Well summer has flown by and the kids are almost half done their first term of the new school year. They finish term one in the middle of April. The last update was a month ago, so you would think that we have a lot of updating to do.... However, we were still recovering financially from our big splash-out south island trip, so we took it easy for most of the month.
Our next visitor is in town, Sharon arrived on the 16th or so of February. She spent her first week on a bus tour of the north island, and this week just hanging about relaxing and shopping down town. This past weekend we drove down to Napier with Sharon and did the tourist thing. We unloaded at our rental place, and then strolled the streets until we stopped at Lonestar for supper.
Napier is one of two "best preserved" Art Deco cities in the world, the other being South Beach Miami. In 1931 a major earthquake struck the city and destroyed many of the buildings. When they rebuilt the restored most of the buildings to their original design and it has been a major tourist attraction ever since. I can only hope that Christchurch is able to recover in such a fashion.
We had a great time in Napier, and also in Hastings, the sister city just down the road. We spent 5 hours at splash planet water park. This was our gift for Connor's birthday in lieu of another thing to transport home with us. It was a bit of a cool day so there was limited splashing done on our part, most of the wet activity was focused on the heated indoor pool/slide. There were plenty of dry activities too! We raced in go carts, Connor had a blast, as did the adults I reckon. Aidan reserved his driving for the slower "jungle carts" but was a professional jeep driver by the end. There was mini-golf as well. All of this keep us busy for the day and the prices weren't that bad.
After splash planet we returned to Napier and strolled along the marine parade for a while before heading back to Lonestar restaurant for dinner. The kids enjoyed the place and they had different colouring sheets than the normal, done in 5 seconds (for older kids). They were given markers, not crayons and went to town on their art both nights. On Saturday night they were even awarded T-shirts as the hostess recognized us from both nights and saw all the hard work the boys put into their art.
Sunday was sunnier so we headed back to sight seeing, and the boys took in a skate park that had rentals, while the girls went shopping.
The boys stood and watched for a while unsure if they were ready to brave the fast moving action in the park. It was the sight of a little girl on her pink scooter who must have been all of 4, zipping around the park without a care in the world that made their decision for them. We were there for almost 2 hours and this girl was out most of the time only being knocked down once. She barely even noticed, picked her scooter up and kept on trucking.
In the end that had an awesome time and really enjoyed the park. We then proceeded to a new restaurant for lunch before making the 4+ hour journey back to Tauranga.
With June fast approaching, we are in scramble mode to complete our bucket list before we pack up and head back to the great white north. Hardest of all will be leaving the wonderful friends we have living right next door to us, it will be emotional parting to say the least. The right decision is not always the easiest, and the easiest decision not the right one.
:(
