New Zealand part 1

Well, after procrastinating about it over Christmas (do we go to NZ or Nth Queensland for the last part of January) we decided NZ was the way to go. Unfortunately I had been less than organised before Christmas - I know, unusual - ha - and the kids passports needed to be renewed. So After New years - everything in Canberra shuts down until then - we hurriedly put together the applications, and waited. (I won't mention that a certain DH used to work in Passports and knew who to call to hurry things along..). Anyway, after Henry and I spent a week sweltering in Mulwala, we came home, picked up his and Meaghan's passports on Friday, booked the flights Sunday and flew out bright and early on Wed morning. Phew..

We had only booked two night accommodation in Aukland and winged the rest. And it turned out ok mostly, internet is good!

And now I have more photos to scrap - yay! These are fairly random though.

On our first day we went to Kelly Tarlton's Aquarium in Aukland - Penguins - coolest animals ever -

In the middle we went to Henry's favourite place Hobbiton, possibly only behind the yet to be visited lego world - The quality of the craftmanship here was astounding. Although the hobbit holes were only for the most part doors and gardens, all the indoor filming happened elsewhere, the location and the settings were just perfect.

The only possibly downside was that you have to leave your car in the carpark and catch a bus with a guided tour - all fine until we returned to the car and realised that I had left the boot/trunk open for the 2+ hours we were away - all our travelling stuff was on display for the world to see. Luckily it was also entirely intact - Geoff was not amused...

This was the most famous of the hobbit holes - Bilbo's home. The actual bench were Bilbo and Gandalf sat and chatted - eep...

 Many more pages about Hobbiton to come, I promise!

And related but on our second last day, we had a tour of the Weta Studios in Wellington, where they make all the models, armour etc. Again, highly recommended!

We really enjoyed New Zealand, very easy to get around, and I got to catch up with Louise F my long time scrappy friend, has made me want to do a round the world tour of all my scrappy friends. The instant easiness and friendship after years of sharing a hobby was just wonderful!

The tale of the bad back and broken glasses can wait - am now going to rest as we have more visitors - apparently if you have a new house your visitor numbers skyrocket - we are constantly welcoming friends and family, which is fun but I am looking forward to downtime next week.

have a good one. x