The Coromandel (our honeymoon)

We had always planned to have a honeymoon once all our guests went home. It seemed silly to ride off into the sunset while they were all still here so we spent as much time with them as we could while they were here and planned for a honeymoon a little further down the track.
There were many ideas flung around for where we could go for our honeymoon but in the end we decided to stay here in New Zealand and have a new adventure in a part we'd never been to before.

So we packed up our car and headed to the Coromandel Peninsula. It's a long drive so we stopped overnight in Taupo on the way. We went the week leading up to Easter which turned out to be a genius idea because the roads weren't yet full of Easter holiday traffic.

We stayed 3 nights at the Crows Nests Apartments in Whitianga. It was beautiful. The start of Autumn so not particularly warm and in fact it rained a bit - but it was still lovely. We strolled around the town, took the wee ferry to the 'other side' and explored over there and drove a bit further afield to see what was nearby.
We particularly enjoyed Hot Water Beach It was a little like Disneyland in that it was full of tourists. There's hot water springs under the beach so at low tide the place is swarming with people with spades of all shapes and sizes, digging holes, looking for the hot water. On this particular day it was raining quite heavily so everyone had waterproofs and jumpers on over their swimmies. As soon as warm water was struck - off came all the outerwear and everyone swarmed into the hot water pool. Very strange but lots of fun!
We also attempted the walk to Cathedral Cove but some parts of the path were slippy and steep and given I was 21 weeks pregnant at the time we decided not to take any chances once I'd lost my footing once!

All in all, a lovely, relaxing time away. Unfortunately it seems a long time ago now (isn't it always the way just a couple of weeks after you return from holiday!) but will be a lovely time to remember in years to come.

Big Day Out

On Thursday 14th January we finished work a little early, packed a bag and headed up to Taupo to stay the night. We stayed in a hotel on the lakefront and ate dinner watching the sunset. It was lovely. The hotel was safari themed and unlike anywhere I've stayed before.


On the Friday morning we left Taupo and carried on up State Highway 1 to Auckland where we were attending the Big Day Out. We were lucky enough to be able to check into our Auckland hotel a little early (another strange room - this time because it had a 'capsule/pod' like bathroom - very strange!) and leave the car behind before training to Mount Smart Stadium.


It was packed and a little overwhelming on arrival. Too many people, too hot and too much to look at. So we grabbed an ice lolly and found a seat in the shade and took part in some people watching. It was such a mix of people - all ages and all kinds. We stayed pretty close to the main area which held the orange and blue stages but moved seats a few times depending on what was going on.



My top 3 acts were:

No 1. Muse (how could it be anyone else!) They were amazing. Lasers and big screens and guitar playing acrobatics. What's not to like?!

No 2. Dizzee Rascal - I'm a little surprised by this as was expecting to like him but not necessarily love him but he really got the crowd going and Bonkers was amazing!

No 3. Lily Allen - unfortunately not as good as I'd hoped and the sound seemed a bit off but she was still worth a watch and got the crowd going with a couple of her more daring songs!



So a good time was had by all. I was exhausted by the end of it. Between the 3 hour drive from Taupo and a hot day and lots of music and clapping and singing I was ready for my bed by the time Muse were done. We had to get the train back to the hotel which was surprisingly easier than I had anticipated and we ended up back in our room just after midnight.

The next day we drove back to Palmy stopping in Hamilton to catch up with Kelly and Michael on the way. The weather on the Desert Road was shocking (very heavy rain and low visibiloty) but we eventually got home about 8.30pm. Needless to say we didn't do much at all on Sunday over than sleep and pick up the dog from the kennels :-)

Holiday in Review - Part 2 - Scotland (part 1)

After arriving in Glasgow on Sunday evening (26th July) we got a good sleep but found ourselves awake at 5am on the Monday morning! Isn't jetlag great?!

