Tina, Amber, Rio & Scott

Just a short update, I really need poking to get these done now, so many of our news goes out on Facebook etc, but nothing is recorded.   Last Sunday we had friends and family with us at the house for Rio’s naming day.

Rio by his new Rimu tree

The weather held out and blessed us by not raining on the day which was nice.  The day before we visited a nursery to get a tree.  Amber has had fruit trees planted on her first 4 birthdays in the back garden.  To make a change, (and because we’ve had little fruit) we decided to place in the front garden, and chose a strong native plant.  We were shown some very nice trees, but finally decided on planting a Rimu for the boy, with the native tradition of placing the placenta (which has been saved in the freezer) in the roots of the tree.   As said, friends and family turned up and we had smiles all around with a little service, poems and blessings by the mentors.  I nice day which strengthened  the bonds between us.  Thanks to all who took the time to come and take part  :-)

Sorry I haven’t updated this is such an age.  Work has been hard, home life is busy, Rio and Amber take up so much time of course but its worth it.

Cairns was a fantastic holiday,  I hope I don’t miss out to much of what’s happened since,

OK,  Xmas was great, a HOT day spent on the beach, this looks like its going to become the tradition, fantastic weather this year.  Tina’s birthday came and went, as did Ambers with a party in Willow Bank park and cake made by Miranda and Marie, her face was a picture  and my birthday yesterday, with my portrait which was Super

Phoebe and James visited for an afternoon in their holiday here, which was great . Amber was keyed up to see her cousins. Shame it was only the once but there is always the next time.

The picture here was the other week as Connors birthday super hero themed party, We thought all the adults were dressing up, but any excuse eh.

I’m in the process of moving all the site photos from Flickr to Dropbox via Site44 which now serves them direct,  Sod paying Yahoo for the privilege, so if there are some broken ones, let me know.

So Friday, we said good bye to Palm Cove, the beautiful town house, and then our travelling companions, as we went onwards to the sunshine coast and they went to Melbourne. It was a tough day leaving the apartment just before 11am, being delayed AGAIN at Cairns airport, and missing our bus, having to wait until 10 to 5 until the next one, means we didn’t even make it to our swap over at Aussie world until 6:30pm, checking in at around 7pm, tired, hungry and had to walk miles to a macdees for easy dinning dinner. Suffice to say we were not that impressed so far, 1.5 hour flight 2 hour bus ride, over populated and very metropolitan city and smelt of sick and sweat. Apartment was nice though.

Saturday and we were feeling more human, had a walk along the esplanade and found a cool park, and had fun on the beach the sand was gorgeous much nicer than the top of Queensland, no so grainy. Light brunch along the sea front, then home for a swim and a nap for Rio. Amber got really good in the water over the break. then, baths, change of clothes and headed for the bus at 3pm, to join the lovely Aaron & B for their wedding.

They had a beautiful ceremony on a boardwalk in a park woodland,  followed by canapés and a evening meal at a really lovely restaurant right next door to our apartment. The food was delicious, the whole day went without a hitch, the cupcake wedding cake was amazing, and they really had thought of everything, even the storm that was forecast stayed away until evening to provide a free light show.

Sunday was a nightmare, we got up packed and left the hotel about 10am took an hour and 20 mins to get back to Brisbane airport luckily much smoother this time, then was delayed by over an hour Sydney bound, which means we missed our connection, as we only had an hour connection in Sydney itself, but on the plus side, quantas put us up for the night in an airport hotel with $40 a head for food (including Rio) and a family room. I didn’t sleep to well and then Monday we had a 6am wake up call for our 9am flight, Delayed again and finally home by 5pm our time. Thanks to a lovely James who picked us up.  The travelling with very bored and tired children is not fun, and we are not rushed to do it again anytime soon, but a great holiday was had by all. Good job Scott had booked a few extra days of work we needed it to recover.

So, the day had finally arrived, everyone was up and moving around the house before 6am, we had to wake the kids (for the first time) to head down to the beach and join in the amazing experience. This is what we came for and this is what made all the travelling and the kids bickering worth it. WOW.

