Girls just wanna have fun!

Well...we did it!

The girls and I drove all the way from Auckland to Waiuru and spent three nights with my cousin and family. It was a great break from house hunting and the girls especially enjoyed it as the photos should tell.

We left on Tuesday morning. It was drizzling in Auckland but reasonably warm. My little car was chocka full of baby supplies and things that girls need, mints and goodies in the glove box and a full tank of gas. 

Hitting the road about 9am meant that we missed most of the weekly work traffic. Cailtin and I discussed as we toddled along that it was in fact the first time I had driven over the Harbour Bridge, through Auckland and the Southern Motorway myself!!! Up till then I had kept my driving adventures to the North Shore.

We discovered the Tip Top factory on the outskirts or Auckland city and later discovered, when researching online that they have currently stopped tours due to the "swine flu". Bummer,,,,we will keep watching that one for up-dates. That could be another fun weekend activity.

The trip down was fairly uneventful,,,,a few toilets visited and nappy changing stations.

Collectively we decided that Tirau was our favourite place,, closely followed by Taupo. 

Tirau has a small number of shops and businesses but the entire township is full of corrugated iron sculptures and signs. The girls were screaming and pointing in every direction as we passed through. I promised to stop on the way back home to explore and get a closer look at the creations.

This doggy was actually the information centre and public toilets...which we obviously needed to use at least once LOL

Taupo was also a good place to stop on both journeys as it had beautiful views, even in the rain, and every takeaway or eating joint you can imagine. To my amusement they had a McDonalds in which a large passenger plane had landed..well not literally but it looked amazing. 

Now throughtout the journey, Molly, being a little confused about the location of our destination kept asking us if we were going on a plane again. Caitlin and I tried to help her understand where we were driving by using the map as a learning tool and telling her under no circumstance would we be boarding a plane.

Until McDonalds made a liar out of both of us. 

Molly's eyes and mouth nearly touched the ground when she saw the McDonalds playground. You could even eat your meal on the plane. Fantastic idea and it made my little girl's day!!!

The lake at Taupo was serene and glassy, but a little overshadowed by misty rain and fog. The girls had a run along it's edge tho and posed for a photo :-)


While in Waiuru we hit the playcentre where little Holly plays and socialises each week now. Molly thoroughly enjoyed it,,,she misses her preschool friends and doesn't start at her new kindy until July (Term 3).Phoebe enjoyed the music corner, almost as much as I did LOL. It seems a budding percussionist in the making.

Holly enjoyed the painting so much it was written all over her face, and hands, hair, mouth, clothes, toes......lol. At least Nick and Jo now know what to feed a growing girl at home.

Nick, Jo's hubby played games with the kids, inside and out. Dare I admit it, I even managed to have an afternoon nap after a night of early morning baby feeds. Thanks guys.....that hasn't happened for quite a while :-)

Lovely Holly and her carrot :-)

Babies sharing their toys.

Our few days with my cousin and family were fun. I actually did very little...which I'm pleased about. The girls on the other hand keep themselves and our guests very busy. 

Jo, my cuz loves to paint and to the girls delight had a whole box of canvases that she allowed them to paint on. Messy bliss!!!

Arriving back into Auckland traffic on Friday evening was an eye-opener...

We got a little squished in some extra traffic from the "Field Days" in Hamilton. The girls and I spent TWO hours sitting in crawling traffic jams. We did invent some songs, jokes, etc but it was an interesting end to our road trip. The girls got to see the skytower lit up in the dark and thank goodness we had gingernuts to keep Phoebe happy.

All in all we had a great time and it was a pleasant way to fill a week while we wait to get into our Stanmore bay house............which is where we will be at the end of this coming week.

Yaaaahooooooo!

I'll have my couches, photos, coffee plunger,,,,,,clothes....back again.

I can't wait!