Well, we are back!! Hard to believe I know after our extended sabbatical. As most of you probably know, we headed over to New Zealand in mid-December for a summer Christmas. This meant November and early December were rather hectic as we attempted to finish lots of work things, organise Christmas presents, pack, clean the house ... oh, and flat hunt. Yes you did read that right FLAT HUNT. Our landlord has decided to sell our current flat and gave us two months notice so we tried finding something before our holiday. No such luck. Fortunately this story has a happy semi-ending. She has subsequently decided that having tenants paying rent (and presumably your mortgage) while you are trying to sell your property is preferable to having an empty property bringing in no income. So here we still are for at least another couple of months. We are still looking but there is less immediate pressure now and we certainly won't be moving this weekend.
Right, I thought you might like a rundown on our trip. I'll break it up into sections as you might need some pauses to go off and do things like the washing, sleeping, eating or working.
Flying to New Zealand. We had decided that we would do the getting there in one foul swoop. So we had a 12 hour flight to Tokyo, followed by a 1 1/2 hour stopover there and then another 12 hour flight to Auckland. We departed Heathrow in the early evening so were determined to get a good night's sleep on Friday before we left on Saturday. That, of course, was an excellent plan foiled only by the phone ringing at 3.30am and then an insistent honking. Our taxi had arrived 12 hours early, the dispatcher had clearly got confused. I can only put it down to the pre-Christmas party season as they were busy that particular Friday afternoon. The flights themselves weren't too bad, we were very near the back of the plane on both legs but this didn't seem to materially affect the ride. JAL has excellent leg room and personal in-flight TVs, so that kept us entertained. We had a Japanese option at each meal which meant I could very occasionally have something to eat, rice mainly but still food. We both managed a little sleep on the first leg, not a full night but enough to make us feel like we had at least tried. Air New Zealand also has good leg room but the flight we were on didn't have personal TVs but rather shared screens in the aisles. This gave me the perfect excuse to watch the Dukes of Hazzard Movie (something I couldn't bring myself to do at the Movies or on DVD) as there was no other option. Nick slept but he at least has some standards! The other thing about this flight was that the time we had been given for the departure from Japan didn't bear any resemblance to the time that we actually left and the flight still took 12 hours so therefore arrived in Auckland later than anticipated. I think there had been some confusion somewhere along the line in relation to time zones as we still only had a brief stop-over. This meant that our poor parents had to wait at the airport for quite some time before the plane actually landed. Fortunately, Auckland Airport Immigration and Customs was virtually deserted and we had only bought sweets and chocolate with us from England (nothing more exotic like an apple) so we breezed through. All four parents were waiting to greet us, it was lovely to see them, nice to be home and even nicer to be on solid ground again.
We spent the week before Christmas in Auckland staying with Nick's parents in Albany. We spent much of this week in a jet-lagged haze so it was nice to be somewhere where people didn't mind if we woke up at 4.00 am and crashed at about 7.00 pm. Scully, their cat, was a little bit miffed, I think, that she wasn't the only one roaming the hallways in the early hours but she soon got used to us and would even stay in the same room with us after a couple of days :). We were also treated to lots of yummy New Zealand foods including Steak and Fish. I think everybody was trying to fatten us up. The weather unfortunately was not great, a lot warmer than London, but not swim at the beach fantastic. We also sampled the local shopping at both Albany and Glenfield, both of which are very different from my school days. I remember thinking Glenfield was a bit scungy and you really wouldn't go there as your first choice but it has had a complete overhaul and is like a new place. Albany, of course, didn't have any shops unless you count the orchards and it is very weird to see where we used to do our fruit shopping covered in development. Even weirder are the changes to the motorway, there are completely new exits and some of the old ones have disappeared.
While we were in Auckland there was also the small matter of meeting my niece. Kate is the most beautiful 7 month-old baby in the world. I think I might be slightly biased though! She changed so much even in the time we were visiting. She got much better at sitting up un-aided and at rolling and she was starting to explore her environment much more enthusiastically. Poor Duncan and Karen had moved house the day before we arrived and so had boxes everywhere but they made us very welcome. We were even lucky enough to be trusted to look after Kate one afternoon when Karen had an appointment. Kate is eating solids so Uncle Nick and I had lots of fun feeding her. Nick claims that I didn't do it properly and made a huge mess but I'm not sure he did terribly much better! Kate is such a sweetie, she very rarely cries and even then it doesn't take much to distract her. She was very patient with all the change in her life and these strange people who kept appearing and wanting to play with her. The only time she really wanted her Mum and nobody else (apart from the obvious feeding times when no-one else could oblige) was bed-time when she needed a cuddle from Karen before going down. Karen and Duncan are doing a marvellous job but I still find it hard to believe that my little brother has a baby of his own!
On Christmas Eve we went and had lunch with my friend Lianne and her partner Tony. They have bought a house in Grey Lynn so not only did we get a delicious lunch but also the grand tour. Lianne is currently training hard in preparation for the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne. She was due to set off for a European tour just after Christmas. We had a lovely afternoon, catching up and reminiscing (mainly about shoes made from splinting materials). We followed lunch with a return to Nick's parents for their famous Christmas Eve dinner. Roast Turkey with Wild Rice stuffing and roast vegetables. It was all delectable.
On Christmas Day itself we had arranged to go to our friends Gina and Martin's restaurant Murray's at the Bay for Christmas lunch. There were 15 of us all together with Nick and I, my mum,dad and Grandma, Nick's mum and dad, Duncan, Karen and Kate, Liz, our friend from England, Karen's mum, grandma, brother and her brother's partner Heather. It was a wonderful way for all the families to get together and share Christmas with Kate. Kate, herself, was fascinated with the presents. Well, more the wrapping than the presents. She dutifully ripped it off each gift before attempting to stuff the paper in her mouth. Oh, did I mention she's at the stage where she puts EVERYTHING in her mouth, other people's fingers, sink plugs, toys, her thumb ... basically anything she can find. We had taken a rather large stuffed polar bear with us (we had named him Dougal) as a gift for her. I was quite concerned she would be terrified of him as he is longer than her but she took it all in her stride and tried to chew his nose. We had yummy food for lunch with seafood gumbo or venison sausages for starters, the choice of lamb, turkey or salmon for the main course and Christmas pudding or pear tart for dessert. This was all accompanied by the picture perfect view of Murray's Bay out the window. The lunch was topped off by a visit from Santa Claus. We all retired to our respective residences for a light dinner and early night!
More to follow... Although the observant among you will notice that the photo gallery has made a return.
Posted by Hayley
2005
november
october
september
august
july
june
may
april
march
february
january
2004
december
november
october
september
august
july
june
may
april
march
february
january
2003
december
november
october
september
august
july
june
may
april
march
february
january
2002
december