Dear all,

Well this update really is shamefully overdue and I have received several emails demanding news (yes, Finners – that means you!). So what’s a girl to do? I can only do what my public wants…. (oh, and I think people might want to hear about Alan aswell…!).

First of all though (and apologies to those of you to whom this will mean absolutely nothing)…….

CONGRATULATIONS JAN AND MARK!

…who got married on 24 September. We hear it was a beautiful day. I have seen photos of the bride so can definitely agree with everyone that she looked stunning. Interestingly I have yet to see a single picture of the groom but am assured that yes, he was definitely there and yes, he looked v handsome! We hear that the day was marred only by the absence of someone to sing “happy birthday” to family, friends and random members of the catering staff. (Anyone who has ever been to a wedding with Alan there will know precisely what I’m talking about)

Lastly a big thanks to Clarey B who did a marvellous Anneka Rice impression (without the jumpsuit sadly) by running round the castle to find the bride for me to speak to. And thanks to all of you who let us know we were missed. We raised a glass to you all at the appropriate hour!

Onto Wellington news.

We had our first visitors in the form of Nicky and Ben looking sickeningly healthy fresh from Fiji. Happily they brought the weather with them and we whisked them off post haste to our favourite Island Bay hostelry overlooking the sea

The next day we went to Cape Palliser, which is the southern-most tip of the North Island. Along the way we stopped off at the Putangirua Pinnacles which is a valley of rock formations and a lord of the rings location (how excited was I?! Especially as its one which is actually recognisable for once!)

Cape Palliser itself was beautiful – with sweeping views around the coast.

The next weekend saw Alan and I leave Nicky and Ben to their own devices while we had our first trip down to the South Island. This coincided with a cold snap the like of which apparently hadn’t been seen since “the big snow of ‘92”. Excellent! Now I have to warn you that the pics of the trip aren’t brilliant quality – someone (mentioning no names but I’ll give you a clue – it wasn’t Alan) had left the memory card for the camera at home. Oops. So the photos were taken on the video camera and hence a bit blurred.

We flew into Christchurch and headed straight off to Queenstown. Fairly mammoth travelling day but worth it – the drive itself was spectacular, nobody on the roads and miles of incredible views of lakes and mountains. We particularly enjoyed seeing Lake Pukaki again. When we were there on honeymoon it had been a really cloudy day and the lake had been almost milky in colour but this time it was a brilliant turquoise. Sadly the photo doesn’t do it justice.

On arrival in Queenstown we checked into our youth hostel. Yes, you did read that correctly. A youth hostel. The children on reception (well, they looked like kids to me) managed not to laugh when we arrived. But only just. I don’t quite know what’s happened to me over the years – I never wanted to stay in a youth hostel when I WAS a youth (as Helen will no doubt recall!) so why I’m willing to now is a bit of a mystery. We’re clearly regressing. But it was all very clean and nice and more the point, an absolute bargain!

For our first evening my little plan had been to have fish and chips by the lake. Did it matter that it was absolutely freezing? Did it heck. We were down by that lake dressed in coats, hats, gloves, thermals etc!

Saturday saw us hitting the mountains again – this time the Remarkables. Thankfully there was no skiing involved but we did decide to go “tubing” (aka: throwing yourself down a slope in a rubber ring. Not quite as “extreme” as it sounds. They let 5 year olds do it!). Once again, I was given yet more proof that our trip is designed to put me in as many humiliating scenarios as possible…

But hey! At least I didn’t look like this…..

Bless.

We were hoping to go to the top of the mountain on the ski lifts but unfortunately the weather wasn’t good enough so we didn’t quite get the views we had been hoping for. However, the ones we did get were pretty good!

On the route down I managed to humiliate myself AGAIN (twice in 1 day – doing well even for me) by falling over in a spectacular spread-eagle-on-the-ground manoeuvre. Alan did re-enact it for you but the photo is on the non-digital camera so I’ll have to get it scanned in!

In the evening, we’d been hoping to go to the fantastic restaurant we’d been to on our honeymoon but when we got into the centre of Queenstown we realised the lovely Victorian cottage it was housed in had been pulled down! The swines! It still exists but on the top floor of some soulless shopping centre. Not the same at all.

On Sunday we drove to the Mount Cook National Park – once again staying in a youth hostel. Think we’ve got the hang of this! Mount Cook village is really small and sits in the valley surrounded by mountains with a view down to Lake Pukaki. Really beautiful. Our video photos aren’t that brilliant (as mentioned before) especially as the day was pretty cloudy and didn’t lift until we got to the end of our lengthy afternoon walk.

We walked to the lake at the face of the glaciers and Alan dipped his toes in – with big chunks of icebergs floating past! Rather him than me it has to be said!

On Monday morning we got a bit of a surprise when we woke up to a deep coating of snow – the scenery we’d seen the day before looked totally different with a coating of white. Thankfully the roads were ok and we made it back to Christchurch to get our flight.

Shortly after our return our next guest, Susan arrived. Obviously her visit was ALL about the culture…

But we did manage to drag ourselves away from in depth discussions of the arts and literature to get out and about – we went walking along the coast…

…and some very civilised wine tasting in Martinborough….

…followed by a bird watching trip to Kapiti Island. That's to say nothing of being dragged around Wellington in a bid to get our campervan fixed!

Despite that we hope Susan enjoyed her trip as much as we enjoyed having her to stay.

We have also started to have a little bit of barbeque weather – which is great for a number of reasons. Not least as an excuse for me to relinquish cooking responsibilities. I have set the work of feminists back some years by saying things like “oooh, barbequing is your job” etc….

The barbeque weather has also enabled a bit of beach time down at Island Bay - albeit shortly after this photo Alan had to be treated for frostbite. (Ok, a slight exaggeration but I won't pretend the water is anything other than mighty chilly!)

I also managed to snatch a day out with Wellington friend Claire before she headed off on her travels (which is frankly nothing less than selfish!)

Since then we’ve had a weekend away up the East coast at a marine reserve called Te Angiangi. I think we would have seen a little bit more had it been snorkelling weather but there was plenty of poking about in rock pools to be done (without disturbing anything of course).

Sorry if the end of this post is becoming a bit disjointed but I’m determined to get this finished tonight and am having a few problems staying awake – I met Alan on his way home from work for a bike ride round the coast. 20 miles later we were absolutely shattered!

Right that's your lot folks - as some of you may know, I'm heading back to the UK earlier than anticipated so hopefully I'll see you soon.

Christie and Alan
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