Winter Holidays

Monday 10th - Sunday 16th July 2017

Monday
First day of the holidays today!! Cillian is still going to kindy as usual ao I can have some one to one time with Darragh. This morning we met Sabrina, Max and Sasha at the swimming pool which was great fun! As the boys were getting on brilliantly, we decided to spend the day together so, after lunch, they came over our house to play and we also went down to Caroline bay for a bit. The day flew by as we were super busy all day!

Tuesday
Cillian had kindy again this morning, so it was just Darragh and I. I decided to make some play dough, just to have something different to keep the boys occupied! Afterwards, wewent to the library for storytime, the same thin as the last holidays except this holidays the theme is terrific transport! He was ecstatic to see hat heaps of the kids from his class at school were there too so he had an awesome time! We made aeroplanes out of pegs and lolly sticks, I made a batman one for Cillian so he doesn't miss out as much! This afternoon, Mary took Darragh and a few of his friends to the cinema to see Despicable Me 3, so I had a break for a couple of hours before picking up Cillian. We popped in to see Samantha on the way home and then just chilled out afterwards playin with their toys as I was making dinner!

Wednesday
Cillian wasn't feeling well again this morning, so we kept him at home and got him a doctors appointment. Luckily he doesn't have another infection, it's mainly just his asthma playing up! I did a few jobs for Many in the morning, and after lunch we went to visit James, Charlotte and Mara, and later on Julia brought Fletcher and Alex too! It was heaps of fun, but I was very aware that Cillian wasn't too well so we didn't stay as long as I would've liked to! But we had a delicious afternoon tea - Mara had made white chocolate and Oreo fudge as well as banana and chocolate muffins! Yum! Cillian and charlotte had a lovely time dressing up as bumblebees together! They were pretty sad to leave so we arranged another play date for Friday - is just as exciting for me as it is for them!

Thursday

Luckily Cillian seemed heaps better today, so he had another morning at kindy. Darragh and I went to the library again and today we made submarines!  Cillian was super excited this afternoon because his best friend Max was coming for a play date! They had the best time playing ninjas (even I had to wear a ninja head band!), trains, cars and making forts... a perfect afternoon for three boys!

Friday
This morning I managed to burn my arm making a milo... put my arm over the kettle while it was boiling oops! Today we went out to Geraldine to visit their grandparents as their cousins, Ruby and Nate, were straying their for a bit. They all had heaps of fun, and all four of them played really well making up treasure hunts and playing hide and seek - it reminded me of the times me and my cousins would all be at our grandparents and just have the best time! This evening we watched The Circle, which started out really good - kind of like something you would watch on black mirror - but I felt the ending could have been stronger, if just kinda ended without showing a real ending!

Saturday
I finished reading Of Mice and Men today - I'm starting to read through a heap of books that are currently on the syllabus for GCSE and A-Level English as a preparation for September 2018 when I start my teaching degree hopefully! Chris and Sandra had come round today, bringing Mackenzie and Samuel for a play date with the boys and Mary asked me if I could babysit and mind the motel  this evening so they could go out. It was all going well until Chris and Wade came back drunk, and Chris tried to climb over the stair gate resulting in it getting ripped off the wall and somehow he had managed to cut his head! I had flashbacks to China! After getting him cleaned up and popping a few steri strips and a plaster on, Mary had banned them from coming out with them so they stayed home! Mara came round and we watched a few movies with snacks - but we stayed in my room this time!

Sunday
After yesterday's drama I just stayed in and read today..: well I tried to but Darragh was in an annoying mood and kept jumping on me, poking me and being silly (shock!) so I didnt get much reading done!

Another Working Week

Monday 15th - Sunday 21st May 2017

Back to reality this week as it's the first proper week doing full time, as my birthday wasn't really a whole working day. This week I'm focusing on Cillian learning his sounds some more, so I'm looking at different activities to help him with that, but I've also decided that I'm going to start doing themed weeks with different activities - mainly so that I can plan some fun stuff to do rather than just playing with their toys all the time! But I think I'll start that after we get back from Australia, as Cillian's changing his hours so he'll do a full day on Tuesday at kindy and I'll have him all day in a Friday so we can go to music and movement with some of his friends!

One of the activities I did this week was make Cillian a letter garage - a letter on the parking spot and matching letters on the cars. The idea is that he will park the cars in the space that matches and he loved it! He was super good at matching them, even though he hasn't learnt all the sounds yet! He even grabbed the letters from Darragh's learning bag and matched them up too! It makes me super proud to see him excelling because of what I've been doing with him.

We also brought their scooters home from their old house, and Cillian was super excited to try out the skate park! It was really cute, he did his 'tricks' (jumping on and off the scooter) and I could tell he really wanted to go down the ramps but was way too scared! 

