Sunny days, chasin those clouds away...

The Cheeky Pipi is one of mine and Nicole's favorite little cafe's at the bottom of our hill, it's just so cute inside and the food is yummy. Here are a few pictures from right around our little part of Island Bay called The Parade taken on a really sunny day when neither one of us had to work!!

This is the inside of the Cheeky Pipi, right when you first walk in.
They have a little vineyard in the back room and it's our favorite place to sit...unless it's really sunny like it is because then you feel like your retinas are being burned as you eat.
This was the first time that we had gotten something other than breakfast here and this chicken sandwich that I got was massive!
Nicole got a coffee...even though every time we go there I remind her that she doesn't actually like their coffee. I did take a cool picture though.

This is some of The Parade, and by some, I really mean all. Things aren't really that fancy around here. In fact this road reminds me of an old western town...just really modernized with power lines and cars instead of horses. The brick building is Island Bay Butchery, they have the best sausages in town.
These pretty red flowery trees are Pohutukawa trees. They bloom every summer right around Christmas so they're sort of a New Zealand Christmas symbol. It's too bad that you can't see how vibrantly red these things can get and they are everywhere. The bad thing is, the flowers that are like soft pine needle balls have recently started to come off the trees so there's just masses of red-ish/pink straw all over but as Nicole said...'it's better than pollen!'

Merry Christmas....a few weeks late

Merry Christmas everybody! I realize that I have been a total slacker on this whole blogging thing and I am constantly reminded of that by my Daddy. So here's a new one for you all! All Christmas season, I was busy at the store...Farmers had some really late nights that I had the pleasure of working. It really wasn't so bad though because no one actually came in to shop so we kinda just stood around and stared at one another. Nicole was also busy at her store so we were a little late actually getting into the spirit of Christmas. Neil (from the horse race pics) and Manuel went out a few days before Christmas and brought this little 'gem' of a tree that was one step above Charlie Browns...notice the drooping branches.

This here is a picture of me and Julian decorating the tree. You remember Julian, one of our German backpackers that Nicole brought home, well he was passing through again and had the opportunity of decorating with us. It was actually really cute, he was very excited about doing this because he usually does it at home with his family but this year he's so far away. He and Manuel also had a good time making fun of our Christmas music. Apparently 'Dominic the Donkey' and 'I want a Hippopotamus' are not translated into German.
Nicole had the job of pulling out all the ornaments and Manuel was the photographer...which is why you won't see him in any of these pictures. (those cushions in the background are part of a project that is currently being worked on, pictures to come later!!!)
Our results are quite cheery. The little swaggy thing in the doorway was made by Nicole's grandmother and I just love it. Christmas morning was a little slow moving even though Manuel woke us up at like 6:30 am as if he was 5 years old and Santa had just come down the chimney. Really he wasn't excited about Santa because they don't have Santa in Germany but his family was calling on Skype so that they could all open the presents together on Christmas Eve... weird, I know but it's a German thing. Nicole's family called a little while later but I had already fallen back to sleep...6:30am, what was he thinking. And I even got to talk to my family on Christmas and that was really nice...thanks for calling Granddaddy!
Christmas night was more exciting but we didn't take any pictures at all. sorry!! The three of us went over to Neil and Vanessa's apartment for dinner and Neil's parents were in town as well. They are from the States but currently living in Nigeria...they've lived in all sorts of places. We just had fun talking to them and eating Vanessa's yummy food, seriously I thought Manuel was going to kill someone over the last pork rib.

A final word of advice...don't ever play Connect Four with Manuel. You will lose. repeatedly...