AUSTRALIA

Oh My goodness, the end of the year is near, and we have just been to Lorne [Ausy] to attend my brothers wedding, and what an amazing day.  After a week of storms [It happens here to guys!] the eye passed through with  quite abit of force on Friday 14 Dec, to come up with a clear day for the beach wedding on 15th Dec.  Great Day, and Julie looked lovely with a very smart Bro in hand.  Congratulations Warwick and Julie

 Me and my Rock chick stage, clay was in charge of the music on the beach "Good job clay"

 Mum and Dad with Warwick and Julie, and Julies Mum Margaret

 Very Nice Dad

 Dad and Warwick and mums in there somewhere with the kids in the pool at their Wedding Accommodation

 MD of Travelnation soaking it up

 Yes we managed to see a Kola awake, it was only for about 1 minute, but quite a feat.

 Some very cheeky parrots who flew down on us to get some bread

 On the beach near Apollo on the Great Ocean Road.  Haydn and I and the kids took a few days out after the wedding.

 Clayton making sand balls on the beach


 A trip to the Otway canopy walk , in the national park, the one below is 45 metres up looking out over the trees of the rainforest.

 looking down

 Tegan in the bath with Cousin Aria, very cute

 At Geelong beach front on the way back to Melbourne, Tegan learning to do a somersaults

 Clayton going for a back flip

So its back in Melbourne now for a few weeks, Christmas tomorrow so will try and Post a Merry Christmas Picture.  Haydn is heading back to England tomorrow and we will see him back in Nelson at the end of January for our last couple of months of our year out.  Which has turned into 15 months, so
Merry Christmas Everyone.

Winter Holidays- Skiing and more

Ok I am catching up, here is July and our winter holidays, I know to all of you in England July and Winter just don't go together [or maybe they do?]
Fantastic trip to the snow with a stop in Kaikoura, where all seal pups were in abundance, amazing could just pull up along the road and watch

The Ohau Stream and Waterfall walk, is on the way, and 15mins to this waterfall is where all the pups go to learn how to swim, and play, No Parents allowed and over 100 pups having the time of their lives.

Snow time........Mt Hutt, first day abit cloudy, rainy

2nd day was amazing, clay took to snow like duck to water........

Tegan opted for playtime rather then ski time......

Clay after being down the beginners slope

Mr Snowboard man.....with a hat that he bought at a local garage on the way, as you can see he is very pleased with himself

still playtime in the snow

The drive from the mountain on the way down

Thermal hot springs afterwards.....

A walk in Hamner Springs which we visited on the way back to Nelson

the Drive to Nelson through Lewis pass, a few stops on the way to help with the car sickness and play in the snow

The pointy Mountain that Haydn was determined to get a photo of, even though you can't really see it.

Ruby bay

Whilst Haydn was back in England we took some time out with Granddad and Grandma and had a lovely day at Ruby bay, about 30 mins from Nelson

  Its been awhile since the last blog, in fact just about a whole term has gone by and we have winter holidays soon in July, where we are off skiing , but before we do that I thought I would post some pictures of our Easter holiday where we took a road trip on the  west coast of the North Island and around Tongariro national park and the Wanganui river, camping along the way.  Was Brilliant.  Sorry about the delay .........................

 

 First stop on the way to picton to catch the ferry was a few carsick stops [we stocked up on sick bags when on the ferry] below is clay and tegan waiting to go on the ferry

 arriving in Wellington

It was then off to the Otaki to see Rach,Corrine and Josh on the kapatai coast, Sand dunes, abit of canoing in the River and Pipi gathering on the beach

Then off to Ohakune [near Tongariro national park] but didn't quite make it so camped in mangaweka for the night, where we went to see some mad people do the longest flying fox ever [bit hard to see by the photos]

 A Typical NZ back road signs with a letter box in the middle

Onto the whanganui River for a jet boat ride, followed by a walk to the Bridge of Nowhere, and then kayakaing on the river for 2 hours in the pouring rain [the kids were amazing[ In fact the whole thing was amazing.  You got a real sense of what it was like for first settlers in this area, very rugged even now

Below is Army museum near  Ohakune 

below, on our way to Mt Ruapehu [2797m] tallest mountain in North Island and the only place to ski in the North Island, Clay loved the the name of the village there [Whakapapa ]

Chair lifts to the top, where we went for a walk

I had to turn back with Tegan abit much for her but clay and Haydn made it to the top, with their heads truly in the clouds

Waitomo Caves, renown for their glow worms, always hard to capture the beauty of these places on camera, they were quite stunning

Then it was off for a drive down the surf coast on our way to New Plymouth, stopped on the way at the beach below, not to sure where we were going to stay, ran out of food not shop and tired children

 Then we found a couple fishing on the beach catching massive kowhai [fish]

 They gave us one for tea, we found a campsite the lady sold us some potatoes

 I just about ran over the fish, which I forgot we had put in the shade [close one]

 Time to gut and fillet, turned out to be a great night, and off we went the next day continuing on the surfers coast

 Below was a beach where you had to go through a tunnel to get there, al local had told us about it, we would never have come across it otherwise

 Cooking up some noodles under the watchful eye of the stone beach man

 The kids enjoying the freedom

 and just incase any of you ever make it this way, the name of the beach  is below [I never would have remembered it]

 Here is tegan on a great rope swing, whilst staying at Whangonui