We took it easy on Monday and caught up with family and visited Graeme's cousins new school (the same primary school that Graeme went to which has been rebuilt on a new site since we were last there). The jetlag was still evident that night because we were asleep by 8pm!

Tuesday was a brilliant day. We headed up to Loch Lomond Shores with Graeme's Mum, Gran, Grandpa, Aunt and 2 cousins. (Hi Nicole and Emma!)

It was reasonable weather and lovely to look around the shops there and take in the sights of the loch. We also took a drive round to Balloch Castle and were surprised to see it all boarded up. But we were still able to walk round the grounds and right down to the loch side to take lots of pictures and admire the scenery! We finished the day off with fish and chips from the chippy and Balloch which we sat by the river and ate before all piling back in the cars to head back to Glasgow. All in all a lovely day.

Wednesday was Graeme's Mums last day with us before flying back to Bristol that night so we went for a family lunch and got some family photos before dropping her at the airport. It was sad to say goodbye but great to know the next time we see her will be in New Zealand when she comes out for the wedding! On the way home from the airport we stopped in at Pollock Park which we used to visit alot when we lived in Glasgow and took an evening stroll to admire Pollock House and the gardens.

On Thursday we headed back up to Loch Lomond with Graeme's cousins to pick up a wedding present that we had ordered on the Tuesday. Graeme's Aunt, Uncle and Cousins had bought us a beautiful print of Loch Lomond in Autumn by Daniel Campbell so we drove back up to collect that and had a great excuse to have an ice-cream by the Loch! We had a great laugh with the girls in the car and after heading home to cook dinner for Graeme's Grandparents we took the girls to Braehead shopping centre to hunt out some bargains!

On Friday we got the train into town and met some friends for lunch (Hi DJ and Craig!) - yummy Chinese! It was really good to see them - felt like ages since last time (December 2007).

I used the excuse of being in town to do some shopping and got a few things. Probably the most shocking thing of the whole holiday occured on this day. I went into Borders/Paperchase and DIDN'T buy anything. I know, crazy huh?!

That night we headed over to Shawlands and caught up with Alan and Lindsey in the pub which was good. I had a big surprise when I bumped into Terry and Gordon who I worked with way back in 2001 and had a good gossip with them about what they've been up to!

So that's the first 5 days in Scotland. Next post will be aboout our couple of days in Dublin and then we were back in Glasgow for a night before heading down to Essex.

In other news - I'm just back from a weekend in Auckland with work. Life is back to being hectic once again! We are currently trying to get a lot sorted with regards to the wedding, tidy up house and garden ready for our guests and work is set to be fairly busy for both of us. Here's hoping for a lay-in sometime after the wedding :-)

Holiday in Review - Part 1 - Getting there

So it's been a while. Mostly due to the fact we were away for almost 3 weeks and it's taken me over a week to catch up on sleep :-)
Before that, my only excuse is too much excitment at the prospect of a holiday and seeing family and friends to sit down in a chair and type a post - pathetic eh?!

Anyway - I have plenty of photos and a few words to share - a review of our time away. I don't want to bore you in one sitting though so thought I'd split it up a little for you.

This time - you get an idea of our itinerary and news and photos from the 30 hour journey.


So we said a fond farewell to the dog and headed round to Palmy for our 6pm flight to Auckland on Saturday 25th July. We managed to get to Palmy just in the nick of time to check our bags all the way through to Glasgow (handy!)



We then had about 4 hours up in Auckland before our international to London Heathrow via Hong Kong.



The flight wasn't too bad. We managed to get some sleep (I think I got about 4 hours in the first leg and none on the 2nd). I watched 'He's Just Not That Into You', '17 Again' and 'Monsters Vs. Aliens' plus some episodes of 'Two and a Half Men' and 'The Big Bang Theory'.
The food was okay, I stayed clear of alcohol and popped my homeopathic No Jet Lag pills every couple of hours.
We were surprised to find the shops at Hong Kong shut when we arrived at about 6am in the morning. Okay, I realise it was 6am but I just figured a busy international airport like that would be open round the clock.
It didn't matter too much though - we sat ourselves down and watched planes and people and the hour and a half wait flew by.

