Rainbows End part 2

Alex had his friend, Blake, with him and they were both keen to battle it out on the bumper boats.  Alex may need a little practice with that one as he spent a lot of time going around in circles until someone hit him.  The Cadbury Castle has rides for smaller children but the boys still love them particularly the Jumping Star which squeezes certain parts of their body which brings about the joys of laughter as shown in the photos!

Rainbows End

Jo and Dan had an inspired idea and bought Tom and Oli two tickets for Rainbows End.  We have always promised the boys we would go but never fulfilled their dreams.  We did so much that I'll have to break this blog into parts.  In the first half an hour we headed to the main rides as it was very quiet.  The Gold Rush, a mining cart whizzing around on a track, and The Enchanted Forest, a log flume, were their favourites. We had to endure those many times.  I managed to drag Alex onto the Corkscrew rollercoaster, we are in the green carriage - zoom in - its really us! Alex was so pleased that he was tall enough to go on it - he was terrified!

Tom and Ollie's Birthday

We spent a lazy day at home and they boys were happy to open and play with their presents.  Alex disappeared to basketball camp and the boys promised not too open any more presents. They had already spent an hour working there way through Nanna's parcel and were arguing over who should have the MORB's, they are still arguing to this day! It's amazing what captures their imagination.  Fortunately Nanna gave them so much, the MORBS battle cooled off. They loved their magazines, Moshi Monsters and of course the MORBS link.
After a couple of hours a parcel arrived from Guernsey from Pete and Deb, which was fantastic as they were not expecting Transformers and they played with them for hours until their first guests arrived.  They had a great day eating party food and playing with Zoe, Jorja and of course Duncan!  Tom was particularly pleased with his Gomu case and Oli was over-the-moon with his Cars 2 toys.

Still raining - but sneak out for a walk

We had to be quick to get out today as the rain was pretty relentless but we did and the blue sky did appear briefly.  We parked in Murrays Bay and walked over the cliffs to Paper Moon cafe where there is excellent coffee.  We braved the causeway on the way back as the water was breaking over it, not much fun with the camera.  Fran gave the boys some toys they got with some magazines and amazingly it kept them entertained for both journeys.  Tom particularly liked hitting things with his hammer, a worry.

Its raining but we still get out there!

It has been raining a lot lately, a lot.  Fortunately the Auckland weather has breaks of blue sky and you have the opportunity to get out.  You have to be quick as soon as the clouds are gone they come back, blacker than before!  The play area is 5 mins away on a scooter, or in Oli's case 2 mins.  They have a variety of games they play on the apparatus with 'Flower Power' being their favourite.  Capturing each others flower and returning to their base, which involves tagging each other or in Oli's case blowing you away with a stick!  Alex has some Pokemon walking gadget and as long as he walks Alex can capture Pokemon.  Strange but at least it encourages him to walk!

After skiing craziness!

After our third day of skiing and surviving a near-death experience, we decided to finish a little earlier and head down to Ohakune. The boys went crazy and were really physical with each other. I stepped back and let them run wild around the play-area and skate park.  Its amazing that they still play so well together although Tom can be difficult to get on with sometimes but both Oli and Alex are so tolerant that they generally put up with his demands!

Skiing at Turoa

We purchased a rocket pass which claimed that it would take us from the beginner stage and rocket us to the top of the mountain!  Not quite.  The first day we had lessons on the nursery slopes, as you can see, Tom was not impressed with the two hour lesson! We also enjoyed the magic carpet, which was a lethal carpet lift and it was entertaining watching many people being thrown all over the place!  The second day, Mummy and Alex disappeared onto the mountain whilst me and the boys suffered another day on the nursery slopes.  On the third day we all had lessons on the next level and then ventured to the top ourselves.  Unfortunately we had to find our way back down a blue run and had an interesting experience of where Tom refused to stand up and Fran had to somehow get him down between her skis.  Fortunately, Alex and Oli had got the hang of turning and coped well with the step  slope.  At one point, Tom rolled down the run like a sausage, it was a sight to behold - an orange and blue spaceman rolling down a slope.  So we did get to top but not really convinced we rocketed there?

Turoa Ski Field

We had three stunning days on the ski field.  I'll let the pictures do the talking!  Click on them to fully appreciate them, amazing place.

Ohakune 2011

It has been two years since we last had a go at skiing on Ruapheu.  Now the boys had a practice at Snowplanet and they were that little bit older, it was time to face our fear!  We stayed in a small village called Ohakune which was about 15 mins from the Turoa ski field.  Our batch was a 2 min drive from the center but perfectly located to drive up to the ski field.  We were a 5 min walk from another set of shops with tempting things to buy such as new helmets essential for boys who crash a lot!

Lava caves

Sorry about the photos, good excuse to get a new posh one. About 3/4 the way up we went on a slight detour to the Lava Caves as we had a total of seven children with us, we spent the day with the Hines who have four energetic children who were also Pokemon fans. So many wonderful discussions to enjoy. We felt that simply walking to the top would not be enough for them, even though pies and pasties were promised, so we quickly headed to the caves. They loved them and there was three very diverse ones to explore. We were on a tight schedule as the ferry departure was only an hour and half away so we had to move on. They would have stayed there for hours otherwise and we weren't very popular leaving. Our reasons for leaving didn't go down well either, 'But the view will be spectacular'.