At Grandma's in Goulburn

Sorry these are a bit blurry, the camera's auto-settings didn't cope with the light too well.

Last Sunday at the beach

We managed to sneak away from the chaos that is post-holiday house (half unpacked suitcases, piles of washing, garden full of weeds etc) to our local beach for an afternoon stroll on Sunday. Buddy enjoyed sniffing through the flotsam and jetsam with the kids. Life is not too bad.

Ali snaps

Canberra

And then we were off to Canberra where we had a very pleasant stay. Edited highlights must include:
*Questacon where Ali and Phil braved the free fall slide, Lily was spooked by the dinosaurs, we experienced a simulated earthquake and saw the indoor lightning. The small thing hanging at the top of the slide is Ali.
*Phil and Dave bravely playing golf on Canberra's coldest day in 40 yrs (4 deg Celcius)
*Ali and Lily riding the biggest and best Merry-go-round in the world, seven times.
*Catching up with Matt Voce
*The National Portrait Gallery
*Yummy dinners at Dave and Robyn's house
*Karen and Robyn going garage sailing
*The giant DFO factory shop mall where the kids got new sneakers and dancing skirts (Thanks Granddad)
*Walking the dogs to the park
*Playing with Cousin Emily

Goulburn

Ali and Granddad (Ali is the one with kangaroo ears)
Lily with koala ears


Highlights of our stay in Goulburn in no particular order were
* Phil playing golf with his Dad
*Ali and Lily walking Grandma's dogs
* seeing the dress rehearsal of the very well written play 'Ned Kelly' performed at the Leider Theatre with John Spicer and Aunty Sarah.
*lunch at the Paragon with John.
*the markets at Hall.
*hanging out with Ganddad, Grandma and Aunty Sarah
*dinner at Grandma's house
*the petting zoo
*the giant merino, front and back

Holiday Updates

Lily-bunny
Grandma-bunny
Daddy-bunny
Ali and the guinea pig (funny how they have the same expression)
Ali-bunny


Well we are back in NZ after a fun-filled and busy holiday in Roo-land. Owing to Techie restrictions we have a few weeks blogging to catch up on, so here goes...

First to mention is catching up with Aunty Renee and Baby Babriel at Renee's Dad's house before we left. It was so lovely to see them both doing so well, and to meet Renee's Dad and his partner. The girls were enchanted with Gabriel and they seem to think Aunty Renee is all right as well. The ponies were a big hit and helped keep Ali and Lily entertained the next day while we did our final packing.

01 June, we went to Amber's 5th birthday party held at the playcentre. There was a magician who had all the kids in fits of laughter as his magic book kept bursting into flames and his magic wand kept breaking. Ali remembers that he gave all the kids a balloon and Lily liked it when he had a big spider on his back. After we left the party we drove to Auckland and spent the night at an airport motel to take advantage of the 14 days free parking.

02 June, we got up at 5:00 am to race for our shuttle bus and get to the airport and find that the flight was delayed. No worries, we love the airport so we hung around for an extra hour or so. We flew Aerolineas Argentinos, the most budget of all the airlines. It was a great flight, the hostesses sat around talking expressively with their hands to one another, the inflight movie was a graphic showing Australia and New Zealand with a line between them with Auckland, Hastings and Christchurch clearly marked, the plane rattled and shuddered through taking off and landing, and the kids were well behaved. There was a dream run through customs and our bags were first off the carousel, Mum and John were there to meet us and we had a very pleasant drive to Berry.

03 and 04 June, we spent a nice couple of days adjusting to being on holiday in Berry. We went to Kiama in the hopes of spotting passing whales but only their spouts were visible with binoculars far far away, it was such a lovely sunny winters day that nobody minded missing the whales very much. Luckily there is a playground and so the children were happy. We also managed to pop into nearby Nowra to kit out the girls with some new winter clothes - thankyou Oma and Opa.

05 June, we headed off to gay glittering glamorous Goulburn where Aunty Sarah had organised the perfect house for us to stay. The children had tipped all the blocks out on the floor and started building before we had even unpacked the car. Goulburn turned on some lovely crispy cold days for us and we enjoyed the Lilac city markets where the girls got to pet all kinds of animals (luckily they were not for sale).