Eltham Trip {Day 4 ~ Saturday}

Saturday started early -- about 4:30am for me!! Jarrod and I went with Uncle Mike to his 4 Square to help with the baking and such that has to be done before the shop even opens. Several hours later the family arrived to get Jarrod (they couldn't get everything into the trailer without him apparently . . . ) and Danielle joined us at the shop. We all met at Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia's for lunch before hitting the road. We had a pretty good trip, stopping for dinner in Te Kuiti and arriving home around 8pm.

: : Laura with everything before it gets loaded up! : :

: : The queen of faces! : :

Eltham Trip {Day 3 ~ Friday || Part 2}

We spent most of Friday at Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia's place taking it easy, enjoying the slow pace of holiday life! :) 

: : Isaac and Laura : :
Guess who's older?

: : This hallway became a playroom while we were there! : :

Uncle Michael & Aunty Sonia Tie The Knot

Finally the long awaited day, Saturday, March 15th, arrived. Dad and I took Nana to the hair salon and then went to the reception venue to keep an eye out for anything interesting. {smile} We met the DJ and photographer, and helped decorate the car, but sadly no Duggar-style car trashing took place. {Lolz}

After lunch back at the campground and plenty of changing and hair-styling, we headed down to the church for the ceremony. 

: : Groom and groomsmen (Uncle Bill and Uncle Marty) : :
The timing worked out really well . . .  the bride arrived {late} soon after we got the forgotten and rushed-back-for boutonnières!

: : Ceremony : :

: : Bridesmaids: Katrina and Nichole : :
{Gotta love Pagani dresses!}

The reception was held at the Mana Cruising Club, and we enjoyed refreshments and talk while the bridal party had their photos done. No photos of it here, but for the guest book, Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia had an instant photo booth where you could take all sorts of random photos, then choose a sheet to paste into an album and write a message. Bryce has something of a collection of shots! Such a cool idea for a guest book and too bad there were hardware issues resulting in it shutting down before everyone had a go.

: : Seating plan : :
(Don't you love how we have a table to ourselves? haha)

: :  Family photo : :
(And I was wearing sizeable heels! :P)

: : With cousins: Mitch and Kurt : :

: : Kids' meals : :
A great way to save money and easier for us since we didn't have to take all the little ones up to get food!

: : Their parents' wedding photos : :
His on the left, hers on the right

: : Fondant flowers - amazing! : :

: : Mr & Mrs Jago : :

: : Uncle Bill, Aunty Melissa, Olivia, and Harry : :

This also happened to be the weekend of cyclone Lusi. While I sure wouldn't call the weather cyclonic, we did get rather wet leaving the reception. Glad it held up for the photos earlier in the day!

Congratulations!

Here's congratulating my Uncle Mike (Dad's brother) and Sonia on their engagement!
We were all really excited to hear the news on December 25th!

Stratford - Day 8 - Friday 30th December

Hello again =)

Friday, December 30th started a lot earlier than most days for me! I got up just before 4am (serious), and Uncle Mike picked me up just before 5. And yes, it was still dark as pitch. And it was raining. Not so fun, but anyway! So why was I being picked up so early? To go help Uncle Mike in his business - Eltham 4 Square.

We made a massive batch of scones (45 large ones) - I knew it was big when 4 litres of milk went into it(!), cooked the various breads and pastries, and made some filled rolls. I think we had pretty much finished cooking everything by 6am! Then, of course, we had to package the breads, and put them on the display.

By then a few staff members had arrived, and everything was buzzing out front.

Out the back, we unloaded and checked off orders (stocking the freezers with ice is a very cold job - especially in the rain!), and packed fruit and vegies into styrofoam trays.

About 9 or so we went back to Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia's to have a breakfast of crumpets with Aunty Sonia, Nana, and Lucus - before he went to daycare.

Back at the shop, were more orders arriving, vegies to package, fridges and shelves to stock.

Mum and Dad had planned to leave for home at about 10, but they didn't arrive until about 12! I grabbed my stuff, Aunty Sonia gave us 'travel packs' - food for me, and stationary et cetera for each of the others (Thanks so much!). Just before we left they also gave us a whole pile of Roses chocolates (yum!).

