Way back in March we were lucky enough to get 5 tickets for the Maroon 5 concert in Auckland in October. Our 3 children are huge Maroon 5 fans so you would have thought the concert tickets would be enough right – well, that’s where things got a little bit crazy and we ended up getting lost in Auckland in a limo…
My day job is working in an Advertising Agency (my weekend job is as a family photographer and my 24/7 job as a Mum but that’s another story). I was talking to one of my colleagues at work who has a far more glamorous life than me about the concert and she mentioned that on her recent trip to New York she had taken her two daughters to a Katy Perry concert in a limo.
How amazing would that be I thought. Of course that would be utterly ridiculous and there is no way we could afford that I reasoned with myself (we have these chats often) – but, what’s the harm in just enquiring I thought…
So a quick Google search later and I had got hold of Limo Hire Auckland. The cost was $350 for a limo for an hour which I told my self was completely unaffordable. However by the time I had got home I had somehow managed to convert the $350 into easy weekly payments of about $12 a week and it all seemed very achievable. Strangely James agreed and the limo was booked!
We didn’t tell the kids about Maroon 5 or the limo and as the day drew closer the enormity of a limo arriving to pick us all up and take us to Maroon 5 started to dawn on me. It felt so extravagant that I didn’t even tell any friends or family about it (and it took a month to post here).
I didn’t have a clear plan at all – about 2 hours out I decided to play dress up’s with the kids. I told them that we would all get dressed up like they do in Fancy Nancy and we would have a little adventure. They were pretty keen for ice cream – little did they know….
They were all dressed up and out playing on the tramp when the limo arrived and the look on their faces was priceless – they had no idea what to do and climbed gingerly in the back to a freshly stocked fridge of lemonade.
We had planned on going along the water front before the concert but first we had to show my brothers who lived just up the road. But the limo driver took the wrong turn and we ended up driving past my ex-husbands house instead.
“Oh, Riley
“Well, lets then” I said as the limo pulled boldly into my ex husbands driveway. Thankfully he wasn’t there but my ex Mother in Law was and you can imagine the look of surprise on her face when she saw me pull up in a limo with my new partner and 3 kids.
We decided to take Riley around the corner to see my brothers who came racing out to see the limo too.
“I wish we could show Piper and Sabine” the girls said. So of we went to pick up a few more. Piper and Sabine were suitably impressed and so in they piled too.
By this time we had 6 under 9 year olds (and me and James) in the back of the Limo – all plied with lemonade.
“Let’s go and see Hunter!” (the girls one year old cousin) they cried so off we set – the 8 of us and by now I am sure a very bemused driver.
We arrived across town to a very excited little boy who was passed in to the most giant car he had ever seen to 6 waiting girls.
By this stage we were fast running out of the hour we paid for so we sprinted through the suburbs dropping children off left right and centre and headed for the concert.
If you are wondering what under 9’s do in a limo over the Harbour Bridge this will give you a valuable insight…
So was it a crazy thing to do? Yes!
Did we all have the time of our lives? Absolutely!
Would I do it again? In a heart beat.
$350 sounds like a huge chunk of money so obviously this isn’t an everyday treat but for something special like a concert or as my 7 year old is seriously tossing up a birthday party idea to get a limo to take her and her friends to Kiwiyo it is pretty amazing!
We used Limo Hire Auckland and they were fantastic – you can find out more about them here if you are thinking of getting lost in a limo…