Christmas Week
Unsurprisingly, it has been a busy week. Nicky and Claire were both working on Monday and Tuesday, so it fell to me to be Izzy's (Claire's school friend visiting from the UK) tour guide. On Monday we went west to Bethalls. It is the first time I have been to one of the "black beaches" in the summer, and the sand was as hot as I expected. I had not expected the tide to be in and wadding through the stream to get us over to O'Neills got us both a little wet! However, we largely dried out while eating our picnic lunch. On our way back we stopped at the Fairy Falls, a gentle series of waterfalls. The walk to the bottom of the falls takes about 35 mins and goes down 61 sets of stairs. Coming back up takes a little longer. Then we called into the Arataki visitor centre to admire the view, before collecting Claire from work.
On Tuesday morning I had to go and do a little Mac work, but once I returned Izzy and I set out on the souvenir trail so she could buy gifts to take back to the UK. This and packing took up the rest of the afternoon. We had planned to meet Nicky at the Bricklane Bar in New Lynn for a meal and quiz, but we discovered they no longer have Tuesday quiz nights. So, even though we were a little disappointed, we took advantage of their "2 for Tuesday" offer, where you get a free dessert (normal price $14) with each main course. The food was excellent, especially the desserts.
I spent Wednesday morning doing a major food shop, both for our guests coming in the evening and other bits required for Christmas. We were due to be 9 for diner (us 3, Sarah the vicar and her boyfriend Murray, Sarah's mum, 2 friends of Sarah's from England who were just coming to the end of the stay in NZ, and Ryan who I worked with at Ubertec). However, due to weather in the UK, Sarah's mum was delayed and her friends went back early so we were only 6. I had shopped for both BBQ and veg lasagne as we didn't know how the weather was going to turn out. In the end I put the BBQ stuff in the freezer and made the lasagne.
In the afternoon after Claire had returned from taking Izzy to the airport for her flight back to the UK and made wonderful chocolate cup cakes while I made Christmas pies (big ones in short crust pastry and little ones in flaky pastry). These are like mince pies but have Christmas Pudding as their filling instead of mince meat. I was an experiment we thought of last year but this is the first time I have made them, and they turned out OK.
The evening was very enjoyable - we played Pictionary after diner and drank the bottle of Bishops Retreat given to us last year by Jancis. Even though Izzy wasn't with us, it was also a nice way to mark the end of or visitations for this year. It has been great having both Chris and Izzy to stay, and we hope to see them here again in the future.
Thursday was Christmas Eve. Claire was working in the morning and Nicky all day. I spent the morning driving around Auckland in the Christmas last-minute rush traffic trying find a shop with a book actually in stock to buy for Claire. Even though the computer systems were saying the book was available, it wasn't on the shelves. So I went to Sabato instead, an Italian Deli, and bought some goodies for her.
In the afternoon we decorated the house with lights and tree. At the end of the evening Nicky went off to midnight mass, and Claire and I to bed.
We woke on Christmas Day to blue skies and hot sunshine. After a leisurely breakfast of croissants, lemon curd (home made), and coffee, we opened our presents. We all had a wonderful selection of goodies from all over the world. We then got ourselves together and armed with rice salad (by Nicky) and Christmas Pud (by me) drove over to Paul and Jennys in Howick for lunch with much of the family. Their decking is now finished and the weather lit their fantastic view of the sea beautifully. We had a very long lunch, with a good break between first course and desert. It was almost 6 before we left with our waistlines groaning from the excellent cuisine.
Saturday was another lovely day, so Nicky packed a picnic while I took Claire to work. We drove up to Uretiti again. Our planned stop at the Skyliner cafe for second breakfast (or just a cup of tea) was thwarted by them being closed, but we did enjoy a brief stop at a Dutch deli in Kaiwaka which has the following sign outside:
We also stopped in Wiapu for a comfort break just before getting to the beach and found it to be a very cosy little NZ township, with houses and land for sale, and an air of confidence in the future. Our day at the beach was glorious, with the sand and surf as gorgeous as ever.
