I'm 23... Taylor Swift's song is no longer applicable to me!
For my birthday, I spoke to mum, dad and grandad on Skype in the morning and the kids helped me open all my cards and presents. Didn't really have to lift a finger... Think they were spoiling me making sure I didn't work to hard! They picked me some purple flowers from the driveway and I made them both my favourite birthday breakfast.... Eggy bread and tinned tomato spaghetti!! Yum yum yum!
Birthday flowers
We then went to a cafe to meet Sharron and baby Alice for coffee and after dropping the kids at kindy, Uncle M and I went for a walk in Shakespear regional park along the Tiri track. It was a lovely 2 hour walk through sheep fields, some forest and finishing off paddling through the sea. It's pretty cool being able to be on a beach in the sea on your birthday!
We went to get the kids once they'd finished kindy and took them down to Manly beach to the swing park. They wouldn't push me even though it was my birthday! They did let me go on the seesaw and slide though so I was happy! The swing park is right by the beach so we did some wave jumping and sandcastle building. When we got home we had a sausage and kebab BBQ for dinner. I finished the day skyping Catherine :)
I definitely like having a summer birthday rather than a winter birthday although I do miss my favourite birthday flowers - daffodils! They always signal to be that it's the end of winter and summer's about to start. But then I guess I've had a long continual summer! I'm going to be pretty shocked when I have my first cold day at home. At the moment I count a cold day as one where I have to put a jumper on over my vest top and shorts! What am I going to do when I need to wear trousers and *gasp* hat, scarf and gloves!!
Day 128: Rangitoto Island
The kids were at kindy all day today so Uncle M and I decided to visit Rangitoto Island. The island is a dormant volcano in Auckland Harbour and is the newest island in the harbour at only 600 years old.
We took the ferry across to the island and once we were there we climbed up to the top along the lava field tracks. It was pretty hot with the hot sun and the heat being reflected back up from the black rocks.
At the top, a little bit re and sweaty, we could see an amazing view back across the Auckland skyline.
After eating our lunch at the top we decided that rather than rushing back to get the 1230 ferry we decided to spend the whole day on the island and get the 330 ferry home.
We did the crater rim walk around the volcano crater rim (obviously) that apparently was meant to take 15 minutes. We did it in 5! I think we would have had to bum shuffled to do it that slowly. All the timings around the island seemed to be a bit odd. Some were spot on whilst others we did in half the time! And apparently it takes takes the same amount of time to walk up and down the volcano which is pretty crazy.
We climbed back down slightly and then along to the lava caves. The first cave was pretty lacking on the whole ceiling height thing and Uncle M isn't exactly the worlds biggest small space fan so we decided to walk along to the next one which we could stand up in but was pretty dark. I was so busy shinning the torch (well iPhone torch) at the floor that I didn't really notice the roof getting closer and closer to my head until I smacked it pretty hard. Ouch!
We walked along the unseeled road track to other wharf on the island that is used to get people off the island in bad weather we could see the next island that is only separated by a small sandy stretch.
On the way home, we were picked up by the ranger driving past. He was worrying about us missing the ferry so gave us a lift half way back. Considering it was along a track, with not much in the way of views, and our water suppliers were running low we decided we couldn't/ didn't exactly want to say no!
Back at the ferry wharf I refilled and downed 2 bottles of water, changed out of my rather sweaty top into the clean one I (Unlce M) cleverly suggested we brought and recovered in the shade before the ferry arrived.
We got the ferry back to Devonport and walked back to the car which seemed twice as far away than in the morning! We got stuck in the rush hour traffic so by the time we got home we were starving and wolfed down the spaghetti bolanaise!
Day 129: Auckland Zoo
After spending the morning in Takepuna in a cafe and then rolling down the hill by the beach whilst Helen covered a mummas and babas class before we headed off to Auckland Zoo.
The zoo was pretty cool! We saw giraffes, rhinos, zebras, meerkats, penguins, tigers, sea lion and a elephant being taking for a walk around the park. You know, as elephants do. And the elephant even had a picnic on the lawn before doing the largest poo ever! The keeper used a bin bag as a poo bag! The kids found it so entertaining!
My feet were aching by the time we left. No clue how the kids managed it!
Day 130: Waiheke island
After getting the kids out the house in a record quick time, we hit traffic on the way to Devonport and so we saw the ferry to Waiheke island pull out as we arrived!
We bought the tickets and went to a cafe for morning coffee and the nice waitnress brought out some colouring books gut the kids because there is only so long you can play 'find me all the blue coloured sugar packets' before they get dropped into water and go all soggy.
We played in the swing park until it was time to catch the ferry over. The weather wasn't looking that great but the kids were so excited about going on a ferry and then a bus for the first time we couldn't really not go. They found feeling the waves really cool and once we got to Waiheke we jumped straight onto a bus to the beach which was equally cool especially as it bumped along the roads and up the hill.
We had a picnic for lunch before spending a few hours on the beach jumping over waves, building sandcastles, burying my feet and making sand angels which I guess was a bit of a mistake as everytime I shock my head sand fell out my hair and I couldn't reach everywhere on my back that was sandy.
When we came off the beach the kids kept asking where our car was and we kept having to explain about the ferry and the bus so we now need to that in reverse to get the cast. We had ice cream before getting the bus back to the ferry port. There wasn't a ferry direct to Devonport for a while so we ended up getting a ferry to auckland city centre and then changing. We were sitting on the final boat on the seats by the door to the outside and Chloe demanded that we moved as it was too windy. About a minute later we hit a wave and where we was sitting just 60 seconds earlier was drenched in water!! Think Chloe had a sixth sense about it.
Day 131: Beach
After dropping the kids at kindy, Uncle M and I did the food shopping and then took the dogs on a nice long but rather hot walk by the beach. By the time we got back and had a glass of water to cool down it was time to go and pick the kids up from kindy. We had lunch in te local cafe... my favourite order of a trim (kiwi for skinny!) latte and a chicken and avocado wrap.
We then took the kids for an afternoon at the beach. The waves were really small so we were getting both of them to swim in the sea (well we held their bellies up and walked along whilst they kicked their legs), made more gardens and I perfected my lying on a towel whilst having them jump across my stomach.
It's rather nice being able to say 'and then we went to the beach'. I spend most evenings finding sand in cracks and crevasses all over my body (mainly my ears) but my cousins have such a great place to grow up in; they get to be outside all the time running around and exploring the world.
When we got back we had a lovely sausage BBQ (the dogs enjoyed the leftovers) :)
Day 132: Saturday
The weather was pretty bad (only 20C and some drizzle!) so I ended up taking the kids on a 'fun' trip to the supermarket so I could buy some food for the first few days of my Tiki tour. One picked the veg whilst the other held the bag open. Think I did a great job teaching them about team work! Lol!
We came back and after lunch the weather was improving so we went to the Local cafe in Manly for a latte and a chocolate brownie that is so delicious it can only be describe by 'mmmm' and is too rich to eat a whole slice to yourself. Even a chocoholic like me can't cope with its chocolatey-ness!
We enjoyed the swing park and then the beach (again... How amazing is these kids life!) before coming back for a BBQ dinner (again... YUM!).
Once the kids were in bed H and I took two of the dogs for a long long walk around Army bay. Since the tide was out we were able to walk all over these rocks and see the reflections of the pink clouds and the rainbow in the rock pools. It was pretty spectacular and obviously I didn't have my camera with me so wasn't able to capture it.
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