The long weekend with the best fun!

Hi,

Wow - I don't think I can do justice to the awesome weekend we had.  We left Wellington in stunning weather on Friday night.

Oriental beach on Friday night

Flew into Auckland without any hassles and collected the car from Apex.  Drove out to the Sampson house at Whenuapai.  What an awesome house.  Huge backyard.  Great location.  Yep - they'll be happy there for quite a while.

Hannah moved out for the weekend so we could have her room.  She's so sweet.  I was very proud (although I think they know that Mike and I would have slept anywhere) - and my body was also pleased to have a bed.  We did see her as she came back on Saturday night and cooked tea for us.  Lucky!  Scrumptious jambalaya.  Mmmmm.

But we were up early (4am!) and away for the dawn service.  Wally came too and found us a great car park about 1.5 km from the Auckland Museum.  We were there by 5.15am and it was definitely already packed.  I couldn't see very much.

ANZAC dawn service

Me, Wally and Mike

Auckland museum looked good

The boys after the service

ANZAC service programme

It was a great service. They did very well.  I thought it was the right amount of sombre ceremony.  Nothing flash - just more people than the usual one.

Back home via Maccas - but the queue was coming out the door.  So Wally fried up a huge breakfast at home.  Great!  I was full!

To walk it all off, we walked to Herald Island.  It must have been about 8 km all up.  It was lovely.

Herald Island walk

Looking out from Herald Island

Dinghies on Herald Island

Feet on Herald Island

Back home for fish n chips in the backyard and an early night.

Brennan and Toby enjoying the trampoline

I got an iced coffee from Wally and it was superb!

Next morning we had a lazy start then drove to the Waitakere Ranges for a wonderful walk to Fairy Falls.

Off to visit Fairy Falls in the Waitakere Ranges

Selfie with Mike

Selfie with Lesley

The kids climbed up the falls a wee way

Then from there we went to Bethell's Beach for a picnic.  Mmmmm.  Foooooood!

Sensation!

Picnic at Bethell Beach

Mike checks out the black sands of Bethell's Beach

Selfie in front of sea cave at Bethell's Beach

Walking back to the car

Awesome foot shot

I convinced everyone (even Brennan and Toby - twice!) that we really needed to do SingStar.  The Sampsons love it.  This was just the excuse they needed.  Hahahah.  We sang non stop for 6 hours!

We were all hoarse the next morning.

Karaoke!

It's a group effort!

But the next morning we had to leave.  We dropped Toby off at Jack's place and then Mike and I collected Roz and we went to Columbus in Onehunga for brunch.  I had a great eggs benedict.

Brunch with Roz

I get a hug from Roz

We caught up with Roz and then went shopping.  Well, Mike did.  All of Auckland was there due to the poor weather.  So Roz and I sat in the car and Mike dashed in to get the present for Jack.

Dropped Roz off home then caught up briefly with John and Mai (collected Elma, John's mother for the party too).  Toby didn't want to leave.  Poor kid.

Off to the airport for our bumpy flight home.  It was ok.  Had far worse landings.

This morning was pelting down rain here.  I never went for my run as I would have been soaked in 2 minutes.  But I rode in.  It was ok.  A wee break in the weather.

Have a wonderful week.  Thanks to everyone for a great weekend!  Can't wait to go back there now.

Love,
Angela