Auckland Report 2

Day Two we headed down to St Heliers for some breakfast. We thought at first it was all a bit too flash for people with kids, but the place we finally took a gamble with welcomed us warmly and then trotted out the kids menu and some colouring books etc for Beth to play with. So that was really nice. We had a nice breakfast and Beth did a bit of people watching, Theo did a bit of bus watching (Beth's comment was that it was a very bus-sy day). Once we got back I took Beth back to the playground, we walked all the way there and she climbed up the first bit, climbed down (odd, I thougth) looked at me and said loudly "I NEED TO DO A POO!". Great, there's no toilet at this park! So I carried her back home. Poo completed, we then decided to drive back in case we had any other sort of emergency requirement.
We had a great couple of hours playing at the park, Beth going on all the different things, running up and down stairs, playing "Soccer" with one of the balls and doing a bit of exploring in the bush around the park. We went back and Theo was awake, so we packed up and headed out to St Lukes shopping centre. It was pretty packed and wasn't really much fun, but Beth really enjoyed the moving walkway thing. "Flying Stairs" as she called them. And the escalators too, she thought they pretty great. I think between the moving walkway and the escalators we did about 20 trips. So that was a good way to keep them amused.
Yesterday we all got up early and went for a little walk up to the local shopping centre to get a coffee and to top our supplies at the supermarket. The coffee too forever, even the old pensioners were getting crabby with the coffee people. Then we came back and put Theo down for a sleep. He didn't sleep for too long, once he woke up we swung into action, got everyone in the car and zipped into town. Parked in the Downtown carpark and then walked over to the ferry. We'd timed it all pretty well so we didn't have to wait long. Then we all got on the Devonport Ferry for a ride over. Beth enjoyed it, Theo couldn't figure out if he loved it or hated it. In the end I think he enjoyed it. We played at the Devonport playground for an hour, having an icecream and watching all the other parents stand right at the play equipment and coax their child through every step. While Beth just did her own thing and Theo crawled around eating dirt and getting in everyone's way. We're such bad parents, not standing there directing our children how to play step by step.
Once we'd finishing laughing at the other parents, I mean, once the children had finished playing we all had an icecream and then caught the ferry back home. Overall it worked out very well, though by the time we got home everyone was stuffed, Beth didn't handle the drive back well at all.
Once we'd got everyone to sleep we sat down and watched the last hour's play of the cricket, Aus v Pak. I can't believe we won! Pakistan can't believe we won. Australia couldn't believe they'd won. It was great, a fantastic finish to an otherwise quite boring test match really.
Then we watched "Captain Phillips" which was pretty good really, haven't enjoyed a movie that much in ages. A few bits seem way over the top, but otherwise very good, a great movie.
Today I think we're going to just take them for a Bus ride. Not super exciting, but they'll think it's great.