The rest

OK, time for more in the way of updates regarding our whirlwind non-stop tour. It's one way to keep me awake, I guess.

Wednesday 17th
Today we got up and left my mum's, bound for Yorkshire, and more specifically, Sheffield. More babies we'd not met followed as Sinead came round to say hi while we were at Mark's with Seamus and Ethan in tow, while Pete and Cloudy came for lunch along with Olly.

In the afternoon Joanne, Pete, Mark and I took a drive out to a nice little village in Derbyshire for a pint of tea (really!) and then in the evening the four of us headed into Sheffield city centre for a top-notch Chinese before Anna joined us at some real English-style pubs. The sort of pubs you just don't find in NZ.

Thursday 18th
We left Pete and Cloudy's this morning and headed off for the longest individual leg of out trip, down to Enfield. The trip was supposed to take 3 hours. We stopped for a bit of lunch for we were looking at 3 1/2 tops. But then we hit the M25. According to the satnav the final two miles was meant to take just under ten minutes. A traffic jam meant it took an hour. And most of that was the first of the two miles.

Once at Chris and Ros's we had a few hours to relax before Richard and Jenny and their two children (one of whom was again new to us) joined us for dinner. Chris and I even had time to go and pick some strawberries while Joanne had a little nanna-nap.

Friday 19th
More driving today, for a change, and more M25 fun. Traffic is always worse on a Friday. And the Dartford bridge/tunnel are especially fun. We got to be part of that fun too. Three times in fact.

We were due for lunch at Joanne's Aunt June and Uncle Ron's place in Basildon. Enfield to Basildon of course does not involve crossing the Thames. Unless you need to first pick up Joanne's Uncle John from Dartford first. And then bring him to lunch. And then take him back. Three times we braved the queues.

We made the most of being on the south bank though by ending the day with an extended saunter around the Bluewater shopping centre. Bluewater, in case you're unfamiliar with it, is like the size of half of Christchurch. It even comes equipped with a Ben & Jerry's vending machine. I wonder what ones of those puppies would cost...

The evening, and the driving part of the trip, ended as we headed back into London and back onto the Isle of Dogs to Chris and Lesley's flat.

Saturday 20th
You might think that us being back in London would mean no more manic days without a minute to breathe. You'd be wrong.

Today started with Joanne and Les, gym-buddies from times-gone-by, making a trip to the Reebok for old times while I took the car back to City Airport.

We rendezvous-ed at the DLR station at Canary Wharf and headed across London to Maida Vale and Richard & Heather's place for a barbecue and a game of kalookie.

Kalookie, in case you are unaware, is a card game, and we play the Jamaican variant. Mainly because we learnt it from and play it with Jamaicans. It probably won't mean anything to you, but I won, with 29 points. Which is a super-low score. Especially with us playing the full nine rounds.

In the evening, after I whooped the Jamaicans at their own game, Joanne and I headed over to Liverpool Street station to meet Mat & Cathryn aswell as Les so that we could wander over to Brick Lane for a much-anticipated curry.

I had been building this curry up for a long, long time, and frankly I blew it. I led us to a restaurant I knew was good (or was two years ago) and was packed, which is a good sign. They found us a table jammed into a far corner. That was a bad start, us being stuck in a tiny spot in a roasting hot restaurant. I then was too busy talking to Mat and Cathryn and not studying the menu enough. When it came to ordering I wasn't fully prepared and thus fell back on an old favourite of lamb pasanda. A good curry, but not the curry I had been anticipating. The onion bhaji, meanwhile, was all that I had expected.

Sunday 21st
Today was our last full day in the UK for some time and again food was central. This time our feeders were Debbie and Paul. And their son we'd not yet met, Joshua. Vaniah & Johan joined us too.

The time we spent there was all too short, and before we knew it it was time to shoot off once more, back to Canary Wharf and the barge again for both the 4pm and 6:30pm services. We were asked up the front at the end of each service to quickly give our old church family some prayer points for us, which was appreciated.

The evening ended, traditionally, in Wetherspoons with a diet coke and a bowl of chips.

Monday 22nd
Our taxi was ordered for 12:30 so the morning was free and we'd arranged to head over to spend a couple of hours with Marcus & Lina, meeting our final new child of the trip. It was great to fill them in on how things are going over here and at St John's specifically while also hearing about developments and progress at the barge.

And then, all too soon, the trip was over. We were at Heathrow. We were aboard the plane. We were over the Atlantic on the way home.

