Category: Holidays

For the first time in our lives, we experienced a mega Christmas In The Park  party yesterday. The event was held at One Tree Hill Domain, adjacent to Cornwall Park.

We had to take a 15-minute hike up a hill to the park from the car park.  That was not a problem as the weather was cold but what dampened the mood a little was the drizzle.  Throughout the evening, it drizzled.   Everyone had to put on their hoodies.   For the kids, it was a real jungle trekking adventure, made even more adventurous with the drizzle and freaking cold weather.  Temperature was about 11-12C.

 

The kids posing with a unique looking gigantic tree at the park.   It was drizzling and the tree branches were wet and slippery but the kids were not at all perturbed by the wet weather. They wanted to climb up the tree!  Kids, they just wanna have fun!

 

Can you spot us?  We were seated next to an orange tent.

Lesson learnt : buy a tent and bring really warm clothing if we ever attend such events again in a cold country.

 

 

It was also the girls’ first experience (mine too) using mobile loos and gawd, they were really narrow and squeezy inside!

The hubs bought hotdogs, nuggets, hot chocolate, coffee, fries, candy floss and a whole bunch of junk food for the kids!  I just had to close both eyes and let it go since it’s a HOLIDAY and I am not supposed to pour cold water on everyone. 😀

While waiting for the show to begin, we brought the girls and their twin cousins to play at the funfair.

 

Going up the haunted house.  In less than 2 minutes, the supposedly scary tour was over and they said “not scared at all!!  It was only dark inside there!”  There goes our NZD18!

Kids on the Dragon Boat ride.

We left the event early as the drizzle did not stop and boy was it freezing cold!  The wind was strong and the rain water made it worst.  We were all damp over all and had to hike down the hill to the car park, carrying our backpacks and 2 portable chairs.  What an experience was it for all of us.

 

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After our jog back from the park on day 2, we had a lovely lunch of beef brisket noodles with radish soup cooked by the MIL.

Later we followed the girls’ cousin, A to her aerobic gymnastics class to watch her train for a while.

Then we had coffee and cakes at a nearby shopping mall cafe.   That night, we traveled to Bombay to have a sumptuous dinner at Bracu, a fine dine countryside restaurant in the Simunovich Olive Estate.  Let me settle down later and get hold of the pix of the food that we had that night and I will post them here.

Day 3 – A & S followed their twin cuzs to school and attended class for a day.

While the 4 cousins were in school, hubs, MIL, youngest SIL, Cass and I had breakfast at Little And Friday.

Then we went to Cornwall Park to have a nice stroll in the cool weather.  For the first time, we saw fig trees with figs on them, sakura trees and sakura flowers.  Cass saw fresh mushrooms on the ground, cows and sheep grazing grass in the meadow.  It was an eye-opening experience for my city girl 😀

We saw ducks and ducklings by the pond and Cass was so excited!

 

Cass climbed trees for the first time in her life!

Cass picked up some cones, figs and unique flowers for her  2 che ches to see when they get back from school later.

We had homecooked dinner at home on day 3.  SIL grilled lamb and made fennel salad.

 

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It was a smooth-cruising of 11 hours on the plane for everyone.  When we touched down Auckland airport at 12:15am, everyone on the plane clapped their hands! LOL!

Here is Cass enjoying her dinner  37,000 feet in the air, somewhere above the Tasman Sea while enjoying the sunset view outside. The beautiful sunset colors of red, orange, grey, blue along with grey was just splendid!

We arrived Auckland past midnight Auckland time.

Cass enjoying her breakfast of fresh cherries and playing Minion Rush on the iPad, while her 2 che ches have gone out to the market with grandma and aunt Sarah.

Later I jogged to the park (while hubs cycled and Cass and Sherilyn rode on the skooter) in the 12 noon sun. But the wind was chilly, just perfect for moi! 🙂

Admiring the Mandarin ducks in the pond at the park that we jogged to.

 

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