Christmas in South Africa, 2010

Cameron & I love Christmas and we were so excited to be home for Christmas this year. We knew that Christmas day was sorted and that my mother-in-law had it all covered, and we knew it was going to be fun. As it always is!
So we spent Christmas eve with our "other" family, our friends at our favourite place to be - Aunty Mary's house. This Christmas was hard because we had lost alot of important people in our lives while we have been in NZ, and it was even more hard being at Aunty Mary's place (even just writing "Aunty Mary's place") because it was the first time we'd seen everyone and been home since Uncle Noel passed away. But we were so happy to be back with all the people we hold dear, and it felt like we had never left. Wayne had come to Durban as well, and so the old crew (minus Poovi & Kumaran) were finally back together.
Thiru, Cameron & Niven

Aunty Mary

Cyan

Thiru, Verasha (Vees) and Cyan

Cyan, Aunty Mary & Barthie

Me, Janine, Lloyd & Wayne

the crew


Thiru, Niven & Casper


Our friends Niven & Verasha's little girl Cyan has grown so much from a little toddler to the most beautiful little girl and it was so good seeing her again, and being able to have a conversation with her too. And we got to meet Lloyd's new girlfriend, Janine which was so good. Thiru & Barthie, and their son "Casper" were also there, the last I'd seen them they had made me the best crab curry for my farewell. It really felt like old times and although Uncle Noel wasn't there, he's presence was very near and we missed him sorely!

Uncle Noel (Papa)


The Christmas celebrations shortly begun, and it went pretty much until the next morning. Every moment we spent with our friends made us miss home so much more, and we realised that if we could only take the people we love with us back to NZ, life would be perfect. But even though we live far away from everyone, we didn't want to hold onto the negative, and the what if's, or the shoulda, coulda, woulda's we just enjoyed every moment and held onto every one dearly!

The boys





Cameron, Wayne & aunty Mary


At 6am we finally left Aunty Mary's place and went home. Cameron thought he'd get away with not going to church but his mother was waiting patiently for us and no sooner had we got home, we were off to church. Everyone was so excited to see Cameron and Pastor Tony ever so happily announced our arrival and welcomed us back.
When we got home we decided we'd have a small nap in preparation for the festivities and all the family that was coming over. Durban is usually extremely hot over Christmas and especially on Christmas Day, this year was no exception however this year surpassed all others... I've never felt so hot in all my life. The air was so thick and hot that you could barely breathe. I guess it may not have been as extreme to other as it was to me, but I think I've become to climatised to Auckland weather that I felt so uncomfortable in Durban. Anyway, we managed to stay cool and enjoyed ourselves on Christmas day.

All the family came over and we had a wonderful time. The food was plentiful and ever so yummy and the party started and ended well into the morning.

Amber, Cameron & Quentin

Ricky, Pam, my mum, and the kids

The Boys

The Bonhomme's

Me & Quentin

Lunchtime


The Boys

Cousins - The Pillay's


Dancing the night away



My Father-in-law and his sister, dancing the night away



For Cameron the most special moment for te night was his friend Gordon, who he hasn't seen in probably as long as we've been together, came by and it was so special seeing them reconnect. Cameron was Gordon's best man at his wedding and through circumstances that could not be controlled by either of them, they lost contact and by some stroke of genius, Gordon came by on Christmas Day and made my dear husband's day.


I love Christmas and being home this year, made it even more wonderful! I love being home!

uShaka Marine World

We didn't have the chance to get up to much while we were in SA. But one of the things we did do was go to uShaka Marine World with Wayne & Tish. It was a beautifully hot day and we enjoyed spending some quality time together. We love going to uShaka and have done so most of our time while we were courting. Although we had been there a few times Wayne & Tish hadn't been there before, as Tish is from Dundee (a small town in KZN) and moved to Johannesburg thereafter she never spends much time in Durban, and well, Wayne being who he is never took the time out to enjoy the wonders of the Marine underworld and so we took the opportunity to spend some time together, just the four of us.






The whole park is built in what used to be called the Point Beach area. And it includes both the Marine park as well as the Water world which is always packed to capacity. There's wonderful shopping in the little mall leading up to the park. And the beach is on the border so you can shop, swim, surf, or anything else right there.
The Marine park is built underground, and in a sunken ship. The amazing part for me is that the ceiling is what should be the floor and so it really gives you that feeling like you're walking in a sunken ship in the middle of the ocean. The glass panels are massive so you can look in and view the marine life (everything you can think of) and then ther's little aquariums with lobsters and crabs, eels, and they even have a little "Finding Nemo" exhibition which have all the little fish characters in there. Love it.






The shark tank still gets Cameron. I would've loved to do the Shark Tank Dive, where you're submerged in this steel tank with the Sharks... sadly I never got the chance this time... but I still have a hope.







We didn't have much time to see all the shows but we managed to sneak in the Seal Show. It was so cute and so hilarious and I was, as usual, really into the fun and if the "Pirate" Host had called me up to take part in the fun I so would've gone with it. But alas, I wasn't that lucky and someone else got called up. He was a visitor from the Mpumalanga province, and he was so scared of the seals that he made for really good entertainment! He kept running away hysterically every time the seal came near him and I was actually waiting for him to fall into the water... but he didn't, I was slightly disappointed! LOL!!







After the fun at the Marine world we had lunch at our favourite seafood place in the "WHOLE WIDE WORLD" - Ocean Basket. No pics of that I'm afraid, we were so excited that by the time I realised I should've taken pics, we were already eating! Oh well, great memories...