Friday, December 26, 2008

New Zealand - a picture festival for the festive season

hey everyone

many thanks to Gillian, Grant, Katie and Daniel for overloading my poor email box with some amazing pictures from their Christmas time! they were obviously impressed with the pictures too, for they sent a number of the mails twice!!

anyway, let's have a look at how Christmas all goes over there!


first up, some pictures from a place called Mount Maunganui. it looks like a rather impressive place, and i assume that this first one is of Mount Maunganui itself!





i am not certain, but i think that this Maunganui place is the one they used as a replacement for Japan in the rather fine Tom Cruise film The Last Samurai. i have no doubt that someone will correct me if i am mistaken. i would imagine, however, that if i am right, they would probably have waited for visitors like the one below to have moved on before filming!





if anyone was wondering why Gillian would have wheeled off the whole family to Mount Maunganui for a holiday, well, this picture gives some answers. it looks like she was trying to kill two birds with the one stone, for as well as a nice holiday she would have been able to pick Grant up a rather fine Christmas present......





speaking of which, here's 50% of the family asleep, presumably in the rather smart looking apartment they had for their holiday! just think, whilst Katie had probably counted the sheep, Grant had most likely been [TEXT OBSCURED ON LEGAL ADVICE] with some of the sheep in the above, and was probably rather tired out as a consequence.





well, the Christmas celebrations all seem to have gone on rather well down in New Zealand too - good to see that Father Christmas found the land of New Zealand, and left some fine presents for Daniel and Katie. he also seems to have left one of his hats for Daniel too!





the determination to be at the beach seems to be a prevailing concern in New Zealand. a bit of cold weather was not going to stop Katie getting down to the sand; the big jacket she has on reminds me of the Billy Connolly routine about holidays on the Scottish beaches!





oh dear, young Daniel was taken a little bit ill whilst on holiday. he's all fine and well now, and it sounds like he got a good deal of sleep in whilst away. that's sometimes the best holiday! anyway, at least he was able to make some considerable leaps forward in his Bono impression routine!





here you go with two of the finest ladies, if not the finest ladies currently out and about in New Zealand. it looks like they are at Mount Maunganui
in this picture. perhaps the ladies are off to go and pick Grants' birthday present out, although one would hope that Katie is unaware that Grant will be [TEXT OBSCURED ON LEGAL ADVICE] it, just as soon as everyone else has gone to bed and there's no one around.





and, for the ladies, here you go with the two beefcakes, or whatever the trendy term for handsome gentlemen is, of New Zealand!!





i see Grant has decided to dispense with his beard, perhaps he's grown tired of the George Michael look? or it just could be that the sheep [TEXT OBSCURED ON LEGAL ADVICE], but i doubt that they could really tell the difference.


and finally, a self-taken family portrait





my applause to Gillian or Grant for this picture, i can never ever get those timer pictures right. then again probably neither of those could, i dare say my congratulations should go to Daniel and/or Katie for showing Mummy and Daddy how the camera works!!


well, there you go, Christmas time as seen and celebrated in the fine looking land of New Zealand! let's hope that they don't wait for the next major holiday season to send more pictures!!!!



be excellent to each other!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

No comments: