Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!

Can you believe that 2012 is already here??  I for one am very happy to see the back of 2011. I have never known a year like it. There just seemed to be bad news after bad news after bad news...so, you can sling your hook 2011...be gone...go on, off you go....!

My dad is over from little old England for a few months (yay!). He was staying with my sister in Snell's Beach but  is now staying with us for a little while. The weather here has been pants over the past week (when it rains in New Zealand, it really rains!) but that hasn't stopped us. We have been on lovely long walks every day.  Yesterday we walked from Takapuna to Milford.  Oh how I laughed... let me explain....

It was particularly windy yesterday and the tide was coming in, parts of our walk were along narrow walkways and the waves were crashing up against the walls.  I ran along the walkway first and managed to miss most of the spray, then it was dads turn.  He spent a good few minutes watching the waves  trying to gauge a pattern. When he thought it was safe he made a break for it... I was watching and unbeknown to dad I  saw a huge wave coming his way.

Now, I had to make a quick decision, yell out to warn dad or get my camera out???

I chose the latter!!  hahaha, I'm laughing just as much now whilst I type this (if you look closely you can see the top of dad's head submerged in the spray)

Needless to say he was soaked through!

Today we did a gorgeous walk along Cheltenham Beach. This is one of my favourite local beaches, we walked partly along the sand, climbed over rocks, walked through caves, scrambled up grass verges it was a bit of an adventure.

Here are some photo's I took along the way...

Dad taking some time out to reflect (probably about the wave that got him yesterday)

Me taking some time out to reflect (giggling about the wave that got him yesterday)

Beautiful Cheltenham Beach and a close up of some driftwood...

Towards the end of our walk the city comes into view....a lovely sight!

We are back home now, I'm blogging whilst cooking a chilli and sipping some red wine, not a bad start to the new year is it!

Here's hoping 2012 is a good one for all of us...
x