Main course

Fran and I were recently invited to a birthday party at the 'Main Course' where the lady above teaches you how to cook your meal and then in teams you, attempt to, create your very own masterpiece. The restaurant is next door to the Victorian market in the city.

After her demonstration of making the three course meal which included soufflé, monk fish and pears in red wine. There was all sorts of other fancy things to do and when she said you all know how to separate the yolk from the egg I knew I was in trouble. In fact, I discussed the possibilities of a fish finger sandwich with the guy next to me, plenty of tomato sauce is the key.

I am sure you can imagine Fran absolutely loved it and the food was great, fortunately my team member knew what she was doing and I chop vegetables very well apparently.

Mt Eden - Tahaki Reserve

After a hard days graft at the museum the boys needed some serious down time and afternoon tea.

We were close to Mt Eden and this great reserve. Interestingly the play area was not enough to quench their adrenaline and I found them half way up a cliff face. "We climbed it for the views!?"

Auckland Museum 2

Level 3 was the war museum and the boys had to show their respect. Alex was extremely excited to see a V1 (flying bomb) as his grandad told us a story of when he was a boy and watched them being shot down.

One of the exhibitions was about Volcanoes and we were able to experience Rangitoto erupting in a house. It looked very real as the screen was a window and the boys were suitably terrified as it was quite convincing!

The sun was blazing when we finished so it was time to climb a tree.

Auckland Museum

Our holidays have started and there was a 'Dangerous for Boys' activity at the Auckland Museum based on the book of a similar name.

We had to find some maori tattoo chisels and Sir Edmund Hilary's axe on level 1.

On level 2 we had to find some dangerous bugs, shade some fossils and identify some 'dangerous' dinos.

Christmas Tom at 'Kids Republic'

Fran went shopping with Claire so Nathan and I had to entertain the boys for the afternoon. We decided to head to Whangaparoa which is half an hour north as they had a newish play area called Kids Republic. It was great as they were plenty of slides in the soft play area and more importantly from Tom's point of view was the Christmas trees!! He badgered me into submission for a photo shoot of about six trees. Where does he it get from Nanna, eh?

Alex's First Fishing Trip 4!

Just before we headed back we sailed under the Auckland bridge to watch some bungy jumping!

It's not very often you see a warning sign saying 'watch out bungy jumping'.

We then headed further around to a sheltered area so we could go as fast as possible. Anton showed us how great he was at being a Captain going at nearly 35 knots!

Naturally Alex's final comment of the day was 'when are we getting our boat daddy?'

Alex's First Fishing Trip 3!

On our way back Dave wanted to show us the Viaduct marina where all the monster boats are. I have seen many boats in my lifetime but there was some incredible ones here. Alex was insistent on me taking lots of photos for Poppy. He is convinced that once Poppy has seen all these boats he wont want to leave!

The Ulysses in the background belongs to the richest man in New Zealand.

Alex's First Fishing Trip 2!

The smile says it all! It was great to hear Alex say this is the first time we have been fishing daddy, it really felt like a daddy son moment!

Alex was so excited about handling the rod that he spent the whole time reeling the line in to check the bait and let it down again. We had lots of bites which was exciting for Al but no

catch. Anton did catch a small one which he had to kiss and send back so Alex was chuffed

to see a 'real' fish!

We lasted a couple of hours before the boys wanted to move on and we went to have a closer look at Rangitoto. There was an island nearby called 'Browns Island' and it really stood out as it was covered in such 'green' grass?! Everytime we sailed passed an island there was another one.

It was awesome just sailing from island to island.

Alex's First Fishing Trip!

A friend of ours owns a boat and it is 'kept' in the city. I say kept as it is stacked in a huge building with a forklift truck which, after a phone call, is removed from the shelf and placed into the marina. Very impressive.

The boat, Warrior, is perfect for a fishing trip. It goes fast and has plenty of room for the fishing gear. Travelling out of the marina is amazing as you are so close to the city and surrounded by beautiful boats.

Once out of the marina it became a bit choppy and the boat was bouncing a fair bit but Alex,

fortunately, loved every second of it. All those trips with Nanna and Poppy have turned him into a right little pirate. 'Go faster Dave!' was a frequent request.

Once passed the North head it started to calm down a bit and Dave could put the throttle down a bit more. The lighthouse next to Rangitoto was our fishing spot and there were quite a few other fisherman.

Sunday stroll

Beautiful September weather pt 3

We made our way down to Milford marina and the boys crossed over the path behind them. It was muddy and slippery which added to the danger! It took us about an hour and half of not too much moaning but we know a lovely swiss bakery which cheered them up. We then popped into the mall to collect their Wotwot colouring books and we were back on our way. We stopped half way at a park in the hope they would forget about the walking back. It didn't work.