New house

So we've moved house. It all happened suddenly. A house came up in longparish and I made a bid expecting nothing much as it was my first ever bid. And we won! So now we've got an awesome house with a great little garden and the kids are happy and it is gleeful. I love it. And my job is going well. All is currently well, long may it last. 

There's a reason I never have any savings

We keep spending it!! This week I've bought Faye an iPhone 5. Granted it means we can sell her old phone but still. I told her I wanted to save stuff this month and she announced we were going on a shopping spree for new running clothes, car seats and a push chair. I'm going to have to start selling more of our stuff. 

About time we planned another trip

It's 2015 so nearly 4 years since our last trip. I'm still keen to live there, but a 3 week trip to Tauranga and the Coromandel would be wonderful. This year is probably off the cards but perhaps next year. I need some sub tropical sun and fruit farms and Monteiths cider. 

All rugbied out

Not blogged for a while. Sorry about that. Rest assured we are still alive!

Went to the England v Scotland game on Saturday and spent most of it looking through my fingers in disbelief. We were lucky to win that one. The banter on the bus home was hillarious though. We spent yesterday arvo with Nik and Penny watching the last pool games and the warriors games. I think I'm all rugbied out now and am looking forward to a rugby free week!

Today we are meeting up with Stuart, our actor buddy and are taking him to meet Nik. And tonight we are Ada sitting as Penny won tickets to see the Silver Ferns netball team play tonight. Kiwis take their netball very seriously here. Actually they take all sport seriously. We even saw a full on F1 style programme for kids karting.

We only have a few days before we go home now. So we are going to cram in a bit more Auckland then try to pack our suitcases. We have all the Wrinklies wine so better pack carefully!!

See you all soon!!
Love Archie and Faye xx

Wrinklies went home...

I haven't blogged much this week. This is mostly due to a lack of Internet connection. I've been getting withdrawal symptoms. The parents went home yesterday, leaving at 6am and should be home later today. We took them to the Sky Tower and the Orbit restaurant. Actually to be fair they took us and I loved it. Mum wasn't too happy with the height but liked the view when she could t see straight down. Dad and Colin loved the glass lift and we all enjoyed the food.

We spent the rest of yesterday slouching about as I didn't actually manage to sleep on Tuesday night. We stayed at Penny and Nik's on a blow up bed that deflated on us and walked back to the motor lodge to see the parents off at 5am so I wasnt any use to anyone for 24 hours. Today we walked to and up Mount Eden which is an old volcano (one of 58 that Auckland is built on). It's still active but happily very quiet. Tomorrow we are off to the west coast with Penny and Ada and we are babysitting tomorrow night.

Right off to watch DW.

Love Archie and Faye x

And a wandering we will goooo!

Yesterday was "The Most Exercise Endured" by the Wrinklies.

We had another fry up (solo effort by Dad this time), Faye was still in bed when he started. We have all decided that diets don't count when you are on holiday. I took mum and Yvonne shopping for some warmer clothes for Queenstown which is Alpine and fairly snowy. Dad, Faye and Colin went to the lake for a wander.

Yesterday afternoon we took a minibus to Huka Falls, just north of Taupo. Huka falls is New Zealand longest river and one of only 3 in the world that flows north and the only one in the southern hemisphere to do so as well. We had tried to describe it to the wrinklies, but they weren't prepared for what they saw and I am glad to say they were totally blown away by it. It got emotional.

We walked back to Taupo along the river, which is only supposed to take an hour and we did it in 2 and a half hours. There was much stopping for mum's knees and Yvonnes asthma, and the incredible views. Again I am glad to hear that they thought the walk was worth the wheezing and aching knees.

Colin offered to cook steak for us last night and we got through 3 bottles of wine with it. And spent the rest of the evening giggling at snooring stories.

Today we are off to the DuBretts Spa (YAY!) and anywhere else they decide to go. We also need a mini golf rematch. The boys were definately beaten by some flagrant cheating in Napier and we have to reclaim our honour!

Parents head off to Queenstown tonight via Auckland and we go back to Auckland tomorrow for the rest of our games.

Love Tui and Kiwi

Burble... HIC!

As promised, yesterday was all about wine tasting. Faye and dad have discovered that they are a world class fry up team and were more like two Russian ballet dancers moving around the kitchen stealing utensils off the French!

We had 5 vineyards and an olive farm to visit. The olive farm was first and a surprise to us all (it wasn't on the list), none of us really like olives and Yvonne hates them so we were all trying very hard to be polite about the place. Turns out though that the stuff we get in the Uk wasn't a patch on these and even dad liked them. Mainly he was more impressed with the tech they used but that's not surprising for someone with only 2 working tastebuds. Yvonne is stillnot convinced.

We were taken to a boutique vinyard first which gave us 14 wines to sample and we were feeling fairly warm headed by the time we left that place. That one was called Askernes and was superb. It reminded us a lot of Brookfields from our last trip and parents all brought something from there. The second two, Vitell and Selini, were larger vineyards and were not as good as the first. We had lunch at Vitell though and the food was perfect, if that had been at the first vinyard I think we might have all made camp there!

Winery 4 was Unison. They were an English couple who were deep into getting the best quality possible so didn't have a large output but that made it all taste better. Yvonne kindly bought us a Sirah (Shiraz if you are Australian) as a thank you for bringing them out here. Our last vineyard was Moana and they work to very traditional non sulphur methods. Apparently this stops hangovers!

Faye and dad decided to cook spag bol for us all and did enough to feed the entire hostel! I made friends with another French chap (there were lots of them), forgot to mention we had two French chaps on our tour called Frank and Billy and they were very funny. Frank is a Hurricanes s15 supporter like me which was great. We both got to complain about losing our players. Sadly no one else had a clue what we were on about!

Today, following another rendition of "swan fry up" by the curtis ballet company we got a coach to Taupo (prn. Tow-paw). There's been a massive rock slide in the gorge so the bus was late and our second driver had to have been brought back from the crypt using special tools we reckoned. Yvonne couldn't stop giggling at him. Mum finally got to see a rugby match on telly tonight, Russia vs. Italy and we all cheered the Russians valiant efforts. Now the fresh air has got to us again and it's off to bed we go. Hopefully spa and Huka Falls tomorrow.

Night all!
Tui and Kiwi xxxxx