Wednesday 24th
30 hours or so later we were home. It's so nice to be home. The UK already feels like a lifetime away. It really doesn't exist when we're here. And that feeling will be even more evident once we start back at work tomorrow.

So, that was some trip. But so tiring. We had little more that a few hours with people here and there really. But we wouldn't have it any other way. I mean, we could have arranged a more comfortable schedule, but the trip wasn't that sort of holiday really. The aim was to be there for my sister's wedding, and catch up for a few good friends around the sides. Which we did. We could have added more people too, given time. But there wasn't any. 19 pretty much non-stop days. With 971 miles (1563km) driven thrown in. It was so great to see people.



I turned on phone when I got home to find 187 work emails waiting for me. I resolved not to touch them until tomorrow in the office. Another 16 arrived today. 203 emails will take me most of the day to get through, I reckon.

Joanne has her first day in her new secondment tomorrow. I've not mentioned it before as it was all being finalised, but she's got six months with the parent company of her current employer. It's a power company and a bigger office than she's in at the moment. Should present her a new challenge, which is good.

Once more for old times' sake

Today Joanne and I had the chance to visit a few old haunts, just one more time.

The initial plan was to head out with my mum to Barton for a wander round and a look at the Humber Bridge, which is still quite an impressive feat of engineering, but a incident with a curb and a snapped sandal strap meant a detour from Barton to Grimsby town centre to (unsuccessfully) hunt out Merrell distributers.

One quick trip to a cobbler equipped with superglue meant we were back on track but by now the Humber Bridge was out of the question as it was time to pick Ellie up from school.

We had a plan to go out for tea together, the four of us, but it was way too early for that so we drove to the far end of Cleethorpes for a wander round the boating lake, a real blast from the past, and especially cute given the numerous goslings and ducklings around the place.

We also had time to drive by the pier too, for a quick photo. Who knows when they'll finally demolish it. I wanted a snap for old times' sake.

The tea plan was to appease Jo. One of her favourite places to eat in North East Lincs is a place called Steel's. Steel's Cornerhouse Restaurant to give it it's formal name. It was listed in the Egon Ronay Good Food Guide 1982 I'll have you know. And it serves fish and chips. Good fish and chips. In fact, according to Joanne it's the best fish and chips in the world.

Look at the size of that bit of fish there. Jumbo fish, chips and mushy peas, bread and butter, and a mug of tea. It doesn't get any better than that. Of course, I don't eat fish, but I can recognise quality. And this is quality.

Just don't you dare ask for cod. It's haddock. And only haddock. Cod is blasphemy in this neck of the woods. Really.

On the way home we took a detour via the docks. I wanted to take one more photo of Grimsby before I left. The dock tower is an iconic symbol of the town where I grew up. An image of my childhood.

Just like when we left from here almost two years ago, I don't know when I'll next be here. And it's a strange feeling.

I have enjoyed seeing my family so much and spending time with them. I'll see Dad & Marlene at Christmas and Mum in February hopefully, and those times will come round fast enough, but it's still different when you live on the other side of the world.

Catching up

I've finally got an evening when I can sit down and relax. It's nice to put my feet up and take a breath. And update the blog of course. I've been keeping notes so I'll flesh them out day by day, just so you can see what we've been up to.

Sunday 7th
Today we had lunch with Euan at Rodizzio Rico, one of our favourite restaurants in London. We love Brazilian barbecue, and it's always good to see Euan. As Joanne says – he’s just such an interesting person to talk to.

In the afternoon we headed off to church at 4pm. The 4pm service is a family service now with Sunday school and crèche, which is a big change since we were last around. We stayed around for the 6:30pm service too to try and catch up with as many people as possible. There were so many people we don’t recognise now. It's kind of good to see life moves on without us. Sometimes it’s easy to think that life pauses while we’re away. But of course it doesn’t.

After church we headed across to Wetherspoons for chat, a couple of drinks and a bowl of chips. Just like old times.

Walking round Islington today and the Isle of Dogs was strange. There are new buildings in places but pretty much it's exactly the same. It's as if the last two years had not happened and we’ve never been away. And the whole feel is so different to Christchurch. We fit here. It'd not that we don't fit in Christchurch, but London still feels comfortable. It's a bizarre feeling to have a holiday in a place you know so well.

