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Surviving Blogging in NZ – May the odds be ever in your favour

December 7, 2016
By: Melissa

A couple of things happened online this week here in the New Zealand ‘blogger/influencer’ scene that really got me thinking about what it means to be ‘working’ in this online industry that is built upon…..um……nothing really. Nothing but a bit of talent and if talent is lacking then a fake-it-til-you-make-it approach is oft adopted, fuelled by the ever-burning fires of FOMO. I’m being facetious of course, some platforms are built upon talented writing, some on beautiful photographs, some are built purely on the personality of the influencer or how cute their kids are or how monochrome/colourful/boho/on trend their house is, but, whatever it might be, it’s a curated persona.

People, the public, consumers of digital content, are adept at forgetting this fact.

The blogger/influencer might swear up and down that their online presence is NOT a curated facade, but, don’t be fooled. Curated might be as on-trend as ‘on-trend’ itself is, but by its own definition, to curate means to select, organize and present. And every, single one of us that has a blog, an Instagram account or a Facebook account curates, to some degree what we share and what we don’t.

This is neither a positive or negative thing, it simply is what it is. This is all fine and good until commercial relationships come into play, which is what we’ve seen happen in New Zealand in the past two years. When the measure of one’s online ‘success’ or worth is measured by the new social media yardsticks of ‘reach’, ‘engagement’, ‘followers’, ‘unique views’, ‘CPC’ et al, people, aka Content Creators lose their shit.

And they generally do it in one of two ways;

They become addicted to the game of chasing numbers, chasing followers and lose sight of any ethical boundaries that might impede their rapid growth,

or

They become all about ‘That List’. The obsession with the receipt and consumption of everything on offer from brands, PRs and agencies becomes like crack and FOMO (fear of missing out) leaves pride at the door as the desire to be on ALL the ‘Lists’, at ALL the events and receiving ALL the media send-outs takes precedence.

Both are gross and both are in complete contrast to the messages that are bandied about on our beloved social media of ‘Women Empowering and Supporting Women’ and the cutesy meme of the flower that doesn’t compete with the flower growing next to it – yadda yadda.

Money, influence – real or perceived – and free stuff changes everything.

Any industry has its slightly unsavoury side – the seedy photocopy room with the flickering fluorescent tube that gives you a headache if you stay there too long – you know those places right? I feel like the NZ social influencer industry is teetering on becoming such a place unless we all clean up our act, and it’s not a huge ask, but perhaps quite an important one if we collectively want these digital opportunities and relationships to bloom and grow.

I’m not going to tell anyone how to behave but I thought I’d share a few standards, within which I try to work;

Keep your head down. The easiest way to get distracted from your work is to obsess about what everyone else is doing. You have zero control over someone else’s behavior, content, contacts or whether they’re going to heaven or hell. There aren’t enough hours in the day for me to do what I need to do, let alone factoring in time to keep a watchful eye on the other mummy bloggers of New Zealand!
Just do YOU. If your thing is writing, then write. If it’s vlogging or Snapchat or Insta then fly high visual bird! You don’t need to have your fingers in ALL of the pies – especially if you’re not a very good cook. Work to your strengths and focus your energy there.
Be kind. New Zealand is a small, small place. Auckland is even smaller. A smile goes a long way and costs you nothing.
Be grateful. Look, the amount of free (WONDERFUL) product getting couriered up and down the country by brands and PR’s is fucking staggering. WHO CARES IF YOU DON’T GET ALL OF IT?! Entitled attitudes are yuck and people will notice and remember, I guarantee it.
Be humble. If all of this is built on those social metrics then that’s not a lot to base your self-worth on. Being generous with your time and showing respect and kindness to others in our industry will set you in good stead when the next Insta-fave comes along and knocks you off your perch.

I would love your thoughts on this friends and bloggers. We’ve come a long way but there is so much work to be done in this very virgin, uncharted industry, and I am committed to this space and seeing my blog grow in the years to come. If that’s as a micro-influencer then so be it, but I’ll be a damn good one and one you’d like to have a coffee with too, hopefully!

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Your People

November 13, 2016
By: Melissa

On Friday afternoon I was asked to fill in for a touch team that night at 6.30pm.

I’d never played for this team before.

Didn’t really know who was in it.