This week I have also discovered Centennial park, a scenic reserve in Timaru, so I took the boys there twice after school this week. It was pretty cool, there's a few bits of playground equipment around the place and a huge duck pond - obviously we had to feed the ducks! I'm trying to get them more used to longer walks as Wade and Mary have asked me to do this so they won't whinge as much when they get taken on hikes! 

Luckily it was a nice day on Friday, so Fabienne and Fie were still at the playground after I picked up cillian from kindy. We had a blast playing hide and seek and playing with the bat and ball!

This weekend I decided to have a chilled weekend of not spending any money so I have more saved for next weekend when I go to Dunedin. Saturday evening I ended up doing a few lifts to town for some of Wade's friends so that was a nice easy way to make some extra money!

Return to Queenstown: Part 1

Saturday 29th - Sunday 30th April 2017

I originally had decided to get an intercity bus to Queenstown, but luckily two other Au Pairs, Sabrina and Fabienne, were driving through Queenstown on the days I planned on travelling so I got a lift with them. It was so much nicer than getting the bus for sure! We stopped off at the clay cliffs in Omarama, they are pretty spectacular. I'm pretty sure you could go anywhere in New Zealand and have your mind blown by its sheer beauty.

After leaving Omarama, it was another few hours before we arrived in Queenstown. On the way there we passed the Kawarau bridge bungy... it looks higher than I remember it and I tried not to think about doing it on Tuesday!!

When we finally arrived in Queenstown it honestly felt like I was returning home. The mountains, lakes and streets all feel so familiar now and make me feel so happy! I checked in to Nomads hostel, it's on church street which is right in the centre of the town. We're in a 6 bed ensure with a balcony over looking mountains and Lake Wakatipu, so absolute luxury compared to some of the other hostels! Plus Kieran gets discount as he worked for Nomads so it was pretty cheap which is also a winner! I was pretty stoked to see Kieran, as it will be the first time I've seen any of my family since leaving for New Zealand. However, he was sound asleep when I got there! (Don't know why I was surprised!)

As I didn't want to disturb him, I went and had a wander around Queenstown, defamiliarising myself with everything that's there. I do love it here! After half an hour or so, Kieran messaged saying he head woken up, which, for both of us, only meant one thing... Fergburger!

It's pretty cold here in Queenstown, so we decided against sitting by the lake as previously planned and went back to the kitchen in Nomads to stay warm! As we walked in I noticed Kirstine! Both Kirstine and Lotte have one last night in Queenstown, so it worked out amazingly! It was so lovely to see them again, especially as I didn't think I would!

So after this we got a few bottle of wine to pre drink before heading out. Unfortunately, I peaked early... way early and got kicked out of the bar for being too drunk oops (sorry Nana and Popa). But still it was so worth it I had a great night!

Sunday however was another story, I was so hungover I only managed to make it out of bed twice to get food. Oops. 

Suva - Centenary Methodist Church & Deaconess House

Friday 10th March 2017

Today I decided to try and meet some of the people my grandparents knew in Suva. I got a taxi to the bus station and then it was a 4 hour journey to the capital. I recognised a few things along the way,
and it reminded me of Linga as I remembered a few of the things he told us about different places. Other than that I kept myself occupied by watching a few things on my iPad.

After arriving in Suva, I headed to Tappoo City as that's where we came and I remember there being a good food hall there. I ordered food and then attempted to ring the Deaconesses - with no such luck unfortunately!

Luckily after a few more tries I managed to get through and we arranged to meet at Tappoo City in half an hour. I started to get a bit nervous as I had no idea what Meresiana looks like! But eventually she found me and took me to the Centenary Methodist Church, which was just across the street.

Firstly she gave me a sulu, as I had stupidly left mine hanging on my bed at Smugglers! Whilst we were at the stall, another deaconess came and was ecstatic to meet me and told me how much my Nana and Grandad had impacted her life.

This was to be continued as every time Meresiana introduced me to someone they had a different, individual story to tell me about my beloved grandparents and their work for the Methodist church in Fiji. Their teaching methods are still used in primary schools to this day! Which is definitely a legacy to be proud of! The only downside is that quite a few people didn't know they had passed away, so I had to keep telling people that as I went along - I held it together though which surprises me!! Meresiana then showed me a photo album she had with photos in my grandparents house and some of my family members which was pretty special.

