Easter holidays: Part 2

It has taken me a while to get around to this... As always, there's so much to see and do, yet so little time. Autumn was showing her true colours in Canberra – it was stunning!

The War Memorial Museum.

Old Parliament House. The girls went back in time to experience the 'technology' used in offices waaay back in the 80s.

We braved the cold and attended the dawn service on ANZAC Day. Somehow, amongst the huge crowd we managed to get seats up the front only metres from Kate and Will.

There was an impromptu family reunion (minus a couple of people) when we all got together to celebrate Terry's birthday. One of the highlights for the girls was meeting their second cousins Mitchell and Henry. Or is that their first cousins twice removed? Maybe you could explain it to me one more time Yvonne?

One more spot of indulgence at the ice-cream bar in the Sydney Qantas lounge before heading home.

Another day at the office

Well, not quite. A couple of weeks ago I went along to Gibbs Farm as part of a team building day at work. Gibbs Farm is the setting for a sculpture collection on a privately owned property overlooking the Kaipara Harbour.

It's a balanced mix of culture and nature. Very cool!

I just loved feeding this guy. I could have watched him use his tongue to strip the leaves off branches all day [sigh].

Although entry to Gibbs Farm is entirely free, it is only open one day a month by prior appointment. It is not open on weekends, public holidays or school holidays – well that does make getting back there kind of tricky, but I am going to try. 

Easter holidays: Part 1

I started writing this post quite a while ago but have only gotten around to fine tuning it now. That's why it starts with Recently...

... we decided to holiday in Sydney. I can count the number of times I have been to Sydney on one hand – it's sad, but true. In fact, the last time I was there I was pregnant with Ava and Eadie still has the scars on the top of her feet from where she slipped on the ramp going down to the beach at Bondi [sigh].

There really weren't many long faces, I just happened to capture one here.

Hanging out at the Manly beach with a few thousand of our closest friends ;)

St Mary's. My kids can count on one hand the number of times they have been inside a church. They were interested to hear me explain the stations of the cross. I guess you could say that was an Easter lesson – tick!

We just couldn't get enough of Circular Quay. It's so beautiful! Sydney was really pedestrian friendly too. Each night we were in bed by 8:30 – all of us! We were just so exhausted from pounding the pavement.

Can you see everyone in the photo (below). There are four people.

At one of the art galleries, the name of which escapes me.

I really liked the funky paint job on this building. We went to explore Oxford Street but were left feeling a bit disappointed. Apparently the rent increase has affected shop owners : (

On our last morning we had a couple of hours to kill so we went back to the Queen Victoria building on George Street. Very cool indeed. 

Goodbye Sydney. We love you!

Coming soon (I hope). Part 2: Canberra.

Aunty Jordy Visits

Wow, time really has slipped by. This month we had a visit from Aunty Jordy which was a very nice distraction. With blue skies above, we took to the slopes of Mt Ruapehu for the first time this year. We have a pretty good history when it comes to weather conditions when skiing. One day we got turned away mid-way our drive up but that was due to over-capacity on the mountain - seriously though, who wants to be there then?

OK, so this is simply a snap-fest which will hopefully capture the moment. 

I captured this early morning shot from the car park on our last day up the mountain. It was so beautiful.

Ruby and Ava decided to get some cheap thrills sledding.

My new Samsung Galaxy takes awesome photos and is great for posting straight to Facebook and Instagram but what should be a simple procedure to import photos to my iMac is, well, not so simple, so you miss out on some awesome pics.

We completed the 'winter wonderland' theme with some ice skating in Aotea Square.

Finished off with a visit to Kiwiyo.

It was really nice having you visit us Aunty Jordy. I hope our mad household didn't freak you out too much. Come again soon. m, xox