Playing meant delaying Friday drinks. I say that like it’s an ‘occasion’ but it’s really Dave and I avoiding the children’s bedtime with a can in hand and pretending we’re loving life at the minute until we can’t stand the kids fighting a moment longer! So yes, playing meant delaying drinks for an hour or so as my mediocre skill level doesn’t really need alcohol impeding my performance anymore than natural selection already has.

However, playing meant leaving the house at 6pm and avoiding bedtime altogether.

Naturally I said yes.

So our touch rugby team plays at the club on Thursdays, it’s a busy night, lots of teams and lots of our friends. Friday touch is still at our local club, literally a stones throw from our house, but has a smaller league of teams and I had no idea who would be there.

I left the house in a usual ‘Mum-dithery-rush’ carrying nothing which was entirely refreshing as I’ve had to lower myself to using an Iphone 4s whilst my beautiful Samsung is getting a new screen installed. LIFE IS SO HARD RIGHT NOW, DAMN YOU TINY PHONE!

Needless to say the phone stayed at home and Dave ended up chasing after me with $20 in case I wanted to stay for a drink. Some people won $44 million in Lotto this week, we won $109!!! Cash rich yo.

The point to this schpiel is thus; you might have daughters, in which case, a place you might find yourself often could be a ballet studio, or slumped in the stands watching hours on end of gymnastics, or freezing your tits off alongside a netball court all winter. I have two boys and live one street over from a rugby club, ergo, we are there ALL the damn time. Wherever you find yourself because of your kids or your job or your husband, or your parents, make friends, make those people your people. Take the opportunity to get out of the house on a Friday night when the last thing you want to do is run around wondering if your muffin top is escaping the compression tights yet and throw a freaking ball!

Because the person catching it just might want to sit down afterwards and have a beer and talk about Donald Fucking Trump or tattoos, or kids – subjects you could go on about for hours.

Find your people wherever life has landed you. They are there, I guarantee it. They might not look like you or your preconceived notion of what your tribe should look like but they are there and they are quite possibly awesome.

Let me know when you find them xx

PS love you Old Spice, On Target and all you other westie randoms that make our club so rad x

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The Nelson Ark – Helping Teens and Rescue Dogs Move Forward

October 5, 2016
By: Melissa

New Zealand's Top Mummy Blogger Parenting Travel Blog Family Jetstar Flying Start

Jetstar crew Ebony Main, left, and Peter Murray, far right, give Ark representatives Jeff Grimmett and Karen Howieson the Flying Start Grant worth $30,000.

One of the awesome things about our Flying Start judging panel is that each time we convene it’s an exciting process of discovery as we are introduced to some of the many amazing community groups that are out there, often flying under the radar, doing some really cool stuff. Jetstar’s 18th Flying Start $30,000 cash / flights grant recipient is no exception to this.

As soon as I read their application, I knew that Nelson Ark was the perfect fit for my vote.

Their tagline is Compassion in Action and the premise of this organisation is both unique and very special. The A-PART Program (Animals, People and Rehabilitative Training) pairs a dog from the local pound or SPCA with a troubled teen and a support team consisting of a dog trainer, educational facilitator and several volunteer supporters. Together over an 8 week period the team work together to give the rescue dog a second chance at life as well as fostering responsibility, empathy, compassion and, I would imagine, a great sense of satisfaction at working selflessly to help another creature see the program through to completion and hopefully a successful adoption.

The two-pronged benefit to both an animal in need and a teen that’s lost their way is an incredible initiative that to me at least, pairs charity and ‘the social good’ with some old fashioned common sense!

This is no walk in the park! The teens are committed to training their dog for two hours, three times a week for the duration of the eight week course culminating in a graduation ceremony to celebrate the successes of each dog and trainer.

As with many charitable organizations, funding can be a struggle. The $15,000 cash component of the Jetstar Flying Start grant will be a massive boost to Nelson Ark’s operational fund and the $15,000 worth of flights will be used to bring program facilitators from around New Zealand to train in Nelson.

To find out more about The Nelson Ark and the work they do click here. To find out more about the Jetstar Flying Start program or to apply for a grant, click here.

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7 Days.

August 14, 2016
By: Melissa

You know, I started the week off stressing about disclosure, wondering what my readers think about sponsored posts, wondering how much I still cared about The Best Nest and whether maybe, it was time to call it a day, hang up my boots and let the newbies take over mummy blogging here in New Zealand.

