Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Well, as February comes to end we are still enjoying some warm and sunny weather, though the wind changed for awhile earlier in the week and suggested autumn. Claire has started back at University this week, and has had busy evenings with stock taking as well as her usual duties, and Laser Strike with friends. Nicky has had a pretty busy week at work and is enjoying her Maori class and quilting group. I have had a reasonable amount of Mac work, including another new customer. On Saturday Nicky took Tim shopping for fabric for his quillo, and has been to the Cathedral today to hear the Archbishop of York give a sermon. In the evening, we dropped Claire at Ryan's and headed into town to see the Chinese New Year Lantern Festival. However, the rest of Auckland seemed to have the same idea and after 45 minutes we had not found anywhere to park so went back home for a cup of tea. Next year we might try going in on the train. So, another week closes and we are into March tomorrow. Bye for...

It has been a quieter week for Nicky and I as Claire has been in Wellington for much of the week (see below). I took her and Olivia down to the Britomart for the 7.30 train, and she returned on Thursday evening. Nicky has had a busy week at work again, and I have done some Mac work. I took the car into a VW dealer on Thursday to get the driver door lock fixed (it stopped working over Christmas). We didn't have pancakes until Friday with Claire being in Wellington and Nicky being at Maori. We have had a quiet weekend, pottering round the house and enjoying the sun. Today Steve and Ros came over for Scrabble, and inspired by James May's Toy Stories on the tellybox we got the Scalextric out when Ryan came over - great fun. We have had a bit of a grey week, though the temperatures have been in the mid to high 20's, and the humidity in the high 90's, so the fresh southerly wind which arrived on Friday and cleared the air was very welcome. As a result, we have had a much more...

Hi, for a change it's Claire here :) This week I've been off down to Wellington with my friend Olivia so in order to save telling the story over and over, I'm posting this here. My tendency to ramble or include more detail than you probably want is why my dad does the updates every Sunday. Monday 15th We got up very early (well early for us anyway) at 6 a.m. to be at the train station for 7. We checked in, were given our seat numbers and said bye to my dad. The train trip is long, 12 hours! but there is some beautiful scenery, we stopped at National Park (near Mt. Ruapehu) for a lunch break about half way through the trip. Olivia and I played a round of Quiddler, a word card game, she read and watched the scenery. I watched the scenery and slept. We arrived in Wellington a little late, a bit after 7.30 p.m. Our hotel was less than 5 minutes walk from the train station and we found it pretty easily. The hotel was a Holiday Inn and was very nice :) We checked in then went for...

The weather has been really hot this week, and quite humid too. Most of the time we have had sunshine, but some rain has arrived over the weekend and it has cooled down a bit. Nicky has had another busy week at work, and started her Maori evening class again. Claire worked an extra shift at Whitcoulls on Friday evening, and I have had some Mac work which included three new customers (all home users). For Claire's 21st Birthday Nicky and I bought he a flight experience voucher. This was for a 1 hour flight in a Boeing 737 flight simulator. Claire booked it for Wednesday this week, and I went to Takapuna with her as a nominal passenger. The first thing Claire had to do was decide what route to fly. She chose London to East Midlands. So, we took off from London City, flew over central London to Heathrow, did a quick touch down and take-off. Then up north to East Miggies where she did an approach and quick touchdown before circling and doing the approach again with a full landing. It w...

Another week and another post. It has been a quiet and largely sunny week. We started it with a public holiday - Auckland Anniversary Day. The weather wasn't great, cloudy and a bit of rain. Nicky and I pottered round the house, and I'm sure Claire and Ryan did something but I can't remember what (Claire may update this with some info here). Thanks to an anti-cyclone, the temperatures have been nudging the 30's in the later part of the week. Nicky has been busy at work, I have had some Mac work, and Claire has been busy making sure the sofa still works. Life group started again on Wednesday for Nicky, and I joined a bunch of blokes for a beer at Barefoot in the Bay on Friday evening while Claire was at the cinema with Ryan (It's Complicated was the chosen flick). Today we have had Mary Prebble (91), her youngest Kate (Nicky's age) and her partner Lynn over for lunch. Kate and Nicky knew each other as children, so it was good for them to catch up. It also gave me...