Xmas Holidays 2015 Day Thirteen

/ BeeJayGe

Thursday 31 December 2015

At last it’s the end of the year and a wee bunch of us decided to spend the last day of 2015 in Kumeu, trying lots of different wines and buying all the ones we liked.  Our sober driver picked me up at 9:30 so we could make a very early start and beat the crowds.

We arrived at the first vineyard at 10:00.  Matua Valley Vineyard brought back many happy memories as this is where the whole family flew to by helicopter for my Mum’s 50th birthday dinner, funny I should come back here now that I’m 50! Interestingly the Hunting Lodge where we had dinner no longer exists, they’ve turned the restaurant building into the tasting room. It’s still a really lovely venue.  It’s here that I learnt Pinot Gris wine is quite pleasant first thing in the morning.
Matua Valley Vineyard

Next stop was the Coopers Creek Vineyard.  Even tho it was just after 10:30 I’m fairly certain we woke up the man who ran the tasting sessions.  He had a lot to set up and get organised before he was ready to share his wines and vast knowledge with us. No worries… it’s a lovely place to be relaxing in before soaking up more free wine!
Coopers Creek

I wonder what gets stored in those big shiny silos that are sitting in the sun getting hot!Coopers Creek

Our next stop was supposed to be Nobilos, but it was closed! This used to be one of my favourites, but apparently it has something to do with the council buying the land for much needed housing – boo!!!

Next stop was Soljans Estate Winery, the restaurant there is one of my all time fave places to eat.
Soljans Vineyard

Next stop was supposed to be the Hallertau Brewery but it was closed for renovations (I think).

Next stop was a long drive out to the whop whops where they had NO cellphone coverage!!!!!  But the drive was well worth it as the Westbrook Winery was set amongst some beautiful countryside.  I’m not sure if it was due to the vast number of wines I had already sampled or just that particular vineyard’s grapes but I wasn’t keen on anything I tried there, according to my friends it was possibly coz the wine wasn’t sweet enough for me.
Westbrook Vineyard

Westbrook Vineyard

Westbrook Vineyard

 

Westbrook VineyardWestbrook Vineyard

After all that wine tasting we stopped at the Boric Food Market for a well deserved coffee and then headed home to wait for the evening’s activities.

Every new year’s eve night I try to do something different to celebrate.  This year we headed to Devonport for a late dinner at Portofino and then walked down to the wharf just in time to catch the Sky City fireworks display.  Portofino was great – I think I’ve found a new fave place to eat on the Shore – best Tequila and orange ever!!!

Xmas Holidays 2015 Day Eight

/ BeeJayGe / Leave a comment

Saturday 26 December 2015

Today was a very leisurely day where I got to do a whole lot of nothing.

So I started on some Lego that I was supposed to build before Xmas day to add to the existing Xmas themed set “Winter Cottage”.  This set is the toy shop and comes with an awesome Xmas tree and presents.

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Check out my Lego blog for more.

While building Lego and listening to some music on my way cool new Bose bluetooth speaker (thank you Santa) I got to light a couple of the candles that a friend gave me.  The brand is called: The Cookery and they have all these fabulous scents like Raspberry & Lychee which are so delicious I just want to eat them.

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Once it got too dark to build Lego I went for a walk up the road to check out the house on the corner.  Every year the owner does an awesome Xmas display, well worth the little walk.

Xmas Holidays 2015 Day Seven

/ BeeJayGe / Leave a comment

Xmas Day, Friday 25 December 2015

For the first time in history I was allowed a sleep in on Xmas day. My sister and her bunch were not able to be with us on Xmas day this year as they would all be somewhere else.  That leaves only Dad, his wife, my brother and his girlfriend to celebrate together at Dad’s retirement village.

This year the village restaurant decided to open for a special Xmas buffet so we jumped at the chance to enjoy some great food without having to prepare or bring anything and no mess to clean up afterwards.  It was a great idea and hopefully we’ll get to do it again next year, as we enjoyed it so much.

After breakfast we did presents and had a couple of drinks before heading home for the rest of the day.

Once home I opened a couple of extra special presents I received from friends – I think it’s nice to save some presents for later so it’s not all over in one big present opening extravaganza!

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As it got dark I remembered to look out for the moon, as it was the first time in 25 years (or something like that) where it would be a full moon on Xmas Day. Next full moon on Xmas Day won’t happen till 2034!