Then, Monday came and so did real life – a *somewhat* welcome breath of fresh air along with a good old fashioned slap in the face. Nix was sick and as the week progressed he got sicker culminating in a visit to Starship and a pneumonia diagnosis. I was so scared. I knew something was wrong with him, but as his bowels had completely slowed I assumed it was a Hirschsprung’s related problem. He had what appeared to be a common cold earlier in the week and though the cold symptoms got better, he only got worse.

As we were dealing with this, my ongoing battle with my eldest son continued, an all-out hormonal, pre-teen hot mess vs his mother. Twice daily fights, one before school, one every night before bed. I’m walking a tightrope with E right now and I have no idea how to get off. We have changed our home wifi code in attempt to get his head out of the ‘cloud’ and back to our family and the weekend has passed relatively smoothly.

The antibiotics have kicked so Nix is on the mend praise jesus.

Something keeps running through my head though. At Dave’s 40th last Saturday night a friend said to me ‘how effortlessly’ I manage to handle whatever comes my way, whatever mountain of of obligations I manage to heap on my plate.

Ha! This about made me spill my wine.

You see, it’s not effortless. I work my ass off. I stress, I cry, I yell, I wake up with my stomach in knots about my workload, about the kids, about being a bad mother, about thinking too much about my work, about the house being in ruins all the time because there simply aren’t enough hours in the day for me to get my ass into gear and clean our shit up.

I wake up wondering every day whether just stopping blogging is an option and is that really what I want? I’ve worked so hard to become a ‘working’ blogger, the kind of hard that it doesn’t take anymore. Imagine building a blog without social? Without Instagram, or Facebook? Back in the days when it actually mattered if you were articulate, if you cared about writing and communicating, if you cared about anything more than being the cool girl in the gang of the coolest girls.

See, I do care. But my number of fucks allocated to caring about influencer anxiety in New Zealand is extremely limited. Plus, never in my life have I had any time for caring about what the cool kids are doing. My attention is needed in so many other places right now, my kids need me, my husband needs me, my mum probably needs to get rid of me, my grandparents need to see more of me while the seeing is good (#jokingnotjoking, they’re getting old yo), my rugby club needs me and my house and garden sure as hell need something – a downpour of RoundUp would be a good start!

I don’t think any of you need me, you probably never did, and you probably don’t need to read about how I had Pizza Hut for dinner on Friday night because I didn’t have it in me to cook dinner. But you know what? I got paid for that picture, and I told you that too (i.e. disclosure). That picture and others like it are going to pay for Ethan’s new, expensive maths tuition that starts on Tuesday.

And that is what I do care about.

What a difference a week makes.

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My toddler believes he’s a bakery worker.

August 9, 2016
By: Melissa

I mean he must.

There is no other reason why he would be waking every day at 3.50am but to get some buns in the oven, maybe rustle up some mince and cheese pies or get his eclairs ready for the glass cabinet. Lord knows the Jack boys love pies.

I spent $79 dollars today on a fancy clock that people swear by for sleep training. Pick your jaw off the floor, a blogger who PAID for something?! The earth has indeed tilted on its axis and I’m sure it’s Nixon’s fault.

A couple of months ago when we were facing the same problem I implemented all of the advice you guys gave me;

Maybe he’s getting cold? Heater in his room with thermostat on all night.
Try a little bit earlier. Tried this.
Try a little bit later. Tried this under duress – when your Nixon-day begins prior to 4am a later bedtime is not ‘quality’ family time. Rather, it consists of violent pajama protests and torturous OCD screaming about which order he takes his vitamins.
Lavender. Tried it.
No nap? Sleep aversion is a lifestyle choice for Nixon, he spits in the face of a daytime nap.
Cry it out. Love it. But the child is about 100db too loud to let him have at it. He also has an 11 year old brother who is only *slightly* better at sleeping in then Nixon and I sure as hell don’t need both of them up in the dark cold hours searching for their damn iPads in the dark!

I can’t remember what else we’ve tried because I’m TOO DAMN TIRED.

Nix is also full of a cold and hacking up phlegm (again) so the odds are not (never?) in our favour of a good night’s sleep tonight.

Nix had a fever of 38.2 so we Pamol’d before bed and that probably helped him to set a new August sleep record – 5.45am!!! I feel like a new woman! I had set the magical sleep clock to 6am and explained how it worked so when he woke, I took Nix back to his room and we waited until the sun came up. Small victories I guess.

