Travelling with the preschoolers was quite a breeze coz they were so happy in their own world! Very cute watching them and eavesdropping. When they got on each other's nerves, we just went our separate ways as families for a bit. That worked really well. 

We're on holiday!!!! (Again?:))

Our good friends the Wees are here on holiday and we're touring the North Island and South Island with them. We spent a couple of days at Ron and Heather's beach house last week and now we're in South Island in beautiful Queenstown. We just had breakfast facing the snow peaked mountains! It's meant to either rain or snow these couple of days. Very cold. Arriving in the South Island is like coming to a totally different country! Am absolutely loving the scenery.

Sophie and Skyler are playing happily together. Other than all of us being somewhat sick, we are having a great time. We're taking our time which is real nice.

On another note, we've finally packed up and left Crystal Springs on Saturday. The past few days have been kinda emotional for me. Almost cried when I walked into our empty Cottage 4. It's been intense with all the packing and saying byes.

More later.

I love the way the Lord provides in His own way when we allow him to.

We really wanted a break after the school but we were not sure where
to go or how to go about doing it. We didn't want to spend too much
but still wanted sometime away from the base. We toyed with a few
ideas but made it a point to submit it to the Lord and trust Him to
provide the best for us.

Almost immediately, a contact that we had wrote to us (after not being
in contact for a almost a year). He wrote to us randomly to ask what
we were doing and how we were. Turns out, he's the chaplain of a
healing retreat centre in Whakatane, a beach town, about 2 hrs drive
from here.

So long story short, we were invited to spend the week at the centre.
It was just lovely. Great little family cottage to ourselves, lovely
food, an abundance of fruit in the orchard, wonderful times with the
Lord in the little chapel, 10 mins drive to town or the beach.

John who is the chaplain of the Titoki Healing Centre, invited us to
share during the weekly chapel service. So we spoke to an audience of
about 20 people, ages averaging 60, I think. They were all so sweet!
We were so blessed by the care and servanthood of the staff at Titoki.
After serving others intensely the past few months, it was just so
good to be served and having the space to spend time with the Lord and
each other.

Through this encounter, I really learnt to trust God even with my
leisure time. Sometimes it's so tempting to plan my holidays the way I
want it but funny how holidays don't really satisfy our longings for
peace and rest. Only God can.

Now that we are a lot freer, we've been going travelling! We just came
back from Whakatane where we spent the past 5 days, but more about
that later.

It's been so good just to pack up the car - fishing stuff, picnic
stuff, a couple of change of clothing, some snacks and just go! Oh...
and plus the children, of course! :) Within an hr's drive, there's
plenty to see and do.

Soon as the school ended, we went that Sunday to Waihi beach. I've
never been before. I really enjoyed the drive. Very scenic through the
gorge. We started early and just took it easy, stopping whenever we
wanted.

We spent the whole afternoon at the beach where there was no one.
James fished, Sophie played with sand, I read my magazine and Levi ate
sand.

The next 2 days, we came back to the base. James cooked the fish he
caught for dinner. Sophie was really happy to show everyone around. She also got to open her Christmas presents!

We went to Lake Taupo and Rotorua.

On the last day, we went to the Kaimai Cheese Factory (15 mins drive
from the base) for brunch on the way to Auckland for some shopping and
they flew off early the next morning.

It was a really short trip but so so good to see Mum, Dad and Rach. We
really really miss them and was real glad to have that time with them.
The weather was terrible, I was having a terrible bout of mastitis and
chills, my parents' camera got damaged etc but I will always remember
the conversations, the time spent and the love shared. Very very
precious. I'm so glad you guys came, thanks mum, thanks dad, thanks
rach. I think Sophie and Levi were so blessed.

When my parents and sister came to visit before Christmas, we took the
opportunity to travel around the North Island. We went a bit further
than we've ever been - up NorthEast to the Coromandel area and further
south beyond Rotorua into Taupo. We only had 5 days but we managed to
do quite a bit.

Arrived in Auckland
My mum and dad met Levi for the very first time. Oh Dad was so
mesmerised by Levi. :) Sophie was introduced to Hannah Montana by her
favorite Yiyi.

Before we left Auckland, we went to our fav strawberry farm to have
ice cream (after breakfast!).