Monday 8th
This morning we headed over to City Airport to pick up hire car and then headed out to Tetbury to see Ian and Naomi and meet Cerys for the first time. It was lovely to be out in the Cotswolds – a real feel of England. In the afternoon went for a walk around the nearby arboretum. I love Kiwi countryside but there is something lovely about English countryside too.

I also got to play on a Wii for the first time with Ian. He beat me at tennis, and golf, but the baseball and boxing were mine.

Tuesday 9th
This morning we drove to Coventry but via Stratford. Jo had agreed to do a couple of hours work at her UK office – helping with VAT returns – but wasn’t expected in Coventry until 2pm so we stopped in at Stratford on the way. Joanne had never been and I’d not been since Bints’ 21st birthday which must have been May 1994, I guess. But even then it had involved a boat trip on the Avon rather than the Shakespeare stuff. Actually I do seem to remember going with Sarah (and maybe Jo and Kate) one time in my final year at uni when my sis came to visit but I could be wrong.

So yeah, Shakespeare stuff. It was really interesting and great to do it with Joanne for the first time. I think historical buildings are one of the things I miss most when in NZ. You just don’t get anything older than 100 years pretty much and wandering round Statford there are buildings 400 or 500 years old, easy.

After a spot of lunch we headed off to Cov, where I dropped Joanne at her office and then drove to my old uni for a wander round to see what’s new and what’s changed over there. After I left I used to go back every May bank holiday for the American football team oldboys game so it’s not like I’ve not been back since I left in 1997 but there are still quite a few new buildings and plenty of development work still going on now. Again, wandering round the familiar areas it was just like I’d never been away.

In the evening Joanne’s colleagues took us out for a meal to the Saxon Mill in Warwick. It's a lovely little spot, down by the river, although Gordon Ramsey would have a fit over their extensive and diverse menu. "Pick eight dishes and do them well!"

Wednesday 10th
Joanne’s work on Tuesday that was meant to have taken two hours was going to extend to the Wednesday too so after breakfast I took her to the office again and then went off to do some tourist stuff on my own. [sniff]

I first headed into Cov to find the National Motor Museum. Which I did eventually after going round the ring road a few times more than was needed. It was quite a cool place actually, especially the Thrust SSC, the vehicle that holds the world landspeed record – 763mph or something! – and became the first land vehicle to break the sound barrier, and the simulator where you can sit and experience the world record-breaking run.

I then decided to take a wander around Cov city centre, mainly to find the cathedrals. I love the juxtaposition of the old ruined cathedral next to the new shiny one. The contrast really attracts me, for some reason.

I took a photo of the Lady Godiva statue too, just for old times' sake.

Next up I headed back to the Binley industrial estate to find Joanne only to discover that she’d not finished. Still. We were meant to be spending the afternoon at Warwick castle but I wasn’t going to sit around waiting all afternoon so I drove over myself. Again, it’s history like that I miss, wandering round old buildings imagining the people who lived there hundreds and hundreds of years ago. I didn’t have chance to stay for the falconry display unfortunately, but the working trebuchet was very impressive.

Later we drove to Derby to Heather & Andy’s in time to meet them after they got home from school. It was great to catch up, see the boys, and hear about what they’ve been up as well as other school friends I’ve not been in touch with.

Also Andy introduced me to Guitar Hero. This holiday has been an key introduction to new experiences in games consoles for me.

Thursday 11th
The plan today was to head over to Bakewell for lunch before driving to Grimsby but in the ended we were distracted by a retail park containing Next and Sainsbury’s. It was so much fun wandering round a giant supermarket with so much range and choice. Touristasising a supermarket. Is it sad? If it is, I don’t really care. It was fun.

I counted fifteen different types of Fairy washing-up liquid. In New Zealand I'd struggle to count that many types of washing-up liquid full-stop.

Leaving Derby we drove towards Grimsby and stopped for some lunch at Arties Mill – an old family favourite.

Post-lunch saw us arrive at my dad’s. And then for dinner in the evening we were all at the Harbrough Hotel for a pre-wedding meak for to the families to meet.

It was so great to see my family. Other than when my dad came to visit I’ve not seen any of them for just short of two years. Even though we didn’t see them that often when we lived in London it would still be maybe four times a year. I guess the change is most evident in Ellie, rather than my folks or my sis. She’s nearly eight now, my niece. It's hard to believe sometimes. I still remember walking by St Paul’s in London on the way to meet a friend for a drink when I got the phonecall to say she’d arrived safely, mother and baby doing well. How times flies, eh?

