Noosa

Friday 2nd - Monday 5th June 2017

Lily picked me up from the train station and, although we hadn't seen each other in years, it felt like we had never been apart! It was just under an hours drive to get to Noosa and we stopped off at a look out, just catching the sunset. It was phenomenal. It's pretty easy to see why Lily has chosen to live here! Afterwards, we went back to her place and I met her boyfriend, Sam and we grabbed a bite to eat at a Mexican place, then went out for a few drinks.

Lily had work in the morning, and I really meant to make the most of the morning so I got ready sharpish, but then I made the rookie mistake of lying down on my bed and I fell asleep for a few hours... oops! At least my hangover wasn't so bad after that?

We decided to bring Sam's sister's dog, Max, to the dog beach after getting food from a local French bakery (had the most delicious pulled pork pie). The beach was stunning (unsurprisingly) and it was a nice to be able to sunbathe in the winter!

We went out for a few cocktails this evening, with a few of Lily and Sam's friends. However, we didn't stay out too late and headed back to their house. Sam wasn't feeling too great so he went to bed,      but Lily and I stayed up and reminisced on the good old times of brownie pack holidays! This ended up on the memory of being rudely awoken at 7am by 'Crazy horses' blasting out and then us finding 'The very best of the Osmonds' to sing along to. To our surprise, we still remembered a fair few words and had a lovely sing along, and, naturally, we recorded ourselves singing and posted it on Facebook. (One of those things we probably should've waited until we were sober to do but too late now!)

The next day we made our way down to Rainbow Beach, and to get there we had to go on the ferry and drive on the beach a fair bit. We had a BBQ (because if I didn't have a BBQ in Australia I would have considered it a waste) and chilled out for a bit before heading back home, where Sam made a delicious roast dinner! Yum!

Sadly Monday came around too quickly, and it was time to head back down to the Gold Coast. I sorted out all my bits, or so I thought! Lily took me to the national park for a quick walk, where we saw dolphins literally 10 metres away from the shore... the closest I've ever seen them! It was then a rush to get to the train station and grab a maccas before my train left. We said a quick goodbye nad then I made my way back down. An hour into my journey, Lily messaged me. I had left my iPad at hers because I am an idiot! I debated going back up to get it, but I'm the end Lily got it posted down to the Gold Coast for me!

So despite me being a slightly hungover idiot, I had the best time in Noosa and I know for sure that I will be back again!

Queensland

Thursday 1st  - Friday 2nd June 2017

Finally the day was here to get a bit of winter sun over at the sunny Gold Coast in Australia. We had a chilled out morning picking the car and doing a few bits before driving up to Christchurch to the airport.

The flight was just under 4 hours and I ended up reading half the novel I brought with me in that time... it was supposed to last me the whole week! Jetstar isn't the most luxurious of companies, but it does the job! We landed in Coolangatta at around 5ish there time, it took us a while to find the shuttle to the rental car place but Darragh was super excited to see that there was a tv in their playing Mr Bean!

We then drove down to Turtle Bay Resort, it looks pretty cool! There's s splash zone with water slides and things for the kids as well as three other pools. We grabbed dinner at the restaurant there, I had a pizza, it wasn't he nicest in the world but I was so hungry I didn't care! I was pretty paranoid he whole time about spiders though... luckily I didn't see any bigger than we get in England but I still made sure everything was zipped up! We had a little wander around before heading up to the room for the night - it had been a pretty long day!

The next morning I repacked my bag as I was heading up to Noosa to visit Lily and Sam for the weekend. I walked down to 7eleven to grab a go card, kinda like an Oyster card for Queensland. There was a huge shopping centre on the way, so I had a quick look around. The place was so big that I got a wee bit lost a few times! It was so nice to see a load of shops that I actually recognised!

I then walked back up and grabbed a sandwich for lunch. Wade and Mary dropped me off at the train station I needed to go to, as they were going to a shopping centre nearby. It only cost me just under 11 bucks to get a four hour train... I can't believe how cheap it is for trains here!

The Lead Up to Aussie

Monday 22nd - Wednesday 31st May 2017

I had tonnes planned out for this week with the kids, actually going to the effort to have set activities each day! Unfortunately, on Tuesday Cillian came down with a sickness bug which meant the rest of the week we had a sick week. We watched movies and played a few games, but it wasn't until Thursday when he seemed to be getting better, and he was totally fine by Friday but had to stay off kindy because of the 48 hour rule! Luckily that was up before the afternoon so we met the au pairs and went to football practice as usual that afternoon!

