Phew! Those were some crazy six weeks! Can you believe it? Six weeks, one and a half months without writing. I’ve got a lot of catching up to do.

The first fair of this post is Wellington which was as busy and windy as usual. Then we turtled over the hills to Masterton for a mini Christmas with Dads side of the family. I got a gift voucher for the warehouse! We all had a lovely time.

Waverly beach was our next stay, a beautiful rugged cliff lined shore.

When we were playing in mountains of wind whipped sea foam a Blue bottle stung me. We immediately raced to the truck and bathed the sting in vinegar. This did not help at all! So we looked online and found “Definitely do not apply vinegar. Bathe in water as hot as the victim can manage. Use vinegar on every other jellyfish sting.”  So we quickly heated up water and soaked the sting for thirty minutes. The stinging sensation went away.

That weekend was New Plymouth and the Festival of light. Together our family, the Nudge crew, Simone, Tiwai, Lette, Aden, Riley, Kieren and Heather went row boating on the lake at night, when all the lights were bright and shimmering. We raced, collided and gazed at the beauty of the light displays. What a splendid night! The weekend was not crazy busy but definitely busier than last year.

After that we had a ten day break! On our way to Auckland for another mini Christmas, we stopped for a night at Tongaparutu. The highlight of Tongaparutu is the three sisters who are three columns of rock jutting out of the sea. Its very beautiful.

 

Then we moved on and dropped our car of at Purple Iain’s house in Pirongia.

We arrived in Auckland to be greeted with a flurry of hugs and kisses from my cousins Charlotte and Elsa and  Auntie Ellie and Uncle Matt. Mum’s side of the family. The next few days we spent swimming in pools, playing and celebrating another early Christmas.  I got an inflatable lilo.

It was a lovely family gathering. We also did a day trip to Rangitoto island and climbed to the summit.

On the way back to Pirongioa to fetch the car we got stuck in the morning traffic going out of Auckland. It took ages! Finally we got the car and sped to Raglan. The next day was Christmas day and I got a compound bow!!! Unfortunately I also got strep throat. I spent the weekend in bed, no shows 🙁

We had one day off before moving on to Waihi Beach and New Years. Dallas got sick and better within one day and night. Very suspicious!

On New years eve I sat on Mum and Dads shoulders as we did the countdown, 10! 9! 8! 7!  6! 5! 4! 3! 2! 1! Everyone whoops and cheers, hugs and kisses each other! Its so exciting. I love New Years!

The next week was Whangamata, oops! I just remembered Whangamata was cancelled because the forcast was for very heavy rain and the grounds keeper didn’t want us to ruin the school field. But it turned out to be incredibly sunny! We had seven days to spare. Those seven days saw us through Te Aroha, Opal springs hot pools, Auckland and finally Matakana extravaganza.

Well that’s the end of another festive season, very busy!