It was the first time I’d met Shayne, my impending brother-in-law, and also Dad’s partner, Marlene. So that was nice.

Friday 12th
Today was the day of the wedding. And it was such a lovely day. I got so emotional. I never have before at a wedding. Maybe it was just the whole thing about my little sister finally finding a really great bloke to look after her and Ellie. Given it was the first time I’d met Shayne I guess I was quite relieved that he seemed such a nice fella really. I don’t know. It's hard to describe really. But it was so special to be there to witness their marriage.

They’d asked me to read a poem they’d found in the ceremony. It was strange that reading it through and practising it it seemed ok but nothing special. However, reading to them, during the ceremony, suddenly the words all made sense and fit and the poem was quite beautiful. I so nearly starting blubbing.

It was a lovely day too, nice early June weather, which was good news since we were all sat outside for the reception and speeches.

It was really nice to spend time with my cousin Pamela, her husband Robert and their four kids as well. They’re all growing up to now, of course.

Saturday 13th
Sarah & Shayne’s plan was to head off to Manchester airport at about 5pm-ish today so as a farewell thing my mum had organised a barbecue round at her and James’s house for them. She also invited a load of her friends who came to the evening part of the wedding but not the main day as well as Pam & Rob and the kids, and me and Jo.

Hmmm, I love Lincolnshire sausages.

Sunday 14th
Dad cooked a lovely roast pork meal for the four of us today. And while it was cooking we went for a wander round Town’s Holt. When I was growing up we lived on Wybers Wood, and now Dad lives on Laceby Acres. Town’s Holt is a sort of greenbelt area between the two. When we first moved to the Wybers it was all a big cow field and then they converted it to this grassed areas around the river with gravel paths and woods. Now it’s a bit more wild and there’s no area to play football anymore but it’s still nice for a wander. It is strange though to see trees that I would have seen recently planted years ago and now they’re 25 years old and totally established.

Monday 15th
Today we drove to my mum's. We spent a relaxing afternoon with mum and James and then had tea with Ellie (mmmm, lasagne...) once they'd been to pick her up from school. We didn't do a lot today, other than having issues with wireless internet and calling into to Morrison's for a bit more touristasising and drooling over food we miss. We couldn't resist a tub of Ben & Jerry's each - mmmm, chunky monkey for me and phish food for Joanne.

We're kinda toying with the idea of buying a Ben & Jerry's franchise to import it into NZ. Enough people over there have spent time in the UK or the US for it to sell, you know.

London, baby

So, we've arrived. The flight and stuff was uneventful. And in fact might even be described as smooth. We ended up, rather fortutitously not having to queue to be processed at LAX or when we arrived at Heathrow. The longest wait ended up being at the baggage carousel. We even managed about 12 hours sleep in total between the two legs.

We're laying here in bed at Jez and Winnie's after close to 12 hours sleep last night too, hoping that we're totally over the jetlag already. We've found that staying up as long as possible that first day makes all the difference when trying to get into the timecycle of your destination. That and not constantly working out what time it is back home, of course.

Yesterday afternoon we'd arranged for a load of people from the barge to come across to Jez & Winnie's for an open home. Winnie had so kindly organised food and drinks and stuff for us too. In the end maybe twenty or more people came, with various babies in tow that we'd never met before. It was so brilliant to see all our friends and catch up with them for a while. People came and left between 3pm and 6 and it worked really well.

I think one of the things about moving to the other side of the world is that sometimes you imagine life in the place you leave just goes on pause when you're not there. So it was a great reminder of the falseness of that to see people and talk about how life's changed for them in the past two years for them. And meet their children. There has been a positive baby explosion at the barge since we left. I'm not sure what they're adding to the tea.

It's weird sitting here, in London. I've just been gazing out the window and everything looks exactly the same. Our flat was less than 400m from here, as the crow flies, maybe even less, so we know this area very well. And nothing has changed. Driving through London yesterday from the airport and on to the Isle of Dogs there are some changes, a few new buildings, but everything pretty much looks the same. And feels the same. In some ways it's like we have never been away.

But that's where it's weird. Because we have been away. For almost two years. We've had two years life in Nuzziland and life here has had two years without us. But now we're back, Chch almost seems like a dream. It is so far detached from our previous life here that it doesn't quite seem real. Just like when we are over there that sometimes London seems a lifetime away. It's difficult to explain.