First we went to say bye to Nana, then to New World (we needed food and I was ready for lunch!). As we began the 6-hour drive, I made rolls for everyone. I think people it faster than I can make them though! =)

And - would you believe it -  for the first time in YEARS, I slept in the car on the way home! wow! lol

So yeah, between eating and sleeping, the time went pretty fast for me, and we were soon home! =)
Everyone else unpacked the car, I fell asleep again (!), and then we got pizza for dinner.

I can't remember exactly what else I did that night, but I don't think I went straight to bed! Oh yeah, I did unpack my suitcase. not sure what else though =)

Bianca.

Stratford - Day 7 - Thursday 29th December

{Not sure when I wrote this...}

Bonjour, mes amis (my friends)

On Thursday Mum was adament we had to do SOMETHING! We went first to Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia's to check whether Nana wanted to come - she didn't, then to Mt. Taranaki (or Egmont). It was quite a long drive (an hour or so I think) but it didn't bother me, especially because I had my nose buried in Janette Oak's The Winds of Fall. We went as far as we could go - to this sign:

Which actually wasn't very far anyway! With the weather the way it was (you can see in the above photo) we couldn't see the snow-capped peak of the mountain, which Nana showed us later on her camera. So we drove to this area, Mum (?) went into the visitor centre - green building above - to find out that was as far as we could go, and...then we drove back! How fun..! lol Well driving back I took a heap of photos - just of the trees and stuff that lined either side of the road.

We then went to Fun Ho, in Inglewood.
Fun Ho is a toy museum, and very small - as in it had like three rooms!




These go karts would race around the track if you pressed the button!

 

This train was going right around the edge of the room!





The above picture was taken through one of the windows
in this car!



These cars were moving..

To soldiers and stuff..

There were several windows like this, with the inside
piece spinning around so you could see different scenes

Diana..

On the way out we got photos like the following of everyone (except myself!):

Danielle (8yrs)

For dinner we had Chinese at the campground, with Uncle Mike, Aunty Sonia, Nana, and Lucus. After dinner the adults and I talked (or listened...lol) while the rest all sat down (mostly) to watch Little House on the Prairie.

Dad had forgotten to get the ice creams Mum had asked him to get, so after everyone had left, Dad, Jarrod, and I went to a servo and bought a whole pile. We put four in a bag, Dad parked accross the road from Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia's, Jarrod ran over, dropped the bag in front of their door, and ran to hide behind one of their cars! Unfortunately he couldn't stay hidded, though, and did end up saying hello. Ah well.

Back at the campground, everyone was excited about their Magnums. (see photo)

I attempted to have an early night..but that didn't exactly happen..I was writing a post for this blog! =)

Ciao.
(Why three languages in one post...don't ask me! haha =))

Stratford - Day 6 - Wednesday December 28th

Written January 4th.

On Wednesday, December 28th, our second day at the campground in Stratford, I slept in (surprised? lol! =)) and Mum did some washing.

And it may come to me later, but right now I don't have the slightest clue about what we did all day!

Yay I remembered: Dad took Nana to the hospital (which was like an hour or something away so they were gone for ages), and Mum took the rest of us to check out the shops in Stratford. Most of them are little Asian shops and stuff, no major chains or anything. Diana and Bryce bought backpacks, I got a new lip gloss, and a wooden make-it-yourself Eiffel Tower...which is usually for little kids...so yeah anyway not sure where I'll put it yet! I think everyone else got a couple of little things.

However at one stage we must have done some shopping, and in the evening Uncle Mike, Aunty Sonia, Nana and Lucus came for a bbq. The campground gave us the key for the big, nice, new, silver bbq! well ok I guess the food doesn't taste any different just because the bbq looks nice, but anyway! lol =D

After dinner we pulled out our new chocolate fondue fountain (Thanks Uncle Bill and Aunty Melissa!) to try with the strawberries we'd been given. The fountain worked fine, but melting the chocolate buttons was interesting! We don't actually have a microwave, and consequently most of us aren't that great at using one. So I put the choc buttons in for 2 minutes, but didn't even think of pulling them out to mix them! Yeah...you get the idea! Uncle Mike, the baker, came to the rescue though... =)

And that was about it for that day! Wow this post is a bit shorter than most of my previous ones...lol!

Au revoir =)

Stratford - Day 5 - Tuesday December 27th

Written 29th December




Breakfast...mmm!! lol

Tuesday, December 27th saw the end of our family get-together. Everyone was up early, and busy cleaning, packing up, and cooking the last of the leftover food for breakfast. Yum, I love a cooked breakfast! We had to clean the entire campground, so that kept us all busy.

