Autumn months

It was sad to see the visitors go because not only does it mean a long time before we see family and friends again but also that summer was on the way out. We did however have a record summer and this lasted until mid april, approx 3 1/2 months of glorious weather so we couldn't really complain. We spent the majority of April catching up with friends in and around Auckland. We did manage to sneak a quick trip down to Taumarunui to stay with the Williams. Sarah had persuaded Neil to enter an off road run in May so she decided a bit of training was in order on the saturday morning. So much for relaxing weekends..he was however repaid with a night in their ski chalet and a few red wines. We did a walk around Mt Ruapheau on the sunday and started planning our next trip which would hopefully include some skiing as there was a dusting of snow on the mountain. Very exciting!

Neil had two more trips to Queenstown in May, for work apparently! Some work colleagues decided it was imperative they check up on the work Arrow was doing on the base station at Coronet Peak. It did take them 12 hours to get there the first time because of the weather so that made me feel much better. Obviously they had to fuel up on some fine wine and food when they did get there. The second trip was much less glamorous and was spent staying on a sheep station up the mountain with the average temperature -1 degrees. It involved a lot of walking, mainly to keep warm and the odd nip of whiskey, so I'm told. Hope everybody is well. Will try and keep on track with the blog from now on.
Cheers, Lucy & Neil x
Oh and Neil did complete his run, so am very proud!

Some more summer photos

Ahh summer days..

My parents were the next visitors to arrive and I was lucky enough to take them on a tour of the northern tip of the South Island for a week. We arrived in Christchurch on a very chilly saturday pm and after a quick tram ride we headed up north to Kaikora and the sunshine. We did the expected whale watch trip at 6.45am, quite an early start on your hols and quite eery but well worth it for the hundreds of dolphins all showing off in front of each other. The whales were q bit predictable unfortunately. We then headed even further up north to Blenheim, in the Malborough wine region and spent a very pleasant afternoon on a wine tour, obviously! We then carried on to the west coast via a quick stop in Nelson. The west coast was as awesome and as wild as we had expected. We took advantage of the clear skies and did a plane ride over mt cook, Franz Josef Glacier and Fox Glacier. I'm not sure who was more nervous, me or mum!
We had a few days back in Auckland before our last evening together up the sky tower.
A quick turn around (4 days!) and then Neil's parents arrived. Luckily they were here for a bit longer so we were able to slow the pace a bit. They spent a lot of time looking after themselves and pottering around Auckland whilst we went to work. We did have a few day trips up to Goat Island, the Botanic gardens and they did a boat ride over to Coromandel. We also had a fantastic 4 day trip to Queenstown in the South Island with them where we met up with Paul and Carmel, Neil's cousins. We packed a lot in and this included a day trip to Wanaka via the Crown Range and also over to Glenorchy. Lastly we had a very relaxing weekend on Waiheke Island with yet some more wine tasting!

Starting 2008 with a bang..

Apologies to those who have actually checked our blog. I'm obviously a girl who does things on impulse and after trying in vain to upload some photos with no success, I gave up! I hadn't told any of my friends or family about our blog because I was going to give it up and feed my facebook addiction, however it seems Neil did tell everyone so I am somewhat committed!

The story therefore continues and I shall do a quick reckie of 2008 to date.

We saw the New Year in with Dem and Helen on Sydney's harbour side and put in a mammoth 10 hour sun drenched wine filled afternoon. The fireworks were fortunately worth it and we did actually managed to stay awake and sober enough to appreciate them, just! We had a great week in Aussie and as well as catching up with the girls, we spent time staying with Lou & John and Viv & Ken. Great to get out of town to the Blue mountains and up to Newcastle as well. As a Sydney virgin it was definitely well worth the hype it gets and really glad we got to pay a visit.

On our return to New Zealand we met up again with Dem and Helen who were continuing their travels and there was no rest for the wicked. We finally plucked up the courage to utilise my sky diving birthday present from Matt et al. They seemed to think jumping out of a plane would be a good way to symbolise my 30th birthday, brothers! It only took me six months to do it but am now very glad to say we actually got down in one piece and we also quite enjoyed it! It was a long day, as we met Helen and Dem at 11 am but didn't actually manage to jump until 5 pm because of the weather but it was eventually well worth it. We spent the night camping in Rotorua, enjoying a few beers.

Us girls then also completed NZ's finest one day walk, the Tongariro crossing, in a very respectable 6 hours. We were rewarded with a night in Sarah & Gareth's luxury ski chalet in Ohakune and a dunk in the spa and obviously a few more beers! After spending the weekend with Dem & Helen in Auckland it was sad to see them go back to the motherland but it meant that more visitors would soon be on their way....

NZ - Part 2!

Hi all,

As some of us were only meant to visiting New Zealand for a short time (mentioning no names!) I didn't bother setting up this blog when Sarah suggested it to me. However, now it looks like I might be staying a bit longer I thought I would so I could tell you all what we've been up to without having to worry about keeping up with all the emails, which can be tricky.

So here I go!

Most of you know we have moved into a new place and I will attempt to attach some photos so you can have a look at where we are now living. This took up the first month or so after we came back from our trip home. We're all settled now and just have a few bits of furniture to still get but we're trying to pace ourselves and spend the money elsewhere. I decided it was about time for some more trips, the whole point of being on this side of the world after all!

That leads me nicely to our weekend on Waiheke. My dad's 60th birthday weekend and for those who know me well, know I hate missing out on a party so I thought Neil and I should have our own party for dad. We took our car over and had a great weekend exploring the island. Neil got to see the embattlements from WWII, which were actually quite interesting. We then had a great picnic lunch on man-o-war bay and ended up wine tasting at passage rock vineyard. Not bad for starters. A few more delicious meals, great walks and a bit more wine tasting meant we had a great time and it really felt like we had got away from the city even though we had only gone 40 mins on the ferry.

We're now in the festive mode, which I'm sure you are all too. This obviously means fancy dress parties (they have a thing about them over here) So last weekend was a classy James Bond Cas party full of drunken ED nurses followed by chilly eating builders at Neil's mexican themed work party. All good fun although I was glad to have a detox come monday.

Hope you all have a great christmas and best wishes for 2008. Be sure to stay in touch.

Love Lucy & Neil xx