We got to Heathrow about 2.30pm in the afternoon and managed to get through security and customs without too many long lines or hassle.

The coolest thing was being able to switch our mobiles on as we taxied in and my phone beeping with messages from actual friends and family (not just the standard text from vodafone UK) welcoming us to their timezone and checking if we had arrived yet! I called my Mum from a payphone at Heathrow - pleased to call her at a reasonable time for once and we mooched round the shops to kill some time.

Then we headed down to the BMI lounge to wait for our flight to Glasgow. Honestly - that's when I started to wilt. I was half asleep on a typically-uncomfortable airport chair when a message was read out calling a list of names of people flying to Glasgow. I couldn't be sure but I thought perhaps I had just heard two completely new and previously unheard pronounciations of our names so we headed over to the desk. Turns out since we had checked in (back in Palmy about 28 hours or so before) the plane type had changed meaning our seats were invalid.

I thought I reined myself in quite well here because at this point - 28 hours into a journey with about 4 hours sleep - I was ready to scream and cry if someone told me we weren't getting on that flight.

But it wasn't a message to say we weren't getting on. They actually told us they were upgrading us! They must have taken one look at us and realised we needed reclining chairs to get some sleep! An upgrade on the longer journey would have been preferred but I wasn't going to complain and soon we were sitting on big leather chairs that could recline almost to the point where we were laying straight!

Needless to say we slept most of the flight - even declining the free meal (with real china, glasses and cutlery) in favour of keeping our eyes closed.

I did manage to wake up in enough time to get some photos of Glasgow as we landed though. And we managed to wake up pretty quickly at the excitment of seeing family we hadn't seen for over 18 months!

Graeme's Aunt met us at the airport (and it was strange seeing the new layout and security measures at Glasgow - brought home exactly what had happened since the last time we had been at that airport) and we loaded up the cases and headed over to Graeme's Grandparents house. It was so good to see all the family and we sat in the lounge and chatted. And then Graeme's Mum landed (from Bristol) about an hour and a half after us and she turned up too! We managed to last until about 9pm catching up with everyone before we wilted and had to make our way upstairs to catch some zzzzz's :-)

Next post - a summary of what we got up to in Glasgow and Scotland.

Blogging from a new location

Worry not - I have not moved. I am right where I should be. Just blogging from the laptop tonight rather than the PC. The reasons for this are 2 fold:
1) The PC is so slow lately it's driving me up the wall and 2) Graeme's poorly and watching Lord of the Rings in bed so I am cosied up next to him watching Lord of the Rings with one eye (which is closing firmly at the bits that scare the living bejeezus out of me) while blogging at the same time.
This does mean I don't have my usual access to photos but hope to upload one or two through Flickr so you won't be too bored by my words and will get some visual goodiness.



It's been busy as usual round here but we've been enjoying ourselves. Graeme turned the grand old age of 29 on the 20th so we headed off down to Wellington for the weekend. Primarily to see the lovely All Blacks who were just as awesome as you would expect them to be. They may not have won the trophy but it was still an amazing feeling to be in the same stadium as them. We got absolutely soaked and chilled to the skin but it was so worth it!

We also got some wedding bits done and are pleased to report that we have chosen a celebrant so we have someone to marry us in November. That's a relief, let me tell you. As much fun as it would have been to have Lou ordained to marry us, I would quite like it to be official, thank you very much.

Well the batteries going on the laptop and Frodo's debating whether or not to throw the ring in the fire so I will call it a night for now and hope to be posting another update soon.

Signs of Winter

I can't believe how long it's been since my last post. I keep meaning to sit and find some photos and get them posted but it's been hectic. We have both been very busy with work and hardly saw each other last week. It's settled down now - for a week at least - so I thought I would make the most of being at home and near the PC to post!

