It's all about family and food: Our 'Summer' Holiday....

For the last week we have been away on a 'summer' holiday. I have had a little waterside Kiwiana bach booked for over 6 months and we had been really looking forward to having a lovely summer holiday where the boys could do all the things we used to do when we were little and at the beach. That included no TV! I had anxiously been checking the weather report for a couple of weeks beforehand and up until a few days before we left it looked like we might have a couple of slightly dodgy days but it would mostly be ok. However a couple of days before we left the reports started to change and it began to show heavy rain for one of the days an some showers on another.

We left on a beautiful sunny summers day to the most wonderful little bach really close to the water. For that afternoon we got to taste what this holiday would be like with the kids all swimming and playing in the sand and walking over the rocks while we sat back and relaxed with a glass of wine and a dip in the bath-hot still waters of Scandrett Regional Park. However by the next morning the skies had become overcast and by that afternoon it started to drizzle. George came to the rescue by taking the kids back to his beachouse for a swim in the pool and then keeping the big boys to take them fishing on his boat the next day. As the bach was so small it would have been terrible having all 4 kids and us cooped up and unable to go outside. By Saturday the weather was looking even worse and pretty much set in so we went to the Matakana Farmers Market then I took the 2 little kids to see the Yogi Bear Movie. That afternoon the little ones looked after themselves and kept themselves occupied watching Snow White on the portable DVD player (a last minute addition to the packed gear), and making a hut in their room. By Sunday cyclonic winds and a huge high tide hit and we decided then and there to abandon ship and go to George and Russell's beachouse where we had been planning to go for a couple of nights on Monday. I could not believe how disasterous this holiday had become. Luckily the weather improved a bit and by Monday afternoon it had stopped raining and the wind eventually died down and by Wednesday, (the day we were leaving), it dawned a brilliant sunny day.

We were lucky in that each boy had someone to hang out with. Reuben had his friend Harry who stayed with us until Sunday and Harry had our niece Cousin Hollie for the whole time. Harry and Holls were amazing with not one argument the whole holiday. It's amazing how when you get the right personality type together, how well they can play and relate. They obviously have the right combination. Anyway here are some photos from our (hapless) trip...