We had planned to stay at the campground until Friday, but another large group was scheduled to arrive at 2pm, and Uncle Mike had booked us in at Stratford Top Town Holiday Park until Friday. So we, along with everyone else, packed  our belongings and prepared to transfer. This time we hadn't packed so well, and the result was that we couldn't fit everything into the van. Oops! But Uncle Mike came to the rescue, and transported everything we couldn't fit, in his work van, to the new campsite.

 No one was in any hurry to leave, thereby putting an end to our great weekend. We all just hung around, talking and whatever, until about midday, when we were required to vacate the campground. Slowly we said our goodbyes, and one by one everyone left. Last of all, we piled into the Burton's van, and drove to Stratford, or specifically, the campground in Stratford. Torn between two accommodation options, Mum finally chose the larger backpacker room with 12 beds, and attached lounge, dining, and kitchen, (which we had stayed in the previous year), over the 4-person self-contained unit that we could have squeezed a few more beds into, thereby losing most of the lounge space.

One that difficult decision was made, we unpacked the vast majority of our belongings, and scavenged the bags/boxes of food for something for lunch.


Later that afternoon, Dad decided to drop in to Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia's to see what they were up to that night, whether or not they wanted  to catch up that night. I tagged along with my laptop in the hope of an internet connection, and Jarrod and Monique for no particular reason.
Aunty Sonia kindly looked for the information I needed to connect to their wireless, but it wasn't to be. instead she found me a cable. Yay, finally I was online! I replied to a few emails and checked a blog (jesmithfamily.blogspot.com) before Dad announced, all to soon, that it was time to leave.

After a dinner of fish and chips, Uncle Mike and Nana came for a coffee, and we talked for a while. My siblings were watching Little House on the Prairie on my laptop, when it cut out after someone knocked a connection. Unable to get it to turn back on, I told them they'd have to do something else.

Once Uncle Mike and Nana had left, I was ready to do some blogging, so grabbed my laptop, plugged everything in, pressed the power button... and... nothing happened! We tried a few things with it but I ended up putting it away.

After everyone went to bed, I watched Soul Surfer on our new portable DVD player, and went to bed rather late!

Eltham - Day 3 - Sunday December 25th

Written December 27th

Uncle Bill's present (from Uncle Mike).
Just as well he loves looking at
Uncle Mike every hour of the day...hehe!

On Sunday morning, I slept in (and yay I wasn’t the only one! lol), missed breakfast (oops..), then grabbed my gifts and camera as it had been decided to do give the Jago presents. I received $10 from Nana (yay I can go shopping now! Lol), a Pandora bracelet (I think that’s what it’s called?) from Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia, and Uncle Marty and Aunty Denise, and Uncle Bill and Aunty Melissa did family presents. Uncle Marty and Aunty Denise gave us a portable dvd player, and Uncle Bill and Aunty Melissa gave us a chocolate fondue fountain (let’s have another Bible Study breakup shall we?! Lol!), a tub of chalk, and a ‘boyfriend.’ Explanation: ‘Boyfriend’ is the Tupperware© term for a small square piece of rubber, used to open jars and things. =)

Mum thought that would be a good time to listen to a sermon, so we went back to our room, sang, prayed, and played the CD containing the sermon. We didn’t get to finish it though, I think the CD must have been scratched as it stopped before it finished.

Pork, anyone?

Dad then came and announced that the spit was taking longer than had been expected, and the pig wouldn’t be ready for a while longer, so all were having filled rolls to tide them through until lunch was ready, and we should come down and have some too. Kaiser rolls are SO much nicer than the Tom Thumbs we always buy in Auckland! Thanks Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia =)


I helped prepare some of the desserts before lunch was ready. We then consumed a LOT of food! =) Namely, ham, chicken, multiple salads (thanks Aunty Denise!), breads, and stuffing. Out of the 35 people in attendance, there were comparatively few hands which had not entered the stuffing during the long preparation!




The designated group-meals table



After a very filling lunch, some of the others went down to the creak, and, yes, they came back soaked! I prefer something not quite so wet, however, and I sat down to read a bit more in Ruth: Her story for today by Keith M Watkins, which was a gift to me from our minister, Mr Smith (Officially: Rev. Jett Smith).

