A Wedding in Sydney

A friend I've known for a long time got married over the weekend in Sydney and a couple of us made the trek down from Brisbane for the beautiful ceremony and reception. As the wedding was on a Friday, we also decided to make a long weekend of it and see a bit of the city and its surroundings. A few of my posts this week will therefore be about Sydney.

The wedding ceremony took place in a beautiful Uniting Church in the middle of the city, whilst the reception was at the decadent L'Aqau Restaurant in Darling Harbour. It was a spectacular view to take in at night and a great reception, themed around racing tracks. This theme came about because the couple met when both working for a well known car manufacturer.

Whirlwind is the word I would use to describe their courtship (just over a year from their first date to being wed) but as the back of our name places said, 'when you know, you know'. This was certainly the case for me and I don't doubt it was for them too.

A Race Track Theme

Our Table

 The Cake

 Amazing Dessert Number One

Amazing Dessert Number Two

A Super Adventure

Last Christmas my sister very generously gave hubby and self a voucher for a High Ropes course, from Red Balloon. However, she didn't realise at the time that I was pregnant and hubby has a fear of heights, so it wasn't the best Christmas present ever. Nonetheless, I contacted Red Balloon and was able to exchange the vouchers for 2 Superduck Adventures and 2 Adult tickets to Currumbin Bird Sanctuary. We will use the Bird Sanctuary vouchers once I've had the baby, so we can take him too but decided (okay I decided) to use the Superduck Adventure tickets yesterday and do something different for Easter Monday. I think hubby had different plans, so he wasn't too impressed but it was a nice day at the coast!

The Superduck Transporter

 Our mode of transport touring around Southport

 On the water - some of the Gold Coast high rises

 This is the only floating chapel in Australia, designed for weddings

 This boat was used in the Sea Patrol series, all those years ago

Easter 2013

Easter 2013 is better summed up with imagery, rather than words and so the story goes...

Easter Saturday

I made some treats for brunch

 My friend's brunch and her gorgeous decorations

  Can't wait until I can eat smoked salmon again

 The girl definitely knows how to put on a good spread

Easter Sunday

The Easter Bunny had been and left eggs scattered on the lawn

 The kids went searching for eggs

 The spoils were then divided amongst four

 Upon arrival to mum's Easter celebrations

 Hanging eggs

 Cute Easter bunnies

Easter cupcakes

Christmas is coming, are you ready?

Yesterday I was officially invited to my first Christmas party for the year, so Christmas is now officially in my head and the panic of gift-giving has begun. Before now, I was happy to ignore the department store displays and online newsletters promoting Christmas decorations but being invited to an event, makes it somewhat more real. 

I'm not sure if I'm more or less prepared than last year at this stage. I feel I am still behind but that may have something to do with the amount of social events I've had this year. Here's what I've done so far to prepare:

•  Bought cheap Christmas wrap in the boxing day sales last year (always a great idea, you can get a roll of Christmas wrap for $1 from places like Kmart).
• Written a list of who I have to buy for, present ideas and a budgeted amount for each gift. Here's a printable gift list planner from Kidspot (it may be a favourite website of mine, even though I don't have kids yet :p).
• Printed free printable gift tags from the internet. 
  

If you're not as prepared as all that, here's a few budget saving ideas I've found on the internet:

1. Brown paper wrap (you can buy from Coles or Kmart) with alphabetical stamping and a cute ribbon (discount stores sell cheap ribbon). Here's Kikki's K's tutorial for it. 

Photo courtesy of Kikki K

2. Find free Christmas tag printables and even cards online. Here's a few links to some cute tags:

From The 36th Avenue

 From Kelly Medina Studios

From The Pink Doodle

Ohakune, New Zealand

The last time my husband and I travelled overseas was for our honeymoon back in 2009. Two bedrooms and one bathroom renovation later, we decided it was time to venture out into the unknown world again. Our chosen destination: Ohakune, New Zealand.

Ohakune is within the central geographic area of New Zealand's north island and about 1.5 hours drive south from the beautiful Lake Taupo. It is also the main town for accomodation when skiing on Mt. Ruapehu, which we did.

Ohakune, New Zealand

Queensland may have the big carrot but Ohakune wasn't to be outdone, with the big carrot. It is a town known for its agriculture and in particular, carrot growing.

Ohakune Carrot

We stayed in beautiful B&B accomodation whilst there called the River Lodge, owned by Gayle & Denton (former Brisbane residents). We had own cottage whilst there with views of the mountains and a fireplace going each night. Breakfast was included, as was discount hire of ski equipment, which came in handy. You're also welcome to pat the sheep in their paddock or play with daisy (the labrador) whilst there. 

River Lodge kitchen area

I am very grateful that I got to spent time with a New Zealand friend who I worked with in London (in 2005), whilst I stayed in New Zealand. We went skiing for the day and got to catch up. I miss her when I'm home - she's one of those friend who you always feel close to, even when they're not literally there. 

My Kiwi friend and her partner

There are two ski fields on Mt. Ruapehu, one called Turoa (which you access via Ohakune) and the other called Whakapapa (which they pronounce fook-a-papa - weird!). We spent all our time at the Turoa ski fields but did take a day trip to the Whakapapa village and let me tell you, there was not a lot there...so happy we chose Ohakune! Getting up the mountain each day wasn't always a picnic either, as the roads were icy and some days had really poor visiblity - 20km/hr was often the go. We were able to get up the mountain in our little Mazda rental without chains each day, which was a blessing, if not scary at times. There was one particular day that I really could have used a 4WD to get through the slush in the car park. Exhibit A below.

Icy carpark

We managed 2 1/2 days of skiing in the end, as they closed the lifts early one day, due to the amount of wind. Nonetheless, some beautiful pictures were taken on my iphone whilst skiing, here's a few...

 On the chair lift going up the mountain

 A frozen pool of water

 

Our snowman, Walter

Hubby injured his knee on our last day skiing, so we took the following day off to sightsee. We drove to the beautiful Lake Taupo and whilst the idea was to have dinner over the lake at sunset, that didn't quote work out, due to the amount of cloud cover. 

Lake Taupo in the background

For our last full day of holiday, we visited the thermal pools in Tokaanu, which all the locals talk about. They're meant to have healing properties, due to their temperatures ranging between 37 and 40 degrees. We spent 20 minutes in the private pool below. It reminded me a bit of the Spring Hill baths back here in Brisbane. 

Private Pool at the Tokaanu Thermal Pools

The thermal area around the walking track, outside the pools

I also wouldn't be very aussie without mocking our kiwi friends, so I did manage to happen upon these in New Zealand - jeans leggings. That's right, leggings that look like Jeans! 

Jeans leggings

On the subject of holidays, I'd like to add that Hooroo has recently launched a new website of destinations to visit and places to go and see. If you're unsure of where to holiday, I suggest you check out www.hooroo.com.au Let me know what you think of the site too. Any and all feedback welcome. I particularly like the 'Have been' / 'never been' idea.