Wedding Anniversary Nov 1st

November the 1st was Brian and my 26th Wedding Anniversary. I had to work and I had no idea that Brian had been down and booked a table at the Caloundra RSL for dinner that evening. I decided I would send him some flowers this year as we have had a bit of an up and down year with his health and thought this would be a nice way to show him how much I love him. I sent a nice floral arrangement of Alstromeria, Day Lily and some native flax and tucked into the arrangement was a bottle of bubbly. I recieved a beautiful bunch of Red Roses. We arrived at the RSL to find our table was taken over by some old fellow and we never had the heart to ask him to move as he was busily tucking into his dinner, it worked to our advantage as they moved us to the fine dinning area and that was way better as you were waited on - only having to leave your seat to head to the loo - hahahaha. We had a great night and another wedding anniversary down.

Dreaded teeth time

Tuesday 25th September

Well the day had arrived for Rory to go into hospital to have his teeth done. He has a fear of needles and the school dentist made it worse for him so he was booked in to have his teeth done at the hospital dental clinic. He was to have a general so he would know nothing about it, he was fine other than the fact that his tummy hurt due no eating allowed and or drinking - kids eh so he hid under the chair and grumbled my tummy is sore. He went in with Yasmine and there were no hassles the job was done and no pain and or suffering. 

The photo below shows a boy who just wants to sleep.

Flying back to Brisbane

Wednesday 12th September

Sees Brian and I return home to Brisbane and farwell to our darling family.I hate the goodbye's - when we arrived home last night Rory's Rugby League coach had come around with his certificate and medal for the end of season games - Rory was so excited (see photo below).School for Rory and work for Yasmine and Adam, Brian and I went with Rory this morning to say goodbye as we would be gone when he arrived home. We dropped Yasmine at work and had her car for the morning, we didn't go anywhere other than to the Hornby Mall and back again. We did the house for Yasmine and washing and got the wood in for her to light the fire when she arrived home. We were meeting Sonya - Adam's sister at Yasmine's work at 1.00pm and she was then taking us to the airport as Yasmine did not need to take time off work and or take Rory out of school. The time arrived for us to leave and drop Yasmine's car off, Sonya had arrived and it was the dreaded time I hate - those bloody good -byes. I assured Yasmine I will return one day and I promised her that, just that at present the time is not right, we still want to travel and see more of this huge big country and with tears in our eyes we left her waving good - bye. As I type this it tears me up so on that note I will finish this part of the trip here and say we had a wonderful time and NZ will always be home - just now we call Australia home and we are proud and happy to be here.

This photo below was the last photo I took and show a very proud little boy displaying his certificate and medal - well done Rory xxxx

Last day Christchuch

Tuesday 11th September

This was our last day in Christchurch and we had Yasmine's car so decided to go into the city and take some photos. In the evening we went to Brian's neice's house (this house has been Red Zoned and is to be demolished it is only 5yr old) for a BBQ tea, by the time we arrived at Catherine's it was freezing and I mean freezing cold, raining and just awful. Wayno had to cook the BBQ in the garage while we all sat inside, Catherine had the heatpump whirring away on 25c for us so we were nice and cozy. All Brian's family came, sister Rosie, brother Terry his wife Patricia was in bed with some bug. Brian's nephew Brian and his wife Anna also came as were Catherine and Wayne and their 3 kiddies, the twins Fynn and Bailey 8yr and Matilda 6yr. We left to head back to Yasmine's around 9.00pm to actually arrive back there where I parked the car, she went out a bit later to ensure old mother had locked it to say come and have a look - I was shocked thinking what had I done!!!!!! however it was all good it was SNOWING, we were leaving tomorrow to head home.

Still in Christchurch

Monday 10th September

Photo below is of my work mates from Air NZ - Jacky Korndorffer, CJ, Loraine Ainsworth - thanks girls for making the effort to come over and
catch up.

Today was again school for Rory and work for Yasmine and Adam, which left Brian and I to do whatever. It was arranged with a couple of my old Air NZ mates that as they had RDO they would come out to Hornby Mall and meet up for a coffee and bite to eat. It was great catching up and having a chat with them - thanks Jacky & Loraine. School over and Rory and mum arrived home, Monday's are swimming lesson day for Rory and he loves it I along with Yasmine and Rory went to see how he has been doing, we left grandad at home to get the fire going.As you can see by the photo below of Rory sound asleep he did not want to wake up this morning he had  - had such a busy weekend. 