Afterwards the kids played at the park for a bit and then we headed back for a hot hot morning in  the house pool, while the Denton-Smiths headed off to Cairns tropical zoo. In the afternoon we headed down to the beach again to enjoy a wonderful relaxing afternoon.

To finish we all decided to go to the apres bar where Scott and I had been the night before for one last meal together before the spilt, yummy.

Thursday was the big reef trip, we drove down to Cairns harbour in the morning, and had a 10am departure on a big cat to green island., The trip wasn’t to bad, although Poor Connor didn’t take it too well. sitting at the back of the boat we got to see lots of Sea which the kids loved. Green island itself was nice, very over commercialised, but expected. the island had its own hotel and 2 pools.

We had some picnic lunch, and then went on a glass bottom boat trip and a semi sub trip, and found Nemo ( the kids were very happy with that) we also spotted 2 turtles, and Dory. Then an afternoon sat on the beach soaking in the sun and enjoying  the blue sea and white beaches, the kids had lots of fun finding all of the coral washed up on the beach.

We headed for home about 5pm, and got back via dropping the car off about 6pm, fish and chips at the local for tea and an early night, what a fun packed holiday.

Monday: We got up early as normal and headed for Cairns city, to have a poke about and head to the Free lagoon that we had heard about, not to much of a drive, about 30 mins or so, and soon discovered that the waterfront was strictly one way so we had to go back on ourselves a few times, but it worked out in our favour as we discovered and awesome play park.

We scooped out the dock where we needed to be for Thursday’s Reef trip and parked up, I remember it had been raining early that morning and there was a big puddle in the car park, Martin walked around it but Miranda and I walked though it, bloody lovely and warm it was.

So spent the morning in the man made lagoon with a make shift beach and plenty of BBQ pits in the park, bliss, the kids adored the water. followed by a short walk around the shops in the city and lunch, then drove back to that awesome park  we had discovered earlier that day, rain showers off and on that afternoon but as they were so warm nobody seemed to mind.

Topped the evening off by checking out a local Greek restaurant nice food but bloody expensive.

Tuesday: Today we decided to go to Kuranda, so a long day but what an experience, we had to drive to the sky rail and leave the car there, then got a transfer by bus to freshwater train station where we got on an old diesel engine to climb an hour and a half through the rain forest with stunning views including waterfalls and sheer drops. Once there we walked into the village and looked about a few shops, also went to a Koala park and saw some more snakes, roos and of course Crocs and Koalas, Had some ;lunch, and a drink at the pub, and was back on the sky rail home by 3:45. OMFG never again, the clear class and sheer drop, made it a rather terrifying experience for me, one that i do mot wish to repeat anytime soon, never trusted cable cars on wires.

That evening Miranda and Martin watched the kids and Scott and I had a date night, we went to a local pub called Apres and did half a quiz before I sensed Rio was needing me and we headed home at 9pm, sure enough he had been up for about 10 mins when we got home, but very appreciative to go out kiddieless.

So we woke up to 30 degree heat and a mixed bag of weather, very humid, rain showers which dried up in seconds,, we spent the morning, collecting the hire car, doing a supermarket shop, and investigating the local area. The boys went and got their internet fix sorted while Miranda and I took the kiddies to the beach, and local park. As it started to rain we nipped into the local tourist information and worked out our week, including, a trip to the great barrier reef and Karunda train and sky rail.

The afternoon was spent in our pool, then a yummy BBQ that Martin cooked. what an Awesome way to spend a Saturday.

Sunday: The kids body clocks were all over the place and very hard to get them to stay awake past 7pm and to stay in bed much after 6am. So another early rise for us, and off we trotted to Hartley’s crocodile park, were we had a picnic lunch saw crocs, jump out of the water for fish heads on sticks and, saw lots of snakes, lizards, wallabies and other Aussie animals, the kids loved the wallabies as they came up close for a pet. they weren’t that impressed with the koalas though as they didn’t do much.