Friday evening I slept over at Fabienne's with Sabrina and Julia as we were heading off to Dunedin in the morning. Julia brought some German sweets and they're my new favourite thing! So yummy! We then pretty much snacked and binge watched catfish for the rest of the evening!

We had a pretty chilled out start to the day, we planned to meet Anka in Oamaru to see the penguins, despite repeatedly saying they wouldn't be there as it was the wrong time of the day but never mind! We saw a few seals though, and a wee seal pup too which was pretty cute! Another seal was just chilling out on the seats, which meant we had to be a bit wary as they can be pretty vicious.

It took us a while to find Anka, and when we did we decided to go and play on the steam punk playground - as, naturally, that is what Au Pairs do!

We then made our way down to Dunedin, stopping off at the K Mart on the way. We checked in to our hostel, about a 15 minute walk away from the centre and, the best thing about it, it was called Hogwartz. I was expecting it to have been decorated a bit more in a Harry Potter theme, but there were a few bits and pieces here and there as a reminder! My personal favourite being the Dobby picture!

After putting our bits in our dorm, we headed into town to have a wander and to grab some food  it was nice to be able to see Dunedin in the day light as I didn't spend much time here on the Contiki. We headed to the train station, as a couple of the others wanted to check it out, and there was a wedding going on there, seemed pretty random but was quite cool!

After getting ready at the hostel, Fabienne, Sabrina and I walked down to the stadium to watch the 

Highlanders v Waratahs game. Despite growing up in a family full of rugby fans this was the first time I've actually gone to a live rugby game.. and I loved it! Granted, I was a tad rusty on the rules, but I was pleasantly surprised in how I could actually understand what was happening and the last ten minutes were so intense it was amazing!



We went out for a bit after the game, but we seemed to get to the bars at the wrong time as everywhere was pretty quiet and not much seemed to be going on, until we decided to head home just before midnight... there was then queues to get in the places we had already been! Typical! But to be fair we were all shattered anyway and I had literally no money left in my budget to drink like I would've wanted to anyway!!

After checking out Sunday morning, we headed to the Cadbury factory and yes, I did the tour again! Although I came out with significantly less chocolate this time which sucked! Still loved it though!

We then headed towards Tunnel Beach which reminded me of Durdle Door! The weather was beautiful, albeit slightly on the colder side! It's a truly beautiful beach and I would've liked to stay longer but I didn't have any food so we went back into Dunedin.

There were a few more places we wanted to stop off at, but we went the wrong way for one of the beaches (I had misheard the name of the beach!) and could not find the elephant rocks, but we stopped off for dominos on the way home to get a trusty $5 pizza!

The next few days pretty much consisted of packing and entertaining the kids before holiday! I didn't have much planned as I thought we'd just chill out and go with the flow for he last few days as the boys excitement levels were through the roof!

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!

Birthday Week 🎉

Monday 8th - Sunday 14th May 2017

The boys were still pretty tired from the weekend so we had a chilled start to the week. But with my birthday and Mother's Day coming up I had plenty planned! Although, saying that, we've spent most of the week making some awesome forts!

It was Julia's birthday on Tuesday, so we all went back to Koji for sushi to celebrate. There's quite a few au Pair birthdays over the next week or so which is pretty strange! I met Marion and Anka, two other au pairs that aren't doing it through Au Pair link. It's pretty cool to meet up with the girls, especially as they all know what Au Pair life is like, we share funny stories and give each other ideas for activities and, most importantly, arrange play dates!

Cushla came for her second visit on Thursday, and brought a castle defender kit with her which the boys love! You build a castle and then use a catapult to shoot knights at it to knock it down. There are also numbers on some of the items so you can play it more competitively, but right now they just like knocking it down!

That evening, Fie, Mara, Fabienne and I met Cushla at coffee culture for our monthly au Pair catch up. As au Pair link is having its 10th anniversary, Cushla bought us all hot chocolates which was amazing! So then, as a start to my birthday treats, I got the hot chocolate cake, basically marshmallow on the top, layer of chocolate cake, layer of chocolate mousse and a bottom layer of chocolate cake. Safe to say it was delicious!

I was pretty lucky that the boys didn't wake me up mega early on my birthday, as I'm pretty sure they were way more excited than me! Darragh was waiting for me in the lounge and then as soon as I got up he went and got everyone else to come so I could open my presents! They got me some chocolates and biscuits as well as a passport cover and luggage tag to remind me of New Zealand when I'm off on my travels, which was super thoughtful!

