5th Jan day 82 what a welcome and fishy business

After my Florrie Nightingale duties this morning I left the boys to go to Havelock North to meet Claire's (from NY) aunt Ann, she lives about 12 miles from here. She emigrated to NZ from the family farm in Abertillery, South Wales in 1967 and has only been back for visits since then. Ann and her husband Andrew live on a small-holding - big by Brit standards, in a lovely house with gorgeous gardens and views of the local landmark Te Mata peak, it's a special place. As soon as I arrived I was in awe of the setting with its blue wisteria growing over the garage and the red bougainvillea which has spread along the front porch. The latter is such a reminder to me of Greece and the Mediterranean countries where you see it growing prolifically.

Ann was as pleased to meet me as I was to meet her, she gave me a terrific welcome and a delicious morning tea with her warm, homemade cheese scones for starters. We chatted very easily about everything from travel to families. I could see Claire's resemblance to her Dad's sister, they both have lovely facial bone structures. Ann was someone I felt I would like to meet up with again, maybe if she can go to Wales at the same time as Claire and family, and I can travel to see them all, God only knows if that will ever work out.

They have several pet sheep to keep down the grass in the large paddock for Tammy this friendly donkey who is extremely tame, as is Polly the sheep!

I was later than I had imagined getting back to 904 so Simon and Nicholas were ready and waiting for me to drive them to Taradale. Carol had organised huge bouncy castles for the holiday programme and we were taking Nicholas to enjoy them. 

The balls are called Zorbs and the kids were literally having a ball rolling all around inside them and trying to knock each other over. Nicholas loved them and soon made friends with one boy. 

All the kids could have their faces painted very professionally by the staff, the theme this week is under the sea, which meant there were some extremely cute, turtles, seals, starfish and even jellyfish. Inside the centre was all ready for them to come indoors after 2pm, when the inflatables were collected. 

I love this area in the middle of the hall that's just awaiting the kids to paint it and make sea creatures to hang on the blue paper that looks like waves. Carol believes each of them should have as much fun on the holiday programme as they would if home with their parents. On Thursday they are all going to see the Good Dinosaur and there are trips to the beach, bowling etc for the next couple of weeks, it's all about giving them good memories. That's a very different ethos from many school holiday clubs. Did you notice how attractively the paints are set out in a colour spectrum?

I really like this stag's head and picture in the TV area it gives it an old castle feel.

We left once the inflatables were down and made our way to Napier to the Aquarium. Nicholas was given a year long pass for himself and one adult by Brenda, Philippa's Mum which she said we could use. The seafront by the Aquarium has been improved since I was there last, I really like this very gentle waterfall and paddling pool.

This is a beautiful bronze sculpture right next to the Aquarium given in memory of lost trawler men.

I took this picture of Nicholas and sent it to Brenda later when I thanked her for her kindness.

I have a lovely picture of Cheryl and I with all 3 the boys on this same seat when we came in 2008 when Seb was just 4 months old - honestly we must have been bonkers to come around the world with such a small baby! It's lovely to have this one with Simon from this trip.

I found it hard to select just a couple of pictures from inside the Aquarium but I liked the setting for this American Alligator. Apparently they can grow to almost 6 metres - yikes. 

The blue penguins are adorable but tragically all of them have had to be rescued so are very damaged with fins, feet and even beaks missing, poor little things. All their injuries are due to human neglect!

We were all shocked when we saw the turtles and read about how many of them are dying because they ingest polythene bags, which in the water look like jellyfish - their staple diet. They had an illustration and it was hard for us to tell the difference, let alone vulnerable turtles. I am so pleased all of us in the UK are discouraged from using these plastic killers.

I think this is my best shot of a shark swimming over my head as we walked through the enormous tank's tunnel.

I was very thankful today that Simon felt able to do some things but by the time we got home he was tired, as were Nicholas and I. To make life easy we had pizza from Dominoes which was easy and tasty. I hadn't realised this was my last evening with Nicholas as Philippa is away on a course next week so wanted him at home from tonight. I will still see him in the daytime though because she is working. 

Anyway we let him chose what he wanted us to do for the rest of the evening and he opted for watching Ice Age 3, now that's a ridiculous load of nonsense - but lots of fun.