Those moments you're just like YES

I love those days and moments when you're just like YES cause things are going well. I had a day like that on Sunday. I was back in Hastings for the 22nd birthday of my best friend. I love going back to Hastings, especially in summer. It's where a lot of my favourite people reside and in summer the weather is beautiful and they have the best summer fruit and there's lots of lovely things to do outside whilst soaking up the sun.

So anyway, I had a lovely lunch surrounded by lovely people, then bought some deliciously juicy strawberries from the strawberry patch and chilled back with friends before driving back to Palmy. Even the drive there and back was good because I had new music on my ipod and a new car that is super smooth to drive. Ahhhh bliss.

I got to spend time with this gorgeous birthday girl, which is always a pleasure:

xx

Last weekend

Last weekend was one of those beautiful ones where everything was lovely and well with the world. This was very nice considering the car sadness of late.

On Friday my lovely mother picked me up from work and drove me down to Hastings. We had my favourite meal – a kebab from Café Anatolia (if you’re ever in Hastings, you must eat there) for dinner then spent the night catching up with the grandparents. On Saturday morning I went to the gym with my sister, which was good fun, then that afternoon my sister, mother and I went around Napier for a bit. The weather was divine. Later on, le sister and I shared a drink and a plate of salt and pepper calamari along the waterfront, just enjoying each others’ company and the splendid sun. That night we had a roast with the grandparents, and then watched a movie. So nice. On Sunday I went to church with the mothership, and caught up with one of my best friends whilst there. I got the bus back to Palmy that afternoon and chilled out back at the flat for the rest of the night.

Then it was fabulous waking up on Monday morning knowing I didn’t have to work! (4 day weekend here in NZ). In the morning I went to the gym then cleaned the house a bit. Spent the rest of the day with le garcon (walk, bird watching, bowling, dinner, movies). SO NICE.

Aaaaaaaan it’s Wednesday already!! Wooop!! This means only two more days and it’s the weekend again!! Love it.Hope you all had great weekends readers 

xx

Oruawharo

Today I attended my Grandparents' 60th wedding anniversary luncheon. 13 members of my family met at the beautiful Oruawharo Homestead in Takapau, a place that is a bit off the beaten track but well worth a visit. It is an absolutely spectacular building, with so much character. It kind of reminds me of a Jane Austen era type home. My favourite room of them all (and there are many, many rooms) was the library which featured a wall of floor to ceiling bookcases and comfy chairs for reading. We had a lovely luncheon consisting of tea, devonshire scones, club sandwiches, ginger gems, mini savouries, strawberry tarts and fruit juice. All served on gorgeous tiered plate stands. After lunch we took some photos in the gardens and then played a bit of petanque (which I'm useless at btw). Unfortunately I didn't get very many photos. I forgot my proper camera, silly me. It was all so instragram-worthy too :(

I discovered a wooden swing suspended to a big old tree and quite enjoyed that for a while:

Visit Oruawharo if you ever get the chance.

xx

Who knew?

I think New Zealand is a pretty sweet country. As I've grown older (and wiser..I hope?) I've come to appreciate this great country of ours much more than I used to. Though I have nothing to compare it to and I am biased because it's where I come from, I think New Zealand has so much going for it. This view was reinforced when I stumbled upon this article. Turns out, there are some mean cool places to stay around our country, places that differ from your general hotel or b&b. Take a look....

The Boot, Nelson. 

Straight out of the 'There was an old woman who lived in a shoe' nursery rhyme!

The Giant's House, Akaroa.

Looks like something out of Alice in Wonderland or Dr Seuss's head!!

Yurt accomodation, Raglan.

This is the interior of the yurt, which is pretty much a tepee. I kid you not.

The jailhouse, Christchurch.

Each room is fully kitted out like your everyday hotel room. Buuuuuuut it's an old prison.

Not too sure I'd like this one, have seen too many scary movies in this sorta setting...

Woodlyn Park, Waitomo.

Stay in the hobbit hotel (pictured) or in a plane, train or ship!!

Solscape eco retreat, Raglan.

Stay in a tepee (again, wow), an earth dome or train carriages which have been converted into rooms.

(plus feel good doing it, its all eco friendly)

So cool! Staying at these places is definitely going on my bucket list!! 

xx

Antiquing

So a few weeks back my sister and I were in Ahuriri, a cute little village not far from Napier. This area is one of my favourite places in Hawke's Bay; it's right by the beach, where all the little fishing boats are, has the best Mediterranean deli I've ever been to, has a mean chicken eatery and ice creamery, and has some other lovely wharfside restaurants (which double as nightclubs on the weekends). While I was growing up Dad used to take us to the wharf to go fishing so I have many fond memories of the area.

Anyhoooooo...there's this amazing antique shop that the sister and I always visit when we're over there, called Whale's Tale Antiques. My golly that shop is amazing, gets my imagination in a whirl every visit! It's incredibly crammed with stuff and wouldn't be good for clumsy people to visit (always so scared I'll break something!) but it's smell, all the amazing treasures it houses and just the feel of the place is magical. I love it. If you're ever in the area, make sure you check it out!!

So many treasures, and just imagine the stories behind them!!
Hope you're having a beaut day :)
xx

South Island Trip (part 2)

Sunday...

