The Chappells arrive in cold and wintry NZ

More visitors; this time from across the Tasman. The Chappells arrived at some ungodly hour (11.55pm on Sunday night). Normally, staying up for such an event is not much of a problem, but this time it was. Spending Saturday night in a pub watching the demise of England's World Cup dreams and hopes, coming home at 6am, sleeping for a few hours, playing hockey, doing the shopping (we had to feed the Chappells after all) and cleaning the house (visitors get special treatment!) prooved a bit too much for Chantal. Luckily, Driver Pete was capable of keeping his eyes open. Just as well, as he had to collect the Chappells from the airport.

When they arrived at `our home' in St Albans, Jessica and Alex went straight to bed. We stayed up a bit longer, had a cup of tea (those bloody English, all they want is cups of tea!), a piece of toast with real Marmite and a bit of a natter. Pete and I finally retired at 1.30am. Still very tired, we arose at 6am the following morning so that Pete could start work a bit earlier. He left work around midday so that he could give the Chappells a (dis)orientation tour of Christchurch and the Port Hills. The tour on offer was the tried and tested route up to the Sign of the Kiwi and along the Summit Road.

The ice-creams and views were still nice, and I have been told that decent lunches are served there, too! The trip today even included a free ride on the Gondola! Apparently,the trick is to board at the top and not disembark at the bottom thus returning to the top before casually stepping out.
Tuesday morning required an early wake-up call for our visitors. Today was the start of their road trip. The weather forecast was not that promising, as snow was falling in great quantities in parts of the South Island. Not quite sure why the Chappells complained about that: the whole reason for coming to NZ in winter was to see snow and ski! Anyway, Pete & I dropped them off at the car rental place where we found out one of the roads to Queenstown was closed due to snow. Backup plans were made and a quick lesson on how to attach snow chains was given. Once at work, we kept checking the AA Roadwatch to see the latest road news before being informed by a quick e-mail around midday that the Chappell's were stranded in Timaru. Felt sorry for them, Timaru is not really a tourist stop. Anyway, as it turned out the roads were cleared and they managed to leave unhurt before continuing their trip down to Queenstown.

Not quite sure why a picture of the Big Fruit has to be published on their Bog. Other than the Big Fruit, Cromwell is a lovely place. They seem to be enjoying their holiday. Hopefully, we can go skiing together next week when they return to Christchurch.