The Wellington tour continues. . .

The weather stayed nice in Wellington, so for our third day together we headed down to civic square and had a wander around. I actually can't even remember what else we did, sorry! The girls were desperate to take Mimi and Big Daddy to Rosina's, our local cafe in the mall, for a mince savoury and sausage roll, so we duly went. I dropped them all off and did my grocery shopping for the evening since it was our last official dinner party at Beauchamp Street and I needed to do some cooking. The kids all went to Karori Cottage with Mimi and Big Daddy for an hour to let me get organized, then it was back to our house for a fun meal with our close friends the Sheppards and the Hoggs.

The rugby statue.

The square.

Rosina's.

Performing at Karori Cottage.

Beauchamp Street - table set amidst the boxes lining the walls.

Playing "Wits End" - a game Mimi and Big Daddy brought us, very similar to Trivial Pursuit.

Kids watching "Dolphin Tale" - a great movie also brought by Mimi and Big Daddy.

Zealandia and Makara Beach and a birthday!

Our second day together was jam-packed with activities around our suburb - we started the day at Zealandia, a former bird sanctuary and now an "eco-attraction", right here in Karori. We walked around for a couple of hours, had morning tea in the cafe, and then enjoyed the indoor exhibit before heading home for lunch.

Inside these boxes the girls could see how various birds made nests and what they looked like.

Pulling these pipes up and down mimicked birdsong.

The Tuatara - a reptile specific to New Zealand that has been around since the time of the dinosaurs.

I made muffins to tide us over until morning tea and sure enough Ellie asked for hers about five minutes into our walk.

Looking for the birds pictured on the fence.

Feeding the baby ducklings what was left of our muffins.

Standing on the dam - doesn't look as high as it was!

After our lunch at home we took a short drive down to the southwest coast to Makara Beach. It's always windy at Makara and the rocky beach is rugged and feels a million miles away from civilization.   The girls and Big Daddy skipped stones before we headed inside for milkshakes and coffee - Mimi was cold or we might have walked the Makara trail. Next time!

 

Inside the cafe, without the wind, it was as warm as a sauna. There was a funny story of Ellie and a shell - well, it wasn't really funny, but Mimi thought it was. I'll save Ellie the embarrassment of elaborating here but suffice it to say there was a very tall-tale involved.

After our stint out at Makara we all went home and freshened up for the adults to have an evening out at one of Wellington's best restaurants to celebrate Big Daddy's 70th birthday. We went to Ambeli and enjoyed an amazing meal but unfortunately mom and I both forgot our cameras because we both went out without purses. So, this was taken with my phone and is completely fuzzy but you can at least get the idea. . .

Visitors!!

We were thrilled to welcome Mimi and Big Daddy to Wellington at the beginning of January - our first official American visitors! We hope they will tell everyone what a fabulous time they had so others will come too. . .

Wellington greeted them with an absolutely stunning day - no wind even so their landing wasn't scary at all. The girls more than made up for any lack of excitement during landing - they could hardly contain themselves!

We stopped for morning tea at a cafe on Oriental Bay.

After our refreshments we went over to Lambton Quay to see Dugald at work. The girls had fun dancing in front of his office while we waited for him to come downstairs.

Then finally we took Mimi and Big Daddy to Karori Cottage where they would be staying. They unpacked their duffel bag and generously delivered four scooters to four very happy little girls!!

They also delivered very special packages from Lilly and Anna - cool t-shirts from Abercrombie and Fitch and bows that Lilly made and friendship bracelets from Anna. The girls put them all on immediately, then we scootered and walked over to our house on Beauchamp Street.

After lunch we did the walking tour of Karori - including of course Marsden and Karori Normal. While both schools were closed for summer, Mimi got to meet the principal of Marsden, Jenny Williams, at the grocery store later in the week.

After our stroll around town the girls had swim practice. I expected Mimi and Big Daddy to go home and have naps but they stayed and watched the whole thing. After that we had a quiet dinner at home to end the first day of their visit.

(Thank you Mimi for all the photos)