The remainder of our Christmas Road Trip

So between looking after a pretty sick child (he has a chest infection poor little man!), road tripping to Ngaruawahia, Thames, then Mangawhai, time to edit has been scarce.  However, here are the rest of my photos from Christmas!

Opening presents on Christmas morning at home

Playing down at Aunty Vicki's School (Thames)

Coles Family Shots

Me and my monkey!

Dadda and Ash feeding the ducks

Family photo in Thames

Sunset at Thames, Boxing Day

Rapaura Gardens

Finally nailed it!

This afternoon we got back from our mini Xmas road trip.  My parents live down in the Waikato, and my wonderful sister in law lives in Thames so this year we decided to spend two nights seeing family and eating as much as we could handle.

The trip was great, we had full tummies and lots of laughs with both sets of families.  However, I had one mishap - I managed to break my 50mm lens.  I was absoloutely devastated (still am!).  However, looking on the bright side, at least it was the cheapest lens I have and not my camera, but it does mean the long awaited upgrade I have been wanting for my 75-300mm will just have to wait...

Today, we drove up to Rapaura Water Gardens which is just north of Thames by Tapu.  Its $15 to do a 45 minutes walk and visit various gardens and lilly ponds.  Its not really worth the money, but I wanted to try and get a shot of their waterfall.  I've been trying to get that silky effect for months, but never had the settings right, or the weather has been too sunny, or hubby has been rushing me.  But today I went in knowing exactly what to do - and I was very happy with the result!!

Settings: F 32, Shutter 0.8", Iso 100