Australia & NZ, here we come! 10-26 February 2012

Friday, 10 February - Sunday, 12 February: Barcelona - London
Time for our summer-winter holiday! Unfortunately, we missed our flight from Barcelona to London, so we ended up with a couple of unscheduled days in London and a night at the Marriott in Barcelona. On the plus side, it gave us a bit more time to catch up with family and friends before we were Sydney-bound.

 Ruby and Finn at the hotel in Barcelona.

 Finally London bound on the Saturday!

 Finn and Dave at a restaurant in London.

 Ruby and me eating out in London.

 Finn and his usual...

Ruby showing off her big sister's diamond engagement ring!

Cool dude in his mirror shades.

At Rebecca and Jonathan's apartment in Hoxton, London.

We went out to a restaurant along the canal for an afternoon drink - nice!

Monday, 13 February: And finally, we're off!

 Our A380.

Super Sydney!

 Views of Sydney from the balcony outside our room.

 The pool - with lovely views of the harbour.

 The beautiful Abigail.

  House highlight photos taken by Ruby and Finn.

Kimberly dropped us off at Circular Quay ready to take a boat to Taronga Park Zoo.

 

Waiting to catch the ferry to the zoo.

On the boat.

A water taxi.

The sky safari that we take from the ferry terminal up to the entrance of Taronga Zoo.

We saw ALOT of snakes and lizards!

 

These ears were those of a type of fox that we saw at the zoo.

Kangaroos.

A wallaby with a joey in her pouch.

View of Sydney from the zoo.

Penguins.

This was a kind of bed contraption for the gorillas - I really liked it.

 The sky safari back to the ferry.

 Waiting for for the ferry at the Taronga terminal.

We were very lucky to see a yacht race in Sydney harbour. Some of the boats competing in the race go in the Sydney to Hobart yacht race held on 26 December every year.

 Fort Denison in Sydney harbour - built by convicts for convicts.

And back at Abigail's for a swim!

View of Ruby in the pool from our bedroom window!

Here are some nice photos that Kimberly sent us. A beautiful pool, a beautiful home, beautiful hosts and a GREAT city. Thank you so much!

New Zealand!
We have had beautiful weather in Waikanae (and Wellington) so we have been able to sit out in the sun, go to the beach, go on a water slide in the garden and go to the swimming pools.

A collage done by Finn.

 Lunch at Te Papa (with curly fries).

 Touching the stone at Te Papa.

 Activities at the table.

We bought some goldfish for Gran's pond. Ruby chose two and Finn the same. The children drew pictures of their fish so Gran and Marc would remember which was which.

 Bluebell and Snowdrop.

 Peppa and Rocky.

Finn got several quite bad splinters which necessitated quite a major surgical operation! Fortunately, we had a doctor, frustrated surgeon and a nurse on hand, all determined to sort Finn's foot out!

 

Gabrielle and Ruby's BBQ party (75 years v 9 years) on Sunday, 19 February.

 Adrienne and Anne Warner.

 Rod and Elaine with Caroline, Ian, Lil and Simon.

 Caroline and Kat with her girls and Markus.

Two superb Ellis BBQ chefs!

Ruby with her cake.

At Waikanae beach with Simon, Lil and Marc.

A witch's hat atop a Norfolk pine at Waikanae beach.

The pohutakawa - the beautiful New Zealand Christmas tree.

Home for a fish and chip (or fush and chup as my Aussie friend Sarah correctly pointed out!) lunch - yum, yum!

And then off to the pools for a swim!

A few highlights (the children came back with hundreds of photos!) of a trip to Southwards car museum with Marc. (I later overheard Finn telling Rebecca that this was the highlight of his holiday!)

Shrove Tuesday and Sue and David came over for a lovely seafood pancake supper. Another lovely evening sitting at the table outside.

One of the great cherry chocolate cakes made by GAE...

On Wednesday we decided to take the train into Wellington for the day as we wanted to search for a nice New Zealand engagement present for Rebecca and Jonathan, plus do a bit of souvenir shopping for ourselves...

At Clark's for a lovely lunch...

Dear Ruby dresses on sale in Lambton Quay for a bargain $39.99!

Finn at the lovely Wellington Railway Station in one of his souvenir choices - a Wellington Hurricane's shirt. (He also is wearing a lovely silver fern necklace that he chose.)

And an exhausted Miss Ruby at the end of the day!

Thursday and our last whole day at Waikanae - we headed to the beach, with storms looming...

 Ruby running with Simon and Lil.

 The wind doing a shocker on Finn's hair!

 The wee boy in action - Finn and I didn't go into the sea.

All too soon - goodbye time.

Wild sea seen from our bus on the way back into Wellington.

Finn and friend at Wellington airport.

Finn playing with his newly acquired Qantas fleet at Melbourne Airport.

Finn Simpson.

And to finish off, a lovely photo of our dear Ruby in the sun in Spain, where I write this now. A great holiday once again and thanks to everyone who helped us have such a wonderful time. For me, one more flight, then back in my own bed and... work!