Dawes Family in New Zealand

Little Luxuries

Not normally ones for celebrating Valentines Day, this year we thought maybe as our every day lives are now extremely busy and often quite stressful mainly due to the fact we are both working, that we would treat ourselves and have a little night away.

Still not very confident in the sleep overs (and thats me and not Bethany!) I stress hugely when it comes to Bethany staying out somewhere. So before we even  make such plans I have to know that my darling girl will be in good hands. I of course knew that she was going to be perfectly happy and safe when my gorgeous friend Alina said she could stay there with her family for the night. Alina took on the amazing role of childcare for Bethany over the school holidays and is not only one of my best friends, but also a brilliant neighbour. Bethany adores her, not to mention loving the company of her two gorgeous children and her ever so amazing hubby. So with that sorted, plans were made.

We decided to head to Wellington, we didn’t want to be too far away from Bethany and although we see Wellington every day, its an amazing city to enjoy as a tourist. So we booked into one of our favourite hotels – The James Cook. Located perfectly with access to the CBD and a few minutes stroll to the waterfront its ideal, and of course service, rooms and price always get a thumbs up.

This time round we decided to splash out a little, we booked the suite on the top floor! We dropped the boys (Denver and Bailey!) off at their usual home from home, and then said goodbye to Bethany (with a tear in my eye) and we were off. Despite the journey only taking 20 minutes from home it was really quite exciting. We arrived at the hotel, our car was valet parked and we headed to our room. And a stunning room it was too, the views, the room itself with a Hollywood King Bed and a sunken spa bath - we were certainly in luxury!

We had a great day, went for a walk along the waterfront, had drinks out, grabbed some food and headed back. Watching the city grow dark was stunning from such a high viewpoint.

The funniest thing then happened, both Michael and I started talking about Bethany and how much we missed her, we commented on how close we were to her favourite playground, we mentioned how much she would love the spa bath and joked about how she would gorge herself on the free chocolates…we really missed her! So I called Alina and made a plan, we were to pick her up early the next morning and bring her in to enjoy it too!!!

A little before 7am we both woke up, got ready and went and had a lovely gourmet breakfast. I sorted the room out, ran a spa bath (with lots of bubbles) and Michael went and got Bethany. She joined us just after 9.30am. We had a lovely time together, she had two baths, one by herself and then we all got in and attacked each other with bubbles, we sat and had our dinner whilst watching Wellington go by, and then we headed out to the playground where Bethany enjoyed an ice-cream and watched entertainment on the waterfront. And yes, she gorged herself on the free chocolate!

A lovely weekend, we really did have lots of fun and the added luxury of our room was perfect. Although we couldn’t afford to ever stay more than one night in this room it was well worth the money. Its so wonderful that you can live and work in such a stunning part of the world, and also enjoy it as a tourist at the same time – thats Welly for you.