Some people have ‘No sleepers’ and this is torturous. Trying and trying to get your kid to fall asleep for the night is an agonizing exercise requiring you to forget absolutely everything else you need to do and simply switch off, lay down like the corpse-mother you probably feel like and give in to chubby arms around your neck. Nixon will go to sleep at night so bedtimes are sometimes drawn out, but not too cringeworthy. His/our problem is that when he wakes, whenever that may be, HE WAKES. That’s it. No more sleep for anyone.

Basically, it all sucks. Whichever style of problem sleeper you have, the Sleep-Denyer, the Wake-All-Night, the Early Riser……..it’s hard for everyone involved, kids included.

I’ve just finished my first double coffee of the day and I raise my mug to you mama’s – May you coffee be strong and your nap times long xx

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Positive Screen Time – Nixon and Dinosaur Train

August 2, 2016
By: Melissa

Screen time, device time, iPad use, tablet time, TV time – whatever you call it, letting your kids use a screen, be it large or small immediately places a target on your back and immediately opens you up to judgement by Sancti-Mummy’s everywhere. Screen time gets such a bad rap these days, it’s almost as high up the parental hit-list as sugar and processed cheese :::: heavens-to-betsy! ::::

But you guys know me right? You know I love sugar (in moderation of course!), I adore processed cheese (actually ALL cheese) and I absolutely LOVE me some screen time – what blogger doesn’t? It seems to me that the use of devices or amount of time spent in front of a screen by kids is like anything else, when used with moderation and discretion there are no problems.

But let’s be honest, sometimes I use screen time with reckless abandon! There are days when I have more than one deadline, the kids are exhausted by 4.30pm and will actually disembowel each other if forced to play together and I just don’t have time to deal with that mess. So I let them have at it. Play Xbox! Watch weirdos unwrap shit on YouTube, catch Pokemon, I DON’T CARE, just enjoy it mmmmkay boys?

I’m joking of course, that pretty much happens everyday (!), but there is a shining light in the dark, dark tunnel of screen time, and that light, dear readers, belongs to Dinosaur Train.

Not just his favourite show, Dinosaur Train is Nixon’s obsession, fuelling an insatiable need for more and more knowledge, more facts, more polysyllabic names down-pat, more very expensive Schleich dinos and more and more dinosaur books.

It’s freaking awesome! Ethan went through the same ‘phase’ that lasted 9 years (!!), but his energy was focussed on sharks and whales and we struggled to find age appropriate shows that kept up with his vast knowledge. Dinosaur Train is ticking all the boxes for us and Nix;

Catchy theme song – check
Science based – check
Historically accurate – check
Factual – check
There’s a REAL paleontologist that recaps the archaeological evidence at the end of each show
Produced by The Jim Henson Company = awesome – check
Engaging and non-mum-guilt inducing – check check CHECK!

In a nutshell, a Pteranodon family and their adopted T Rex son Buddy explore the Mesozoic aboard the Dinosaur Train, meeting and learning (in great detail!) about other dinosaurs. The show is an educational coup for parents and kids alike and it’s single-handedly fostered a passion in Nixon that we are all loving. Dave and I are now Parental Grade Experts in dinosaurs (as well as sharks and whales) and Ethan and Nixon have something in common that they both love despite their 8.5 year age gap.

We watch Dinosaur Train (every day!) on Netflix and have no trouble with internet lag now that we’ve upgraded to Slingshot’s unlimited VDSL – I have zero time/tolerance for monitoring how much bandwidth we have left! Nixie’s other dino faves available on Netflix are; Gon, Dinosaur King, Walking with Dinosaurs, Walking with Monsters and DinoTrux.

Happy Netflix-ing!

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Threenager and Tween

June 17, 2016
By: Melissa

After five days of sickness, cold temps and behaviour inspired by the hounds of hell from both of the boys, I clocked a sleep that broke the 6 hour mark last night (!!) and I’m feeling ready to take on the week.

Too bad it’s Friday already.

Hands down, the lowest point in the week was Wednesday. Nixon was home from kindy with that green-snot nose and relentless cough, Ethan was home from school with a minor cold but was able to swindle me because of my own raging head cold and hacking cough. My Mum Faculties are running on empty at the moment so this wasn’t a particularly hard task and that child can pump out the waterworks at the drop of a hat!

So, 2 boys home, rain all day, and…………… a scheduled power cut from 9-3.

I KNOW.

