Day 103-106

On the 9th July we had our very own guided tour of Leamington, Cambridge and Hamilton. We went into Hamilton Town Centre and enjoyed lunch outside before heading to Hamilton Gardens.

In the gardens we visited 5 different country inspired gardens, namely; Chinese, Indian, Japanese, Italian and English. In the English garden we were playing shoulder races with the kids around the pond. By the end of it we were knackered, although the kids were up for more.

We then headed towards the supermarket to purchase some food for the evening as we were cooking for 8. We decided on chilli with rice and nachos.

Once back at the house it was play time all over again. Lorna played make overs with Georgia, Jenna and Charlie, whilst Al played football with Matt in the garden.

Everyone enjoyed dinner and us adults enjoyed our wine. We then went into the spa with a glass of wine under the stars and we could also see the Milky Way, which was very romantic.

On the 10th July we had a more relaxed day. After collecting all the ingredients to make pasties for the markets at the weekend we peeled and chopped a sack full of potatoes. On the up side to this we also tasted the finished product and the new cheese and onion pasties, mmm!!

We also took Roxy, Bob and 4 kids for a walk over the park. Roxy decided to roll around in poop and stunk really bad and Bob decided to go and make friends with another dog by a horse, so an eventful walk.

On the 11th we had Mel's car which was a bonus. Al was the designated driver as Lorna didn't bring her license with her. First stop was the library with Georgia and Jenna for a arts and craft hour.

We then went into Chartwell as we decided the night before to purchase a family cinema ticket for them to see Kung Fu Panda as a thank you gift. This turned into a bit of a crazy time. Due to there being lots of traffic in the car park and Jenna needing the toilet Al jumped out for Lorna to continue driving. But the car wouldn't move, it was an automatic car and the gear stick would not move into 'drive'. All the cars were tooting behind us and Al came back and drove the car to an avaliable spot. We worked it out afterwards that you needed to put the brake down in order to put the car into 'drive', which Lorna hadn't been doing. Due to her mum's old automatic car not needing this to be done to move.

On the 12th July we had a little bit of a clean around for Mel and finished of our washing. Once completed we headed into Cambridge for the Saturday market, which was a sell out even though it was raining.

We went to the supermarket to purchase some dinner for the evening as we left for Taupo late afternoon. We were looking forward to it as we had steak.