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Good evening all,
We have safely arrived in Wellington and are currently sitting in aunties beautiful living room with her multicoloured cushions watching the formula one qualifying - Chris can't help himself :)
We woke up late as usual and made a run for it out of the holiday park before they charged us and had a wonder around Picton. It's simply one street with shops and cafes and is mainly there for the ferries to travel between the north and south island. Our ferry ride was due at 1.05pm and Chris and I were arguing over who was going to drive onto the ferry and who would drive off - childish I know! Anyway I won and drove onto the ferry, we were the fourth vehicle to go on and the first to go off on the other side :) the ferry was great with a cinema, bar, lounge etc we spent most of our time on the observation deck watching the south island slip into the distance and north island on the horizon. The captain made regular announcements of whale or dolphin sightings and we saw a pod of dolphins, well over 50 of them! We had a bite to eat and enquired at the tourist information about where the hot springs are, this led to a half hour chat with this man who insisted on creating an itinerary for us. He was really helpful giving us drive time estimates between locations and what's best to see in NZ, but we will see what happens as we're not under too much pressure.
We arrived in Wellington which looked delightful; it was only a ten minute drive to aunties. But when you park over here your vehicle has to be facing in a certain direction depending on which side you park, we still haven't learnt this lesson. The front door to aunties is not directly on the street, instead you walk up a few steps and along a path which takes you to a gate that opens onto their front garden. Once I figured out how to open the gate I saw auntie cleaning in the kitchen, I wave and we both run for the door. We got greeted not only by auntie but a cute Jack Russell called Minnie :) it was so exciting to finally see auntie and Steve in their gorgeous home. We had a good chat over a cup of tea and then we both had a shower which was marvellous! We then had a vegetarian meal as auntie didn't know that we now meat eaters, or as dad would call us traitors haha which I think she was relieved about as she didn't know that many vege meals :)
After dinner we went to see the Hurricanes (Wellington) vs. Crusaders (Canterbury) play rugby; from having watched the crusaders before we felt an alliance with them but that had to be hid from Steve who is a devoted hurricanes fan! On the drive to the stadium which was rushed due to us having dinner, Steve was desperately trying to come up with a strategy to get into the stadium on time. So he said he would drop us off so we could go and queue for tickets whereas he would go and park the car, auntie disagreed and insisted we all stay together as we won't be able to find each other. This dispute when back and forth whilst Chris and I giggled in the back thinking ...hmmm who does this remind us of? So it was a good plan for us to go and queue as there was a far bigger turn out that than people expected. As soon as we sat in our seats the horn was blown, it didn't take long and the Crusaders were winning 25-0 Chris and I had to hold our smiles on the inside. All the action was happening at the other end of the pitch to where we were sitting but we felt happy knowing that in the second half all the action would then be at our end. In fact in the second half the Hurricanes started to fight back so again we didn't get to see action! The end score was Crusaders 42 - 14 Hurricanes YAY I mean, oh shame (if Steve is reading this). Steve was most displeased with this and normally in this sort of sport sadness situation which I have been through numerous times with Chris watching Man United lose 6-0 to Man City I make him a cheese sandwich, but no amount of cheese sandwiches could cure Steves sadness.
When we got back to the house we had some scrummy homemade peach pie and we showed them some of our photos. We talked over another soothing cup of tea and watched the qualifying. Everyone's off to bed and I'm not far behind. It's delightful here, we feel so welcomed and it's nice to actually be in a home rather than a dirty campervan or a dusty youth hostel or well, India! they have a patio which overlooks Wellington harbour, so romantic. And mum, aunties home is just how you would picture it, perfectly colour coordinated with amazing pieces of artwork scattered around. We're hopefully going to the market tomorrow and potter around Wellington.
Wishing everyone a relaxing weekend.
Love to all, Love Jess and Chris xxx
- comments
Gill Yes you are traitors to turn carnivore!