Day 19: A breath of fresh air

We decided to have a family walk today - a reasonably easy one for the children's sake. DH decided on visiting the Waitakere Dam because the walk in is sealed and the kids only had sneakers.  We need to get them some sturdier walking shoes. It is a rather steep walk down and back up though.

We saw some rata flowering on the way down so we waited while DH took a photo.  Why Miss 3 has her tongue out here is anyone's guess.  Tasting the air maybe?  There was a little detour to see a big kauri and then discussion about "boy" cones and "girl" cones and how kauri seeds are made.

Then we got to the dam.  It was on the verge of spilling over, we just need a few more downpours.

It was rather windy on the dam top as evidenced by my hair!  Mr6 is clutching his beanie, scared it's going to fly away. (Mine is on inside out. How come no one told me?!)



Here's a likely trio.

Then we had a look at the left over tramway at the edge of the dam - left over from when they built it.  They were a pretty hardy bunch to do the job in those days I reckon.

Then we headed back up the steeeeeeep hill.  Miss 3 had to be piggybacked some of the way.  Then mean Mummy made her walk some more which meant we heard "I'm weally, weally, weally, weally, weally, weally tired now" every 3 metres.  She crashed in her car seat about 5 mins after we got back on the road and slept for 3 hours. So maybe she was right ;-P 

We're heading to my folks for a mid-winter Christmas dinner tonight. Hooray!

Out 'n' About

Yay - DD is finally able to sit comfortably in the back pack so we're able to get out and do a few more active things together. Here we are in the bush (aka forest/woods for those in the upper hemisphere).