It was lovely to get back to Wellington, it felt like we had come home! Before getting back to the comforts of Mahunga farm I had to overcome one teeny thing.....a pole dancing hen night with 20 women I had never met!!!!(apart from Katherine!!) this was an experience and a half...Im glad I went in the end, but it was pretty nervewracking!!

and now it's Craigs turn....

Staying with Anne and Andrew (my aunt and uncle), their farm quickly became like our second home. We were there for nearly 2 weeks in the end. The majority of time was spent doing all sorts of preparation for Sam and Katherine's wedding. This included painting, cleaning, cooking, tiling etc etc. There was so much going on and everyone that arrived was put straight to work, but by 2 days before the wedding the hard work miraculously came together and the house was a house again. It was some transformation and the setting for the wedding couldn't have looked any better. The autumn leaves were turning, the sun was shining and everything was perfect. The photos tell the story better than words can, but Sam and Katherine were very sweet with their intentions to each other, and the day went as planned with great food and plenty of alcohol drunk. The band were really good too, and Anne even got me dancing by manhandling me onto the dancefloor!

I'd managed to scrub up ok, even with trousers that cost NZ$2 from a 2nd hand clothes warehouse and a 2nd hand jacket that cost NZ$12. Sam had lent me a shirt too so I managed to spend just over GBP 5 on my whole wedding outfit. Beats my GBP 6 suit I wore to Anna's!!

We stayed for a few days after the wedding and recovered. It was so great to get to know my NZ side of the family much better ad it was really hard to leave in the end. I wish NZ was just a bit closer so we could visit more regularly. Zac will be coming over to the UK around the time we get back which will be good, and hopefully it won't be too long before we go back.

We managed to see a kiwi bird before we left by borrowing a car and zooming up to a conservation sanctuary at Mt. Bruce. We infact saw 2 and they were really close. One was chasing its tail round and round like a dog! Emma said she almost likes kiwi's more than penguins but not quite. New Zealand was really great and a good place to recover before heading to the heat and chaos of South East Asia, it did however destroy our finances!! It was worth it though....