Dear all,

Spring is here – hurrah! The sun is out (most of the time!) and its getting noticeably warmer. I see long days at the beach looming…..

In the meantime, we’ve had a busy few weeks. The conservation stuff is starting to come together for me – should hopefully be doing a couple of days a week at a nearby wildlife sanctuary which is trying to recreate the NZ environment as it was before the predators were brought in. I’m really looking forward to getting started with that.

Nothing else yet in the line of paid work for me – obviously the 2 weeks I did at the cinema need some getting over. Particularly as my last day involved going out until 4am. Yes, that’s 4.00 in the MORNING. Didn’t know I still had it in me. Took me the rest of the weekend to recover. Which I could do without interruption as Alan was away on an outward bound weekend with work. The powers that be tried to get me a place to go aswell so I wouldn’t be left on my own – a very kind thought so I didn’t like to mention how bad I am at lighting fires, orienteering blindfolded and making rafts out of egg boxes. True to my suspicions there was apparently much crawling through mud filled ditches so I was especially pleased that I hadn’t been able to go.

Thanks to the good weather I’ve been able to get out a lot on my bike and get to see lots of the coast

Although I am doing my best to create the impression that I am a finely honed athlete I keep getting overtaken…by other bikes. The day that I get passed by a toddler on a Barbie bike I’m heading for home and not coming out again.

Alan is doing a far better job of projecting the athletic image. He’s started going rowing 3 mornings a week with work which culminates in a race on Wellington harbour in September. He's being very dedicated and getting up at 6am to row before work. I stay in bed, obviously!

Last weekend we stayed in Wellington and went mountain biking near the Kaitoke national park. There’s a walking/biking track which follows the route of an old railway line which was put in for the first settlers. After our last exploits on the bikes we took the gentlest route to the summit!

Alan enjoyed the water…..

…and the views were once again, brilliant.

It was so warm that I even ventured into shorts.

Lycra has a lot to answer for.

This weekend we flew up to Auckland to see Guy and Marny. Had a fantastic weekend – we were fed fine food and plenty of booze. Need I say more? Oh, and the company was pretty good too! In addition we took the ferry over to Devenport…

…and saw why they call Auckland the city of sails.

While I remember, I thought I should provide some proof that Alan and I are actually on this trip together (the photos don’t really seem to reflect that!) so here’s one from the ball a few weeks ago…

And as Hugh posted such lovely comments about the photo of me wearing my red hat I thought I’d start a caption competition. (Although “ competition” suggests some sort of prize. Which there isn’t). All captions on photo below welcome!

All our love
Christie and Alan