I have already started writing my 28 @ 28 list (in the same vein as my 27 @ 27 list which can be found here http://kandgnzadventure.blogspot.com/2008/11/list.html) and one of the things I have added is to capture and document each season. I love watching the changes of the seasons and often take photos but have never documented them or done it with any regularity.

Of course, I am too impatient to wait until my birthday to start doing this so I have already started taking pictures of winter (it will probably be document one of the seasons on my 28 list). I have dotted a couple of the photos through this post.

I am lucky enough to do a lot of travelling and flying with work which is how I got photos of Mt. Taranaki and Mt. Ruapehu with snow on them. Aren't they gorgeous? Totally makes me wish I could snowboard or ski to make the most of them. I also recently bought some fingerless gloves which I thought captured winter well. I have been printing the photos when I order others to be printed and will probably turn them into a mini scrapbook.

So that's what I am up to at the moment. As well as arranging a UK visit, my wedding, a mass invasion of family and friends, working and a hundred other things! Busy is good though - I get more done when I'm busy.

And I hope to post sooner next time so you are not waiting so long next time :-)

Busy Bees

Wow - what a week. It's been a busy one that's for sure. Between us we spent 4 nights away from home (2 each) and I drove about 800kms. We've tried to spend all weekend catching up on....sleep, housework, washing, home cooked meals, each other, decorating, TV and the list goes on.

Hopefully this week will be a little easier. No overnights this week and with Easter Friday it's a 4 day week. Never have I needed a 4 day weekend more!

The decorating isn't going as fast as we would have hoped. We are STILL stripping wall paper in the lounge. Must be about 75% done now. Then we need to sand, prime and finally paint.

We've picked the colour and are trying to sort out new curtains. I think it's fair to say we won't be finished over Easter as was the original plan. But we are definitely planning to be done by the end of April as it's starting to get colder and stripped walls make me feel cold!

And while I was away I found a gorgeous throw at half price in Oamaru which should fit well with the new colours. It will be perfect for adorning the back of the couch ready to drag down for napping and reading on a chilly weekend afternoon.

Speaking of weekend afternoons...soccer season has offically started with G's first game taking place yesterday. They have Easter weekend off and then it's back into the regime of Saturday afternoons. All good for me - I have the perfect excuse for doing girly things like painting my toenails, watching chick flicks and scrapbooking.

Wedding plans are coming along nicely with a few RSVPs and guests booking flights over the last few weeks. We have the photographer booked (and engagement prints ordered and on their way to us...engagement photos nearly 5 years after we got engaged!) and have chosen the hotel in Wellington where we will stay the night before and night of the wedding. We're also getting there in the way of flowers and a cake.

The only thing that we haven't made any headway in and that I am slightly worried about is a celebrant. Anyone reading this able to recommend a great celebrant in the Wellington region?

Hope to get round to a Wellington and also a South Island post soon with some photos and links for soon-to-be guests.

The photo above is sunrise taken on State Highway 1 between Dunedin and Oamaru on Thursday just gone. Makes the early starts and time away from home worthwhile :-)

Kings of Leon = Awesome

We saw Kings of Leon at TSB Arena in Wellington last night and they were amazing!
I was so giddy with excitment that at first I struggled to take photos...
but I managed to get a couple of good shots (as did G when I passed the camera to him).

Highlights were: Sex on Fire (obviously!), On Call, Use Somebody, Knocked Up and Charmer but the whole thing was pretty good! They were on stage about 90 minutes and the atmosphere was pretty good.

We have been spoilt by Barrowlands and Carling Academy in Glasgow and tend to find other music venues very poor by comparison but Kings of Leon put on a blooody good show and the sound was fantastic!

We also squeezed in some wedding stuff including staying the night at the hotel which we have chosen to stay in the night before and night of the wedding. It was lovely. We signed the contract with our photographer and paid a deposit (eeek - things are becoming real!), found a good idea for wedding cake and spoke to a really nice florist. Things are coming along exactly as they should.

