Christmas 2009

We had a nice relaxed family Christmas Day. It was my first one in 8 years, as when we were back 3 years ago we spent it down south with the Roes. We went out to my nana's place in Leamington & had cold ham & salads for Christmas lunch. It was a really hot day & Will found it all a bit strange! He's not used to being in shorts & t-shirt on Christmas Day... On the way home Will & I got dropped off at the Giddy's place. Wayne & his girlfriend Phillipa were over from Australia, & his brother Craig & Craig's wife Denise were also over from Oz with their 3 young ones. Roger dropped by with his family, & Marty also dropped in to say hi so it was bit of a reunion from the old days...

On Boxing Day Wayne's dad Colin took Will & I, & Wayne & Phillipa out fishing off Raglan. We were at the boat ramp by 6am & were rewarded with the most glorious sunrise.
It was amazing fishing, amongst the 5 of us we caught 83 fish in total, including our quota of 10 snapper each. Other species included gurnard, trevally & kahawai. Will also brought up a kingfish but it was undersize so had to be thrown back.

Keeping us company on the water was a beautiful albatross, which from a distance we first mistook for a really really big seagull...
We also had a 2m mako shark hovering around which Colin wasn't overly happy about, especially when it took a chunk out of the side of a snapper he was bringing up on his line! He got out his 'big boys rod' with the steel trace & managed to hook it. He had no intention of bringing it up onto his boat, he just wanted to have a bit of fun with it & annoy it enough so that it would go away. He cut it off his line & funnily enough it disappeared pretty quickly!

To make the day really memorable we also came across a pod of 4 orcas on the way home. They were beautiful & seemed quite happy to get close to the boat. We spent about 20 minutes admiring them before leaving them in peace...

We also saw some penguins swimming on the way back, but they were a bit overshadowed by the orcas really. All in all it was an incredible day out! We have been gorging ourselves on fresh & smoked fish over the last few days...

The last couple of days have been fairly quiet. We have taken advantage of the post-Christmas sales & have bought a few things we needed for our new house. Less than 2 weeks now until we move in!

Tomorrow we will drive over to Rotorua to pick up Nic & Tom who are over from the UK. We'll see in the new year with them in the Coromandel which we are looking forward to. It will be great to see them.

Dunedin

Thursday night we flew down to the deep south for 4 nights with the Roes. It had been 3 years since we last saw the kids, Alexander was the first to meet us at the airport & I hardly recognised him, I swear he was twice the height from when I saw him last!
They have an amazing 2 & half acre property high on the cliffs overlooking St Clair beach. It is just ocean as far as the eye can see.

Right next door is the ruins of Cargill's Castle, also offering spectacular views along the coast
On Friday night Rach had got us tickets to Roger Hall's 'Four Flat Whites in Italy'. It was a very enjoyable & entertaining play. Afterwards we called in at some friends of Rich & Rach for a glass of wine or two, making it home sometime after midnight.Saturday was a lovely day, so Rich decided that a spot of fishing was in order. We headed off to a beautiful spot on the Taieri River. Rich hadn't chosen to go for a swim in the above photo, he was freeing a hook which had got well & truly wedged between some rocks.The fish weren't biting, but it was a very pleasant way to while away a few hours. Eventually Will hooked a small brown trout, his first fish ever which was exciting. I had another small one get off my hook, & Rich had a big one get away.Back home & it was a fantastic roast chicken meal, with Will's fish as a starter. We also played a bit of poker, with Alexander putting his lego trucks & bulldozers to good use in collecting & storing his chips. After a tasting session of some of Rich's favourite local ales, followed by plenty of wine with dinner & beyond, we went to bed tired but happy after a brilliant day.Sunday night was a cocktail party for Rach's birthday, which was on the Monday. Things kicked off at around 3pm, & Rich ably assisted by Will at times, kept the cocktails flowing. Some of the guests had simpler tastes, preferring the speights... After an afternoon/evening of good food, beverages & company, we made it to bed in the wee small hours. Rich & I slightly later than the others after a couple of games of 500 for old times sake...On Monday we celebrated Rach's birthday with an alfresco lunch of mostly leftovers from the previous night. We then had an afternoon of backyard cricket & petanque (& bouncing for some!) before catching our late afternoon flight back to Wellington.

Today was a glorious day in the capital, so in the afternoon Will & I went for a drive around the Mirimar Peninsula, stopping for an icecream in Scorching Bay. We then continued all the way round to Lyall Bay, & had a very nice fish & chip dinner on the beach while watching the surfers who were out in force. Tomorrow we will drive up to Hamilton for Christmas with the family.

Busy Times

Just a quick update this time to tide me over to the next post...

Will has been busy lately with work Christmas parties. He has at least 3 in total which seems a bit excessive! Not having a 'work', I obviously don't have any :-(

We spent a very enjoyable Saturday afternoon at a BBQ at Keryn & Brendon's. Great food, excellent company, & the weather eventually cooperated enough to allow a pleasant hour or two sitting outside in the sunshine to finish off. Saturday night we went to 'Hot Pink Bits' at BATS theatre. Absolutely filthy & absolutely hilarious pretty much sums it up! A most entertaining evening, even if I spent most of it in fear of being picked on for 'audience participation'! Check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPLNzL1IQZc for a taste of the evening...

Tonight we had dinner with a colleague of Will's & his partner. They live nearby so we met for a curry in Newtown. It was nice to have a meal with them before we leave the neighbourhood. Speaking of leaving, I met Will at our solicitors this afternoon to sign the final papers before we take possession of our new house on the 8th January. It is exciting how quickly that date is approaching!

Tomorrow I'll pick dad up from the airport. He has a meeting at Head Office on Wednesday, so will stay with us tomorrow night. It is always great to catch up with him. On Wednesday night there is a chance that one of Will's UK friends who has been teaching over here might stay the night, then on Thursday night we are off to Dunedin for 4 nights with the Roes. Yay!!!

18 more days until Christmas...

It's been a while since the last post, but not a huge amount has happened since then... Last Saturday we went to watch the new Twilight movie, New Moon. I really enjoyed it, any movie that has hunky men spending most of their time topless has my vote! We saw it at the Embassey Theatre in Wellington which is a fantastic place to watch a movie.
I spent Friday at the Basin Reserve watching NZ take on Pakistan in Day 2 of the test match. It was full of action with 16 wickets falling throughout the day. Unfortunately 10 of those belonged to NZ as they were all out for a dismal 99 in the 1st innings! The second lowest score at the Basin ever... Will walked down after work when they were letting people in for free, & managed to catch an hour & a half worth of play.

Yesterday was a stunning day in the capital. I spent most of it sitting outside reading the newspaper in the sunshine. Will's UK house was due to complete on Friday, & it went through, but not without a few last minute nerves! We found out on Friday that the UK law firm taking care of the transaction on our behalf was due to go into administration at 5pm that Friday! It necessitated a few late night phone calls to the UK to find out exactly what was going on, but we then got a call at 1:30am to say the transaction was complete. When we checked our internet banking Saturday morning the money was safely in, so we can now set about getting a mortgage sorted for the house we are buying Wellington.

Tonight we are having dinner with one of Will's colleagues & his wife. We are off to Lone Star, so it should be a good feed.