A little piece of home

Finally Cameron's parents have arrived. It's been such a blast having them here in NZ with us. We picked them up from the airport on Sunday night, luckily there were no delays but because they had to go through customs (because they declared any and every thing they had, bless their hearts) there was a bit of a wait at the arrivals lounge at Auckland International. Needless to say Cameron got into a bit of a panic and my incessant talking was not helping. There I was trying to take his mind off things but all I was doing was riling him up further. Anyway, they finally came through the gates, and the emotions were overwhelming. After 2 years of not seeing them it just seemed so surreal that they were here in person. We spent all of last night catching up and only crawled into bed about 3am, needless to say it's been a very looong day at the office, but it's not going to last very long thankfully.

Have lots planned for the next few days, so will keep you all posted.

Brad in action

I know he is going to kill me, but I can't resist. I have been sitting with this video for almost 4 months now and I think it's time I just bit the bullet and put it up, I mean is he really going to hate me for it?

Love you bro....

My South African princesses

It's been 2 years since I've been home and the saddest part about being away from family is that everyone grows up so quickly. My 2 nieces especially, Amber & Shannon. When Cameron & I immigrated to NZ Amber was 17 and Shannon 2, now Amber is 19 and Shannon 4 but OMG when you watching them grow through pictures they seem to grow so fast. My 2 girls who I adore more than life itself, and not forgetting my Kiwi niece Eryn (5), and my 2 nephews, Brandon (9) & Dylan (11). But this Ode goes to my 2 SA girls. How I miss them and can't wait to see them again. These are some pics of my 2 girls, courtesy of Amber... miss you girls....

The parents are coming....

We are so excited, we've just received confirmation that Cameron's parents are coming to NZ in April for a few weeks to celebrate Cam's birthday. Considering we haven't seen them in almost 2 years, this is the best news.

Now we just have to plan what to do and show off Auckland... All in all just knowing that they will be here means so much to us.

Can't wait!!!

Valentines Day 2010

This Valentines Day was our 7th Valentines Day that we've celebrated together as a couple. So this year we celebrated at one of Auckland's finest restuarants, Iguacu Restuarant & Bar.

My Valentine treated me to wonderful dining, great company and a marvelous evening. We pretty much had the entire dining area to ourselves and with the candlelight and ambiance we really had a romantic valentines date.

Our entrees were CRISPY LEMON PEPPER CALAMARI and roast garlic aïoli for me and TEMPURA GREEN LIPPED MUSSELS individually wrapped in nori with a lightly spiced Vietnamese dip for Cameron. We then dined on CHARGRILLED PRIME SCOTCH on aromatic spiced potatoes, creamed spinach with béarnaise sauce and cabernet reduction; and SEARED KANGAROO LOIN served rare on a potato and bush pepper rösti, with an oven dried tomato salsa and a tamarillo jus, and then had a BERRY MOUSSE TOWER topped with creamed yoghurt and TIRAMISU with shaved bittersweet chocolate.


Needless to say we really enjoyed our date and would definitely recommend this wonderful restaurant to any one looking for a fine dining experience in Auckland.

Thank you honey for a wonderful valentine's experience and I look forward to the next 70 Valentines Days...



Happy Valentines Day everyone...

Relaxing at home

In between all the outings what we've done most this holiday is spend time with each other and catch up. Because it was my holiday too Cameron decided that we would bbq more so that I don't spend each day in the kitchen. Well with all the prep work for these lovely BBQ's Sham & I were still busy busy busy!!! LOL!!!

But it was well worth it... we really went all out though. With Brad's chef's hat on and Cameron's divine steaks we ate like royalty..

Exploring Auckland

With Bradley & Shamini being with us over the past few days, we've had no excuse to not go out to places we've been wanting to go but just hadn't had the energy.

On Sunday afternoon we visited Kelly Tarltons, New Zealand's own so-called "Underwater world" and aquarium. It was an experience, but sadly it was a bit of a disappointment. For anyone who has visited uShaka Marine World in Durban (or perhaps other Marine Worlds/Aquariums around the world) you will notice the distinct differences. Firstly Kelly Traltons is way to small... okay so they have the SnowCat Ride, where you can go through the penguin aquariums and see them close up, but that's it... seriuosly.... the glass tunnel is nice, but when they advertised "Underwater World" my expectations were very high.
Nonetheless we took lots of pics, enjoyed the marine life and an hour later were on our way. But out of the 4 of us, I think I was the least disappointed... LOL!!!



















We visited Sky Tower as well this week, it's the biggest tourist attraction in Auckland, I would say. This tower is 328 metres high and is the tallest man-made structure in the southern hemisphere. The scenery is awesome but for thos who have vertigo... don't try it. From the minute you step into the lifts you are bombarded with the fact that you are 328 metres above ground. The lifts have glass floors and glass doors so you see the entire lift shaft as you ascend and the Waitemata harbour and Auckland CBD are your only views.

In Sky Tower Foyer (under the big Waka/canoe):



With the little version of the Tower:


We got up to the Observation Deck and were astounded by the beautiful views.










By the end of it, these two had had enough and were ready to go home, perhaps to attack the XBox!!!