Tour Guides

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It’s been quite a week. We have had some gorgeous weather which by the end of the week was more summer than spring, and my sister Gill and her husband David arrived on Monday. It is their first visit to NZ. Nicky and I collected them from the airport before breakfast on Monday morning. Once we were back home we had breakfast and they had showers. After getting a little organised Gill, David and I went shopping (SIM card for Gills phone, sunglasses for David, and stuff for lunches). Lunch was a leasurely affair in the sun on the Ratigan.

G&D had booked into the Blockhouse Bay B&B for three nights, so after lunch they walked round with Nicky while I took the luggage in the car. We all had some R&R in the afternoon and then regrouped for dinner and were joined by Claire on her way home from work. G&D went back to the B&B early evening as the jet lag was starting to take its toll.

Tuesday started off with a bit of cloud and rain, but cleared. Nicky made us a packed lunch and G&D arrived with after walks round the Bay by mid-morning, so we headed off for a stroll along Bethalls Beach.

This helped us work up an appetite for lunch. Afterwards we drove to the Arataki Visitor Centre. David really enjoyed the warm sunshine and we stayed until closing time, when were very politely asked to leave. G&D treated us to dinner at The Block (in BHB) and we had another excellent meal - duck and chicken and very yummy desserts. Nicky didn’t sleep to well as was coughing (a lot) and vomiting (a bit).

Wednesday dawned a nice day so after breakfast we took G&D into town. David was having a bit of a problem with his leg making walking painful, so we took our time getting to the Ferry Building, where we sat, watched ferries come and go and ate our lunch. Gill, David and I went on a harbour cruise, but Nicky didn’t feel up to it. The cruise was great and stopped at Rangitoto for 10 minutes.

Our mid-afternoon return from the cruise gave us time to have a look round the Maritime Museum before heading for home. Nicky popped up to the supermarket to get some pre-roasted chickens, and Stella, Katie, Tim, Steve and Ros joined Nicky, Gill and I for dinner. David was in need of bed with the jet lag. We enjoyed dinner and had a very good evening.

The rain on Thursday morning didn’t last long. I went off to do a Mac job which didn’t take very long, and Nicky went into work for the weekly meeting but came back mid-morning to see the Doctor. Turns out she has a chest infection and laryngitis (there is something going round at work) so he signed her off for the rest of the week. Claire came over at lunchtime and  joined me in taking G&D to the airport for their afternoon flight to Queenstown.

Friday was a gorgeous warm and sunny day. I got two loads of washing on the line by 9am and it was dry by lunchtime. I got my morning walkies in for the first (and only) time this week and Nicky made and delivered scones for a work colleagues leaving doo. He isn’t actually leaving his job, just taking some months off to visit family in Africa he hasn’t seen for 18 years. In the afternoon I did a bit of food shopping and the ironing before enjoying the wonderful sunshine for awhile.

Nicky had a poor night again with lots of coughing. Saturday turned out to be a hot and sunny day - really felt more like summer - so we started with scrambled eggs on the Ratigan. We did a bit of shopping in the Bay then Nicky went off to look at a couple of open homes while I enjoyed the sun. Late in the afternoon we went to St Lukes to by tissue paper, see Claire (who is in Dunedin as I write as she has a job interview there tomorrow) and to see Catching Fire, the second film in the Hunger Games trilogy. Nicky and I had seen the first film awhile back, and read all three books (out of order) recently, so we enthusiastic to see the film and it didn’t disappoint. Just to make the afternoon even better, Nicky bought some size 2 kids sand shoes in her favourite green for $10!!! A very happy shopper.

Today has been sunny again but not quite as warm as yesterday and Friday. It only made it to 35°C in the roof space, whereas the previous two days it has got to 42°C. Even though Nicky is improving she is still not right and not sleeping well, so we had a gentle afternoon before going over to Stella’s for Scrabble with her and Steve. We were quite late back to had poached eggs and baked beans on toast with our Sunday evening TV viewing.

And that’s it. Enough for a week me thinks.
Take care,

Rick

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