Saturday, January 04, 2014

A snapshot of Christmas times....

It feels like I have been away from my blog for like a million years! I hope you all had a great Christmas and New Years with friends and family. I have so much to tell you and I still haven't worked out my New Years Resolutions/goals for 2014.

I thought today I'd just share a few photos of my Christmas time - this year Rich and I went to stay at his parents orchard in Te Puna near Tauranga. What kind of orchard you may ask? Well kiwifruit of course.
If you're not from New Zealand you most likely call them simply "kiwi" - but we also have kiwi (birds) and so things could get confusing if we call the fruit "kiwi" as well.

Anyways enough about the kiwifruit - a few things we got up to whilst we were staying with Rich's parents include a walk to Te Puna Quarry Park. It's partly an "art park" - but it does have bush walks as well. We have checked out the art part of the park many times before, so decided to go for a bush walk.








We also went to check out the succulent garden in quarry park - so many interesting plants and pretty colours.


 We also checked out the butterfly garden which had lots of pretty flowers and monarch butterflies - however, the butterflies were a little camera shy.



They have also recently added a water wheel at the park - I thought it was kind of fun.
Also whilst we were at Rich's parents we did a walk around Mount Maunganui - I didn't take any photos of our walk. But I did take some of our stroll along Mount Maunganui beach afterwards.

Last we went to check out "Historic Villiage on 17" - when  I was young this was a park where you would visit and learn about the past, what life was like in New Zealand for the early settlers and I'm pretty sure there was a steam train of some type.

However, now its kind of a centre for stores and artists - it was pretty quiet the day we visited. However, we were visiting the day after boxing day! It did seem like a pretty cool space.















Finally here's a photograph from our plane when we were returning to Wellington - when we finally arrived home it was raining (Murphy's Law). However, its always good to be home.

5 comments:

Pull Your Socks Up! said...

The NZ bush. Is there anywhere more magical to wander through and explore? What wonderful pics of your lovely break. Happy New Year to you my lovely!! xoxo

Vintage Bird Girl said...

Happy new year to you & Rich. Isn't the Mount a beautiful area. We've only stayed in Tauranga once. Love seeing your pics. Hope you're having a Fab weekend! Xx

Helga said...

Surprisingly I love a bush walk, especially if I have some suitable footwear on!!! How bloody gorgeous!
And OH, a kiwi fruit orchard!!!! My word, that sounds like ecsasy. My Mama grew up on a mango plantation in QLD......I just love the idea of fruit on tap!
It's all rather splendid, and that first piano rocks!
Happy New year, darlings! XXX

Louise said...

You live in such a gorgeous country! The bush and the beach look really beautiful, and your photos are amazing. I also don't think I've ever seen a Kiwi fruit plant before, not even in a photo! Happy New Year! x

alicia said...

for most of my life i assumed referring to new zealanders as kiwi was in reference to the kiwifruit! so confused. i'm not sure how the bird makes more sense, but it just does ok??? also, the god barber! <3 <3 <3