Got home 5am, got up 9am. Walked into the city with Jess, Jo, Rose and Jac for brunch (well, lunch really as it was midday by this point) at a little cafe called Capers. I had the most amazing field mushrooms on toasted herb foccacia. Delish! After a quick trip to the mall, we headed back to the flat, packed up and sat out in the sun (another beaut day!) eating Jaffas. Our ride then came, we said our goodbyes and hit the road back to Christchurch. That night we drove around the city to try and see the earthquake damage. We saw the Cashel Street container mall which was really cool, and some damaged buildings but couldn't see too much coz it was dark. Back at the mates place we watched a movie then crashed in the lounge.....dead to the world.

Monday...


Said half asleep goodbyes to the mate we were staying with then got up, packed and sat outside in the glorious sunshine. Were picked up by my Auntie and Cousin (who I've been writing to for over ten years) who took us back to their place. We then saw the other cousins, took the dog for a walk to the local park, then went back for lunch. After lunch we played Dutch Blitz, the best card game everrrr. Then headed to airport and flew back to Welly, where our flatmate picked us up and drove us back to Palmy.

Done. Haha. This is quite skimmed but you can get the gist of the fabulous weekend that it was :)
Dunedin, Thanks so much for turning out great weather and great times during our weekend with you. Am now seriously contemplating moving down next year.

Back into uni now so should be blogging more regularly from this point onwards.

xx

South Island Trip (part 1)

So am finally getting round to blogging about my trip down south, sorry about the delay!

I'll begin with Friday...
Got up at 6am (packed the night before), flatmate drove Jac and I to Wellington airport at 7:30am. Got to airport, had a mocha (yum) and muffin (horrid - had been heated to the point of inedible dryness and upon losing heat turned rock solid, ick). Caught our flight and an hour later we were in Christchurch! What a b-e-a-utiful city that is! Such gorgeous weather too. Got to our mates flat, dropped our bags off and went walkies to the nearby Westfield mall. Checked that out for a bit, had a smoooooooooooooothie then walked back to the flat to wait for the mate to get home from work. Not much later we left the garden city for our final destination: Dunedin!

4.5 hours and a subway dinner stop in Oamaru later, we arrived. Got out of the car and sheesh was it cold!! Put the puffer on straight away. Then finally got to the flat of two of my best and oldest friends. Went for a walk round Otago University (beaut! so flash!) then headed back home and stayed up chatting with friends and friends of friends until 1am. Was great. Had a mean sleep in the 'fort' that night :)

One of the beautiful Otago Uni buildings 

Saturday...
Got up late then headed into Dunedin town with Jess, Jo and Jac. Went for a tour of the Cadbury chocolate factory (got a goodie bag of chox && a sample of liquid chocolate *drool*). Then headed to the Botanical Gardens with lunch and sat in the sun enjoying nature, good food, great company and great conversation :) was grand. Also visited the aviary at the gardens but the parrot wouldn't talk to us. shame. Then headed back to the flat, got alc, got dressed up and settled in for a few drinks (which became more than a few for one in particular ;p but that's history now). This period from 8-12am included: beer pong, snap, many shots, second trip to liquor store, catching up with 2 old school friends, an American with something interesting in his pocket and a shoe-swap incident. Headed into Dunedin town after midnight which was pretty coool, was lots of fun dancing with J&J. Got home and crashed around 5am.

Stay tuned for part 2 :)
xx

Prettiness xx

Some pictures that make me smile/feel happy on this beautifully sunny Hawke's Bay day (made that much lovelier by the fact that it's a day off for me. yuss).....









have a fab day readers
xx

Field Candy

I like camping. I haven't done a heck of a lot of it, but have good memories from the camping I have done, and want to do more in the future. Even camping out in the backyard with friends was a highlight of my childhood! My friends and I planned to have a backyard campout at some point this summer, though I'm not sure if it'll happen coz we're kinda running out of time. I saw the most amazing tents on KuTE KIWI the other day and just had to reblog them. So incredibly cool. Here are some of my favourites...

FieldCandy

Kayso I pretty much like all of them!! But seriously, how hip would it be to rock up at a campsite with a tent like this! Make a statement much?! Haha.
I love.
xx

What happened last Sunday

Appy polly logies for not blogging in so long. I have been busy like a wee bee over the last week, with work, gym and friends. But busy is good, right?! So anyways, last Sunday was a major highlight for me, not only because I got to see two amazing friends who I haven't seen since the mid-year break, but because we re-lived our childhood, got back to our roots (Six60 would be proud haha) and enjoyed the simple things in life :)
Our day started off with a mean chill sesh at the beach in Napier, in glorious sunny weather. The conversation flowed, the sun shone, the laughs were abundant...it was great. We shared pizza and garlic bread for lunch, along with some delish slushys. Nomnomnom.

After that we headed back to Hastings and went to Cornwall Park, a place where the three of us always used to play when we were kiddies. We used to have this 'hut' at the park (a group of trees that were surrounded by bush and a little stream that ran through it - where we used to 'wash' our dishes hahah), so we went to re-discover it. The memories and fun times flooded back, and the hut was exactly the same, though mini. Letting out inner child run free, we then proceeded to climb trees. It was great. Reminiscing is so much fun.

It was a crazy fun day. Here's to lots of repeats this summer!!
xx