We were at the very top of a major downhill slide, compounded by the fact that all 3 of us were sick so it wasn’t like we could go visiting or hang out with people with wifi or anything. In hindsight we should have just packed up the iPads and parked outside McDonalds for an hour, that would have kept everyone happy – plus Coke Zero.

The slide plunged deeper on Thursday, culminating in a barrage of terrible behaviour from both boys.

Nixon – Threenager

Life with Nixon runs something like this at the moment;

“Nix do you want to go for a walk in the stroller with Mum and Nana or stay here with Dad?”

“Stay home with Daddy”.

“Ok, see you in a while”.

Cue massive, thrashing, deafening tantrum because he wants to go for a walk. You might receive a black eye, lose some hair, a window could get smashed, definitely some toys thrown or books ripped. Repeat every time you have to add or remove clothes, change diaper or toilet him, require him to eat a meal, or defy him by not purchasing a fucking $7.50 cookie stamp in Farmers yesterday – the fact that he seemed to know it was in a 60% off sale and was like “Mum, are you really going to put yourself through this, for the sake of $3 and change???” didn’t deter me. I WAS NOT CAVING.

He was carried kicking and screaming out of a department store in my weakened state whilst I also manhandled a giant bag of 6 bath towels because who can resist a Thursday Manchester sale at Farmers right??? It. Was. Exhausting. Nix is 18.5 kilos and when you factor in the thrashing and kicking force and the fact that I’d been bedridden for 2 days, I was out of reserves. He wasn’t finished yet. After calming down, I thought we’d go for a walk through the mall seeing we hadn’t seen any other humans since Monday. That was not acceptable to the threenager who dug his heels in and starfished his way around the floor in a tight loop until I eventually gave up and took a second to breathe and raised my head upward, eyes closed, searching for patience………

Cue friendly stranger – “Just wanted to say hi, I LOVE your blog!!! Looks like he’s having a moment there?”

“Oh him. THIS IS HIS STATUS QUO, just ignore like I am”.

Jesus. Of all the days of all the moments to meet a reader, it happened on this day. The day of Exit-the-House desperation, the day of I-may-have-showered-or-I-may-not-have, you be the judge. The day Nixon is shooting death lasers out of his eyes and his butt, all of them aimed at my head. I actually just wanted to lay down on the mall floor with him and just succumb, wait for someone bigger than both of us to do what I knew I’d eventually have to do – put Nixon under my arm in the horizontal tantrum hold and march his ass (slowly as he’s so freaking heavy and there’s the shopping bag…..) back to the truck where we can sit and ~~cry~~ breathe with no one watching our collective meltdown.

Ethan – Tween

I’m not sure I can funny up this situation as our eldest son just seemingly hates me 24 hours a day right now. Which, he tells me, is because I am always mad at him. This is invariably the truth. I am mad at him 95% of the time and I don’t like it. I hate feeling this way and honestly it’s affecting the whole family dynamic. But to be fair, he is an asshole 95% of the time. Not a ‘Bad Kid’, just an asshole doing normal asshole stuff, back-chat, not self-managing, disrespecting all of the adults in our house, picking on and antagonizing his brother which is basically just throwing petrol on Nixon’s extremely ‘bright’ flame and invoking more chaos.

So yeah. Combine that with a couple of revelations about how small and seemingly irrelevant my blog is (ie my WORK that I pour my heart and soul into) in the grand scheme of things and it’s been a pretty blah week.

One thing I read this week that I totally loved was this post from Lisasaurus which actually was the kick-in-the-butt I needed to sit down and write > Living My Truth.

How was your week guys? Anyone else got some amaze threenager or tween stories to share? Obvs I DID get new towels so there’s that I suppose………

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Ch-ch-ch-changes – Pubertal Changes that is

June 1, 2016
By: Melissa

Despite my initial doubts, PUBERTAL is actually a word and therefore the derision with which I regarded the ‘Pubertal Changes’ permission slip when it came home from school with E was completely unwarranted.

Sorry about that Pubertal Changes. I have learnt something, as has Ethan – thanks to THE PUBERTY TALK, which was last night at his school.

What a milestone! One that I have been celebrating for the past 10 days with a little song I like to call “Pubertal Changes”. I’ve had been busting out this wee gem at the top of my lungs every time I passed the family calendar in the kitchen and was reminded of the glorious day in which Ethan would attend The Talk. Unfortunately it’s now June so I’ve turned the page on the calendar and as my memory is akin to that of a goldfish, I’ll forget about this whole thing in a couple of days, hence my need to blog about it. BUT NOW YOU GET TO ENJOY IT TOO!! Yay.