Today we have had a quieter day at home. A couple from church came round for morning tea with Nicky, and then Steve and Ros came over for scrabble in the afternoon. This evening we have been to see "The Time Travellers Wife" at the cinema which we all enjoyed.
Bye for now,
Rick
On Tuesday morning I had to go and do a little Mac work, but once I returned Izzy and I set out on the souvenir trail so she could buy gifts to take back to the UK. This and packing took up the rest of the afternoon. We had planned to meet Nicky at the Bricklane Bar in New Lynn for a meal and quiz, but we discovered they no longer have Tuesday quiz nights. So, even though we were a little disappointed, we took advantage of their "2 for Tuesday" offer, where you get a free dessert (normal price $14) with each main course. The food was excellent, especially the desserts.
I spent Wednesday morning doing a major food shop, both for our guests coming in the evening and other bits required for Christmas. We were due to be 9 for diner (us 3, Sarah the vicar and her boyfriend Murray, Sarah's mum, 2 friends of Sarah's from England who were just coming to the end of the stay in NZ, and Ryan who I worked with at Ubertec). However, due to weather in the UK, Sarah's mum was delayed and her friends went back early so we were only 6. I had shopped for both BBQ and veg lasagne as we didn't know how the weather was going to turn out. In the end I put the BBQ stuff in the freezer and made the lasagne.
In the afternoon after Claire had returned from taking Izzy to the airport for her flight back to the UK and made wonderful chocolate cup cakes while I made Christmas pies (big ones in short crust pastry and little ones in flaky pastry). These are like mince pies but have Christmas Pudding as their filling instead of mince meat. I was an experiment we thought of last year but this is the first time I have made them, and they turned out OK.
The evening was very enjoyable - we played Pictionary after diner and drank the bottle of Bishops Retreat given to us last year by Jancis. Even though Izzy wasn't with us, it was also a nice way to mark the end of or visitations for this year. It has been great having both Chris and Izzy to stay, and we hope to see them here again in the future.
Thursday was Christmas Eve. Claire was working in the morning and Nicky all day. I spent the morning driving around Auckland in the Christmas last-minute rush traffic trying find a shop with a book actually in stock to buy for Claire. Even though the computer systems were saying the book was available, it wasn't on the shelves. So I went to Sabato instead, an Italian Deli, and bought some goodies for her.
In the afternoon we decorated the house with lights and tree. At the end of the evening Nicky went off to midnight mass, and Claire and I to bed.
We woke on Christmas Day to blue skies and hot sunshine. After a leisurely breakfast of croissants, lemon curd (home made), and coffee, we opened our presents. We all had a wonderful selection of goodies from all over the world. We then got ourselves together and armed with rice salad (by Nicky) and Christmas Pud (by me) drove over to Paul and Jennys in Howick for lunch with much of the family. Their decking is now finished and the weather lit their fantastic view of the sea beautifully. We had a very long lunch, with a good break between first course and desert. It was almost 6 before we left with our waistlines groaning from the excellent cuisine.
Saturday was another lovely day, so Nicky packed a picnic while I took Claire to work. We drove up to Uretiti again. Our planned stop at the Skyliner cafe for second breakfast (or just a cup of tea) was thwarted by them being closed, but we did enjoy a brief stop at a Dutch deli in Kaiwaka which has the following sign outside:
We also stopped in Wiapu for a comfort break just before getting to the beach and found it to be a very cosy little NZ township, with houses and land for sale, and an air of confidence in the future. Our day at the beach was glorious, with the sand and surf as gorgeous as ever.
Today we have had a quieter day at home. A couple from church came round for morning tea with Nicky, and then Steve and Ros came over for scrabble in the afternoon. This evening we have been to see "The Time Travellers Wife" at the cinema which we all enjoyed.
Bye for now,
Rick
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