ellen & daran in NZ

Auckland Winter

I have been moaning about how cold and un-subtropical New Zealand has been recently, and in particular their lack of central heating which is fairly ridiculous considering how cold it can get. BUT, to be fair, it is mid winter and when it is sunny and not pissing down with rain it is still hot enough to eat lunch outside, or go to the beach in a t-shirt etc. So I thought I would document this here, as these photos were taken in the last week or so, and it's not bad for winter you have to agree. :)

Sydney, March 2006

We were staying in Manly which is a 20min ferry ride from Sydney city centre

and was one of the best places in Sydney I reckon,

close enough to the city but with tons of nice beaches

and surf beaches and very laid back.

Me & Lis on Manly surf beach

Coming into Sydney harbour on Manly ferry

Cool sandcastle on Manly surf beach, took the guy 6 hours

Bondi Beach

Apparently famous bar at Bondi called Icebergs

From the Bondi - Bronte walk

Bodyboarders!

The Blue Mountains

Lis, me, Angus & Jenny in the Blue Mountains

The three sisters I think these are called

On Clontarf beach part of the Manly - Spit walk

Map of Manly - Spit walk for Jane & Frickey

View of Sydney

Daran's birthday morning

Look of surprise and possibly fear?

Lis' Visit - beaches, horseriding, diving and rotorua

Lis overlooking Lion Rock at Piha

Lis walking her pet seaweed

Lion Rock

18 surfers rescued of the sea at Piha in one day

Sunset from Piha surf club

Us at Piha surfclub after hard day's bodyboarding

Long Bay on the North Shore of Auckland

Sandcastle kicking or advanced yoga?

Cool plates at Fat Dog Cafe in Rotorua

Fishing at the hotpools in Rotorua

We went riding in Tauranga - My horse: Jake

Us with Lis' horse... er...er can't remember name

Learning to scuba dive

Christmas 2005

Our poor Christmas tree - with all the dead needles we had to drag

out of the middle of it to make it look not so banjaxed

Christmas eve, looking in to front room from deck

Christmas eve - looking into kitchen from deck

Christmas morning with Annette, an old friend of daran's, and her kids

On new trampoline

No photos of us having our go unfortunately but it was lots of fun -
very un-english-christmas-morning like

lots of pressies

Left to right - Keith (daran's brother), Carla (and bump), Brandon (daran's other brother and father of the bump), carla's brother (name? er?), Stef (keith's girlfriend)