Aaaaargh, just about had them in order, then I tried to fix the last day, and now it has come up first, so read that last!

THURSDAY - HOME

We wandered into the shops to spend the last of our Australian money, and to see the Doctor. I had thought I was getting the flu on Tuesday, but that seemed to clear, but now I had an ear ache. I have had problems with eczema in the ear canal in the past, so wasn't sure if it was that, or inner ear infection. After a long wait, and an expensive visit, I found out I had a fungal infection, so had some strong painkillers and more drops. This cause great problems on the flight home, as it is I usually have problems, but with a sore ear it was 5 times as bad. The flight was good, the kids good, and we got in to Auckland a little earlier, and stayed at the hotel again, before arriving home mid Friday afternoon.

Where to start???????

I had intended to update a couple of times while away, but we just didn't get near a computer till the last couple of days. I was going to do it in one big post, but then had lots of problems with photos matching up, so I have done a post for each day, just skim through the photos if you wish, as it is more for my future references.

SUNDAY

We stayed the Saturday night in Auckland, as this meant we were only a step away from the airport, and gave us free car storage, and shuttle to the airport, so our holiday began with a 3.30am start. The hotel bed was hard, and I had only just got to sleep about 1am, so it turned into a very loooooooong day, especially with the time differences aswell.

The kids were great on the plane, and we had no problems getting to our 'apartment', only problem was we were early and they hadn't finished getting it ready, so we were given a spot to store our bags and went for a walk. We had some lunch, which was actually breakfast for everyone there, and had a wander down the beach. We made it back to our 'home' for the next few days, wow. It was nearly if not as big as our house. 3 bedrooms, ensuite, lovely open plan living area, full kitchen including dishwasher, and laundry. After getting sorted out, we jumped on a bus, and headed out to a new stadium to watch the Warriors play the local team. That was interesting being the odd ones out, but it was impressive to see how many Warriors fans there were there. Back to the apartment for fish and chips, and I think I was in bed, asleep at 8.30.

TUESDAY - Movie World

Waiting at the Bus stop when another Matamata family walks up, have a quick chat to them, and then while at Movie World also see another family from Matamata, whose daughter goes to the Primary School with the boys.

MONDAY - White Water World

Not a good start to our day. Our first ride was the Green Room, and I have to admit, it was horrible. Unfortunately we had just put sunblock on, and our hands were slippery, and the ride really required you to hold on tightly. It put Cameron off trying anything even slightly adventurous, although Braden did try a few more different rides

WEDNESDAY - Shopping

We had hoped to head up the Coast to a Factory Outlet we had heard of, but got caught up in traffic due to a burst water pipe, so we jumped off the bus and went to the Wax Museum, which also included a tour of 'A torture chamber'. It covered the history of various tortures, fascinating, although the kids weren't impressed, and we weren't able to take photos. We were able to take photos of the wax models, and the kids liked that part, but I have to admit the rest was a bit too much for them.

THURSDAY - Brisbane

Jon had an appointment up in Brisbane on the Friday, so we had hired a car and were going to head up to Australia Zoo on the Thursday, but by the time we got going and got the car, we knew it was going to be late, so he managed to squeeze an early appointment (7am) out of the guy, and we just took our time heading up the coast. While driving we spotted what looked like a great place to stop, so wandered around there, bought some clothes, and....... bumped into Vicki. Now, I knew Vicki was going to be there, but fancy meeting her there, and on their last day! Lucky she recognised us, 'cause I wouldn't have noticed her. We stopped in the middle of Brisbane somewhere, because we didn't have a map we were just following traffic, which was probably our first mistake, we didn't need to go anywhere near town to get to the airport. Finally found a motel, that was easier said than done, and caught the city cat into town to do some shopping and dinner. We obviously had no idea where we were going as there were no shops to be found, probably further out in the suburbs. We did find a small mall type place where we had some yummy dinner, but not much else. There were no movies on for the kids, so we just jumped back on the ferry and headed back to the motel.

FRIDAY - Australia Zoo

Jon went out for his appointment, and then we headed up the coast to Australia Zoo. Have to say, while it was a pain to drive so far, it was a great experience. The place was beautiful, very, very clean, nice options for lunch, friendly staff, etc. We were fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, and got a sneaky encounter with the koalas. It was right on closing time, so they had taken the signs down to say the koalas were resting (as we were to find out later), and there were no staff around so we just wandered over to them, and had some great interaction. Finally a staff member spotted us, and ushered us to the koala on 'display', who was half asleep, and very boring.

SATURDAY - Seaworld

Cameron loved it here, he got to see sharks. Big ones. and stingrays. The shows involving the seals and the dolphins was neat, the photos don't do justice. No one else wanted a photo with the Sesame St gang, so I did!!!

SUNDAY - Mini putt, shops

We had a quiet day, played Mini Putt, went to the shops, thats about it!

