Twas the Kiwi Week Before Christmas

And a pukekohe in a ponga tree.

Daffodils in Shenley. Really!!!
Snow in Auckland. Not really.

Actually our week to Christmas did start with snow in Auckland, but this was in Kelly Tarlton's.

We started the week with our first real day of spending time with both girls. The main entertainment of the day was to go to Kelly Tarltons Sea World. We have visited this numerous times since 2003. Two things struck me. Firstly, the girls were so grown up that we could spend a long time exploring. Secondly they have taken away the 'tractor ride' through the penguins. It makes it easier to spend time observing them 'playing' in the refrigerated snowy enclosure.

 

Although the entrance walk way was not moving we held on tight as we succumbed to the illusion that it was swaying. 

Emily en-tanked

Before coming home we took the girls for a play on the climbing stuff on the Orakei Domain. It really was a hot day and the girls finished their time with a long swim in the pool.

The next event was not a day for us grown ups as it involved bouncing up and down at a place called 'Jump'. Basically this is a warehouse mostly covered in trampolines. There is also a cafe area where Irene and I spent a peaceful hour with our coffee and cakes. They have an amazing menu.

This time the way home included, deliberately, a visit to MacDonalds for lunch. We were somewhat saddened to see that they would be open on Christmas day.

The girls had a brief time on their own trampoline and I had a chance to photograph a monarch butterfly on the swan plant in the back garden.

The last of our major outings, for the time being, was to Butterfly Creek.

Girls on train

Dinosaur Kingdom Safari

  

In the Dinosaur Egg

I am not afraid. Yet!!!

 There are no prizes for guessing what was the main attraction. There was also a farm.They had 'petting' animals, but it was too hot for the children to be allowed to pet them. Next came the train ride. Then came 'Dinosaur Kingdom'. In addition to the roaring mechanised monster, another dinosaur roamed the area. For some reason it decided to chase Zoe into a hiding place. Finally came lunch in their restaurant that had a large variety of food. The chai latte was over the top with flavour and we shall avoid it there next time.

After the girls had made their souvenir shop purchases we returned home and the girls were looked after by their child minder and friends for a couple of hours. Sally popped in to do present exchanges and we found the girls in the swimming pool.

It is now Christmas Eve. We are doing a few jobs, minding the girls and waiting Sally's return to get stuck into Christmas preparation proper.

Suffice it to say; this is Auckland at Christmas time and it is raining.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Santa seems to have disappeared. He was last seen in Aztec's office (See facebook). Will he be around tomorrow?

Feeding the Ducks

Ian invited mum and I to go with him and the girls to feed the ducks at the Auckland Domain. With SAT NAV on we followed them; arriving and parking just in front of them. Even without the Sat NAV our navigation skills are improving. In fact, we had feeling we knew where to find them despite the SAT NAVS' protestation to "make a u-turn when possible.

Zoe enjoyed feeding the ducks, but Emily seemed unhappy, so Ian took her back to the car. Zoe wanted to go to the 'climbing' trees principally to scare mum.

When we got back to the car Ian and Emily had gone. Zoe wanted to go to the museum. Once more we visited Sally the dinosaur, did jigsaws, but this time we visited the war exhibits. Zoe liked the Spitfire.

After a quick drink and ice cream we returned home and we are trying to keep cool in the shade.

Auckland Day

Monday was Auckland Day. We are not sure what it represents. Even those people surveyed for the news were not sure. They failed to tell us. Even the web does not explain and that includes Wikipedia.

Many events took place and we joined the bank holiday makers at the Museum.

We started off with the girls feeding the ducks in the park. Emily would have prefered to have joined the ducks, but Zoe had a great time feeding bread to them.

After coffee we went to the Winter Garden. This is a large greenhouse built in 1930. It is full of colourful plants and ornamental ponds.

Ornamental Pond

Carnivorous Pitcher Plants

Water Lilies

At this point Emily began to tire. Ian took her home and we went into the museum.

There was dinosaur display. Zoe enjoyed most of this, except for the skeleton. We went on to the seas shore gallery, the toy gallery and to the childrens section where Zoe made a badge and did puzzles. We finished up in Zoe's house. This was the Maori Marae that we have visited before. It must have been there where my glasses fell out of my pocket. There is story to follow.

After lunch, back home, Ian took me off to Sylvia Park for the final puzzle in my connection to the internet. This was two lengths of USB extension cable. There is now a wireless detector in the garage beneath the wireless hub and after a great deal of configuration work I went on line by the end of Monday.