HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! Sorry it's been so long since an update, this will be a really quick in-between holidays post before we go away again. We had a lovely Christmas, and our main present that we asked our families to contribute to was a family tent, as we have been wanting to take the boys camping for ages. We have a few friends who go away camping, and thought it sounded like a great, cheap way to get out and about and rediscover our beautiful countryside and beaches with the boys. We tried it out for the first time in Dad's garden, and that was successful, so we set off for two separate trips, just for two nights at a time. Both were to regional parks in Auckland district.

The first was Awhitu, on the Manukau heads, and it was lovely. The campsite was a short walk to a lovely big beach, great for walking on and right next to a lovely wetland conservation area. There were really nice walks in and around, and a short drive to some gorgeous quiet sandy beaches. We did a trip up to a lighthouse on the heads, the countryside was fantastic and the views amazing. On the way back we stopped at a remote black sand beach and the boys had a great time chasing the waves. The camping itself was great, the boys were really into it and loved helping to set up the tent and getting things out for meals etc. I love our tent, as my previous experience of camping has been in a tiny thing you have to crawl into, and put up and take down every day. This is a different experience entirely, a lovely big tent you can stand up in and leave up for days at a time while you go exploring, it was fantastic!

We are off again for a week to Pauanui, which is why I thought I had better quickly update this as we'll have lots more photos when we get back!!

The west coast black sand beach, the boys spent ages at one of their favourite pastimes, running away from the waves.






























Swimming at the nearby sandy beach














Walking along the beach down from the campsite in the evening after dinner.














Our tent, very relaxing, we all love it!














Our second trip was to Tapapakanga Regional Park, on the East Coast near Kawakawa Bay (about an hour from Auckland). It was beautiful, a short track down to a lovely long beach, that had sand and stones for throwing in the water, as well as an outlet that held water for the boys to play with and build a dam, another of their favourite things to do.















As well as the beach, there were some lovely walks around the headland and surrounding farmland
















Not a bad spot!















Inside the tent, it all opens up and is really spacious, even Bruce can stand up in it!



















Inbetween camping expeditions we have been doing some day trips and enjoying the gorgeous summer weather (apologies to those readers in the Northern Hemisphere in the snow!!!). I had a go on Paul's windsurfer, which was great fun, but was rather sore for several days afterwards!

This week the boys have had swimming lessons every morning (for 20mins), as they haven't had lessons for months and we wanted to give them a kick start before the term starts. They have both been fantastic and done really well.

Connor doing some great arm strokes
















Kicking to the side














Byron kicking along















Byron doing a 'dive'