Xmas eve Saturday we woke up and tried to quickly pack out of the rental house. A short drive over to the redwoods mountain bike trails and getting everyone set up with their e-bike. Cannon and I stayed behind and waved as they all drove off. After a short start, with some tricky handling, Gwen got very frustrated, crying and refused to go any more. Isabelle also said she was ready to quit after 30 minutes. Ben says he will bring them and Chad and Emily can take the rest of the kids on a ride. Ben tries to get back to the beginning but can’t- one way trails and weird loops. After an hour, they finally make it back to the starting place and me Ben and cannon go for a little ride. Cannon does great, even though the bike was too large for him to handle comfortably. Just a short time later the rest of the gang reappears and we turn the bikes back in. Our lunch options gross, so we decide to take out family to an Indian- yummy kebab and meat and rice. After that, we start our drive toward mount manganui with a short stop for a vigorous Waterfall hike down to swim. Water is pumping out of the waterfall- a Very strong current the boys challenge each other to make it to the rope and climb next to the waterfall. Grocery shopping ($200 for 2 days) beach at sunset. We have gross Chinese for Christmas Eve dinner. Play a fun pass the parcel (Isabelle wins) Emily reads a New Zealand children’s story, we light the whirligig candle and read Luke 2.
Sunday Christmas morning stockings and yummy coffee cake for breakfast. Eat candy all morning, listen to piano guys on YouTube get ready for church at 12 nobody there. The 2 wards had combined at 9:00!! We Talk to elder platt and go to the beach. Steak and potatoes dinner hike to the top of mount mainganui. Brielle broke Eva’s sand dollar :( we thought cannon did it and so we played truth or dare to get him to tell us the truth. Brielle was so scared when she broke the sand dollar she dropped it and ran away. We all had to clean it up. She confessed in the car ride and cried. Worries that Eva would be so mad- but she wasn’t.
Monday potatoes steak eggs breakfast clean up house beach parking full so Ben drops us off- Brielle cannon and Connor do 5 minute trampoline with their Christmas money. Then we rent scooter- play at fun beach ocean for 1 hour pb jelly at the park drive to Auckland for flight to queenstown — really trying to hustle worried about making the flight.. plenty of rain and wait. Fly all the way to queen town (1.45 hr) and try to land twice. Pilot decides to fly all the way back to Auckland — what a crazy turn for our trip. Stranded and rebooked flight for Wednesday. Late booking for Airbnb take 3 Uber - everyone so hungry we walk to gas station and get donuts, milk and some weird fried meat Pattie’s the cashier lady passed to us through a bank tray box.
Tuesday check into kiwi hotel. A driver offers to take all of us in his Toyota Prius downtown to thenAuckland Museum. Ben was very comfortable in the fort while 5 of us were crammed in the back!! We walk through the museum until we are ready to go, then walk downtown to an arcade for video games. Started looking for a place to grab lunch/dinner and arrive at a new shopping mall food court with so many options at the mall! We decide to watch the 3 hour new avatar movie.
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