La louvre continued

Sent from my iPhoneWe wandered around the louvre for a few hours. Saw the Mona lisa,
Venus de Milo, lots of art and statues but our favourite was the
egyptian section!

In the last few days we have seen lots of cool sites and went up 2
towers. Tonight we are doing a night tour so we can see the everything
all lit up.

And we saw the Mona Lisa!

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At the top of the Eiffel tower

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Waiting for thé bus on the Champs Elysees yesterday

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Speaking of trying new things!

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We ate snails!

Ariki lighting the flame in the ceremony for the unknown soldier

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We happened to be at the arc de triomphe when they did the ceremony
for the unknown soldier. Ariki was asked to participate and "lit" the
flame alongside a war veteran, then signed the official book to show
he had been there (that photo to come later). it was a pretty special
experience and proof that it is worth trying something different
because you never know what might happen!

Summer time

After coming home from the UK we have been seeing the local sights with a French friends from Toulouse (where we used to live).

We went down to Cannes for another fireworks display and went to Juans-les-Pins to take the glass bottom boat ride. We also learned how to play Mastermind and played a french version of Monopoly.

Its been really hot and we are swimming all the time, either in our pool or at the beach.

Aquasplash

Yesterday we dropped mum off at the airport in the morning so we went to aqua-splash before too many other people got there. Its really cool and we will go back there again soon.

London

We spent the next few days in London doing all the typical tourist things. Went to see the lion kind and wicked. We liked wicked the best, so did mum but dad thought the lion king was the best. Our hotel was near the london eye and we could see it out our window - it looked pretty cool when it was lit up at night. On the last night we went to the original hard rock cafe. We had to wait an hour and a half to get a seat (which the lady said is a short wait!) but the nachos, and deserts were worth the wait.

UK

After saying goodbye to Lynne and Geoff we headed to the UK to visit our cousin Henry.

We nearly didn't make the plane because we had allowed the right amount of time and then got caught in a traffic jam caused by striking truck drivers (some of you may remember we have been in a similar traffic jam before!). it took an extra hour to get to the airport and we checked in with 1 minute to spare.

The first day mum and dad weren't there so we went to wild-wood and ten pin bowling which was cool, but Tamati didn't feel to good and had to rest for a while. The second day we went to a huge shopping mall and saw the movie Ice Age 3 in 3D, but this time mum didn't feel to good and had to rest for a while! The next day was the minster festival - where there was a parade and lots of games to play. Henry and Ariki joined in the races - no prizes this time but it was lots of fun.

The last day at Henrys house Uncle Alban had a concert nearby so we all went to watch -this is the first time we have managed to be there at the right time to listen to him play. It was a nice day and they were playing outside so we had an ice-cream (with a flake of course) and listened to them play.

Pisa Photos

Here are some photos of us at Pisa. We drove there one morning and back the next day - its about 4 hours from our house.

On the way we drove through lots and lots of tunnels. We counted them up to Genova (which is about half way), by that time we had been through 140 of them!

We went up the leaning tour on the first tour of the day and were the first people to the top!

Lynne and Geoff

A couple of days after we came back from Limoges, mums cousin Lynne and her husband Geoff came to visit. Lynne broke her leg while in Finland so she was here to recover, but it was good because it meant they stayed longer than they were going to and were lots of fun.

We really enjoyed having them visit. They taught us jokes, magic tricks, logic puzzles and lots of other things!

Lynne wanted to swim but wasn't allowed to get her leg wet, so she had to wrap it in a rubbish bag and make sure it didn't go under. We got better at it every day and by the last day we had the noodles and the floaty chair so she could float around without getting it wet!

The day after they arrived was Lynne's birthday so we made her medical cupcakes and sung her happy birthday in English, French, and Spanish.

We drove to Pisa one day and climbed the tower (photos on following post). The last night was Bastille day so we went down to Cannes and sat on the beach to watch the fire works. They were great and there were 150 000 people watching.

Flying at Limoges

For the first week of the school holidays we went back to where mum and dad learnt to fly for a week. We all love it there because mum and dad can fly lots and we can hang out at the "farm" and play with the animals. Sometimes we get to stay with Lucia and the other girls that work there. This time we taught them how to make 5 minute brownie - YUM!

Last time we were there, one of the dogs had puppies. The have kept one of them (his name is Teddy bear) and he is now about 3 months old and really fun to play with. Once he went out the window and ended up on the roof!

On the last night we were allowed to sleep on the hay in the stables. One of the dogs (Zac) stayed with us too - and Lucia. It was really cool

On the day we left there was a fighter jet on display. Just before we left it took off and then came back round to "fly-by" - it was so fast that the sound was about a second behind it!

Monaco

The next week we had Wednesday off school so we decided to go to Monaco for the day. Its only 45 minutes from home and 10 minutes from the Italian border.

Monaco is the 2nd smallest country after the Vatican. It is full of rich people and has one policeman for every 30 people. They have a huge aquarium (but not as big or as cool as Kelly Tarltons) which was founded by Jacques Cousteau (and some other people but we didn’t know their names)

We went on the train tour and saw the castle and the place where they do the grand prix. It had just finished so everything was still set up and the roads were still blocked off.

On the Gondola under the Rialto Bridge

Venice

Ciao

Its been a busy month since we last updated the blog

First we went to Venice for a weekend – it was a pretty big drive, but was lots of fun. We did the tour and walked through all the little streets, had a ride on a motor boat up the main canal and even managed a gondola ride under the rialto bridge.

But the coolest thing was feeding the pigeons in St Marcs square. All we had was 1/2 a pack of pretzels but the pigeons loved them and landed on our heads and hands.

Venice is funny – there are no roads, just footpaths and canals. The locals have a boat instead of a car and the taxis are motor boats. All the buildings are really old and a lot of them get flooded when there is a really high tide. Our tour guide said that some parts of Venice get flooded every month

Rome Continues

On the last day we went to the Zoo and hired a bike that had 2 lots of pedals and a middle seat.

Rome

Last weekend was a long weekend so we went to Rome for pizza, pasta and gelato - oh and to visit some old buildings too.

We went to the Vatican, Colosseum, Spanish Steps, Zoo, Trevi Fountain, and lots of other places. Our favourite place was the Colosseum - and the second favourite was the pizza restaurant near our hotel - then the bikes.  

We walked up to the top of the dome at the Vatican which was fun - 551 steps - but not many other people walked the whole way they all took the lift! 

We had a really good tour guide at the Colosseum, he was talking about what life was like then and comparing the gladiators to super heros and the animals to dinosaurs which made it really interesting.