Firstly, I wasn’t allowed to attend Pubertal Changes! Heart broken I was when our young man decided that this was unequivocally a job for his Dad. I thought we were close? I thought we were ok with discussing armpit hair, breaking voices and grrrrlllllfrands. Turns out only in small doses. I was deemed unfit to attend an evening dedicated to tweens and their hormones, probably due to the public nature of the event.

This was devastating as I’m sure you can imagine.

Dave was almost as devastated when he received news of his selection.

“I think we’ll just go to the tavern and have a beer instead”.

“Sounds good Dave but Ethan’s only 11 – the Pubertal Changes haven’t taken effect yet, so I’m pretty sure he won’t get served”.

“Humpf”.

Yeah. So that happened last night and now we have ALL the closed doors at shower time etc, whereas before it was all like “Muuuuummmmmm, come here, I want to tell you about the new dinosaur in my game”. Which is fine of course, everybody needs their privacy but,

Where the hell did my little boy go? and when will I hear about the dinosaurs now that our world has tilted on its axis???

I can’t believe we are here, at voice-breaking stage already. Damn you Pubertal Changes.

Do you guys remember your puberty talk? Were you the ‘chosen one’ for your kids?

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Road Trip Diary – Day 1 Hamilton Zoo

May 21, 2016
By: Melissa

We are off on an amazing 4 day tour of the upper North Island in conjunction with Choice Hotels Asia-Pac, Hamilton Waikato Tourism, Destination Rotorua and Destination Great Lake Taupo!

We have been looking forward to this family getaway for a long time! There is nothing Dave and I enjoy more than exploring New Zealand and neither of us have spent any time in the Hamilton, Rotorua or Taupo regions which are all easy driving distances from Auckland, and just perfect for a long, family weekend away.

We left our house at 8.20am, had a surprisingly good run along both the North Western and the Southern Motorway and arrived at The Hamilton Zoo at around 10.30 after a stop in Bombay for a really, really good coffee at the BP Wild Bean.

Let’s just say, the entrance to the zoo is a bit of an illusion. The sign says ZOO, the buildings look quite zoo-ish, but Hamilton Zoo is like no other I have ever visited before.

The animal residents are what you’d expect from a zoo, the staff are just as informative and knowledgable as you’d hope them to be, but the environment is what sets the zoo apart from others. Rather than the purpose built, rather sterile, urban, concrete environment of other zoos we have visited in Auckland, San Diego and Florida, visiting Hamilton Zoo feels like you’re just on a bush walk in any New Zealand national park when you happen to stumble upon a Red Panda or FIVE Sumatran Tigers!

The size and scale of the zoo are mind blowing in comparison to Auckland Zoo. The animals reap the benefit of the 25 hectare facility, as do visitors! I racked up over 8,000 steps throughout the day as did little Nixie and Ethan! Legends.

We were treated to a Face2Face encounter with the Ringtail Lemurs and Ruffed Lemurs and it was seriously one of those very special moments that you didn’t see coming and didn’t anticipate how wonderful it would be. And guys, it costs $15 per person!!! It’s first come first served on the day but it’s mind-blowingly lovely.

Zoo Highlights

Red pandas, not sleeping in trees but frolicking! Like a good panda should!
Lemurs, cuddly, cuddly lemurs around my neck
Most massive aviary you can even imagine, Kaka dive bombing us and witnessing the super stealth HUGE Bittern bird.
5 gorgeous Sumatran Tigers frisking around, not yawning!
A baby chimp seen at feeding time
Getting to experience the Zoo classroom one-on-one with amazing guide Ken! Thank you!

The latest addition to the zoo’s gorgeous family is a 3 month old female chimp, whose name has been decided via a public competition and was announced today!

Meet beautiful baby Chiku! Thanks so much Tara for allowing me to use this image, check out her work here

New Zealand's Top Mummy Blogger Parenting Hamilton Zoo Chimp

Photo Credit: Tara Sutherland www.tarasutherland.net

We loved this zoo so much I can see us making the drive to Hamilton every time the kids need a wild animal fix. No parking problems, no crowds, a bigger zoo with world class facilities – Hamilton Zoo you have won us over.

