Very HOT!!

After spending the last 12 days in NZ's wonderful summery weather, the 3 of us are finding it very difficult to cope with Brunei weather (already!). It is just so HOT! Oliver is sweating even in the aircon. I am having trouble being in the aircon all day as my eyes and throat get sore. Everything is so dry...

Perfect blue sky but I hope it will rain soon...

Safely home

Our NZ holiday came to the end today. My packing skill is steadily improving. I managed to pack all our clothes and new goodies except for 2 items (we are coming back next month so it was an easy decision to leave them behind). The day of departure is always running around and rushing for us but this time it was a bit different. I think leaving at 10am was much better than leaving at 1 am in the morning for all of us. I think we will stick with this for the future. We had time to have a lovely cooked breakfast in the courtyard and nice coffee with everyone at the airport.



Oliver with Merryn



Corin, Rory and Devon enjoying the fluffy

The boys helped us checking in, we had so much luggage that we needed help from Corin and Rory to blow the suitcases to make them move on the luggage checkin carousel.



We also had a fragile item. Corin and Rory put the stickers on for us and carried it to the special room so that they can put it on the plane separately. We were so pleased that the check in lady was such a lovely person and kid friendly. You don't want to start your 10 hour travel with grumpy one.





Oliver slept almost all the way to Brisbane and behaved really well on the second leg too. It was nice to see some of our friends as operating pilots.
Note: I was impressed by the meal they served us today, usually I don't eat much of plane food but today they all looked very nice and tasted really good!! Maybe something is improving in RBA !



We had such a lovely holiday (it was a bit short though).
Thank you M&D for letting us stay and looking after Oliver lots and lots. Thank you C&R for a wonderful day out and yummy yummy pizza, thank you so much K&L and Fenwick boys for the harbour cruise and for making lots of time available for Oliver to see his cousins :)

We will be back at the end of next month. See you all very soon!!
Merryn and Dennis, we are looking forward to seeing you here in Brunei in 5 weeks time.

Our last day in NZ

We had such a busy day yesterday (I always regret I should have done more in the first week...) in the morning Oliver, Merryn and I had a computer session on how to set up a blog, while Matthew was running errands.

In the afternoon we were booked to play golf with Dennis and Richard. We were quite brave to play on a real course after not playing golf for such a long time. We used to play occasionally in Japan but since we moved to Brunei we found it too difficult to play in the hot weather. I was worried I would be hitting so many to get through the 18 holes and just feel exhausted afterwards but the more I played the better I got! In the last hole I got par!!!! So so happy about it :)

All of us had great fun and I am sure that when we go back in March for the run we will be playing more golf.



Golfer Misuzu

When we returned to M&D's place the Fenwick boys were swimming in the pool so we got changed and jumped in! I had a good time teaching Corin how to swim. Hopefully the weather stays warm so that we can have more swimming sessions next month.



We finished off the day with beer and BBQ + bit of golf talk.

Shoulder ride

The other day Dennis gave Oliver a shoulder ride and he loved it!!



I can see so far away!!

Golly meter (8th month)

One of my friend introduced me to this "place a doll next to your baby and take photos on the birthday of every month". Well as you can see in my old post we use a special gollywog to measure Oliver's growth. Oliver was so lucky to have aunty Brenda to make him a nice gollywog.
This month we were so busy packing to come to NZ we missed out on Oliver's 8th measurement. Well lucky he has some cousins here in Auckland. They kindly let Oliver use their gollies :)



Look how much he has grown!!



He can interact with them now

Visit to Devonport

On Sunday we went to see our friends Bronwyn and Scott. I have known them for a long long time and they are great friends. They visited us in Brunei in September 2008 and I am making sure whenever I come to Auckland I make time to see them. I have convinced Bronwyn to run with me in the Run Auckland race in March - yeah! They live in the North part of Auckland called "Devonport". It is such a nice area to visit. You can get there by going over the harbour bridge or you can take a ferry from the city center (only takes 15minutes or so).

