A day at Maraetai

It was an absolute stunner of a day the day we decided to drive over to the east coast, and Maraetai Beach. The sun was out, the sky was blue and the water had the most amazing blue-green colour:

We weren't the only ones with the same idea, the whole beach was full of people celebrating the weekend, with BBQs, loud music and beach games:

Did I mention the sky was so blue?

We were there to catch up with another longtime family friend, Michael.

We had lunch, and ice cream in one of the seaside cafés:

The kids went swimming.

On the way home we stopped in at Countdown to stock up on the NZ lollies we were going to bring back home! Jaffas, Pineapple Lumps, Minties, Oddfellows, L&P choccies and much more..!

Hanging out

Christmas holidays is also for just kicking about and hanging out, not doing much. We sure did a lot of nothing special, both inside and outside:

The cousins:

 Linnea and Chester really enjoyed each others company:

We made homemade pizzas to try out Uncle Kierans Christmas gift, pizza stones for the BBQ:

There was water balloon fights:

There was also some gardening going on. Auntie Nikki needed help with her vegetable garden, staking and netting it since the bunny rabbits keep eating off her produce:

My Christmas puzzle was a hit, everybody wanted to contribute!

Some backyard cricket:

Uncle Kieran talking to the cows:

We played a bit with our new drone, checking out the cows and the other paddocks:

Then we inspected the footage:

Auckland

Of course we wanted to explore Auckland now when we were so close. Together with Nikki, Caitlin and Liam we took some trains, and a bus, to get into central Auckland for the day.

Have you noticed how the smaller cousins are catching up? Lucas is taller than Caitlin now, and we think it wont be long before Linnea has passed her too.

So, we hit Britomart and walked from there...

... down to the wharf.

We decided on Asian for lunch, and whereas the food was good, unfortunately the view was better than the service at this place.

We also did a spot of shopping along Queen Street.

After the boys, and Linnea, had been to the movies to see the latest Star Wars movie we finished off our Auckland day with some very special ice cream from this amazing ice cream parlor that Nikki had found a few weeks earlier - Giapo.

They are famous for some really elaborate ice cream creations, look at the photos of the selfie cone and the two-of-a-kind cones; and of course, very tasty ice cream.

You get to taste our way through the menu of different ice creams, to decide on which one to order.

Linnea had a 'Kiss Kiss Kiss', as did Caitlin:

Liam and Lucas had the 'Chocolate Evolution':

Nikki had a 'NZ Hokey Pokey' and Nathan chose a 'Garden Fresh Strawberries & Cream' ...

I decided on their signature ice cream - 'Giapo Buono', wih caramel, hazelnut praline and amaretti. Oh - my - goodness... Mmmmm!