The kids spent one day a week for the last 3 weeks at Nana's (Mum R), then Sandra's, then Grandma's (Mum P) so that I could have some uninterrupted work time which was very much appreciated.
So our holidays were winding down, and we were starting to look towards School starting again.
Then came the sad (but not unexpected) news that Nana Rickard had died, the day after her 96th birthday. She had been unwell for some time following a series of small strokes that left her unable to do much at all, and had recently moved from the rest home she had been living in, into a hospital.
The funeral was in Palmerston North last Friday, and so we decided that we would go down for it. Daryl bluntly refused to drive (7 1/2 hours) to Palmerston North... can't imagine why? We had enough airpoints to get us there, although to Wellington rather that PN.
We figured that if we were going to use all these airpoints, we would extend the trip and spend a couple of days in Wellington as well, and take the kids to see Te Papa.
So, we flew out at 8pm Thursday night, arriving an hour later in Wellington. The kids were so excited about flying as the last time they went on a plane was about 4 1/2 years ago.. and they basically couldn't remember it. Kyla giggled hysterically as the plane took off - she thought it was fantastic.
When planning where to stay, we figured we would just stay in Wellingtong overnight, and drive up to PN on Friday morning. This was a great plan, but we couldn't understand why the motels in Wellington were all full on a Thursday night. Turned out AC/DC were playing in Wellington Thursday and Saturday nights.
We ended up booking a motel in Waikanae about an hour north of Wellington.
After picking up a rather comfortable Ford Falcon rental, we drove to Waikanae, arriving there around 10:30 at night.
Friday morning saw us driving the remaining hour to Palmerston North, arriving in plenty of time for the funeral at 1:30. Dad took the funeral and Mum spoke about Nana Rickard as her Mother-in-law. Both of them did very well.
After the funeral and afternoon tea, the relatives met at
the Esplanade (a great park in that we spent many hours at when visiting Nana and Grandad Rickard when we were kids). This was a chance for the family to sit and chat while the kids raced around a burned off energy.The kids loved the Esplanade, with the flying fox coming a close second in the favourites list to this...
The barrel rolls as you run inside it, and as you can see, Daryl enjoyed it too.
Friday night we stayed in Palmerston North, and then drove back to Paraparaumu (about 45 mins North of Wellington).
We stayed in a motel 100m from the beach, and due to the gloriously sunny weather, decided to go for a swim. All was going well, and Daryl and I waded out through waist deep water to a sandbank where the water was only knee deep. Daryl thought he felt a couple of nips to his toes on the way out, but all was well. Kyla followed, and squealed when she also got nipped. She made more screamy noises when we saw a crab (about the size of my outstretched hand) about a meter from us in the shallow water around us.
As we walked around looking for crabs (for Kyla to avoid), a few young asian guys called out from nearby to ask us if we had lost something. We replied that no, we were just looking for crabs. One guy proceeded to bend down, and immediately pick up a crab of a similar size to the one we had seen. We quickly told him that Kyla didn't want to get closer to it.
Braden and Lauren were keen to follow us too, but more screaming and squealing ensued when they too felt the nip of crabs. Needless to say, they decided not to swim out to us, and Kyla decided to swim all the way back in without touching the bottom as Daryl refused to carry her back in. There were lots of people collecting crabs and shellfish as it was low tide. Perhaps we should have noticed this first?
Our plan for Saturday was to catch the train into Wellington, so parked the car at the Paraparaumu train station, and off we went. We had taken jerseys (of sorts) with us, and felt the need to don these at this point. Yesterdays 28-30° had plummeted to 14-16° by the time we arrived in Wellington.
Here are the kids, and their inadequate attire. We were no better ourselves, and are sure that all the locals would have immediately been able to identify us as Aucklanders!
Quote of the holiday goes to Kyla...
"If this is summer, I don't want to come here in winter!"
We raced from shelter to shelter, and eventually arrived at Te Papa, which the kids absolutely loved. I think they all thought the Colossal Squid was the best part of the museum, although they were disappointed that the eye did not appear to be soccer ball sized as the video said. It was truly remarkable.
Also hugely impressive was the skeleton of the Pygmy Blue Whale, which was about 20 meters long, and apparently was still just a teenager at 20 years old.
The cafe at the museum had great coffee and a nice comfortable place to stop and have a rest too.
Sunday night was spent at our fourth motel in as many days, and this one was definitely the best. Raumati Sands Resort serviced apartments, near Raumati beach, only cost us $35 more that the previous motel, and was far better. There was a great pool, which the kids were desperate to go in, so there we were, Sunday evening, rain, air temp around 16°, swimming. Actually it was really nice, and we had a lot of fun before cooking dinner at the motel in the small but fully equipped kitchen. A great place to stay.
This morning, we had breakfast at a cafe overlooking the beach, then drove in to Wellington, marvelling at the low cloud, wondering if the airport would be open. It was, and we are now home, trying to get ready for school and work by tomorrow morning!
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