One thing that's not difficult to explain is the London weather. We're led to believe that the last week had seen sunshine and temperatures of 28 degrees. But we landed to 12 degrees and grey drizzle. Ah, London grey. We left Christchurch to beautiful blue skies and 15 degrees. Tell me, which is winter and which is summer? If we'd not woken on Friday in NZ to -2 and a frost we'd be hard-pushed to tell.

Flights and fairy bread

This time next week we'll have just touched down at Heathrow. It's beginning to feel a little bit real now. We're so looking forward to catching up with people.

At the end of each month at work, on the last Friday, each team in the office gets a turn to organise the end of month drinks. Sometimes there's pizza. Sometimes there's fish and chips. On Friday the HR department organised mini savouries (what little meat pies are called over here), cheerios (small pink sausages like cocktail sausages but pinker, bright pink) and fairy bread.

It's the last of these particular delicacies I want to talk about this evening. I can guarantee that no-one British will be able to guess what fairy bread is. Imagine this - slices of whitebread, buttered, scattered liberally with hundreds and thousands. No really. It's a kids party staple. Whereas I grew up with pineapple and cheese on cocktail sticks stuck in a foil-covered baked potato, kiwi kids grew up with coloured sugar on buttered bread. No really.

I was trying to visualise the process that led to this cullinery extravanganza. Picture this - mum goes out leaving dad at home with the kids. He's told to make them some sarnies for lunch. Bread is all laid out. Bread is buttered. Open cupboard. Hmmm, out of jam. No marmite. Peanut butter is running low. Er, hundreds and thousands? Er yeah, that's it. Just cover the bread in hundreds and thousands. Genius.

Only it's not.

Wet weekend

It's been raining pretty much non-stop for the past week. The ground is flooded so football was cancelled and it was grey and miserable so a nice weekend cosy at home beckoned.

We'd made plans to see Si & Bek in the evening but when my footy match was cancelled it meant that we were able to see them in the afternoon too. The Tactix were at home this weekend so we decided the four of us would head along and catch some netball. It was quite a good game too, see-sawing this way and that. And the Tactix won aswell, which was a bonus. We're not big fans or anything but you have to support the local team, eh?

The day was wrapped up nicely with a dinner trip to Nandos for four and a movie back at ours in from the cold, sat infront of the nice warm fire. The only thing wrong with the day was the choice of film. Tropic Thunder. Oh dear.

Sunday was another day with friends too, which was nice. Church in the morning, quick bite for lunch, obligatory Sunday supermarket trip and then home in time for Kallie-&-Jo-from-over-the-back-fence to come round for a games afternoon followed by hearty ham and vegetable soup, warm crusty bread and apple crumble.

Ah, winter weekends...

North Island cities

Has it really been so long since I've had a chance to update anything here? March? Ouch.

Well, in that time we went to Auckland for Easter. Two days with Len & Val and two days with Shirley & Tom. It was great to see everyone. It had been quite a while so it was good to have that time with family, just hanging out and stuff.

And then this weekend just gone Joanne and I had a weekend away together in Wellington.

Joanne's not been to Wellington for at least 20 years and I've never got further than the conference room in the golf club across the road from the airport in four attempts.

In summary, Wellington deserves its reputation - it is windy. But we had fun nonetheless. We wandered round a bit, got a feel for the place, went up the cable car, enjoyed some tasty food, went to Te Papa, and watched Star Trek. I think I like Wellington. I wasn't sure quite what to expect, but I think I liked it. I did like the art deco architecture. Sure, it wasn't to the degree that we'll find in Napier when we eventually go, but there were buildings here and there. I do like art deco.

We also had the opportunity to catch up with Elizabeth (Marvin, Melanie & Monika's mum) as well as Sarah (Anthony's sister) for a cup of coffee and a slice of cake. It was good to get to say hi to family of friends who live in Wellington who we've met a few times.

Flying horses

This weekend Joanne and I had another weekend away. It was just a coincidence that it followed the weekend in Akaroa last weekend for Hannah's wedding. We wouldn't normally be away every weekend.


This week we headed down to Tekapo, which is about 3 hours south-west of Christchurch in what's called Mackenzie country. We stayed at a B&B called Alpine Vista and we can most heartily recommend it. When we do these weekends away it's sometimes nice to stay at B&Bs rather than in a motel or whatever. You get to meet your hosts and the other guests a whole lot more and for us it's a definite plus to get to talk to both locals and other travellers.

