Monday, March 15, 2010

Girls' weekend


Last weekend Steve was away at the Masters Long Course National Championships in Invercargill so we decided to have a girls' weekend. Actually, it wasn't really a decision, it's just the way it was so we decided to make the most of it.

Saturday got off to a rather dull start as I spent the best part of the day sorting through Ava's room. It doesn't seem to matter how many times I do it, her room always seems to overflow with 'stuff'. We managed to put together a bag to donate to the school fair and reorganise her room. It will be interesting to see how long it stays that way–I give it a week. As I said, that took the best part of the day and it was 3 o'clock by the time we got out of the house.

We headed to the Chelsea Estate Heritage Park which is the site of the Chelsea Sugar Refinery. We had been there once before when Steve did a swim across the harbour finishing at the refinery. We went for a walk and a scoot, and fed the ducks (and eels). That filled in a few hours–it was a pleasant afternoon.

On the way back home the girls were in good spirit and wanted to go out for dinner. We took a vote and decided on pizza which was really a no-brainer. We had a few laughs and shared some interesting conversations about the meaning of 'gay' (it really is amazing how much they know!) and wacky aunts. When posed with the question of which one of them was going to be the wacky aunt when they grew up, Ruby and Eadie were quick to nominate Ava "because she's always doing crazy stuff". Ava seemed OK with the decision because the idea of having her own kids seemed way too painful!

On Sunday we went to see Alice in Wonderland. I won't spoil it for you if you haven't seen it already, but I do recommend it. There were only a few scary bits. After the movie we did a wee spot of shopping then headed home for a nana nap.

Steve got home about 5.30pm after a weekend of atrocious weather in Invercargill but he managed to win four golds so it was all worthwhile.

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

Waipu [why poo]

I'm just trying to be funny.




Some friends were telling us about Waipu so we decided to go for a day trip and check it out. It's another lovely little spot which we will no doubt visit again.

The pics below were taken at Langs Beach south of Waipu. A good surf spot but, like so many others, not well sign posted and you have to travel along a dirt road to get there!


Tuesday, March 9, 2010

New favourites



A couple of weekends ago we headed back to Raglan which is fast becoming a favourite place to visit. We spent the night there at 1 Bow Street, a really cool spot right in the middle of town. It looks like nothing special from the street but when you behind the facade it's magic. The outlook over the harbour is beautiful and we could hear people jumping off the same bridge we jumped off during our last visit. It's a very tidy and tranquil place–at least it was until we got there!

We went to our 'favourite' pizza place–Costa's, where they make a mean gluten-free pizza.

The next day, after having a huge breakfast at Black Sand, another favourite, we headed down to Ruapuke, this time to a spot about 1km from where we visited last time. The girls and I did some exploring and we came across a cave.








Friday, March 5, 2010

B-elated birthday wishes


Dear Jordy

You know I was thinking of you! I hope your birthday was nice. Is it spring there yet?

Sending you all our love,
Mara, Steve, Ruby, Eadie and Ava xxxxx