Can't get my photos and videos to sync to new ipad from icloud

I got a new iPad mini with iOS8. Went through all the steps of activation and set up, apple ID etc. When prompted to restore from iCloud backup I chose the latest sync date. Finished the set up, but nothing was synced to my new iPad from iCloud except for some very recent pictures (2 days old). I have a huge photo and video collection all synced to iCloud. How come it didn't upload to my new iPad mini? Also, notes, contacts and imessages are not uploaded. And I can't receive imasseges to this ipad. Please help. I would appreciate a good advise on how to get data from icloud to new Apple device.