas this year, and of course she couldn't stop talking about her amazing cousin Amy who she misses more and more each day.

After much reminiscing and talking of England it was time to have breakfast and fuel the excitement of the day. Now we had planned on a trip to the beach just like last year but we woke to pouring rain and gale force winds!! Such a shame and although we were a little sad it didn't dampen our day.

After refuelling it was time for the big finale - Bethany asking what Santa had bought her. She followed a trail of string around the room and into the garage where she found...her first bike!!

Bethany was not at all bothered by the cold and windy rides around the garage, but was very grateful for the sunshine later on when Daddy took her to the local school's playground so she could test out her new bike in full.


With 5 hours of cooking over (who orders a 9-10 person turkey!?) we sat down to a gorgeous meal (thank you chef me!) and soaked up the Christmas Day. The afternoon was filled with music, laughter and love.

Later in the day we were again blessed to talk with Grandma Dawes who opened her Christmas presents from us on Skype, so fantastic! Then after Bethany finally crashed in bed at 9.30pm we spoke with Grandma and Grandad Lee as they opened theirs...fabulous amazing magical moments - I can't tell you how amazing it was to speak with them like that.

Beautiful second Christmas in NZ, of course its not the same as the UK but that's what a new life is all about. We do find the seasons very strange and again this year found it hard to get into the feeling of it all - last year we hit the Christmas feeling around May.

And yes of course we miss our family and friends more than ever, the years pass by but we never stop thinking of them. If you had asked us 4 years ago about our future and if one day we would be living the most amazing life in NZ, well, we would have laughed and said 'if only'...

Kia Ora, Vanilla!

A quiet Sunday for us this weekend, plans for the future move, discussions on the new year and playing with Birthday presents took president...however we did take a trip out to Animates to buy a new fish.

Now I am actually not a fan of Animates after the last bad advice, but they are the only store in our area that offers the biggest range. As always you have to go see the puppies, kittens and rabbits, Bethany adamant that she will have all of them one day!

We emerged from the store with not one fish but three! Say hello to Vanilla (Michael's new fish after the sad news when Kitt died):

Oh and the other two? Well we bought some Borneo Sucker fish, tiny little things that whizz around the tank cleaning any algae - fabulous - and they are sooo funny!! We have called them Apple and Mac...

Why Apple and Mac...?

Well because the Apple Mac literally sucks!!!

Christmas Celebrations With Good Friends

We were kindly invited to a Christmas BBQ with our wonderful friends Tony, Denyse and their gorgeous girls Beth and Maddie. The weather was just fabulous on Saturday, and of course the kiwi way is to BBQ (although we used to BBQ in the UK under an umbrella in the pouring rain!) so we were well pleased!

We met Denyse's parents Ken and Patty, Ken being a Geordie! It was fantastic to hear he still had his accent after all the years spent here in NZ and even better to hear him talk of the places we were familiar to. Ken reminded me so much of my own Dad, telling fantastic stories of yesteryear!

We had a lovely BBQ whilst looking down the city, they are so lucky to have that amazing view. We ate, drank and became merry whilst the children played happily. Denyse's wonderful neice Tessa joined the girls a little later on, she was a god send as she played so amazingly with the girls, and because of this they only stopped once to open each others Christmas presents!

Sadly Bethany had a moment when it was time to leave, she cried for Tessa, reminiscent of her times with her cousin Amy. She misses Amy so much, talks of her all the time and craves the friendship of an older girl. It breaks my heart to see her grieve for a friendship, but after Tessa waved goodbye to her from her car she was fine, she just needed to know she was important I think, bless her little soul.

Fantastic friends, with Tony and Denyse its like we have known them forever. Tony being a Londoner originally, Denyse having a Geordie father and talk about co-incidence - Denyse even spent a New Years Eve in Darlington (where we lived before we left for NZ)...!!