Hope to be back tomorrow with some photos of Wellington and the hotel.

I blinked and when I opened my eyes again 9 days had passed...

....and other excuses about why it's been longer than a week since I last posted include:

* a 15 hour work day in Auckland + an afternoon arrival back home the next day
* two days + 1 night in Wellington for work
* walking by the river with my boys and taking photos of windmills
* fun new squeaky cow toys to play with
* taking Rhett-ster to the vets for his annual check-up and jabs and getting a clean bill of health
* deciding to decorate the lounge and dining room when the pair of us have more days away from home than we have at home between now and Easter
* making copious amounts of chocolate cornflake cakes...just because they taste good
* trying to plan a wedding
* hand making envelopes because it's really quite fun
* framing the coolest art ever - personalised especially for G from me
* baking bread
* drinking wine for the first time in ages and miraculously not getting a hangover
* spending 2 hours on the phone to an old (that's a reference to the length of our friendship and nothing whatsover to do with the fact she is older than me!) friend

It's not just Graeme that's awesome at the moment. Life is pretty damn good too. Busy as a beehive but good with it :-)

March = Autumn

As our seasons are in reverse to the northern hemisphere that means that March is the start of Autumn. It feels a little autumnal at the moment. There's a few leaves falling from the trees (more to do with the wind then the actual change of seasons I think) and it's starting to feel colder in the evenings and first thing in the morning.

In previous years we still carry on having some nice sunny warm days throughout Autumn and that's what I'm keeping my fingers crossed for this year.

I'm feeling a little cheated by summer this year - it hasn't been nearly as nice as previous years. Too much wind and rain for my liking.

But the weather is what it is. I can't change it so I shall try not to moan and just enjoy what is.




I have the day off today as I worked yesterday (Sunday). I flew up to Auckland (on an obscenely early flight) to see another group of our volunteers off. Apart from being really tired from an early weekend start it was a good day and got even better when I settled down with a book when I got home and realised I didn't have to go into the office today! On the flight back from Auckland I managed to get this lovely shot...

I think it's official - I am addicted with taking photos from planes :-)

In other news we currently have two dogs which is lots of fun! Our neighbour is away so we are looking after his dog for 3 weeks. He's quite different from Rhett. The main difference being that you have to coerce him to eat! After nearly 3 years of Rhett scoffing anything that falls in his bowl or anywhere on the floor within 3 seconds it is a big change. And we have to remember to feed the dogs at a time we can stay and make sure it's Ramses eating his food and not our greedy dog! Mostly they are well-behaved together but there's quite a few mad half hours and tugs of war just like this one....

It should be an interesting couple of weeks.

We're both fairly busy at work at the moment so we will be trying to make the most of the weekends to make up for long hours during the week. Hopefully that means we will have some good photos for you over the next wee while.

Taupo

We got back this afternoon from a few days at Lake Taupo.

It all started when we couldn't get tickets to see Billy Connolly in Palmy because they had sold out. I did a quick search and discovered there were tickets left for the Taupo show so we decided to make a weekend of it.

We drove up on Saturday afternoon which was pretty rainy and miserable. We could hardly see the mountains from the Desert Road and then we got stuck in a bit of traffic due to an Iron Man contst which had people running from Turangi to Taupo (crazy people!). But we arrived in the end and checked in to our hotel about 10 minutes north of Taupo - the Bayview Wairekei Resort. The hotel was lovely. We went for a swim that afternoon and Graeme attempted to teach me to play squash (for those that don't know I am hugely unco-ordinated) which was heaps of fun! Then we had dinner at the resort cafe that night.

On Sunday morning we headed out to Huka Falls which were just down the road from the hotel. They were spectacular. We went for a walk up the track both ways but didn't go too far because I was not wearing "suitable" shoes. But we went just far enough away from the crowds and got some lovely photos. This photo was taken from the bridge right by the carpark so it was swarming with tourists!