MONDAY - Dreamworld

Labour Day in QLD. We ended up at Dreamworld, not the best decision, but wasn't too bad. One ride we waited for about 45 minutes to go on, but most were reasonably quick. Oh, no, hang on, after waiting 45 minutes for that ride, we went to go on the revolutionary Mick Doohan Motocoaster, which had a queue a mile long, so we didn't go on that, which was disappointing as it was definately something different. Dreamworld seemed quite bitsy, I thought it was OK, but because we had done all the others we probably could have passed on it, the reason we went was I had free passes using our FlyBuys. I did step out of my comfort zone, and go on the Tower of Terror, which was all over in about 10 seconds. 160 kph in seven seconds, 38 storeys high, 100 metre vertical free-fall backward. LOL

TUESDAY - Wet n Wild

This was what I had been waiting for all holiday. Only problem was I was so tired by this stage, and was also getting a touch of the flu, so climbing all those stairs was really draining. A great place to spend the day, and if we lived there I could see us getting an annual pass. There was so much variety, although the tamer rides were separated by miles, which was a little frustrating trying to fit in some of our rides with the kids, walking forever.

In the evening we got a babysitter in, and went to the Casino. Unfortunately because I wasn't feeling so well, and was also tired, we came home early, which was fine as we weren't doing so well anyway!

WEDNESDAY - Movie World/WWW -again

WEDNESDAY - Movieworld/WWW

We decided to make the most of our pass and go back for a second day to these 2 parks, meeting up with a Matamata couple on their honeymoon. The boys, including the big one, took an opportunity to get a photo with Batman. Jon went on the 2 rollercoasters the first visit, which was good as the Lethal Weapon one was down this day, but he did try the Batman Escape, which he then convinced me to try. It wasn't tooooo bad, although you should have seen the gouges in my hands from gripping so hard! We finally made it to Hard Rock Cafe for dinner, which was beautiful.

MIA..........

........but here's a preview!

Just trying out this remote blogging thing....

.... not sure if it will work.

We are off this afternoon, staying the night in Auckland as we have an early flight and have to be at the airport at eeeek, 4.30am. This is Mr 7's effort, must say, he didn't do too bad, just had to throw in a couple of items of clothing, and take out a few unnecessary things.

Thanks for all your well wishes, advice, reminders, we are really looking forward to it.... I just wish the kids would stop messing up behind me!

ETA OMG, that was so easy, might have to do all my blogging that way!

Even longer.....

..... between posts.

5 sleeps and counting. Not that I'm getting excited or anything, LOL. This week is all about doing jobs around the house, and outside. Usually all the boring jobs get left till I'm on school holiday, so these holidays they have to be accomplished in 1 week, plus packing. It's all the little jobs, making sure bills are set up to be paid, cancelling the paper,......... if you think of anything remind me will ya?

I haven't taken any photos lately, nothing exciting happening. I will share a couple of pages done, trying to use up some old supplies, especially letters. I don't think I've shown the first one, I just love it so wanted to share. I've taken to doing white backgrounds lately, certainly have lots of white cardstock from my refills.

The other 2 are fairly recent, ones I've actually finished, neither are 2 exciting, but hey, they are done, oh, and I was too lazy to take the Red Hot Birthday one out of the page protector, that's why there is a glare.

Holidays? Well, kids have not been too bad.... wish they would entertain themselves instead of asking for TV all the time. I mean, as is always said, we never watched that much TV when we were little. Trying to avoid doing anything costly, as obviously these holidays are going to cost a bit, but might take them to the pools this afternoon.

So long.....

.... lots happening.

Been spending heaps of time playing with the Wishblade. Trying new things, different things, haven't cut much, but that's the good thing, you can play to your hearts content, and then just try something new.

Jon went fishing last weekend, his first real fishing trip. A real boys weekend away, apart from being sick the first day and night, I think he enjoyed himself, even came home with some snapper for us for dinner. The guys gutted them on the way back in on the boat, but we had to fillet it when he got home, so called our friend from down the road to show us, now we know!
















































This weekend just gone we mucked around home, the weather has started to close in, although it was nice for the Balloons over Waikato on Saturday. We were going, we weren't, we weren't, finally we did. Man, it was packed, far more people there than when they had it at the Lake. I think there were a lot of teenagers there more for the rides and the sideshows, of which there were not so many at the old venue.

Saturday was also our wedding anniversary, Jon jokingly informed me I had to wait a couple of weeks for my present (going to Australia), so when the fireworks started at the Balloons I told him I'd organised it especially for him! LOL.

Sunday we managed to go for a walk up town, just mucking around, and then visited FIL for his birthday.

Have been busy trying to sort a whole lot of paperwork out, you know everything seems to need to be renewed at the same time, warrants, insurances, etc as well as trying to get bits sorted out for Australia, less than 2 weeks to go now.