We walked to Mt. Victoria to see the greatest view of Auckland city then to Devonport. It has lots of arty crafty shops and nice cafes and restaurants. Unfortunately this time we got there a little bit too late to look at the shops (I do recommend this place if you are visiting Auckland). We carried on our walk down to the beach then back to their house for a yummy dinner.





It was a very relaxing pleasant evening, thanks for having us Bronwyn & Scott. See you in March!!

Megan & Darron's wedding

One of the main events of this trip was Megan & Darron's wedding on Saturday. It was a beautiful day and was held at a winery.

For this special day I had organised Matthew and Oliver's outfits. They put on their tailor-made matching shirt and trousers. Don't they look fabulous?!





Following the ceremony, we had a very nice sit down dinner reception. At our table we had Caroline & Richard, Kylie & Lindsay, Kirsty & Matt (it was very nice to catch up with you K&M!). Oliver went to sleep very nicely before we started our dinner (we are so lucky to have such a good baby). All the speeches were funny, we were especially impressed by Ted's :). The food and wine was fab!! (I am sure I have at least put on 3kgs since I arrived in NZ...need to run and run and run!)



The tables were decorated with lots of sunflowers.



Misuzu & Kylie looking fabulous

The night finished with music and dancing. We were pleased to see Caroline's special dance to "Sweet Caroline". It was also very nice to catch up with all the relatives, some of them we hadn't seen for a long time.



Caroline with uncle Alistair

Once again, congratulations Megan and Darron!!

Oliver meets a kiwi !?

At the wedding we found a kiwi !!! Oliver was bit suspicious to start with but he was brave enough to touch his beak.



Woooo there is a kiwi in the garden!



Cool looking kiwi



Gidday mate! My name is Oliver.

Day of Fun with Caroline and Richard

We had a very busy weekend. On Friday we finally redeemed our Christmas present, a voucher for a day of fun with Caroline and Richard. It included wine tasting in three different wineries in Matakana, a bottle of wine and a platter overlooking a stunning NZ view, picnic lunch at Tawharanui Regional Park, sober chauffeur (important in NZ!) and premium quality company (it said on the voucher *conditions apply).

Unfortunately the first winery we were supposed to visit was closed for a private function, but this means we have another excuse to visit a winery next time we are in the Auckland area. We drove to Heron's Flight Vineyard. The winery grows Italian grapes and produces Italian wine (I thought it was very funny producing Italian wine in New Zealand...). As much as we were excited, Oliver was also excited and enjoyed all the detailed talk about wine making + his first wine tasting... (just kidding! they also provided 100% pure grape juice tasting, they had two different sorts of grape juice to taste).





Give me more, Richard!

The second winery was one of C&R's favorite - Omaha Bay Vineyard. We had 5 kinds to taste and chose a bottle to have it with a platter. By the time I finished all the different sorts to taste and a glass of beautiful white, my tummy was feeling very warm and I started to feel very very happy♪



So fresh and so yummy!

The wine and platter was fab!!! but I have to say the best part of this winery is the view. Just so peaceful and New Zealand. I get a great buzz from this awesome scenery. Every time we come back here I feel so lucky to have such a beautiful country as my second home (Brunei is my third home). Now we have Oliver to share this wonderful feeling, I am so happy that he gets to see lots of New Zealand.







We continued driving to Tawharanui Regional Park. The park is in the process of eliminating predators of native birds. There were so many Pukekos (my favourite NZ birds), we were lucky to see NZ Dotterels. We had yummy picnic lunch and a nice beach walk.







Once again thank you so much for a wonderful day out Caroline and Richard. You know how much we enjoyed redeeming the voucher, now you don't have to think about what to get us next Christmas (hint hint...)

Practice run 1

Yesterday Matthew and I followed the exact route for the Run Auckland race we are intending to participate in March. The route started off in the reserve and took us onto the road. After 10min or so we were on a very nice quite street, BUT it was very very steep hill!!! I really need to learn how to run up and down the hills without making too much change to my heart rate.

