Andy and Michelle

Sunday, 10 November 2013

Visiting Tauranga and Mt Maunganui for our wedding!

As people are travelling from near and far for our wedding in April, we have written up some recommendations of where to stay and what to do while you are visiting.

We can add more things if people ask questions, feel free to post as comments.

We are sooooo excited to have you join us!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Holiday Accommodation

We are recommending that people stay in Mt Maunganui (below) which is the coastal part of Tauranga city – although local ‘Mounties’ are not keen on being referred to as being from Tauranga!

The Wedding reception (Ataahua - 644 Pyes Pa Rd, Tauranga) is a 15-20 minute drive from the Main Beach of Mt Maunganui. We are thinking we can organise a mini bus to and from the wedding to this area.

When looking for accommodation the location is important, even in small-ish place like Mt Maunganui. To have easy access the cafes, restaurants, and beach is best to stay as close to the end of the peninsula as possible.

When looking on google maps:

- From Banks Ave/Salisbury Ave to Adams Ave at the base of the Mount

- Or within a street or 2 parallel to Marine Parade back along the beach.

The beach is great all the way along the coast but the further away from Banks Ave you go the more dependant of driving you are.

Accommodation websites

- www.holidayhouses.co.nz/Mt-Maunganui.asp‎

- www.bookabach.co.nz

These websites will give you all options from holiday homes to apartments to hotels.

The holiday park is well located and has newly built cabins

- http://www.mountbeachside.co.nz/ .

The main café and restaurant areas are:

- Mount Main Street. Along Maunganui Rd from Banks Ave roundabout to the Pacific Ave roundabout. http://www.mountmaunganui.org.nz/

- Cnr Marine Parade and Adams Ave which are the beachside options.

- The Strand, Tauranga

The best beach areas are:

- Surf: The ‘Main Beach’ which along Marine Parade from Adams Ave to Pacific Ave.

- Surf: The rest of Marine Parade and along Ocean Beach Rd

- Calm water: Pilot Bay – The Mall on the harbour side of the peninsula

Shopping:

- along Maunganui Rd from Banks Ave roundabout to the Pacific Ave roundabout

- Bayfair Shopping Centre, Mt Maunganui

- ‘Downtown’ Tauranga.

o Davenport Rd, Grey St, The Strand

Things to do:

- Go to the beach!! The weather will still be ok for time at the beach although it will be the end of the summer.

- Walk up or around The Mount - depending on how energetic you are! Great walks that are a must.

- Walk to the end of Moturiki Island (aka Leisure Island) where there is a blow hole and good views along the coast

- Have a coffee under the Twin Towers after your walks

- Swim at the Mount hot pools http://tcal.co.nz/Pools/mounthotpools.html
- Rotorua is good for a day trip (geothermal wonders and Maori cultural experiences) - We will add more places to see.

Monday, 28 January 2013

Brisbane Floods

Hi from not so sunny Brisbane!

As you might have seen on the news we have a lot of rain and now flooding in Brisbane and other parts Queensland. I am happy to say that Michelle and I are not affected and that Vanessa, Gary and the kids are also out of the flood areas. While we are ok it is heartbreaking to see people that were so badly affected by the 2011 floods having to go through it all over again so soon.

It rained consistently from Thursday to Monday morning and put a real dampener on the Australia Day long weekend which has been a complete washout. Our highly anticipated camping trip to Northern New South Wales had to be cancelled due to the weather.

After spending all of Sunday inside we decided to be natural disaster tourists today and drove to Southbank to see the Brisbane River. We were relieved to find that while the river is much higher than normal there was minimal flooding. I'll be honest and say that we were a little disappointed not to see a more interesting scene! see photos below.

Michelle and I live in Kelvin Grove which is close-ish to the CBD. The area is very hilly and has a creek (Enoggera Creek) running through it which joins up to the Brisbane River. When driving (to find somewhere to buy a newspaper) I stumbled across some badly flooded streets and saw people emptying their properties of furniture, muddy carpet etc. This was sad to see but everyone was chipping in and helping their neighbours.

I have added a map of our area and added where I saw some flooding today. On the map the flooding looks close to us which it is but we live on a hill and are very sheltered even from the wind.

The Brisbane River is not expected to peak until tomorrow (Tuesday) at 11am so fingers crossed that this does not bring too much new flooding.

Brisbane River from Southbank - over flowing but nowhere near as bad as 2011

Southbank 'beach' with some hardy swimmers - Brisbane River in background

Poor buggers! This was taken close to Enoggera Creek

Some flooding close to but not affecting us. The flooding zone above is extremely tiny compared to other areas in Queensland but is still sad to see.

Tuesday, 28 August 2012

The Proposal

We hope that you enjoy the proposal video!!

Tuesday, 7 February 2012

Snow in London! (4-5 Feb 2012)

It has been quite cold here in London for the past week. We have had temperatures with a max of +2 degrees and min of -4 degrees. It has been cold but dry.

All that changed on Saturday night when had a significant dumping of snow!! We had about 10cm at our place in Blackheath which is a lot for London in Febuary.

Below are some photos that I took on Saturday night and again on Sunday morning. We live very close to Greenwich Park which where the 'Greenwich mean time' is based i.e the starting point for all time zones. The park has some great hills for sliding down. It was great to see the locals and tourists having so much fun.

Andrew & Michelle