We then waited for a bit to meet Levi, who I've actually met before when I was a baby! He also brought pictures to show me, and there's one photo of me with his daughter who is in her early thirties now with two children of her own! Both Levi and Meresiana studied in Birmingham and my grandparents invited them to come and stay with them for Christmas and to come and see Dorset. As soon as I get back to England I'm going to rummage through their old photo albums to see who I can recognise!! (Mum sent me a photo of me and Levi not long after I left Fiji, it's crazy how it's been 22 years since I last saw him!)

We then said goodbye to the Methodist church and headed out to the fruit market. Meresiana kindly got me some pineapple as I said it was my favourite! The market was the biggest I've ever seen - so much food everywhere!

After the market, we got a taxi to the Deaconess house, about a five minute journey from the centre of Suva. When I arrived, I went into the teaching room with the students who are training to become Deaconesses themselves. It was such a whirlwind that unfortunately I can't remember many of their names, but it was pretty spectacular! The reverend and another deaconess also came to say hello, and they were students when my grandparents lived in Suva. I kept it together until prayers when so many beautiful words were said about God, my grandparents and I... embarrassingly I started to cry even though I tried my hardest to keep it together!

They then brought out so much food, I presumed that it was for everyone to share but it was all mainly for me! I've never seen so many sandwiches in my life!! They packed up loads for me to take with me on the coach which was so very kind. Unfortunately, I was restricted to the last bus so it was only a quick visit. After a few more songs and a big goodbye I sadly left them all with the promise of returning! I would love to come back and spend a couple of weeks with everybody and get to know them better, keeping up the relationship between my family and theirs.

Meresiana and one of the trainee Deaconesses (called Joanna so I won't forget that!!) came with me to drop me off at the bus stop. It was a sad goodbye but I know I'll be back so it was more of a see you later!

The journey back was long and I kept falling asleep, the sunsets at 6:30 and then it just goes pitch black so it feels like it's the middle of the night! After getting a taxi back to the hostel I found Emma in her upgraded room before going to sleep.

Queenstown: Part One - The Big Tiki

Thursday 16th February - Monday 20th February 2017

On the way to Queenstown we stopped off at a beach and a few lakes. I can't remember he name if the beach now, but Hayley said that when the water is calm you can often see dolphins. So we all jumped off the coach excitedly hoping to glimpse dolphins, when all we actually got were bites from the copious amounts of sandflies around the area!

One of my favourite lakes we stopped off at was Lake Hāwea, the weather is still amazing so the lake really sparkled and the colours were also vibrant and stunning. 

For lunch, we stopped off at Eely point. I had a butter chicken pie. They sell pies at every bakery here, so I figured it was about time I tried one, and I was not disappointed! A few of us are down by the lake and the ducks attacked Tayla! It was pretty funny (I may or may not have egged them on by throwing chips near to her) I've never seen ducks this aggressive before, they were worse than the seagulls! 

Before we got into Queenstown, we stopped off at the Kawarau bridge bungy and watched a few of our Contiki friends do the jump. I feel like out of all the bungys, this is the one I could potentially do... I'll really need to work myself up to it though!! When we finally got to Queenstown I was taken aback. The mountains, lake and town make it look idyllic and the view from our hotel was awesome!

We all got the coach down to the lake to have a group photo, the sun was directly in our eyes so I'm not banking in the photos turning out to be any good! They were only $18 but I have such limited space and such a long time before I get home that I decided against getting it. Some of the others were going for a group dinner at the skyline place, but we decided to go to the famous Fergburger. I got the Bombay chicken and it was the tastiest burger I have ever had hands down! It was only $12.50 and it filled me right up..: still felt full the day after! We got there shortly after 7 and had to queue for about 40 minutes to order and then another 20 minutes before they were ready but it was sooooo worth it! 

After we got our burgers, we wandered around for a bit before going to Loco for drinks, someone gave us a voucher for free drinks so it would've been rude not to! And then we met the others at a different bar when they had come back from their meal. We also bumped into Rory and Hannah as well as Sid as they left our Contiki group before the South Island so it was great to see them again. After a bit, we went next door to Winnie's, but I didn't want to stay out too late so some point around 12:30 Tayla and I rounded up some people to get a taxi back to the hostel. 

The following morning we all went to shotover jet, the most exhilarating boat ride I have ever been on! Our group managed to get the craziest driver so when we all got off we were soaked to the skin, whereas everyone else barely looked damp. The spins were the most fun, but I thought we were going to die a fair few times when he drove it close to the rocks. It's a shame the video was so expensive as it was pretty funny! 

This afternoon Emma and I didn't have any activities planned, so we had a look around town for a bit before heading back to the hotel. I planned to have a cheap night in but then I got a message from Katie and Alec who were back from their hike so I walked down into town to meet them! But tomorrow we are going to Milford Sound and are getting picked up at 6:20am so I didn't stay out too late but it was so awesome to see them both!