I also got a few cards from family back home which was really lovely - always nice to know that people are thinking of you on your birthday, even if they are in the other side of the world! Dad and Nickie also surprised me with flowers, chocolate and a bear from a local florist! Was a total surprise did not expect it at all!

Wade took the day off today, and Mary went to pick up Cillian from Kindergarten and then Wade took him upstairs to watch a movie so I had an extra few hours chill time which was awesome! I finally got round to finishing Martin Chuzzlwit - just in time for it to go back to the library! 

After he school run, I made some Mother's Day cards and presents with the boys before making another huge fort surprise surprise! We got an Indian takeaway for dinner, my choice! Mary had made me a white chocolate tim tam and Baileys cheesecake and oh my god it was amazing!

 I then spent the evening chilling with a few beers and watching blind spot so all in all a pretty good day! 

Mary and Wade let me stay in one of the motel units so I could have a lie in the next morning which was a brilliant treat! So nice to not hear the kids fighting over what to play with or watch at 7am! We had a big fry up breakfast Saturday morning and then I pretty much just read for the rest of the day! In the evening, Marion picked me up and we went to Mara's to watch a few movies. 

Sunday again was pretty much a chill out day as well. It was Mother's Day and I had forgotten I had all the cards and bits in my room so I forced myself out of bed at 9 so that the kids could give their presents to Mary. I went to coffee culture with Marion after breakfast as she was driving through Timaru anyway! In the evening I went for a walk with Mary and Cillian but other than that I didn't do a whole lot this weekend! 

Tekapo & Lake Benmore

Thursday 4th - Saturday 7th May 2017

I was back to work Thursday and Friday, it was lovely to see everyone again and I got huge hugs when I picked up the boys from kindy and school!

On Friday afternoon I went up to Tekapo with the host family, as they were going to a family friends 21st birthday and I said I would babysit the boys! We stopped off at the same place we stopped at with Contiki, and it brought back fond memories of Emma finding out she was allergic to almonds and me dying of my horrific hangover. Good times! The lake is even more beautiful without a hangover for sure!

We had dinner at the Thai restaurant there, and it was pretty good! The restaurant had awesome views of the lake as well.

We then headed to Mark and Sherie's farm before heading to the lake house at Lake Benmore where we're staying for the weekend. It was pitch black when we got there so when I woke up the next day the sheer beauty of where we were hit me. We are right on the lake and the mountains in the background make for a truly amazing New Zealand view.

Wade and the boys had been rabbit shooting this morning, and when they got back Wade gave me a lesson on shooting which was pretty cool! Managed to hit the tin twice out of the four times!

We then went and helped set up for the party, went to Fairlie and then back to the lake house to get ready. I was babysitting, so went to the party with them for a bit before heading home with the boys! We pretty much went straight home on Sunday and then I just chilled out for the rest of the day. All in all another great weekend!

Return to Queenstown: Part 4

Wednesday 3rd May 2017

So the plan today was to hike up Ben Lomen before departing each other for Timaru and Melbourne. Unfortunately, we woke up to rain and low cloud so we decided against the idea (mainly because Kieran doesn't have a raincoat). So we decided to just chill around town instead after checking out and leaving our luggage in the luggage room.

Kieran was set on getting some stickers for his laptop, so we had a look around a few souvenir shops and he grabbed a ferg burger for breakfast - with the intent of having as many as possible today before leaving! We headed back to Nomads to chill in the lounge area by the fire.

As the shake was so good yesterday, we went back to cookie time to grab a cookie and shake. They are so good but so sickly! The weather was still pretty awful, so we chilled out and played a bit of pool for a bit until the rain started to clear.

As the weather looked like it might clear up pretty nicely, we decided to walk up the Queenstown hill trail. However, after about fifteen minutes the rain clouds came back in so we decided to go back into town. It wasn't long before we had to go anyway, so it was probably best. 

We met with a couple of people Kieran knew when he was living in New Zealand, and went to fat badger as they had chicken wings for 50 cents. I didn't get any though as I saved myself for my last fergburger! I went for the bun laden which did not disappoint! 

It was pretty sad saying goodbye to Kieran - turns out I probably won't see him until next year which is pretty crazy! But who knows... I've ended up seeing him on the other side of the world so I could end up seeing him anywhere!