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 :)

Swimming lesson

The day we left Brunei, Oliver had his second swimming lesson. Lots of Oliver's baby friends who were born in the same year as Oliver are already members of the swimming club. I wanted to wait until this term to enroll him as he was not be able to sit up by himself yet. But now that he is crawling and much stronger he is ready for his adventure!! It is a 30 minute group lesson. We were asked to change from Monday class to Thursday class as Oliver is still a bit younger than other babies in Monday class. I wasn't very keen on Thursday class as it is on at 4pm instead of 8:30am but now we are happy he is in the afternoon class as the water is much warmer.

He is learning how to splash water, going under the water, how to float on his back, in his tube, jumping off the edge of the pool etc. Here are some pictures of Oliver enjoying his lesson.



Here is Oliver getting ready for his lesson. Very determined.



Mummy I am ready!!



Learning to sit and crawl on a floating mat (he is very good at it!)



Learning how to float on his back but... he fell asleep....



This baby tube is very good for him to learn how to balance and float by himself.

I hope after getting used to being in the water, he will love swimming and appreciate what we have in Brunei - the lovely hot weather and yacht club etc. We will miss next week's lesson in Brunei but Oliver will be swimming in Merryn and Dennis's swimming pool!!

Takapuna Market

Unfortunately it was raining when we got up this morning but the good thing was the rain wasn't as heavy as what we experience in Brunei. So we decided to go ahead with our plan for the day - Takapuna visit. It is located in the North Shore part of Auckland and it is one of my favorite locations here in Auckland.

On Sundays they have a market, people selling plants, fruits and veges, freshly baked breads and some unique NZ goodies.
Even though we have a very good vege market near our place in Brunei, I was just so excited to see all that fresh food!! We bought lots of nice apricots, strawberries, avocados, peppers etc.



We put Oliver in the baby bjorn for the first time (since it is too hot for Oliver in Brunei) and he loved it!! Lots of people were surprised to see superbaby in the market.





After the market we had very yummy fresh breads from the market for lunch at the Fenwick Rose's place. By the time we finished having lunch the sun came out so our superbaby had to transform into Mexican Superbaby!!

Mahurangi Regatta

Today after a good sleep in and nice coffee we went out with the Fenwick Roses to Mahurangi Regatta. Dennis (Oliver's grandpa) drove us to Mahurangi Regional Park. As always I really enjoyed the beautiful scenery of New Zealand (I tried to take photos of cows today but couldn't see any black and white ones).



When we got there I was very surprised by the number of cars and sail boats there. Our first mission was to find the Fenwick Roses in this crowd of people.



Oliver was very thrilled to meet his aunty Kylie, uncle Lindsay and cousins - Corin, Rory and Devon. Corin's first word to Oliver was "Oh he is really cute!"
Kylie and Lindsay had reserved us a shady spot under a big Puhutakawa tree with a nice sea breeze.



Merryn and Dennis



Corin looking very cool in his snorkeling gear



Rory checking out the sailing boats



Devon has grown since we saw him last

After the yummy lunch we went out on a rowboat with Corin and Rory to see many interesting boats. There was a pirate boat with a bar and a BBQ deck on the top, Corin was very concerned about the evil looking pirate flag but Rory wanted to join the BBQ!

Oliver loves the wonderful weather here in Auckland and enjoying the time with his NZ family.






It was just a picture perfect day!! I love New Zealand!!