It was lovely to have Christmas Eve visitors today. A last minute change of plan saw Harry Hoggarth and Megan arrive yesterday afternoon for their last 24hrs of their stay in NZ.
Breakfast in the garden followed by a walk in to town for lunch, then a dash to Auckland airport.
Lovely to see Gus and Harry still friends after all these years.
What did I do today? Shopping, cleaning, wrapping presents, and found time for a coffee too. Nice to bump into friends while we were there and catch up. And Marzipan Snowfig got up to trouble too.
It’s been a long day! Ulearn has been full on but fun and great to catch up with friends and especially #efellows.
Monday. Workday. Busy day. Travelling day. Morning in Hamilton. Evening in Christchurch. Good to catch up with friends – Kevin (and Ollie and Vera the dogs). Thanks for the company and a new beer venue in Christchurch. Smash Palace -another quirky and wonderful place.
The Tussock Traverse goes from Tukino, on the Desert Road side of Ruapehu, across the most spectacular landscape, to Whakapapa. Fantastic conditions, amazing organisation and the friendliest marshals you could ask for. And a running/walking buddy who was great company. Two ‘broken’ runners, we walked and ran the 26km together and finished together. Difficult to pick the best photo of the day…. so here’s one at the start and one somewhere on the way!
A quiet Sunday; lazy morning, session at the hydrotherapy pool to appease my need for exercise while not upsetting my injury too much, and tea in the pub with friends and family .
Things I am grateful for. ..
1st birthday party at Craft Bar in Hamilton which has become our local. We enjoyed an ‘extended afternoon’ with friends sampling the brews! Great birthday cake!
I was quite nervous doing my first keynote presentation for the CLA in Napier; fortunately I could use the cold as an excuse for my legs shaking!
It was good to get up high after a day inside working and make the most of the last hour or so of sunlight. The Bluff Hill Lookout enclosures are built on the remnants of two World War II gun emplacements and there is a stunning view all around. Looking down at the container port made me think of our own container that we brought out 8 years ago – all our world in a metal box shipped across the oceans. At the end of the day, it’s just stuff – our world is our family and friends on both sides of the globe. But stuff also triggers memories. I wonder as I get older how I will hold all those memories in my head – what is the “stuff” I would choose to keep to rekindle deeply hidden memories? I think it would be my photos.
So I went for a walk around the bays today. Well a bit of the way round and then over the top. To meet a friend and it turned out to be two friends! We had a lovely evening catching up and nearly, very nearly getting caught up in the pub quiz! After the first rainy day in months, Wellington turned on a pretty spectacular sunset.