After the park, we decided to take a drive up to Port Douglas, where we caught the end of a market, but the kids were zonked so we didn’t stay very long, reminded me a lot of Featherston or Grey town, pretty but not as nice as Palm Cove.

We stopped on the way home at a look out point were people were hang gliding, very peaceful. A short drive home to another yummy BBQ and early night for all.

Lets get one thing straight I am NEVER flying with Amber again until she is at least 8 years old! But what a holiday we had….

Friday: Up at 3am to taxi to Wellington airport for 3:45am, kids did well just excited, all checked in by 4:30am and waited 1 and a half hours to board, watched the sunrise over Miramar and enjoyed the first of our many delayed flights. Really impressed with the quantas staff who looked after us. next  stop Sydney. our transfer had changed from an hour to 5 hours stop over which was a good job never would have made it in an hour. had to walk the entire length of international arrivals to drop our bags off at the domestic transfer then was unsure wither we would be in secure area so not see Fabiana etc. But luckily it was very easy once we had a short bus ride between the terminals we managed to pop out have a catch up with Fabiana, and then easily get back in again to departures. Unfortunately after already waiting 5 hours at Sydney airport with limited supplies, and two very bored kids we then had to wait 45 mins on the plane on the tarmac as there was a technical fault, and we still had a 3 hour flight on top of that. Luckily at the cairns end our pickup was there and he took us straight home with no bother, we made it in to the apartment about 5pm, which was really 8pm to our body clocks so a long day, got a take out dinner and some supplies from the corner shop and headed to bed early. Very impressed with the accommodation and the location this was going to be a great place to watch the eclipse……

She’ll be right and awesome are well used phrases here and after 5 years  I find myself using them a lot along with Sweet as bro !!

but I find that I have been missing some things about the UK this week, including :

Mr Whippy trucks,

Feast ice creams

pronouncing, Debut, Router, Database and yoghurt the correct way, not dayboo,raotor, dartabase and yoooghurt

Next & George clothing

Asda cheap items,

Muller fruit corners

being able to buy everything from apples to washing machines in one store.

but I wouldn’t live anywhere else……… fit in or fuck off is the Moto here and I intend to do the first. …..

It never ceases to amaze me just how many towns beginning with p in the north Wellington area, no wonder we opt for P town instead of:

1) Paparangi

2) Porirua

3) Papakowhai

4) Porirua East

5) Paremata

6) Pauatahanui

7) Plimmerton

8) Pukerua Bay

9) Paekakariki

10) Paraparaumu

11) Paraparaumu Beach

phew!

So a while ago James had invited Scott and Amber to a weekend away up the mountain, skiing and hot pooling. I said yeah go for it, I will be ok. So Thursday they packed up and I dropped them in Mana at 930am for their holiday together. I phoned them everyday and spoke to Amber but by Saturday I was really missing them, crazy eh? it was so quiet in the house with no Daddy, no Daughter, and just to get complete silence I also took Samson for a little holiday of his own to Sue & Ken’s place so no Dog either. It was amazing my house stayed clean and tidy for 4 days, and then of course it turned to custard yesterday when they got back, but at least it looks lived in again ;o)

Took Rio for his 6 week check up this morning, overdue by 3 weeks, but that is because either I have been Ill or Amber has. so got them done now, his check up went well, he now weighs 5.6 Kilos 12 lb 3 ounces. and also he is now 60cm so has grown 1/2cm since his 8 week check up just over a week ago. Going to be a tall boy like his Daddy.

Lots of things coming up, we had the 1st day of spring on Saturday and I already have my first daffodil in the garden, and boy has it been warm, most days reaching 15 degrees in the shade and lovely and warm in the sun. So we have our annual Spring into Tawa festival this week Saturday, where I will be in my Plunket role. and then Amber has one of her friends turning 4 on Sunday so were off for story time and a party at Te Papa, next week is Tawa goes to Town, and then week after is Marie’s birthday dinner. Busy September for us….