When the kids were about to fall over from exhaustion we made the 10 minute drive to our final destination for the day, Quality Hotel Ambassador in Hamilton. This is a truly unique hotel, offering three varying accommodation options (hotel, motel, corporate suites), with rooms to suit every conceivable need. We are staying in a 2 room suite in the Quality Hotel which is perfect for our family of four. We’re on the ground floor which is so considerate when you have kids and a shit-tonne of stuff and there is a king and a single in each room so we are comfy with plenty of space to relax. Which is totally what we needed after our awesome day.

Though there is every amenity and restaurant (including Pak ‘n Save across the street!) in walking distance from the hotel, we kept things convenient and ate at the Retrospect Cafe, Bar & Grill on site. Def stick with the mains guys as the meals are huge! And awesome. We ordered the Kids Cheeseburger meal, the T2 burger, Chicken Carbonara and Aged Scotch Fillet and every bite was amazing. Served on vintage Crown Lynn serveware, the food and relaxed, friendly atmosphere was a perfect match for our family group.

We’ve just finished watching the Crusaders smash the Warratahs live on Sky and now it’s time for sleep.

You can follow our adventures tomorrow as we head to Rotorua! Check us out on Snapchat @thebestnestnz + @djack456 and on Instagram @thebestnest + @djack.

It’s COLD here in the North Island this weekend so we are pretty much living in our Macpac gear! Dave is wearing the Meteor Jacket which is an amazing hybrid of a jacket and a shirt! Nix is wearing the Kids Astro Hooded Down Vest and LFOH Pick Pocket Long Sleeve and the Bubbles Merino Fleece Pant, Ethan is wearing a Pack-It-Jacket (don’t think we’ll ever leave home without these again!) and I’m snuggly in the Uber Light Long Down Jacket.

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The Toddler Trimester

May 4, 2016
By: Melissa

The 4^th trimester is becoming a more common talking point and something that new mums are increasingly being made aware of. Newborns and their mothers do not pop out of the birthing suite ready for lattes, playgroups and power walks with the Mountain Buggy – shock horror!

However, there is a more sinister/dangerous/sleep depriving menace out there, one that catches Mum’s and Dad’s by surprise as they are high-fiving themselves on making it out of the ‘Baby Phase’ intact.

There are no public service announcements circulating around the threat of the Toddler Trimester and it’s time to ramp up public awareness of this devastating phenomena.

The hard truth is; I’m more tired, scratch that, EXHAUSTED, than I was at any point during the aforementioned 4^th trimester. Nixon doesn’t nap during the day anymore, Nixon likes to wake during the night (when he previously slept through), Nixon likes to wake up early – sometimes as early as 4.30am, never later than 6 though. 6 is a luxurious sleep in Dave and I cross our fingers for each night.

Compounding this, is my own hectic work schedule which relies on me burning the midnight oil pretty much 7 days a week.

I look like hell.

I’m writing this on a flight to Sydney for a quick work trip and instead of hitting the shops, the eateries and sights as I would normally do, all I can think of is check in time when I can smash out a massive nana nap.

What in the fuck has happened to me?

It’s a little nightmare I like to call The Toddler Trimester. The frenetic pace of life with Nixon and it’s accompanying sleep deprivation has seen me knock back a V, large flat white and a shitty airplane coffee all before 10.37am.

The caffeine comedown is going to be rough today but I’d rather not fall in front of a train because I’ve nodded off upon arrival at my station in Sydney.

Thanking god for my Nespresso machine at home, Spotify to keep me awake with extra-loud Nirvana and Millencollin so I can work on the plane and my MacBook so I can knock out Dave’s GST whilst flying as lord knows there are no other hours in the day to get it done. I’m struggling at the moment guys. I’ve never been so tired in my life!

Fast forward 36 hours and I’m back in the airport soon to board my plane home. I soldiered on yesterday (I love Sydney and there was shopping to do in the few hours I had to do it!). I desperately wanted to take a nap but figured an early night would have to do. So, despite staying in the most amazing Sydney location – The Rocks – I didn’t sip wine on the waterfront and dine at one of the fab restaurants I saw. I got take-out noodles, used my 2-for-1 drink vouchers at the hotel and went to bed watching The Voice.

Turns out that’s pretty much what the other bloggers attending the Netflix event did too! Mum-life right?

So, I’d love any tips you guys have for curtailing the increasing exhaustion that working and Mumming often result in. Obviously MORE sleep and prioritising rest but that’s soooo hard, why??

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