Ahhhhh (or, more likely, “eeewwwwww”). Fear not – within about 5 minutes we were back to the “have you left that kitchen light on again”/”its your turn to make a drink” routine. Ain’t love grand??!

Anyway, I hope you all had a fantastic Christmas and New Year – we certainly did (details to follow!). Before I start, I do appreciate I will not be the most popular girl in the class when I start telling you about sunshine and beaches but I hear that the temporary blog-writer is thinking about making a comeback (by allegedly “popular” demand. Ha!) so I thought I’d better pull my finger out and get the page updated. After all, I won’t be the only one attempting to drown myself in a cup of tea if I have to read any more lengthy descriptions of cricket scores…. (just kidding petal).

Although it seems like a really long time ago, it was great to see you all back in the UK – despite the circumstances. Even though I was back for nearly 2 months there were still people I didn’t get to see/see as much as I would have liked so I’m really looking forward to catching up with you properly in August.

My arrival back in Wellington coincided with the New Zealand premier of King Kong at the Embassy cinema (where I used to work). As I’d been really looking forward to it (and in an attempt to stave off the jetlag), we headed downtown to see what was going on. Alan had biked past the venue earlier in the day and seen it being set up…

…but it was a bit different by the time we got there.

It was a great atmosphere with people hanging out of windows etc but there was still plenty of room to mill about without getting squidged. Saw 1 or 2 famous faces (the last one being the most famous of all of course)...

…but sadly was not invited inside for the premier. Invite must be lost in the post.

The next 10 days fair flew by before Christmas Eve arrived and we found ourselves on a plane – again (really very bored of this flying lark). However, we had a very big incentive in the form of Christmas with the Storey/Richards family. As Hugh and Merrilee well know, we are the masters of turning up at family functions, eating all the food, drinking all the wine and leaving the entire family wondering who the hell invited these people. This time Kim and Tim’s family had the pleasure of our company! They all made us feel very welcome (while no doubt planning security for next year’s festivities) and also very Christmassy. I really didn’t think I was going to feel like it was Christmas given the baking heat and scorching sunshine but Christmas carols, roasting turkey and sufficient Christmas decorations to sink a battleship really do the job. As does being with family – even if we have hijacked someone else’s.

But most importantly, we also got to meet baby Emma who is truly gorgeous

…and it’s safe to say that the Eatons were truly smitten!

We also got to do our “Christmas Day on the beach “ manoeuvre – not quite the whole day but we went for a lovely walk in the morning. Kim and Tim had rented a house in Point Lonsdale, which is about an hour away from Melbourne along the most glorious stretch of coastline. The beach is golden, soft sand and just beautiful. We had it practically to ourselves.

Then it was back to the house for food, drink and Christmas Day Storey/Richards style….

The rest of the week was spent in a whirl of….well, relaxing actually. The weather just got hotter and hotter so we celebrated our anniversary on the beach

(but not, thankfully, in matching wetsuits)

(Tim and Alan head off for a swim - but not walking together. That would ruin the manly image - grrr)

…and then, given my English rose (aka – pasty) complexion, in various cafes offering shade. And beer. Well we were on holiday.

In the end it got a little too hot (cue lots of flopping round the house feeling lethargic) so we headed back to the city a day early to stay in Kim and Tim’s lovely apartment. This was a bonus for us, as we hadn’t seen their place before (plus they had air conditioning!) so we spent a lovely evening walking through the botanical gardens with a beautiful sunset as a backdrop

and down to St Kilda beach followed by a meal of delicious Thai food on their deck…

(Nice beard Alan)

We left early the next morning to prepare for Sam and Jo’s arrival the following day (needed to make sure the accommodation passed muster or we’d never live it down!). They arrived on New Year’s Eve and coped remarkably well with the jetlag. We spent the evening down on the beach with a bottle of champers in hand .

We didn’t quite make it to midnight (jetlag well and truly kicked in) but we had a great evening.

Jetlag was also a great excuse (not that we needed one) to spend New Year’s Day on the beach and swimming in the sea (Sam was the only one who didn’t venture in. Girl).

We’d been looking forward to getting out and showing Sam and Jo the sights of Wellington that evening. Unfortunately Wellington seemed to be shut! They do take Bank Holidays very seriously over here! Managed to find a couple of places open that would serve us food and drink so we made the most of it.

Having left us to do a tour of the South Island they came back for another couple of days, once again bringing some lovely weather with them. By this time Alan was back at work so, in addition to the cable car and Botanical Gardens (think the staff may be starting to recognise me by now), I took them for the obligatory tour to Martinborough for some wine tasting. This involved taking Max the Venga Bus over the Rimutakas – a winding mountain road that has a couple of posts and some wire to stop you plummeting over the edge. Sam coped with being on the drop side very well. Ok, I thought the crying was a step too far but apart from that he did quite well.

No wonder he necked the alcohol when he got there….

(“Mmmmmm……it’s a soft blend of summer breezes and fruity tones”. Or should that be “is this not Blue Nun?”)

They left last week and we were very sorry to see them go – but they did leave us with the entire first series of Lost on DVD which has softened the blow!

2 days later Guy and Marny arrived for a weekend visit and despite all our best intentions to go and play golf we decided to go to (guess where)….Martinborough! (Am thinking for applying for some sort of loyalty card).

This time Alan drove and the drive between vineyards became increasingly noisy until the drive home, which was suspiciously quiet (zzzzzzzz).

This was unsurprising given the number of vineyards visited.

But despite all that, Guy was the life and soul of the party when we got home....

We’re looking forward to seeing them again in March for our long weekend in the Bay of Islands.

That just about brings us up to date. We’re getting some great weather at the moment – yesterday was absolutely glorious. Had a fantastic walk around the boundary to Karori bird sanctuary (in my role as fence monitor! Checking its still there!) and met Alan down at the beach on his way home from work for a little post-work swim.

It’s a tough life out here in New Zealand! We're off on holiday for 2 weeks (again?!) to the South Island on Saturday so they'll be even more pics when we get back!

Love to you all
Christie and Alan
xxx