NZ Summer Holiday - Day 4

It's Chistmas Eve today... how nice to be celebrating it overseas... but then again, I've got to remind myself not to ever come NZ during Christmas Eve especially on Christmas Day... cos most of the shops are closed on Christmas Day!  Just found out from my sis-in-law who lives here, that shops will be fined if they operation on Christmas Day!!! Shops which need to operation on that day will need to get a license and subject to approval... GOSH!!!

rewinding back to 6 years ago..... wonderful memories.....

NZ holds many wonderful memories for us, especially Lake Taupo, as we were here with Amanda when she was 3 years old.... photos above were taken in Lake Taupo and Hamilton...

Anyway, now back to our summer hols... We woke up all excited about our trip.. as usual, we prefer to have a good night's rest since we're on a holiday... checked out of the hotel at 10am and off we went to Lake Taupo, stopping over at McDonalds for brekkie 30mins after the journey...

love the gps... :)) stopping over for brekkie

we took a picture at this huge doggie 6 years ago too...

finally arrived at lake taupo...

we had no time for rides as we were late for our check in...

majestic huka falls... my photos this round didn't do any justice to the fall at all... sob sob...

checking in at last... :))

there was a jacuzzi in our room

overlooking lake taupo from 2nd floor...

fresh milk delivery??... haha...  we couldn't wait for our lavender soak in the jacuzzi... oh yes, this cottage has a private walkway that leads us to lake taupo... awesome, isn't it?

exploring the place after freshening up... mini stonehenge? hehehe...

i love the top right picture... my favourite shot... :))

present vs past... (right) by the way, it was gu-ma who put the flowers on her head when we were at lake taupo 6 years ago...

3 mile beach... water sports...

we found lions walk!!!

daddy missed those days and wanted to take more pictures here...

hole-in-one at lake taupo...

past vs present.... notice how amanda has grown...

reminiscing those days...

guess what?! we chanced upon the motel we stayed in taupo 6 years ago!!.. so amanda went up to the same unit and took a picture... past vs present... :)

snacked at burger king (not much choice since most of the restaurants were about to close for the eve)... decided to take away fish and chips for late dinner as we knew we would be hungry after our swim at the lake...  took some pictures while waiting for the fish and chips... look at the doggy park... how interesting...

see what i mean?.... Open on all Public Holidays EXCEPT CHRISTMAS!

getting ready for our swim at the lake and walking through the private walkway... how private... hehe...

gosh, the water was really icy cold at 11 deg cel... we were the only one swimming in the lake at 7pm... a caucasian lady was telling us that we are one of the gungho chinese who dares to swim at this time and at this temperature... hehe.... now come to think of it... why did the sky turn dark so fast in lake taupo? in auckland, it only turned dark at 9pm....

a family photo with the lovely sunset as backdrop...

i love the top right family photo amidst the lovely sunset... :))

continuing with part 2... our lavender jacuzzi soak... bliss...

followed by our fish and chips...

some shots before we called it a day...

amanda brought her xmas sock with her to nz... and she placed her letter to santa inside the sock!... the tree was part of our cottage xmas decor, so we conveniently hung the sock there.....

Ahhh.... what a way to spend our Christmas Eve this year... spending precious moments with your family... lovely isn't it?.... 

NZ Summer Holiday - Day 3

A new day awaits us as we woke up fresh and chirpy... Had a good night's sleep and our day started at 10 am...

amanda was our little helper in charge of the gps throughout the entire trip... :)  as usual, daddy went round uni-hunting.... boring... *yawns*

bought his tees and sweatshirts as usual...

drove to st lukes (auckland's largest mall) recommended by the bus driver when we boarded the bus at auckland's fish market last night... hehehe.... had lunch there and did lots of shopping... advantage of self-drive is you can just dump your loots in the car boot... hehe!

since the sky was still bright, we decided to drive to long bay beach and park...

daddy balancing himself while trying to capture shots of the seagulls soaring in the sky...

the car became our mobile wardrobe as we had a change of outfit.. lol!

our shadows and the awesome beach of long bay....  :)

the feeling there was great.. totally relaxing....

these 2 boys caught our attention and we couldn't help but sneak a few shots of them... :P

extreme lower right... beware : ducks crossing!

decided to squeeze in devonport as well since it was still bright at 7pm.... woohoo.... i love long days...

look at the father & daughter doing the same pose... can you spot a guy swimming in the sea?

what a lovely poodle...

devonport yacht club

devonport is a lovely town... would be nice if we could sit down, relax and have a drink at one of the taverns... but a pity we were running short of time...

dropped by countdown to get some grocery... silly us, parked at britomart and it cost us NZ8 for just 1 hour 4 mins of parking... gosh! countdown provides free parking for their shoppers and it's right at the doorstep...

decided to cook dinner... prepared mushroom pasta with fresh prawns, bought 3 types of salads (cannot remember which but they were absolutely delicious), fried eggs and also ready-packed bbq drumsticks... it was a sumptuous meal... had actually wanted to take a picture of everything nicely set up but by the time we started cooking, it was almost 10pm and we were all famished... so started devouring whatever could be eaten while waiting for pasta to be cooked.... hahaa..... amanda helped me in preparing the meal... :)

amanda also tried oreo dipped in milk before she slept... she said she's been seeing this in the advertisement and wondered how it tasted like, so decided to try...