........Our own home....... at last after moving into 2 rentals (one in the UK and and one in NZ) Just have loads of boxes to unpack again! and find homes for 'things'. Kids are happy to be in their 'own' rooms and are already risking the wrath of 'Tony' by wanting to put posters on his nicely painted walls!!!!
NZ version of B&Q or Homebase..... Mitre 10... This is a MEGA Mitre 10! And we seem to be visiting it nearly every day!
It even has a 'drive thru' part! For those large and bulky items!
This week (12-17 Feb) has been Art Deco week in Napier with many events celebrating the Art Deco period. Lots of people dress up in period costumes. We were busy getting ready to move house and managed to attend the Saturday parade! We dragged the kids along! We told them that they would 'love it, all the old cars to look at and people all dressed up in 30's clothes!' As you can see from some of the pics they seemed to be enjoying themselves! Also the Ship 'Queen Victoria' docked at Napier. It's a very big boat!
Here's Louise enjoying herself! And Dan (I'll just check for any txt msgs!) enjoying himself!
We decided to try another beach! So many to choose from. We've been spending most of our time at either Waipatiki Beach or Ocean Beach! So we loaded the car up with body boards, Chili Bin (cool box!), books, towels and headed off down Highway 2! An hour and a half later, having driven about 130kms we were at Porangahau Beach!
Unfortunately on this day the sea swell was 4 meters! So no body boarding! The waves were HUGE! The pictures just don't show it! So after a stroll along the beach and the kids posing for pictures! We stopped for Lunch!
Porangahau Beach must be at least 6 km long! We know that because we decided to take the car down onto the beach and drive along it! Perfectly acceptable to do here! We drove as far as we could before we had to start dodging the drift wood which is actually whole trees! We met other drivers on the beach, and quad bikes!
Dan asked if he could have a go at driving! Not to be left out Louise wanted to have a go too! Some tasks are best suited to a certain parent! I baled out and left Tony too it! If they had wanted to bake 'muffins' I could deal with that! Dan was first to go. Now bear in mind that the Terrano is an automatic! So much easier for them. After a few 'kangaroo' jumps Dan was off down the beach!
Then Louise's turn! Luckily the seat moved forwards enough! And she was off! When they arrived back Tony mentioned that he had to keep shouting at her to look up as she kept looking at her feet (to make sure they were on the right peddles!) or the speedo. Not wanting to be out done by her brother she wanted to make sure that she went the fastest!!
Another great day spent down the beach! And they are looking forward to the next time they can drive! Tony isn't!! Me, I don't mind I'm the photographer!
Oooops forgot more pics of the kids! posing again!
We went to Ocean beach a few days ago. The weather was a bit pants! So the kids didn't go in the sea, the surf rescue had their tent and flags out but it was just too windy and overcast! On the way back we decided to take some pictures to show the kind of scenery Hawkes Bay has! As always click on the pics for a bigger view!
So, first this is Ocean Beach and the view from the top of the road looking down.
Now some Scenery pics. The main mountain range in the pictures is Te Mata Peak. The Peak is 399 metres above sea level, a drive up to its peak will give you panoramic views across to the east coast beach of Mahia and the ski slopes of Mt Ruapehu (in the distance). That's for a sunnier day! Some times you can watch para-gliders and hang gliders launch themselves from the top!
It is very hilly, but the hills are smooth, a bit like 'tellytubby' land! There are lots of steep valleys at the roads edge. As it's summer it's not so green!
Then at the bottom of the valley / plains you see things like this!
A few animal pics. This cow had jumped the fence and was on the road side, and the Goat standing on it's house!