Any Old Excuse!

It is hard to believe that we have been in New Zealand for a year now. The past year has gone by so fast, and there have been so many highlights. On the other hand, it does seem such a long time ago that we were living in the UK. That might have something to do with the fact that after our world travels in 2004/2005, we only spent nine months in the UK before making the ‘permanent’ move to NZ.

To celebrate our ‘One Year in NZ’ anniversary, we treated ourselves to a night away. Our choice of accommodation was a wagon. I hear you thinking, “Have they gone mad down under? A wagon, what kind of wagon?” Well the wagon is a luxury replica of an 1870s style 'wild west' wagon. See http://www.wagonstays.co.nz/.

Denis and Ray, our hosts, came up with the idea and built the wagon themselves. It had all the mod-cons (flat screen tv, heat pump, tilting bed, etc.) you can imagine, as well as being an environmentally friendly place. Well, what a lovely place it was, and what a fantastic dinner Denis cooked for us. The fruit & veggies were all home-grown and home-cooked.

After dinner we had a bath. Well, I hear you say, nothing special about that. But this bath was special! It was outside, in the open air. And it was great! We stayed in the bath, enjoying a bottle of Lindauer Fraise, until the water started to cool.

Breakfast was great, too. Pete was a little disappointed when we booked, to find out that we would not get a cooked breakfast, but the homemade muesli, the fresh muffins and bread more than made up for that. All in all, we had a great night away and were very spoiled. And to think all this, was only a 15 minute drive away from home; great!

After check-out on Sunday, we did not drive straight home, but took a detour, to see some places we had not previously driven through. Just before Governor's Bay we stopped at a rest stop, and happened to see a few ‘locals’ bring in the catch of the day. I believe this is a Mako shark. The man on the right owns a restaurant in Sumner; the shark might even have ended up on someone’s plate that evening.

On we went and of course we had to walk along the pier at Governor’s Bay, and back again. (What exactly is the point of piers that do not have ice cream kiosks at the end of them?) We then continued to Sumner, where we planned to have an ice-cream at the kiosk at Scarborough. However, over winter this place has turned itself into a poncy eatery, and they only sell pre-packed ice-creams. Not good enough for us, so we got back in the car and drove to an old favourite of ours: ‘The Sign of the Kiwi’. Good to see that there one can still buy a lovely hokey pokey ice-cream.Yummy! A great place to end our celebrations!

The Ring

So, yes, finally, after eight years Pete proposed! Date and location: Boxing Day, in Melbourne. Very romantic, as Melbourne is the place where we actually met.

Pete did very well with choosing the ring. I love it but, as it was not the correct size, I had to be extremely careful with it during the holiday. I had to wear it, of course, even though there was a risk of losing it.On the 2^nd January I could finally take it back to the jewellers to get it re-sized. Unfortunately, the jewellers could not get the ring back to me until the 11^th January. Having had to go back to work on the 3^rd January, everyone wanted to see the ring, but I had nothing to show. It did not feel real, not having the ring. But after nine sleeps the ring was ready to be collected. My fiancé and I walked into town during lunch and collected the ring. Luckily it fitted perfectly and I now feel properly engaged!

To celebrate our engagement, we are having a Engagement BBQ, on 3 March. If you are in the area, why not call in? As for the wedding; the when, where and what has to be decided. We will keep you all posted. One thing we do know, though, is that you had all better start saving!!!

A New Year

We arrived back from our holiday in Melbourne, to a wintery Christchurch, complete with drizzle and a meagre afternoon temperature of 9 degrees! Not quite summer! When the pilot had said the Christchurch temperature was 9 degrees, I thought either I had misheard and he had actually said 19 or that it was the temperature at 15 000 ft. Unfortunately, I had heard correctly!

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It was a real shame that the weather was not on our side, as we had hoped to spend New Year’s Eve at Darren & Jen’s place, enjoying a nice barbecue and sitting in their swimming pool drinking cocktails. Being a hardy bunch, however, the barbecue went ahead but was moved under the roofed patio area. We all dressed warmly and a fire was lit but after a few beers the outside temperature was forgotten and we could have been anywhere!

It was quite warm...once a fire was lit!

Two of Jen’s brothers (Stephen and Tony), from Ireland were over, and our mutual friend Brett was over from Switzerland, which made for great company. Later on, Emma joined us, as she had finished work for the night. We saw in the New Year with sparklers and Lindauer Fraise. The alcohol continued to flow, and Darren's speciality: Irish Coffee, had to be consumed.

The first of January is also Tony’s birthday, so a cake was brought out and Happy Birthday was sung. We never saw the cake again; Jen must have hidden it away!

Darren was the first of our party to go to sleep in 2007. He retired around 3.30 am as the plan was that Darren would drive Jen, Tony and Stephen to Fox Glacier on New Year's Day. Tony was the only other driver, but seeing as he went to bed around 6.30 am their plans seemed doomed. As we later found out, they never did make it to Fox that day.

We got up around 11 am, after only a mere five hours sleep, and both really wanted to get home. Firstly, so that Chantal could call the family in Holland as they saw in the New Year, at 12 noon NZ time. Secondly, we were anxious to get home to see Tinkerbell. We really had not spent much time with her, after collecting her from the cattery. We basically dropped Tinks off at home, unpacked our holiday suitcase and were off again. The poor cat probably thought we had abandoned her again!

The rest of the day was spent in quite a daze, as we were both still working off the effects of the night before. Pete made the mistake of lying down on the sofa and subsequently falling asleep, with the cat. Chantal did not fare much better; just reading was all she accomplished.