Family

First of all Dear Reader, apologies for this post being late, but yesterday was a very busy day and I just didn’t have time. Second of all, Happy New Year.

Our last week of 2017 has been very much a family week. We started off on Monday, Christmas Day, with a lovely clear blue sky, our traditional pot of tea, and opening our presents in bed. We proceeded onto breakfast of croissants stuffed with baked mushrooms (the croissants ended up much bigger than I expected so we had a couple left over) and then had tea and coffee on The Rattigan. We had phone conversations with Gill (in the UK) and Rachel (in Wanaka) while the pudding cooked. Nicky made Strawberry Santa’s for us to take to Kim’s, along with my pudding and Christmas Pie:

We picked up Valera, a D&M friend of mine, on the way to Parau and arrived at Kim’s around 12.30.We had a great afternoon of chatting with everybody, glorious food and present opening. Lunch was a little late so we didn’t leave until around 6pm. After all the excitement all we could manage in the evening was to recline infront of the TV and watch an Scotish Military Tattoo from Melbourne.

Boxing Day started out a little damp. After a lobs breakfast Nicky popped over to see Mary and I made a couple of loaves of fruit bread to take to Ohakune along with Nicky’s double-sized double stodge Christmas Cake that she made in the afternoon (and turned out extremely well). Tanya came over for lunch and we just pottered for the rest of the day getting reading for our stay in Ohakune.

Stella came over on Wednesday morning, popped her car into our garage and transferred her things to our car along with our bags, and off we went. The traffic getting out of Auckland was very busy and it took us almost two hours to get to Huntly (normally a little over an hour) and our first rest break. The rest of the journey was less congested, we enjoyed starting the audio book (Backlash by Lynda La Plante) and arrived at the ski lodge around 5pm. The temperature had dropped to 13°C, down from Auckland’s 26°C! Kim, Tai and Shani arrived a little after us, and the Hanlon Adventurers around 7pm, and we all dived into the excellent food prepared by Pat and Jenny.

Thursday was a leisurely day of reading, jigsaw, (pre-breakfast wander for me and post breakfast shopping trip for N) and practicing being vegetables (appropriate when in the carrot capitol). Kim and Milly’s families were on lunch and dinner duty and we all enjoyed the nachos. The day was cool and cloudy. Nicky, Stella and I were on the kitchen roster for Friday, so Stella and I raided the supermarket after breakfast to add to what Nicky has purchased, so we had bread(s) and cheese for lunch and then set about making pasta and sauce and fish pie for dinner. The cool dull morning turned into a warm and sunny afternoon, and Steve arrived.

Saturday was a hot and sunny day, and we could see the mountain for the first time. Steve, Stella Nicky and I had a wander into town through the Carrot Adventure park and later on many of the ankle biters went up the mountain for a snow ball fight. By now we had a big fridge full of lobs so dinner sort of made itself.

Sunday was another clear day. After getting a group photo organised (Tim and Kit didn’t make it because Kit wasn’t well) we packed up and headed north. We had pre-booked tickets for the Wiatomo Glowworm Caves and our journey to them took a little longer than expected so we didn’t have time for lunch before our walk into the caves and boat ride under the glowworms. It was a great experience, enhanced by the guide’s insistence on silence. After a wander through the gift shop we headed off for a leisurely lunch at a local venue, then continued north accompanied by more of the audio book.

We arrived home around 7-ish, unpacked the car and waved goodbye to Stella, and then made finger food and headed off to Freeman’s Bay for a New Year’s Eve D&M party at James and Wendy’s. We had a very relaxed evening, good conversation about resolutions, and then gathered on their balcony to watch the Sky Tower fireworks. A very good way to end the year.

Take care, Rick