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!!!

Christmas in Auckland

Christmas for 2009 has proved to be one to be remembered. We are blessed to have Bradley & Shamini (Cam's brother & his wife) come over from Australia and spend time with us. After spending last Christmas without family we really are grateful to have them around. And because we haven't seen them in 6 months it was quite an excruciating wait, counting down the days and nights until Christmas eve when they arrived. And even more so when their flight was delayed.

When they got in though, it was like we had never been apart...



Once we got home we could finally put our Star on the Christmas tree... Cameron was adamant we would not put it up before Brad arrived because he wanted it to be a special time, where we could enjoy it as a family. Once the star was on we could put on the lights and finally get to enjoy our Christmas tree.







We then partied the night away, opened gifts at mignight and just enjoyed our first night together. Brad particularly was thrilled about our new 42" LCD TV and well Cameron couldn't get over the fact that Bradley & Shamini had got him the Tekken 6 XBox game....





We had to have an early morning on Christmas day because there was so much to prepare. But no matter how early I got up, nothing went as planned. The oven decided that it would not work so all my preparation went out the door and panic set in... Then brainstorm... either Cam or Brad decided that we could get the BBQ going and put the roasts in there... so Brad got going with the lamb prep and got that in there... meanwhile I decided to try the oven again, but this time only put on the "Lower Oven" and viola it was hot and in went the rest of the food. My mum handed down her famous Stuffing recipe so my Christmas was complete!!! On the menu was roast lamb with gravy, roast Chicken (cos we don't enjoy Turkey too much) with stuffing, roast potatoes, Lasagne, Steak & Mushroom pie and salads. For dessert Brad was going to make his famous peppermint tart but I forgot to get the cream so luckily we had some Sara Lee desserts in the freezer and some ice-cream... at the end of the day, we had the Christmas dinner we were hoping to have.







One of Cam's work friends, Matt, joined us for Christmas as well so Cam had fun entertaining "Sagren style". Cameron is his father's son through & through. He loves having a good time and entertaining people and giving everyone a good time.





After all the cooking and eating, we just sat around the table and enjoyed each others company.



I can't wait for next Christmas where we will have the whole family together and will hopefully be in South Africa with all our friends and loved ones...

Merry Christmas Everyone...

Fletchers 100 Year celebration

Saturday night was Fletchers 100 year celebration. Fletchers is the conglomerate Cameron works for, I say conglomerate because there is no company here in NZ that Fletchers does not have a hand in.

Anyway, it was a fun evening with Dave Dobbyn (if you've lived or are living in NZ or know anything about NZ music you'll know who this guy is) as the entertainment. And all the beautiful people from Fletchers. All in all it was a good night with great food, great wine and good company.




Well done Flecthers, here's to another 100 years