Dawes Family in New Zealand

Grandma & Grandad: Morepork, Cars, Scones, & Guns!

Never ones to sit still very long we always find something to do, I think that my parents did relax sometime on their holiday (hopefully) but what fun would it not be if we didn’t go and see lots of things!? So over a few days we had lots of fun…

When my parents were here last we visited the Southward Car Museum, honestly it’s enough to make a grown woman fall asleep, but seems majority rule and the others were eager for a trip. In all fairness it’s actually quite amazing, whilst I was dreading yet another trip I found myself this time making more of a concerted effort and reading actual information, I know – shock horror!

How on earth this collection has even come together amazes me, it really is an underestimated venue, the museum itself is home to over 400 automobiles and various other exhibits including aircraft, bicycles, a range of vintage tools and other automobile memorabilia and even a vintage Fire Engine. The collection includes many famous makes and models of classic and vintage cars.

Among the most popular are Marlene Dietrich’s 1934 Cadillac Town Cabriolet, a 1915 Stutz Indianapolis race car, a gull-winged Mercedes-Benz, a 1950 Cadillac “Gangster Special” (with bullet holes!)  that had belonged to gangster Mickey Cohen and an 1895 Benz Velo imported to New Zealand in 1900. So many crazy and wonderful items in this ‘collection’.

Needless to say, we had a great day as we did last time and I actually learned a few new things. It was especially fun with those crazy mirrors!

On the way home we stopped off at Raumati Beach – we LOVE it here. It was our first place to stay when we first arrived on our new life journey in NZ and it’s always held a special place in our hearts. The Waterfront Bar is lovely and so we stopped for some refreshments. The view out to the wild ocean was magnificent, last time we visited this beach with my parents we walked bare foot along the sand and danced in the sunshine, this time we ran from the bar like crazy people in a massive downpour back to the car!

There was no way my parents could come to NZ this time and not experience a true bush walk. Since we no longer live right on the coast bush walks have become our new staple walking diet. The boys love going and experiencing all the new smells. So we took them to Tunnel Gully where we had a really lovely enjoyable walk through the bush, round past the most stunningly smelling gum trees (eucalyptus trees) and then down to the long long old train tunnel, where we took torches and had fun looking for bugs and scaring each other!

An absolute added bonus (with which I might add I squealed with excitement about) was seeing a Morepork. A New Zealand small owl that is usually a nocturnal creature, however if the weather is nice are known to come out and perch in the sunshine. It was a fantastic moment, we often hear them shouting at night (and they get their name as they literally shout ‘morepork’ in their owly voices!) and have only seen them in sanctuaries before – so we were very lucky.

On the way back from there we decided the day wouldn’t be complete without a scone or two. A usual haunt for us is the Stonestead Devonshire Teas – being English and all that, there is always time for some loaded scones and spot of tea! Bravo Jeeves!

Being home is also fun too, as fun things happen such as Grandad and Bethany hiding places!

As added bonus to what was already a brilliant week we were kindly invited to see our friends Chris and Karolyn and their gorgeous boys up on their stunning property. Michael is pretty much obsessed with going there and shooting some guns, and as shooting is something my Dad has grown up with and still enjoys now, it was only right to take him out and shoot a few guns.

Everyone had fun, even the kids enjoyed some BB Gun action!

As the sun set we looked forward to whatever fun was coming up next…and there was going to be loads of it that’s for sure!