Drove to Hahei, Coromandel through Thames and Tairua.

Had lunch in Thames at a Thai Restaurant and we attempted to put Levi
in the bumbo seat which we got my parents to bring from S'p.

We stopped by a Tairua for some groceries for BBQ.

Finally we arrived at The Beach House at Hahei. This is the first time
I was introduced to the concept of a holiday bach! The owners of the
bach lived on the same property next door. It was a perfect lil bach
for us - 3 bedrooms, a BBQ pit, 5 mins walk from the beach, cable TV
(Soph and Rach were glued to the TV, just as well coz it rained so
much!).

Next day and for the next few days, it poured and poured and poured.
We were planning to go to the Hot Water Beach (5 mins from our bach)
and Cathedral Cove but it was just impossible with the rain. Which
made me realise that it's no fun touring NZ when it's raining because
everything nice is outdoors. So, we decided to drive to Whitanga (a
little further north, pronounced "fitanga", in Maori, "wh" is
pronounced "f". Try saying "Whakatane" without blushing :)) to check
it out. Turned out to be a nice little harbour town. We had the most
amazing clam chowder. Oooo I can still remember the taste. Yums!

We stayed two nights at The Beach House. The second day James went
fishing early in the morning and caught some fish! :) After breakfast,
we went to the Hot Water Beach and Cathedral Cove. I think we only had
that one good day with fine weather! Ooo the walk to Cathedral Cove
was beautiful. Cathedral Cove was where they filmed the last scene in
Narnia.

My in laws left last weekend. We went up to Auckland to send them off and spent a night there.

It's been such a blessing having them around. They cooked for us every day, every meal for 6 whole weeks. It was such a luxury. My father in law was also the one who drove us to the hospital when Levi was about to be born. My mum in law helped to soothe Levi in the evenings so that I could have dinner in peace. Most of all, they were Sophie's main companions when James had to return to work and I was spending most of my time with Levi.

Sophie was inconsolable when they left. She cried and cried. Poor thing. She's grown so attached to them over the past 6 weeks. But it was good that she could grief like that. As grown ups, we always overlook the grieving process when people leave because we get so hardened. Looking at her grieve made James and I wished we had that kind of heart again. Once she stopped crying she was absolutely fine.

Sidenote:
1. Auckland is so fun! I love being in the city once in a while. James and I went on a date (Levi was our chaperon) on Sat night to watch the latest movie The Last AirBender. The show was so so but it was my first date with James since we returned to NZ in July and my first 3D movie. I know, very suaku but so shiok. Levi slept thru the movie and woke up in the last 30 mins to feed. Nice.

2. I drove back from Auckland. Woah! 2 hrs straight. I'm really starting to enjoy driving long distances.

Lemme just say it again, NZ is BEAUTIFUL.

We just spent the weekend with my in laws in Rotorua. It's only about an hour and a half away from Matamata. However, the landscape is totally different. It's filled with lush green trees even though spring only just started, many geothermal areas and smells of sulphur.

We went one day at Wai-O-Tapu to see the mud pools, craters, lakes and geysers. You need to pay to get in there but it's nicely built up for tourists and easy to push a stroller. Very safe too. Unfortunately it was pouring so we had to brave through the rain to do the walk. Thank God we brought the Mountain Buggy. Sophie was quite happy to sit in there completely protected by the raincover and even fell asleep towards the end of the walk. James carried Levi in the sling and wore a poncho.

Left: Lady Knox Geyser shoots up to 20m high!

Right: Devil's Cave, a sulphur hot pool

The next day we went to Redwood Forest to do the shortest walk. It was supposed to be a half hour walk, turned out to be an hour for us. Sophie started to whine halfway and had to take breaks along the way but still she made it to the end. It was also drizzling and the heavy rains before made the ground really muddy. I think it'll be great to try the walk again on a sunny day. The trees were so beautiful. It's a very doable walk for kids too.

This was Levi's first trip away from home. We stayed at a hotel. They didn't have a cot so James folded up the duvet covers and made a little "mattress" on the floor for him. It's pretty easy traveling with a newborn since they still sleep most of the time. I think he only had a melt down once prob because he had enough stimulation and was tired of being in the car seat.

We are back from a short weekend trip to Rotorua! Updates soon, meanwhile photos on flickr.