A belated Merry Christmas to everyone, great to of spoke to you all and we have missed you all dearly over this festive period.

So our time in Auckland so far has consisted of 2 weeks staying in a backpackers and working Christmas parties all over either waitressing or barwork, which has been great fun but odd to be back to the grindstone after such a long time off. We are both looking forward to starting some real serious work soon. (Karen sooner unfortunatly). We moved into a huge apartment in Onehunga about 12kms from the city centre which has come as part of Karen's work package as she has been the vet for a week back to butchering cats and dogs!!!! Also purchased a beast of a motor a subaru legacy automatic 4 wheel drive estate (typical farmers car).....

Santa still found us this 14,000 miles away from home. We headed to Hamilton on Christmas morning to stay with friends and family of Karen's from the Uk. We arrived at a beautiful mansion set in 8acres of land complete with gym, swimming pool, sauna, spa and jacuzzi we had a real 5 star Christmas and enjoyed turkey with all the trimmings however although warm it did rain for the majority of the day. We also spent boxing day there playing trivial pursuit before returning to Auckland for Karen to work on 27th.

The big day was Sunday 30th as Pops was due to arrive in Auckland after a mammoth 2days travelling via LA, however the journey went smoothly and may of even been enjoyed.. Terribly exciting to be reunited after 3months.. Dad seems to of brought the great sunshine with him as he arrived in 26 degree heat with not a cloud in the sky. We caught up over numerous cups of tea before catching a bus into the city to show him some sights of Auckland, also to keep him on his feet and stop the jetlag from setting in. Unfortunatly Karen now knows where I get my lack of responsible sun bathing activities as both Pringles were more than rosie by the end of the day, point to be noted 1st thing we do today is purchase pops a hat and plenty of aloe vera (this scottish skin really does not like the sun). Spending our first evening eating a non existant bbq (we couldnt get charcoal) and teaching Pops to play the world renound card game s***HEAD, however much he endeavoured to teach us Whist.

Today will be a lazy day trying to organise our next four weeks + seeing as much of this beautiful country as possible and fingers crossed we may even squeeze in a trip over to Fiji. We have an Italian restaurant booked for this evening down by the harbour at the viaduct, then we shall be toasting 2008 13hours ahead of you all, (Karen and I with champagne, dad no doubt with a "weee dram"), so happy new year to everyone and we will catch up in 2008.

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