We also went to the Honey Hive and took a drive down to the Prawn Farm (although we didn't go in) before heading to town for some lunch. We also managed to fit in another swim that afternoon before getting ready to go into town for dinner before Billy.
We miscalculated our time though and ended up only able to have starters for dinner because we needed to leave to get up to the Events Centre on time. (Yummy starters though - the most amazing onion rings and rosemary & feta pizza bread at Dixie Brown's - must go back some time to actually try their dessert cocktails!)

Then came the show which was fabulous. This was the second time we have seen Billy Connolly live (the first time being at the Clyde Auditorium in Glasgow in 2005 before we left for NZ) and he didn't disappoint. I had heard him tell some of the stories before (in DVDs, TV shows etc) but they were still funny and he added lots of other details in as well. I was also pleased that the zoom on our camera allowed me to take this shot...

He was definetly worth the money and the huge wait we had in the carpark when it came to leave!

This morning we visited the Craters of the Moon before leaving Taupo. It's a site of geothermal activity and involves a 45 minute walk around a site which has lots of steam and mud pools and 'craters'. It stunk of rotten eggs (due to the sulphur but thankfully it wasn't quite as bad as Rotorua!) but was worth a visit.

Then came the drive home (which normally takes about 3 hours) which was better today with no rain. We stopped in Taihape on the way back for coffee and cake and made it home for 3pm.

This afternoon we've been unpacking, sorting through the photos and got some food in (cupboards were empty!). And tomorrow it's back to work for both of us. After having 11 days off I think I may be inconsolable come tomorrow morning!

Hope you all had a good weekend too!

Back Home

It always feels so lovely to come home after being in the big smoke.

Auckland's okay and I would certainly recommend it to anyone visiting New Zealand but it's not home.

I flew up to Auckland on Thursday afternoon and got home yesterday (Sunday) afternoon. I had a great few days...I was working but it's a great part of my job - welcoming volunteers into New Zealand and showing them the sights.

I was very brave (or stupid...I can never tell the difference!) and drove in Auckland for the first time...not only that but I was driving a 12 seater mini van (also for the first time) and I am pleased to report no crashes or even scrapes. I had to drive on the wrong side of the road to get in a supermarket carpark and then had a couple of minutes panicking that the van wouldn't go under the height barrier but it all came right in the end...phew!

We did the usual sights and despite already having hundreds of photos from Auckland attractions I still took more!
The top photo is the Auckland sky line taken from Devonport (my first visit - it's really cute and reminds me of little English coastal towns in the middle of summer holidays) and the second photo is taken from the Sky Tower looking down.
As well as seeing the usual sights, me and my boss also took a stroll round Viaduct Harbour to see the Louis Vuitton boats....we were also lucky enough to be in the same bar as Brad Butterworth (although some New Zealanders may deem that unlucky from what I've heard!) but didn't get close enough for photos or autographs.

So a good weekend but very tiring - I was up at 5am on Friday and 5.30am on Sunday and didn't sleep all that great knowing I was away from home and having to be up early.
We have a 3 day weekend coming up though so I will have plenty of time to relax at the end of this week. It's Waitangi Day. No plans at this stage other then relaxing and hopefully enjoying the sunshine.

Have a good week :-)

This last week

So I go back to work and then feel everything is a bit too boring and normal to be adventurous and I don't think I have anything to blog about.

But I've just been sorting through the last weeks photos and there has been a couple of interesting things I can mention...

Last Saturday I flew down to Christchurch and stayed overnight before seeing off 18 young volunteers on their gap year. That was good. It's a great part of my job to see our volunteers off on the start of their year long adventure when I've been working with them for almost a year leading up to it. Everyone got away safe and sound and I watched their big plane take off before boarding my little one to head back to Palmy.

