Cars, planes, and shrines

What a wonderful day! When small daughter climbed into our bed this morning, she suggested that we go to Southward's Car Museum (just out of Waikanae). I hadn't been to Southward's since I was a child myself - small daughter and hubby had gone as part of a Playcentre trip and she loved it the first time and buzzed about it for weeks. We thought the trip was a good idea on the first day of a long weekend, so we zipped around and finished the main Saturday chores in record time, got lots of washing out in our first sunny weekend in weeks, and headed up the lovely Kapiti Coast for the afternoon.

Southwards is much as I remember it: lots and lots of vintage cars, motorbikes, traction engines, and a couple of boats and several early aeroplanes. There were a few new additions from the ones I remember, including an Atom (as featured on TopGear!), but all my old favourites were still there, including a number of Rolls Royces and the three traction engines - what I used to call "Daddy, Mummy, and the Baby" - a large one, a medium sized one, and a working model.

After a trip to one of the local playgrounds and an iceblock, we went back towards home. Hubby had suggested earlier in the day that we should finally go up to the enormous statue of Our Lady in Paraparaumu - I've been driving past it most of my life, but never gone up the hill. What I didn't know was that the statue is actually one part of a shrine: with the Stations of the Cross leading up the hill to the 60' statue on the top. It's been blessed and apparently has indulgences attached to it, according to the sign. It was an amazing climb and the statue itself is pretty impressive up close.

All in all, a wonderful day!