This is what we covered. Hopefully we can do a few more runs on this route before we head back to Brunei.

Old MacDonald had a ... ♪♪♪

Kindy!!!! We visited Merryn and Dennis's kindy today. What makes it Old MacDonald Kindy?? They have a farm next to the kindy with sheep, pigs, horses, emus etc etc. The kindy kids get to visit the farm and feed the animals as one of their kindy activities. Oliver was too small to go on the farm (hopefully next time) but had a good look around the kindy. Unfortunately I didn't take any good photos of the kindy itself (silly me) but you can visit the website to find out more about it!



After the kindy visit we went to the cafe next to the kindy and met Rory and Lindsay. I just felt soooo good relaxing in the cafe, it was such a beautiful day with a bit of breeze. Felt so New Zealand !! Rory and I took this photo together, Rory said "I really like this photo Misuzu," in Rory tone :)



I like this one, Oliver and Rory talking

Coffee & Muffin Harbour Cruise

Today we were invited to have morning coffee and muffins on a ship. It was an hour and half cruise from Auckland Harbour. Oliver put on his yellow polo and matching brand new shoes.



Check this out!! My first shoes!!

The weather was bit dull to start with but by the time we got to Rangitoto Island the sky was as blue as it can be and the temperature picked up. We got off the ship and had a quick (10min) walk on the island.



The Brunei Roses + Rory on Rangitoto Island

After leaving Rangitoto Island, we were served nice muffins and yummy coffee on board as the cruise took us under the Auckland Harbour Bridge and to the Westhaven marina and the Viaduct. We could see so many niiiiiiceeeee boats parked at the marina (we saw a few more boats than we could see at the Serasa yacht club). We had a very good view of the Skytower and the CBD.



Rory and Devon with their muffins (yuuuuummmmyyyyyyy)



Corin enjoying looking at the nice boats.

We had such a lovely morning, thank you Kylie & Lindsay for a wonderful treat!!

Feeling good

This evening Matthew and I went out for a run with our brand new sports gear. There is a very nice nature reserve with running/walking track called Waiatarua Reserve across the road from Merryn and Dennis's place. So off we went. With the help of Matthew's Garmin I run for 35 min and completed almost 5.3km !!! Feeling Good !!

Shopaholic !!

Today was the day I have been waiting for for a long time - shopping at DRESSSMART. It is a big outlet shopping mall about 10min drive from Merryn and Dennis's place. The last few times I visited Auckland I did most of my shopping there, they have all the shops you need and things are so cheap!!!

Our main purpose today was to get our running gear sorted so that we can run around in Auckland. We were so lucky to have Merryn coming along with us as she looked after Oliver most of the time while we shopped (we were there for 4 hours + sorry Merryn...).

This is what I got so far.



One pair of running shoes, two pairs of running pants, two running tops, one casual top and a pair of shorts!! Pretty good ha?!

It was very nice to have so many places we could shop at but at the same time I found myself overwhelmed by so many choices. Not like shopping in Brunei, I had to make decisions!! (No, no more lah...)

Yes I am going back one more time before we head home next week.

We are off running this evening so I will let you know fast I can run with all this new gear!

Santa Claus is coming to town♪

Uncle Richard with the boys

Christmas is here again!
Today we had our family Christmas (we miss you English Roses...). Of course Oliver dressed as Santa's little helper (it was very close to Oliver's bed time so he looks very sleepy in the photos).



Santa Oliver with aunty Caroline giving a present to Devon

We are so spoiled, Oliver got a very nice NZ notice board to put photos of his cousins, more special New Zealand books, Matthew got a nice hand knitted woolly hat and I got a subscription to NZ House and Garden magazine, cool Maori Tiki bags. Thank you everyone!

Oliver's present to the Fenwick Roses were training chopsticks from Japan and boy! they loved them! They had a practice run with a bowl of chips and by dinner time they were so good at using them!!





As usual we had a wonderful summer dinner in the courtyard and enjoyed yummy NZ wine and Dennis's special ginger logs :)