Side note: Airports are torture for me...I have spent a lot of my life saying goodbye to people I love. Watching emotional scenes at airports reminds me of every single time I've had to do it. It's hard. But also makes me feel much more able to see someone off knowing what's likely to be going through their head. And I didn't embarrass myself by bursting into tears so we're all good!

And I love Air New Zealand after they let me get on an earlier flight home at no cost.

After getting back on Sunday afternoon I was a free woman until Friday.

Graeme went back to work Monday so I pretty much pottered around all week watching movies, taking photos, reading books and walking the dog. It was nice and relaxing.

Then on Friday I went back to work and it wasn't as bad as I thought. Apart from my office having no air conditioning (I am spoilt at home!) and it being too hot it was fine. And a nice easy slide back into work rather than a full week all in one go!

The weather here has been hot. On Thursday it was reported that Christchurch got to over 40. Palmy was probably approaching 30 that day.

And then the weekend comes and with it the rain...no surprises there. But I am grateful I am not having to deal with the minus temperatures like the UK at the moment.

What else? Hmmm, I'm on a health kick and so far so good. All part of my 2009 word and 27 things list. I am also wading through books at a fair old pace and should have the 'read 27 books' knocked off my list fairly soon. And of course blogging today is going towards my 'blog 52 times' tally.

Still loving the new camera although the light's been yuck with the rain this weekend so I haven't been using it that much. There's only so many prictures of the dog I can take....I want to go outside and explore. If the weather is better next week hopefully we will be able to take Rhett for an epic walk and I can snap along the way. The beach would be nice - it feels too long since we were there.

Hope you all have a good week!

1 month to go

Wow - this time next month it will be Christmas day...crazy huh? How can it almost be that time again when it feels like last Christmas was only yesterday? !

I have a lieu day from work today as I was working on Saturday (and will be the next 2 Saturdays too) so I am trying to get my ducks in a row....as usual I am finding myself hugely distracted by other more interesting things though. So far, I have put the dishwasher on but not unloaded it, put the washing on but not hung it out and washed my hair but not dried it. Could this be the day for getting things only half done? I hope not!

Had some extremely warm weather here - yesterday was actually horrible because it was ridiculously hot and humid and there is no air conditioning at work which makes me very grumpy! Today isn't so bad as there is a strong breeze. This is what our HRV thermometer was telling us on Sunday afternoon....I am so glad I don't have to live in my roof space!

And here are the windmills from my last post taken from a different angle...from a plane on Saturday afternoon...

I have had a request to post my 27 things @ 27 list which I will do...maybe later today but right now I have to get my hair dried as Graeme just called and we have a lunch date.

Ciao!

Bye Mum, see you in less than a year!

Wow - was it really over 2 weeks ago that I last posted?

The time while Mum was here just flew by but we really did have the best time ever. The travelling was great but in the end it felt really good to get home and then spend another week with Mum at home.

We did lots of cool stuff but at the same time it just didn't feel that she was here long enough.

We dropped her off at Wellington Airport on Friday afternoon and as always, it was horrible. I hate saying goodbye. But it's really great to know that we will be seeing Mum plus other close family and friends in less than a year when the wedding rolls round. And I really should be busy enough between now and then that the time should just fly!

After my last post I took the weekend off, Graeme flew down to Dunedin to meet us and we had a wonderful 3 days of travelling and playing tourists. Queenstown is quite possibly the most beautiful place on earth! I LOVED it and can't wait to get back and explore some more as we really didn't have long enough there. Here is just a taster of how gorgeous the place is (and yes I do want to try that parachute gliding thing next time I'm there!):

As part of my 27 things I want to do aged 27 I decided I wanted to take at least one photo every day. I have been keeping up so far and had a rather difficult task today of picking one photo to represent each day since my birthday. I am now all caught up. Not sure if I want to post all of them but I will post some every now and again. This one is the first one for the year taken on my birthday....

Anyway, will try and get on again soon with some more beautiful photos. We've had cracking weather today and if the kiwi summer continues like this I will be spending HEAPS of time outside so you might not hear from me very often!