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What a lovely Xmas day.

Xmas Holidays 2015 Day Six

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Thursday 24 December 2015

Christmas Eve… Luckily I didn’t need to go anywhere or do anything today except relax and wait for my friends (Barbara & Tony) to come round tonight for pizza and the movie Elf.
Xmas-eve

But then it suddenly dawned on me that I should probably get some snacks like chips and dips to enjoy while we waited for our pizza to be delivered or during the movie.  My fear of going anywhere near a supermarket or shops on the day before Xmas meant I would have to buy my supplies from the local gas station at huge expense but I didn’t care about the cost.

However… the gas station didn’t have any dips to go with the chips, so I had to put all the bags of chips back on the shelves and in desperation drive to the nearest supermarket in fear and dread!

But… it was ok, parking wasn’t an issue and there weren’t that many people in the supermarket and every till was open so the whole ordeal was painless and over very quickly.

The evening was really lovely and surprisingly I actually enjoyed the movie, I’d never seen it before.  My friends gave me an awesome photo box from Kikik so I can start printing my best pics and put them in a groovy display album.Photo-2-01-16

I popped in a couple of my photos to show you how big it is. The magnetic lid folds back on itself to make a stand, cool eh!

Happy New Year Everybody

/ BeeJayGe / Leave a comment

I just made a new year’s resolution… to take more photos and do more with them.

Yesterday I noticed a stunning picture frame in a vineyard that had a collection of 12 awesome photos of Auckland. I thought to myself that I too have some great shots of Auckland that I could do something like that with. Not sure how, but the vineyard was selling the picture for $295 so it could be worth looking into. I’m not talking about selling stuff just doing more with my photos – I want to get back into it as a hobby.

Happy New Year

Xmas Holidays 2015 Day Five

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Wednesday 23 December 2015

After yesterday’s overcast weather I was extremely excited to wake up to this stunning view from my hotel room – it meant I would probably be able to see THE mountain.
The Devon

As I checked out of the hotel I asked the very friendly lady at reception where is the best place to view the mountain and she said it was just down the road from a bridge called Te Rewa Rewa, so after the gallery that would be our next stop.

Our first stop was at the Len Lye Gallery which I’d wanted to photograph for a couple of months after spotting it on the cover of the Air New Zealand magazine – it was stunning!
Len Lye Gallery

I also wanted to go inside the gallery to photograph the gigantic “fibre optic” sculptures.
Inside Len Lye Gallery

We were in the gallery a bit longer than expected and received a parking ticket for exceeding the 30 minute limit – wow they don’t muck around in New Plymouth! The gallery was just across the road from the courthouse, so I wonder if that had anything to do with it.
New Plymouth

Next stop was the Te Rewa Rewa Bridge to hopefully see THE mountain at last.
Te Rewa Rewa Bridge
Te Rewa Rewa Bridge
I finally got to see Mount Taranaki (Mt Egmont) and the bridge certainly was a great place to photograph it from (thank you Devon Hotel reception lady/Manager), not only was it a great vantage point, but the bridge itself was quite spectacular, especially on a beautiful sunny day – all white against a blue sky.

Next stop was Tupare Gardens, lovely very English style settings with loads of beautiful hydrangeas in unusual colours.
Tupare Gardens
Tupare Gardens
Tupare Gardens
Unfortunately it was the middle of the day, really hot and the amazing colours of the plants just didn’t come out in photos, so we headed home.

We stopped at a place called Three Sisters coz it seemed like a nice place to stop for a toilet break.
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Next was Te Kuiti which I’ve decided is not somewhere I want to go again – I got out of the car and stood on some chewing gum – yuk! We didn’t stay long after that.

Next stop was in the middle of nowhere to buy Strawberries from the PioPio Berry Shop – there were loads of cars parked out the front so my friend figured it must be a good place to buy fruit. I decided to buy a drink, but to pay for it you had to join the same queue as the fruit buying people so I had no choice but to stand next to big punnets of sweet smelling strawberries which of course made me want to buy some. They were flying off the shelf and I’m sure I waited in the queue for about half an hour! At $25 a punnet they must be good.

The last stop on our journey was at a brand new mega shopping centre in Hamilton called The Base where I had McDonalds for dinner and watched thousands of people frantically trying to do very last minute Xmas shopping.