Finally everyone was ready for dessert, so we consumed a lot more food, yet, in proportion to the total amount, it really wasn’t that much! After the dishes and stuff were done we just sat around talking.

Eltham - Day 1 - Friday 23rd December

Written 23rd December

On Friday, 23rd December I attempted to get an early start to the day, but apparently I was too tired from previous days of preparation! Anyway the rest of my family did get up early (for them lol! =)), and organised the rest of our belongings that we hadn’t been able to pack the day before. We managed to leave home about 9:15am, after a slight delay as Dad didn’t like the fact that the back window was entirely blocked!

I passed the time by reading Courageous, a very interesting book! Can't wait for the movie to come out.... Hmm I was wishing I understood Spanish though! =)

Not too far into the trip Diana (6) asked: “Are we nearly there yet?” Wow was I glad it was only a six-hour trip to Eltham, not far from New Plymouth, rather than the the nine-hour trip to Wellington which we have done nearly ever year for as long as I can remember!

Around 1pm we had a 1-hour lunch stop in Mokau. Then back on the road, and I let Diana have my camera to take photos and videos. Need I say that the batteries were dead when she’d finished? Lol!

Here are a couple of pics from the drive:



A tunnel we drove through...



Mount Taranaki (aka. Mount Egmont)

 

Uncle Mike's number plate!



We took a slightly round-about trip, through New Plymouth, to pick up some boxes of Favourites my uncle needed for his shop (Eltham Four Square). About 4pm we delivered the Favourites, and followed my uncle, with his awesome number plate, to the campground we and our extended family were staying at – Eltham Presbyterian Campground. After inspecting much of the complex, we finally chose a cabin, brought our many bags and suitcases in, and readied our beds for when we would come in late and tired.

Soon Nana and Aunty Sonia arrived, and we just sat and talked for a while, apart from an all-out search for Maria (21-months) when no one new where she was; and Dad was worried because there is a stream not far away. We continued talking until Uncle Mike had not only come back(he’d gone home for a little while), but also barbequed the sausages and prepared the rest of dinner. All of us then went down to the hall, complete with kitchen, tables and chairs.

After dinner Uncle Mike brought out all the Christmas decorations which we helped put up, then readied tressle tables and chairs for the expected 35 people.

When it got a bit later Uncle Mike, Aunty Sonia, Nana, and Lucus (my 3-year-old cousin) left for Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia’s house, and we began our long routine in preparation for bed! It is now 11:19 and, obviously I guess (seeing as I’m writing this!), we havn’t finished the routine yet!

So I’m typing this on my new laptop (picked it up on Wednesday lol!), listening to the Manna Worship Album #3(?) I think. Jarrod has just climbed into his top-bunk bed (he was sitting next to me watching me type), Mum is trying to put Maria to sleep, and everyone else is in bed. I’m also about to head there, as yes I’m VERY tired!

Tomorrow we’re expecting Uncle Bill, Aunty Melissa, Olivia (12) and Harrison (8) to arrive sometime in the afternoon, and Uncle Marty, Aunty Denise, Mitch (18) and Kurt (16) around 9pm. Uncle Mike, Aunty Sonia, Lucus, Nana, and some of Aunty Sonia’s family are also coming to stay at this campground.

Well I’m going to bed now (11:29) so,

G’night everyone!

Love Bee =)

26th --Boxing Day--

On Boxing Day, Dad went to the zoo with Uncle Bill, Aunty Melissa, Olivia, Harry, Aunty Sonia and Lucus.
Since it was a Sunday, Mum played a sermon on tape, and we basically did church at 'home' - the lounge in the backpacker hostel.

This isn't a particularly great picture of the lounge, but its
about the best I've got, there are more couches and chairs to
the left.

After lunch Mum decided we should go for a walk through the bush, to which there was an entry about 200m from the windows you can see in the above photo.

The walk turned into a run for some of the children, as they tried to find the best spot for a photo of them.

Just as we were leaving the bush, Dad arrived back.
Dad said we would go to Uncle Mike and Aunty Sonia's for dinner, along with the rest of the extended family.
So Mum organised afternoon tea and we got ready to go.

For dinner and dessert we had a bbq, leftovers from the day before, and someone had made a couple of jellies.
We all talked late that night, and were quite tired when we got back to the campground.

Ok, I can't seem to upload any more photos at the moment, but keep an eye out cos I will put some on when I can.
Bee