So we eventually got ourselves settled down to work and life in New Zealand. At the end of November our shipment arrived and while I was at work James did an excellent job of hiring a van and picking the lot up along with a sofa, tv table and bed which we have on long term loan from Jean and John Brandon. I arrived home at 5pm to find the place already starting to look like home (apparently a job James parents trained him well for with all the moves during childhood!) We settled down properly to full time work in the 1st week of December and started getting paid (well need
ed after a rather huge loan from the bank of Sallie, which is still yet to be paid back!)11th December - Mum & Dad arrived!
And what a beautiful day for them to arrive too! Unfortunately I couldn't be there to pick them up from the airport, so Sal and James did the honors, took them back to our place to get showered and rested then took them down to a cafe in Mt Eden village, I then joined them from work, a very weird but lovely experience walking down into the village of my new home to see Mum & Dad sat outside a cafe enjoying a cold drink!
That week unfortunately James and I had to go back to the daily grind leaving Mum & Dad to explore the wonders of Auckland, they enjoyed an action packed week of wine touring on Waiheke Island, walking on Rangitoto, Christmas shopping around Auckland city and the spectacular views of the city from
Devonport (not that I was jealous at all, while I had to go to work...)The following weekend we headed out to the beauty of the Coromandel (a particularly favourite spot of Sal & Si's)
We hired a bach on a beautiful spot of Cooks beach on the east coast of the Coromandel enjoying plenty of beers, BBQ and volley ball on the beach, (Dad managed to take a lovely shot of himself with a Christmas hat on with the back drop of cooks beach to send to work colleagues to explain why he couldn't make the Shell Christmas party). Since the occasion warranted it we also allowed Sal, Si and James to open some Christmas presents early (snorkel kits for Sal and James and Volleyball net for Si)
Spent Saturday on Cathedral cove beach (a beautiful beach with the classic tunnel in the rocks - famous in New Zealand) , jumping off rocks, playing with the bat and ball and ru
gby ball (when Si wrecked his foot - took a nice chunk out of his toe), did the snorkel trail at Gemstone beach (marine reserve with buoys set up with fish and marine information on them as you swim along) and then went back to the bach opened a few beers and set up the volleyball court on the beach. (Si, Mum and Sal Vs James, me and Dad) - not surprisingly I wasn't very good & James being James decided that maybe I wasn't good enough for his team because we were losing - and you know that losing ISNT AN OPTION!I did however manage to get over our loss and enjoyed a lovely BBQ and plenty more beers that evening.
Sunday, while cleaning the bach ready to
leave we got a phone call from Si Malps to tell us that he and Claire were now engaged- very exciting! He self designed her a beautiful Sapphire and diamond ring and we are now getting very excited about the prospect of attending another wedding (plus I have someone else to talk excitedly to about weddings) I must say soon after that announcement Si (Bara) started getting palpitations and became wheez
y (can't think why)After cleaning the bach we headed to the other end of cooks beach and swam out to a little cave that you can climb up the walls of the cave and jump in - also pretty good snorkeling - although an unsuccessful trip as Si lost his snorkel and James broke his fins (luckily Sal and Si managed to blag to the shop that they must have been faulty & got a free replacement!)
Sunday afternoon we went to hot water beach where we hired spades and dug ourselves holes in the beach so we could sit in hot springs, a very weird and competitive experience, trying to find the best spot!
Mum & Dad then headed down to Hamilton with Sal and Si for the week before Christmas while James and I went back to work for a week.
No comments:
Post a Comment