Take Care x

Blogging on the road...

I am writing this post from a motel in Wellington. I am excited because my Mum is due to fly into Wellington just after midnight tonight! It's been over 9 months since I last saw her.

We are staying overnight in Wellington and then hit the InterIslander ferry tomorrow across to Picton. I have to go over to South Island for work and Mum is coming along for the ride! It's going to be great! I will have some company for all the long driving and Mum gets to see a lot of South Island for a fraction of the price it would normally cost!

It will be weird being away from home and Graeme on my birthday but I have booked Mum and me to do something pretty cool to try and make up for it. We are going to be in Oamaru so we are going to see the Blue Penguins which are gorgeous! I had my photo taken with one on my lap when we first arrived in New Zealand and it will be even better to see them in their natural habitat!

I am also keeping my fingers crossed that we see some seals in Kaikoura and some snow capped mountains as we drive around!

I will try and post as we travel round... so watch this space!

Of course - there was a certain someone who didn't look happy when I started packing my suitcase....

Have a good week!

Aussie

We went to the Gold Coast in Australia for a few days. The weather was lovely, we had lots of fun and it was really great to catch up with family (Thanks for letting us stay The Kelly's!). Here's a collage of some of our photos.




Lots of bright colours. We spent the day wandering around Brisbane, went to O'Reilly's Rainforest Retreat, took a walk along Surfers Paradise, visited my Auntie's new barbers salon and spent some time chilling by the pool. Very relaxing!


On the way to Wellington to catch the plane to Australia we also visited a wedding venue which we are in the process of booking a date with (more on that later!).

Ridiculously early has it's benefits

I had to be up at 6am this morning in order to drive to Porirua (near Wellington and about an hour and a half from home) for a payroll training course.
Getting up before the sun is out or any time before 8.30am generally makes me very grumpy indeed but I managed to get through the day.
Being the good student I am I whizzed through the course and finished before 4pm enabling me to stop once or twice on the drive home and be a tourist....

Here's Kapiti Island taken from the State Highway (I promise I pulled over into a lay-by to take this):

and here are the ranges (Tararua I think? Correct me if I'm wrong...the ones that go towards Wellington) looking all lovely and snow-capped:

Not bad for a days work!

Snapshot from the weekend

Phew - we are busy lately but hopefully things will take a little more of a relaxed pace soon.

Graeme was in Auckland last week, we were in New Plymouth at the weekend and I got back from a 2 day trip to Auckland tonight.

Here's a photo to tide you over until I can get on here for a longer post:

It's Mount Taranaki (a.k.a Mount Egmont) taken from New Plymouth...pretty awesome huh?

And in other completely unrelated news I bought the cutest pen ever today...not only is it pink but it is also covered in little doodle giraffes! (Select 'Giraffe' from design to see just how cute it is!)

Back soon (I hope!)

Nelson day trip

I had to travel down to Nelson this week for work. I hadn't been before but had heard that it was lovely so as well as lugging all my work stuff there I also took the camera.

I hadn't taken pictures from a plane before so decided this week was as good a week to start. Here's my first glimpse of Nelson. It was very green...

There is only 1 direct flight from Palmy to Nelson each day so I had quite a convuluted journey. I left Palmy at 7.10am and flew to Christchurch then had 20 minutes to get to the gate for my flight to Nelson. Coming home I had a 25 minute stop (and a long walk from one gate to the next!) at Wellington. The landing and take off at Wellington was pretty rocky (which it was the last time I landed there...I think it has something to do with all the wind they get there!)

You can see from this picture that the water was a little rough.

I also got some great views of the Manawatu going and coming back (Manawatu is the region where the city of Palmerston North is). In this photo you can see the Manawatu river winding it's way out to sea.

That's all I have for you right now! It's been a tough couple of weeks but we're working our way through it. Hope you are all safe and happy :-)