The Garden of Eden

Saturday was a quiet day. I went with Ian and Emily to Sylvia Park mall. He bought some characters for the new game called 'Sky Landers - Spyro's Adventure' for the X-Box consul. He had bought the game home a few days earlier. Connected to the consul is a 'Portal of Power' on which you place a figure. Each figure has its own powers and appears in the game. Changing a character changes the character on the screen. To complete the game you need to purchase all the figures.


Meanwhile mum was out shopping with Sally and Zoe. The rest of the day was just chilling out.


In the evening Sally and Ian took us out to a Vietnamese restaurant in the city. The restaurant  was called the Cafe Hanoi. http://britomart.org/cafe-hanoi It was very busy, but we had a table booked.You purchase a collection of small dishes and share them. The snapper was a whole fish complete with fins and eye-balls. The food was not too spicy and the nettle leaves were very tasty. My pudding was uncooked meringue.


On Sunday it was Zoe's City Nippers lesson on St Heliers beach. During this time we watched Emily while Ian and Sally did a one hour walk in preparation for the 'Round the Bay' day.

Ian and Sally watching Zoe

Irene and Emily

Walking on Water

Zoe in the Sea

The Rangitoto Swim

Crowds watching the swimmers arriving
from Rangitoto

On the other end of the beach crowds were watching the swimmers arrive from Rangitoto. The fastest took 55 mins while the slowest to two and a half hours.


In the afternoon Ian took Irene and me off to a garden called Eden Garden. We have been before. It is a large hilly area, in a former quarry at the base of Mount Eden. http://www.edengarden.co.nz/ It is run by a group of volunteers. Emily enjoyed running up and down the maze of paths and steps and playing 'Princess'. It has its own cafe where we met up at the end.

Waterfall

Emily playing Princess

Bird Watching

A fantail bird refused to leave us. Wherever we were it kept appearing.


In the evening Sally took Irene, Zoe and me out for a meal in Mission Bay. There are around 10 restaurants in this little seaside holiday town. We went to Portofino Italian Restaurant. Zoe had spaghetti, Irene and Sally had normal pizzas and I had a folder pizza which was like a large pasty and full of ham and cheese.

In Portofino Italian Restaurant

Fun in Movenpick

Movenpick

On the way to the restaurant a young lady was busking and Zoe got money to give to her. We heard an African drum group as we went across to Movenpick to enjoy a Swiss ice cream. Movenpick has a commanding position and is used as a landmark.

The group were just finishing off as we got there.

Zoe Posing in a Tree

Finally Zoe climbed trees as we went back to the car.