Fairy Falls, Waitakere Ranges

We have been wanting to do this walk for ages but Tom and Oli weren't quite up to the task. It was worth the wait as they didn't complain at all which is amazing considering the walk back up!

We stopped at the Arataki Visitor centre first to collect some maps and its worth a visit anyway as its so beautiful. They have a great activity centre there as well which always entertains the boys particularly the large kiwi puppet. The journey down was pretty straight forward but as we got closer to the waterfall it started to get more interesting with lots of steep steps and dodgy bridges!

Christmas 2010 Pt 2

We had a break of enjoying presents and the film 'Elf', which was surprisingly funny, and headed to our friends pool. After a couple of hours we were knackered and headed home for our Christmas dinner, cheeseburgers as ordered by Oli!

Christmas 2010

After having no home for nearly two months and then the mad rush of inviting everyone around for dinner for the last week which was fantastic but it was lovely to be at home by ourselves. The boys kept the tree simple this year with woolen toys, sent by Evelyn, and red/silver decorations. The boys were up at 6.30 ready for Santa's toys but as we had time on our side we made them wait for our presents. They spoke to Nanna and Poppy on skype showing her their toys and Tom insisted on them playing his Mr Men game. We found time to create our 'elf' video on the internet which was of huge amusement to the boys, catch that on Fran's facebook!

Uncle Willie kindly sent them some money and we gave in and bought them some 'Nerf' guns which they absolutely love! Notice the bullet in the top right corner!

Tawharanui pt 2

Allowed to go for a walk because we have such wonderful friends who look after our children, even Tom! Amazing place.

Tawharanui

It is now very hot and so its time to get out the tent! We travelled about an hour north to a wildlife sanctuary/campsite/huge beach with good surf. The boys were extremely excited about the whole idea although Daddy was not so keen with a deadly hangover from the school Christmas party. It wasn't a problem as our friends were so supportive and helpful.

The boys are really into the 'boogie/body boards' and will literally spend all day in and out of the water riding the waves, particularly Tom who described himself as a maniac surfer dude!?

As you can see from the photos, hardly anyone was there although I am sure it had something to do with the 5km dirt track to get there! Alex has a class toy he has to photo on his weekend to show what he does on a typical weekend, not bad eh?

U2 360 Tour

The best concert ever. A combination of an amazing technical show as well as performing superbly. They did a great mix of old and new with Get on your boots and Vertigo as standouts. Funny enough the new album sounds better live so I have gone back to it and enjoying it more now. Bono impressively hardly ever stopped singing and he spoke about the tragic events with the miners thoughtfully. It was so good I went twice, only $40 a ticket and Duncan needed some company so I had to go! They even played different songs on the second one including Thrill me, Kiss me and Hold me which I wasn't expecting.

Kitchen

Our builder is on a mission to finish before the date he originally set which was December 15th which is causing all sorts of headaches for us as he ploughs on. We are having to find different places to sleep and clean in. Our biggest hurdle will be when they sand the floor and varnish which means we wont have access to our bedrooms. It may lead to us sleeping in the dungeon, not looking forward to that!