Orana Park

Sunday 9th September

Yesterday was a day for doing chores etc, Yasmine went off to have her hair done while I minded Rory and Grandad well we don't know where or what he did/went hahahaha -
Today we went off to Orana Park - which is a wildlife park in Christchurch and we had not been in years so thought it would be good to do. Rory went as a baby so never remembered it at all for him it was AMAZING. It was a nice fine day and all except Rory and I had a jacket!!! it was a cold wind when we arrived so we sent grandad off to the shop to buy a couple of those plastic rain jackets, which Rory and I put on straight away, we looked like we had been wrapped in glad wrap but they did keep the wind out. Brian stayed until midday and he went back home to Yasmines and came and picked us up at 4.00pm, by that time we had seen all the park with thanks to the little shuttle cart that ferries you around, the park without having to walk for kms and kms. We ended the day by going out for dinner with Yasmine, Adam,Rory my sister Angela, hubby Martin and younger nephew Ian who was back from church camp. We had a nice meal at Robbies in Riccarton a great way to end a great day, we were not late as Rory had school on Monday and everyone other than Brian and I had work.

Enjoy the Photos:

Yasmine and Rory  we love you so much xxx

James turns 21

Friday 7th September

With Rory at school and Yasmine and Adam at work, Brian and I had a bit of time to ourselves. We would either have Yasmine's car and if not we would just walk to the local shopping mall - Hornby Hub.
This time when we were there my sister and both nephews had - had birthdays and we had decided to celebrate James 21st with a families get together however as happens this did not happen so Brian and I and Yasmine and Rory decided along with my sister we would go over for tea on the Friday night to catch up with them and the boys. James was home however Ian went off to a church youth camp - we had a great night and took some lovely photos of the family and boys.

 Uncle Brian, James, Aunty Chris and Ian.

Martin, James and Angela.

Angela and Ian above photo - like peas in a pod these two.

Above photo: Ian,Aunty Chris,James - aunty is getting left
behind look at the height of these two.

 Cutting the cake - it was so yummy

James and Angela - I  love this photo.
And now at least I have some really up to date photos of my two
wonderful nephews.

Christchurch here we come!!!!

Wednesday 5th September


The dad finally arrived for us to head south to Christchurch for 7nights
to see the families - wahoo is a girl excited hell yeah and so were Yasmine and Rory. We left Turangi on a cold and wet morning to head north again toward Taupo and onto Rotorua for our flight to Christchurch. We left Turangi at 1000am and arrived at Rotorua Airport at 1210pm after a nice relaxing drive - I drove this time to allow Brian to relax and take photos. Our flight to Christchurch was not until 1.55pm so we checked our luggage in first before heading to the cafe and ordering coffee and a bite to eat as we had a bit of a wait before we departed south. We found a nice sunny spot by the window with nice comfy lounge seats - we took over the area first in first served, when we arrived there the terminal was empty anyway. There is a departure tax payable of $5 per person before you are allowed to board any aircraft - we used to have this in Christchurch also however it casued so many problems they did away with it. Our flight was duely called and we boarded, sat back for the pleasant flight south to Christchruch and awaiting family, we arrived in Christchurch to a loely warm day and an excited little boy and his mum. Once the cuddles were over we went and collected the luggage and headed to Yasmine's car for the drive home where we would stay for the 7 nights, Yasmine is only 15mins from the airport so we were home in no time.

 Above Photo is flying over the Mighty Southern Alps

 Above photo is the New Zealand capital  - Wellington

 And guess who was there to meet us - Yasmine and Rory, Grandad cut Yasmine's head of :-(

My precious grandson Rory xxxx

On route to Christchurch 2012

The next section of our trip will be our Christchurch visit, so watch this space for some photos of our beautiful city, it is slowly rebuilding although there is still alot of demolition work continuing in the CBD which is still fenced off so you are unable to get into the actual City of Christchurch.
More to follow folks - thanks for taking the time to look and read.

Last day here Turangi

Tuesday September 4th - Last day in Turangi

Once again we woke to rain and a very cold wind so we stayed in bed until around 0930. Had breakfast, showers etc - Brian went down to say goodbye to them at the Hatchery and to see his friends at the Tongariro Motels. While he was away I did all the washing and had to put it into the drier to ensure it was properly dry before we packed to head to Christchurch tomorrow.. Later in the day we vacumed through out and that meant all we had to do the following morning was clean the bathroom and loo. We went for our last dip down to the hot pools and as there was hardly anyone there we managed to get longer in the pool which was great, it was so wet. We arrived back at the house and made a cuppa and stayed in for the rest of the night.

Turangi stay almost over

Monday September 3rd

Monday dawned with rain and I was going to go to the river with Brian however as I had no wet weather gear I decided to day home. It started to rain much heavier and we spent most of the day inside in the warm and dry watching TV and I did some of my digital scrapping tutorials and re organised some folders for my digital downloads. The photos below of the daffs were being grown in a garden next door to where we were staying -  luv the white one as I have never seen a white daff before.