29^th December, 2015

Up early, - well, seeing that we went to bed at 3am, we were up at 9.30am. With a house full of guests all sleeping over and the air mattress we were on had gone down a lot overnight & had become uncomfortable, Steve was up and showered.

Another sunny warm day, but apparently this will be the last nice day for a while as the wet weather is about to set in. That makes us happy because it means CLOUDS are coming!

Steve spent the morning teaching Graeme all about photography and Geri and I talked about girly stuff. The kids woke up, suprisingly clear headed and headed off to breakfast and then the beach.

Graeme is taking us down the road to an organic Strawberry farm, where they make ice-cream on site. It is quite famous, and the queues are vast and long, but well worth it. Bring it on I say!

We sat around having a very lazy day. The sun was shining and the breeze was just beautiful. Geri & I sat out on the deck, drinking Brown Bros Pink Champagne (it was so sweet even I had some….I must buy some when I get back home!).  Sienna Rosso  The boys were still inside talking technical music stuff.

Around 3.30pm we headed off to The Strawberry Farm. WOW – so busy – so many people. We stood in line and placed our order. 3 x Strawberry Ice-creams and 1 x Ice-cream Sundae. Fantastic set up they have. They pre-portion the vanilla ice-cream on trays. 2 scoops and a tong full of frozen strawberries into this machine that churned it and blended it and out came “soft serve” in a waffle cone ($4). The Sundae was 2 scoops of Vanilla Ice-cream, Chocolate Syrup with Passionfruit syrup, with a small Chocolate Eclair & 2 fresh Strawberries ($5). There were pancakes, and smoothies. All cash. WOW – there must have been a good $1,000 going through the tills every 15mins. And the people still came! Its open from 10am – 6pm for only the Strawberry season, and I am sure thats when they make all their money. I am going to set up a business plan for Laura Nation when I get back!! :)

Graeme & Geri then took us for a short drive up to One Tree Hill to look at the monument and from there you get a 180 degree view of Auckland. Its quite an amazing hill and the views are nothing short of spectacular!

We went to the local supermarket to get supplies for dinner, and once again we went a little beserk inside. We had to try the Puhoi Valley Belgium White Chocolate & Caramel Milk. OMFG, if this isn't the best milk I've ever had in my life!! Apparently they also make ice-cream – well, I'll just have to hunt that down and give that a try too!

Gosh, I'd be really fat if I lived here! No – I don't think you understand – the dairy is out of this world amazing! How can you not treat yourself every day to a special “something”!!  I think I'd be lucky if I stayed as small as a size 28.....  maybe living in Australia is a good thing for me!  lol

I bought more Coconut Milk from the LittleIslandCompany so I can have it with my shakes in the morning! I am sure I'll get to the Cook Islands a good 10ks heavier, but eh – what an awesome experience! :) (but I do think the coconut milk is causing havoc with my face...breaking out with poly-oral dermatitis quite badly! I'd normally be quite upset, but the milk and dairy is so damn good – eh, I'll get over it!

Geri was teaching me some Mauri and pronunciation.

Kapai - Nice  (the new name of our business in Wanaka -   "Kapai Creamery" - Nice Creamery - get it??) lol

Whanau - Family  (which I am now part of!) - WH is pronounced "F"

I am sure it will be a very early night tonight…. We are all absolutely buggered! No photos were taken, no camera's were even thought about. Nice to have the day off. The clouds are starting to appear now, so we might have some luck in the coming days for some sunset shots!

The sunset was really lovely…. Of course it was! Lol