Kiwi love

Back home after 2 weeks in Christchurch with family and friends.  We took Mum with us and while it was a bittersweet first trip home without Dad we had a lovely time, eating too much, drinking more, laughing, crying, celebrating whanau and all things kiwi.  The little guy was utterly spoilt by all the rellies and beguiled all who met him (of course).

The boy all ready to take off from Sydney. 

Baby Lena and Uncle Q - My cousin Tissy's gorgeous baby girl who wasn't that keen on cuddles with me but was loving my hubby.

Uncle Toms' 60th party was a chance for the family to get together and have a drink or 3. Lots of excellent food, mums lethal punch, great music, some serious dancing, karaoke & way to many laughs. Much better pics on my canon - so check out Facebook for a NZ album soon.

L-R - cuzzies in the garage, cuzzie selfie, Mel & mum, Tissy & I 

L-R - black coven Mel, Binnie & I, me and one of my bestie's Dottie

Visiting good friend Angela & Simon & hanging out with her little guy Benson

Q & I took advantage of Nanny staying with us and had a little overnighter to Wellngon to stay with friends Tim & Ramon.  I had forgotten how fab the capital city is - awesome coffee, great shopping, awesome cafes, and excellent shopping.  Oh and my gorgeous god-daughter and niecey Courtney lives there. I love that girl!!!

L-R - Wellington airport (Tolkien town), a gigantic Gollum, Flight coffee at Hangar cafe, with Courtney

L-R - Q & Tim looking out to sea, in front of Maranui cafe, Moa sculpture in Greytown

L-R - with my love in Martinborough, a Kiwi dairy, Chocolate Fish cafe (very kid-friendly) and a choc fish drink - yum!

2nd week in CHCH was spent catching up with old friends, wining & dining, chasing good coffee, checking out the rebuild, hanging with the family, eating a few kiwi delicacies, escaping the rain, playing at parks, and shopping. Pretty fab actually

L-R - beautiful GFs Rachael & Sheree, kiwi-fruit cheese cake with pineapple lumps, signage, banana moo-shake at the market

L-R - whitebait fritters delish!!!, park fun with papa

L-R - Bavarian hotdogs, my 2 babies, another bestie Mitch, my boy the b-ball player

Back in our home and not looking forward to work on Monday. I'm hoping holiday memories will carry me through the first week at least.

I love my hometown but had a couple of shaky reminders of what my family and friends deal with constantly. Hubby and I felt 2 earthquakes - one sharp jolt in Wellington, and a longer rolling one in CHCH - have to be honest, I didn't love it. 

The reserved stoicness of the CHCH faithful humbles me. 

Arohanui Otautahi xxxxx

Life lately

It's been a while between posts but we have been busy busy busy. Trips to Sydney to see friends, packing up our little flat to move back to our newly renovated house and having Nanny come to stay.

Kahu got his first taste of rugby mania hanging with his cuz Mana, Uncle Blair and Aunty Binnie- he's not really used to such displays of passion over sport but given his Kiwi background he probably should get used to it!

We showed Nanny the delights of Costco - where everything including the trolleys are over sized.

And moved back into our new house post Reno. Lovely new kitchen but still in a state of unpacking several weeks later. Of course hindsight is a wonderful thing and already I would make changes if I could have a do-over!  Loving our new entertainment area tho - wall mounted TV with no visible cords, yay!!

As an add on we decided to get the house rendered. I resisted but I'm glad Q won me over. I love the way it looks. We're going to pain it in the summer, not sure what colour as yet but I'm totally checking out other rendered houses for inspiration.

Part of the house makeover has my boy in a new 'big boys room' with very cool wallpaper. I'm quite proud of myself getting this world map up on the walls. Just don't look too closely at the names matching up in Africa.

Nanny love - that is all!

Sometimes it freaks me out just how quickly my baby is growing up- he totally looks older than 2and a half here! Clearly he was having an in depth conversation with his BFF Lolly and like his mama he likes to be quite expressive with his gestures.  That's my boy :-)