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Welcome back... we're on the road again, so it's time for more blogs.
Edited highlights for those in a rush? A month in NZ, a brief drinking tour of Australia, an even briefer tour of Singapore and we're just about to skip Bangkok for Cambodia. A bit to catch up on then.
New Zealand would seem a sensible place to start. We landed in Chirstchurch just after 8am on Christmas Eve feeling refreshed & raring to go after a mere 14 hours in the air. I naturally looked near my best for meeting Claire's parents for the first time, but hey, you can always add a little extra polish, so I quickly disappeared to the shops in search of respectable clothing, respectable footwear and perhaps most importantly, a haircut. Claire went to the pub for a few hours. Anyone there can probably remember better than her what state she was in; not even the sugar in 3 litres of Coke could fend off the jet lag.
And so it was that we felt tip top for Christmas day itself. I was able to interact with the 14 others from the Matheson clan far better after my first three Monteiths and following the feast that Robyn & Stephen laid on, I reckoned I could get quite used to this warm Crimbo malarkey. A mere 26C in the shade if you were wondering - gather that was a bit different to back home.
After that we settled down to getting properly relaxed in the glorious luxury of home comforts after 4 months in some serious questionable levels of comfort, hygiene and well, style. I think the best complement we can offer Robyn & Stephen for their hospitality is that in the last week we've given very serious consideration to scrapping this traveling game and turning round; as much it may horrify many sitting at their desks, it really was that good to do well, plain, boring old ordinary stuff really. It was amazing.
Next up was of course New Year. You'll notice there aren't any photos of that up on the site... turns out drinking still isn't big and definitely not clever. That doesn't mean it's not fun mind. And whilst we'd love to share just how much fun we had slurred across our gurning faces, our mothers read this, so it ain't happening. Which isn't to seem ungrateful to our Kiwi social pimp, Sas. This was the first but hardly the last night we put in almost exactly no effort into organising a full-on alcoholic whirlwind of an evening, but every time we seemed to have the requisite ready-made friendship group chomping at the bit to make us enjoy ourselves (and drink) that little bit more. Awesome work.
And so onto the serious business of getting fat and lazy. I'm hoping the Matheson fridge has recovered from my daily assault on it, but I know I'm still sweating off the calories (hardly in a gym though, see forthcoming blogs) from overly pleasant afternoons spent in Waipara wineries and Sumner beach restaurants.
Which made David & Chloe's wedding all the more nerve-racking. Not a shared nervousness with them you understand, no, more a question of whether we'd fit into the suit & dress we'd respectively bought shortly after landing. Fortunately the Argentinean training we'd put in served us well and we made it to the church on time. Which was lucky because the whole day was brilliant. I say this with no basis for comparison whatsoever, although I have now finally broken my wedding duck, but it was ruddy great. Claire's photos of course tell you far more than I can, but suffice it to say we won't forget that anytime soon.
And suddenly our month was up, we tucked our lives back into a rucksack (although not before emptying out the woolies) and hit the road again. Which felt very very odd, but someone's got to do it, so we headed for Sydney.
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