Back in the North Island

Hurrah for holidays. We are now back at home after a busy fun-filled trip to Christchurch. It was lovely to see family, especially my two extremely cute nephews, and Christchurch is very pretty in Autumn. Lots of stunning trees with leaves in various shades of red, yellow or brown. There were way too many cool things for me to go into detailed descriptions so I'll go for bullet-point highlights.

-Dominic was awesome on the plane both ways. It's a little daunting taking a little one on a flight (especially remebering one nightmare flight we had on the way to Japan with a toddler in front of us crying for the _whole_ flight. Fortunately, we had Pooh and Grover movies on the iPod touch with portable speakers so Dom was either happily eating or watching these for the flight. On the way back, we had a wndow seat and he loved looking out the window after take off. He even started flapping his arms around, so I think he grasped the concept that we were in the air although he later realised he didn't actually need to 'fly' himself :-)

- Seeing Dom hanging out with his two cousins was awesome, and his other relatives too. He was always super excited to see everyone and had no hesitation in fully taking over his uncle's home (especially the Darth Tater potato head).

- Going through Christchurch Muesum was very cool - lots of romping room and interesting things to look at. Dom particularly liked the Discovery area with drawers full of shells, insects and other things.

- Dom loved the massive play area at McDonalds and I discovered that McCafe actually do a quite reasonable muffin.

- The Christchurch Aquarium is awesome. Sharks, sting rays, pretty fish, turtles and an obliging show-off octopus. Dom really liked the swing bridge over the waterfall and the touch pool (or splash pool for him really).

- Cathedral Square - Dominic dragged me in and around several shops.

- Taking the Tram.

- Romping around the Arts centre in the sun. Lots of live music, markets, delicious hazelnut lattes and heaps of dried autumn leaves for Dom to play in.

- I got to squeeze in some shopping but the highlight of that day's excursion for Dom was riding in the Wriggles ride with his cousins.

- On the last day we went for breakfast with the whole tribe to Denny's which is an excellent place for little ones. Dom liked the food but exploring was even more fun.

Denny's photos



Dom becomes aquainted with the penguin using the traditional hand-to-beak greeting.



The boys gather around the jukebox.



Waving to Daddy (who is outside with a camera as the reflection shows).