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Hello
We hope this finds you well, not too cold and all getting ready for crimbo. I am now convinced that crimbo will just miss us entirely this year due to the (unseasonally!) warm weather and the fact we have to get all our 'overseas' cards in the post by Dec 1st - eek. Can you all email me back with your postal addresses please, as the Norwich phone book is now not in the cupbord under the stairs, however my mother is still in the country and does have the most amazing memory so i shall have to see if her information service is available before she leaves in 72 hours!
So talking of parents, me Mum and Dad had a road trip for 5 days last week. After we had celebrated Rich's 35th (yes 35th) birthday in style at Coast restaurant overlooking the bay and all paid a visit to Molly and Tish in their jungle gym, we headed off towards Lakes Tekapo and Pukaki. We made a run for Queenstown on this first day which made it a bit long but worth getting there. All the lakes especially Pukaki were looking as blue as i'd ever seen them, even in pics. Dad's camera was overworked and he even made videos. (An event that surprised us cos when Dad gets new cameras, he usually struggles to work it fully for the first decade and usually spends hours in his armchair peering at the manual with his glasses on the end of his nose). Day 1 evening was spent commencing the yahtzee tournament which mum took a 1-0-0 lead in.
Day 2 morning was spent with Dad complaining about Mum's snoring and Mum complaining about the amount of times Dad elbowed her to stop her snoring. So me being the ever helpful hostel-er took them off to a pharmacy to buy earplugs. I had slept like a baby (somehow!) even though i was in the same room. The rest of the day was spent up the Skyine (cable car) at the top of the mountain overlooking the town. We had a perfectly clear day so again many snaps were taken and we were able to watch the paragliders, helicopters and a golf buggy spinning around the golf course opposite. We drove onto Te Anau at the end of day 2 and stayed there overnight. Yahtzee - Dad. Day 2 nighttime was a slightly different affair to night 1 as the earplugs worked so well for Dad that he stopped waking Mum up when she snored and, unfortunately for me, she snored her head off. I had cut my own nose off!!! Shaking and shouting didnt work and i nearly resorted to sleeping in the car.
By day 4, we had separate rooms!!!!
Day 3 we made a run for Milford Sound at about 7.30am before all the buses started out - a very good idea (Sundstrom travel recommendation from 2006!) We drove straight through and hopped onto a boat trip round the sound which was fab. Our boat was quite small so we got right under the waterfalls and all got soaked which was good fun. After lunch we spent the rest of the afternoon travelling back to Te Anau via all the lovely sights on the road which make the journey just a spectacular as the destination. An exhausted three struggled to eat pizza and mum again won the yahtzee. I began to wonder where my Willett yahtzee training had gone! Think she must be on performance enhancing drugs!
Day 4 was a run over Crown Range to Wanaka - and a ride passed the airfield where Rich did his skydive 2 years ago and where i shall be doing mine in due course....
Yahtzee - me hooray!!
Day 5 was the run back to Timaru via Omarama and Waimate where there were some more lovely lakes. Mum and Dad loved the area but i think we were all exhausted by the time we got back! However Mum found enough energy to make cheesy jacket potatoes and apple crumble for tea - yum.
So other things, the house in Norwich still remains unsold and no offers. Which will make the next few months quite tricky, but according to our agent the market is having its xmas slump already. Please keep ears to the ground for anyone looking for a north city terrace.......any offers, NCFC players/managers not accepted.
Our house here will be ours in just under 4 weeks. We took Mum and Dad round to have a hoot on Rich's birthday and they loved it. They've picked their room already and chosen where their sunloungers are going to go. They both made the walk down to the golf course at the bottom which i think they regretted as its quite steep coming back up! We're now in the process of ordering electrical stuff, sorting out insurances, mortgages, bank accounts etcetc which seems to be coming together. And talking of official stuff, we received our passports back on 13th with our residents visas in, very exciting!! That's it now, we're in!!!
Rich now has a full time permament job (hurrah!) at a company called South Pacific Laminates (they make laminates for chairs) where he's working in their workshop/press room. The whole place closes at 11am on Friday so he has the rest of the day off which i am most envious about. He has eyes for the golfcourse, i have eyes for the hoover!!!
We went up to the big smoke a few weeks ago to see Crowded House which took us back a few years!! Memories of my student house in Bournmouth Uni flooded back - remember Ruth? (Thanks for the card). They were excellent, we were really glad we're gone. That weekend we had the Saturday night in Akaroa which was a French settlement just to the south east of chch itself. It takes forever to get to as it was formed in the crater of a volcano years ago and the main and most picturesque access road from chch is over a summit road and via all the bays which is gorgeous, slow and hair-raising. Akaroa is well worth a visit and a stay but i should imagine it changes in the summer months when the traffic increases.
The weather here is now starting to pick up and the evenings are lovely and long - 8.30ish before it is really getting dark. Yesterday was the hottest day so far for us and it must have been up in the middle 20s. The idea of xmas and 2 weeks off and summer and our container and a new house and the cats coming together at the same time is very very exciting now.
Rich did a bit of waterskiiing the other week when i was away with M&D. Evan one of my colleagues has a boat and took him out for a go on one of the local lakes. He found it pretty hard going but got up on his feet for a few seconds. I'll try and put some photos up - aswell as some of the girls and my trip with M&D.
Well i'll call it a day for now. Hope you're all keeping well and enjoying the new NCFC management...............
Lots of love Deb and Rich xx
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