Back From New Zealand

It seems a long time ago since I looked at my blog, but its not really. Such a lot went on in the 2 1/2 weeks we were away. Apart from not having internet the trip was actually quite stressful.
Most know we went over to a court case to gain custody of Aroha our 3rd grandchild.

This is Aroha, now 12 months old. She is gorgeous, had darker skin and hair than the other two had at that age. She is very active and it was so hard to get her to look ahead for any photos. We spent a day with her after the court case in which the judge in his mighty wisdom decided not to make any decision at that court case, hullo we had just gone over for that very reason, 3 solicitors, ourselves and our son and partner and the lady that has Aroha, all sitting there waiting for a decision. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr To cut a long story short, we get her only if the other lady is convicted and goes to prison early next year for the drugs case she is up on.

We did spend some time at a lake house in Rotorua which was very nice. This is Lake Tarawera which we only had to walk across the road to the jetty etc. Very quiet and peaceful. I went into Rotorua on the Friday night to spend the evening with Anne from NZ Stampers to have a play time. On the way back on the dark windy road I saw a Kiwi on the side of the road. They are not often seen anywhere, but as it was bushy and dark I guess it was out foraging for food. That was nice surprise.

 On our way back to Wanganui we called into Huka Falls to show the kids,This pic is taken on bridge as you go over the top of the river and walk round to the actual Falls. As you can see a lot of water rushes down there. I will upload from my phone camera when I can the actual falls as my camera battery decided to die at this point.

I took this pic from the plane on our way north to Auckland for our flight home to Melbourne. It is of Mt Ruapehu which is  2,797 m (9,177 ft). high. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon and the mountains looked magnificent. We had driven past it on our way to and from Rotorua but both days were too overcast and cold to go in and have a play in the snow with the kids

Anyway its now back to work and all that goes with running a household etc. Finding some time to play a bit and de-stress :-)  Talk soon..............