The awesome Christmas

Hi,

Well, I have a lot to catch you up on, don't I?

My last day at work was Christmas Eve and I worked from home.  Apart from a flurry of activity early in the morning, it was quiet the rest of the day.  Mike and Toby went to see Star Wars with Will and enjoyed it a lot.

Mike's mother came around for Christmas Eve and we had dinner and went to sleep, excited about the day to come!

Toby was up so early - 5am!  Talk about excited.  We managed to convince him to go back to sleep for a bit.  Whether he slept or not remains a mystery.

But we were soon all up and opening presents.  Then we had to make our Christmas lunch contributions.

Christmas lunch

The day was stunning.  And the lunch was superb.  We chatted to my mother for a while to say hello.  And the phone got passed around a bit.  We left relatively early because Mike still had to pack for the trip up north and we were leaving early.

Toby and me on Christmas Day

Evidence I wore a dress

Up at 4.45am and we were away by 5.20am.  Wow!  So excited.  Toby slept and we made it to Taihape before we had breakfast.  At the slowest Maccas in New Zealand.

Peter (Lesley's father) was concerned about traffic and parking for the island visit and volunteered to drive  us to Sandspit for our trip over.  Mike rang the ferry company and they said it would be fine to get a park.  So we declined Peter's kind offer and continued through Auckland.

We had lunch in Warkworth after a lovely drive up with minimal traffic.  The signs in Auckland promised traffic delays heading north but there was no such thing.  We parked our car and ferried our luggage to the boat shed and waited for our ride.  We got on our water taxi and headed over to Kawau Island.

On the water taxi to Kawau Island

The Sampson family met us at Schoolhouse Bay wharf and we got a lift up to Peter's bach in the island car.  Wooohhh - luxury.

We pitched our tent in the backyard and Mike and I slept in there.  Brennan and Toby slept on stretchers in the new shed.  The girls slept in the second room in the house and Lesley and Wally slept in the front room.  Worked great!

And it turns out that Kawau Island is some sort of paradise.  I loved it!  The days have all blurred but it was an amazing place.  And catching up with everyone was great.  Toby just slipped back into their company like he had never been away.

Boat through the trees

We went for a late walk and spotted a wallaby.  The island was Governor Grey's residence for a while and he had exotic animals.  There are no zebras left, but wallabies are everywhere.  And possums.  And magpies.  And even kookaburras.  It was like I had been transported.

For a run over Mansion House Bay

Walking home after a run and swim at Ladys Bay

Found the iced coffees at Mansion House cafe

That's an iced chocolate for Lesley

South Cove for a picnic tea

We explored parts of the island.  We swam nearly every day.  If not at Lady's Bay, then off the wharf at Schoolhouse Bay.  We went out fishing off Peter's boat on its mooring one evening - me, Wally, Jess and Chelsea.  We caught loads of fish.  I found a nice running route through the trees and went quite a few times.  Mike walked lots - with bricks in his pack.  We visited South Cove and had a picnic tea.  We pulled apart the kitchen sink pump when it got blocked (not a lot of fun).

Toby and Brennan on the first evening's walk to Mansion House Bay

First glimpse of the forest on our first evening walk

Selfie!  @ Mansion House Bay

Posing (especially Brennan) at Mansion House Bay

Fishing on Runaway

Feet at Lady's Bay

Ladys Bay - one of our favourite spots

Pretty much I achieved my ambition of reading, eating, sleeping and swimming.  Lots of all of those things every day.

The cafe at Mansion House Bay had iced coffees and ice creams.  Mmmmm.  Worth a few visits.  Wally inflated the rubber dinghy and we played in that.  Watching Toby in that was funny.

New Years was a great evening, staying up late.  500 was a huge hit.  Charades - not so much.  We went for a late walk and Lesley found out that her legs didn't work properly after sitting all evening drinking the odd wine.  Or two!

We got a bit of painting done around the place too.  Well, some of us did.  :-)  At least it looked pretty good when we left - so we did achieve some things off Peter's wish list.

The rain started at 6am on New Years Day (Friday) and never let up.  We caught the 9.20am ferry on the Saturday and didn't get to Sandspit until midday!  We saw a lot of the island, picking up passengers.

We got caught in the traffic heading into Warkworth and stopped there for lunch.  I had an awesome iced coffee at Ginger Cafe - I'd go back there.  Eggs benny were good too!

This meant we were late leaving Auckland and therefore late all the way home.  We got into our house at 10.20pm.  And it rained the entire way.  Constantly.

Iced chocolate for Toby at Ginger Cafe in Warkworth

Me with wild hair and a great iced coffee at the Ginger Cafe

 Sunday was a blur of getting things sorted.  We went out to Queensgate and we bought some bedside tables for our bedroom.  Toby spent his vouchers at JB Hi Fi and EB Games and was very happy.  We caught up with Sally and discovered Andrew had started his North Island trip from Cape Palliser to Cape Reinga.  Wow!

Monday was lovely weather and we got the tent dried and finished the gardening that Mike's mother had started.  You can all come and visit again - the place looks great!

I made myself a home made iced coffee.  Mmmmm.

Home made iced coffee

So, that just about sums it up.  I feel a bit out of place at work today.  My head is still on Kawau Island with Wally and Lesley.  I loved our holiday there.  It will stay in my mind for a long, long time!

Love,
Angela