We drove down Friday night so that we'd have the full day on Saturday and got up early to make the most of the blue sky and sunshine. Tekapo is well-known for its lake which is a beautiful milky turquoise colour, due to the glacial rivers flowing into it. Iconic tourist attractions include the lakeside statue of a sheepdog as well as the Church of the Good Shepherd. These are next to each other and right at the start of the township so we went there and got these ticked off first.

Pete, the guy who runs the B&B, recommended a little spot down by Lake Alexandrina for a walk, so this was next port of call. It was a lake just alongside the much larger Lake Tekapo but quite a nice spot with a few typical Kiwi baches. It was lovely to stroll by the still lake basking in the morning sunshine. It's times like that that make me wish I carried a fishing rod with me. I hear the lake is full with brown trout.

Next up, as we headed back into town was the observatory at the top of Mount John. The Lake Tekapo area has been designated a UNESCO starlight reserve, the world's first. We didn't have a chance to look around the observatory unfortunately but its location serves as an excellent spot to view the surrounding countryside - the lake, the Mackenzie basin, the high-country sheep stations and the alps. You get an awesome view of the contrasting geographies and topologies that make up that area from up there.

The one thing we'd booked in advance for the weekend, other than the B&B, was horse-trekking. Now, Joanne's ridden before. As a kid she did it quite a lot and even found time in London at a riding school on the Isle of Dogs. Me, on the other hand, I've ridden a donkey on Cleethorpes beach. As such it was with great trepidation that I climbed aboard Rock, my horse for the two-hour trek, and set about trying not to fall off.

As it turned out, Rock was an experience old pro and knew exactly what to do. He stopped when he needed to, started when he needed to, turned left and right when he needed to - all irrespective of what I wanted him to do. He just followed the lead of the horse in front, plodded along, and mostly ignored the reins I was holding. I didn't fall off, which was a bonus. And didn't ache either, despite everyone warning me I would. Maybe that though is because we spent an hour after dismounting soaking in the nearby alpine springs.

At breakfast on Saturday we had spent a while listening to a couple from Portsmouth tell us all about the one hour flying tour up the lake and over Mount Cook and the glaciers. Sunday was even more beautiful a day than Saturday so we just could not resist the call of the air. It wasn't a cheap experience, but it certainly was an amazing experience. Getting the chance to see the landscape, the lakes, the mountains and the glaciers from that angle was mind-blowing, as we weaved in and out of the valleys and circled the peaks. Sadly the photos don't do it justice.

On landing we jumped in the car and sped as fast as (legally!) possible back into town. Joanne had noticed that there was a service on at 11:30 at the Church of the Good Shepherd. We arrived during the first hymn but were allowed in (they shut the church to tourists for the duration of the service). It is such a tiny little place, there were 23 of us in there, including the minister, and we'd have struggled to get more than 10 more. I think there were maybe 5 or 6 locals there and the rest of us were visitors, from as far afield as Germany, Seattle and Malaysia. The whole thing, including the sermon to some extent, served as a great reminder to us, that although this group of us gathered together for a snapshot in time in worldy terms as a disparate collection, we are all in fact united by Jesus and in spiritual terms are unified and family, even though we'd never met before and probably won't do again while we're here on earth.

Rugby and marriage

On Wednesday I went along to the first of three monthly events hosted by Brad Thorn. The idea behind the evenings is to hold an event in an unthreatening, non-churchy environment when people can come along (and bring their friends) to hear prominent Christians talk about the difference that having Jesus in their life makes to them. Kind of pre-evangelistic events. At the first one last week Simon Barnett interviewed Brad Thorn. Next time Brad will interview Casey Laulala, while the third one will see Brad interview Simon Barnett.

The event seemed to go really well, with about 60 people there, many of whom were friends of people that they'd brought along. I hear the talk and interview went really well too, although I didn't get to hear them unfortunately. I was on sausage duty and had to make sure the bangers were cooked on the barbecue for everyone for the end of the evening. It was a shame not to hear what Brad had to say but it was great to be able to help to allow others to hear it, plus I have heard a potted version before. It seems Brad is keen to get more involved in things like this and use his exposure as an 'in' in this way and it would be great if we could get him along to give his testimony at the next Exploring Discipleship course.

This weekend Joanne and I have spent a nice, relaxing weekend away in Akaroa. To be honest the relaxing part wasn't the main focus of the weekend, but it sure was a bonus. Hannah, who I work with, was getting married to Luke and we, along with the rest of the Marketing team, had been kindly invited along. The ceremony was at Akaroa Heritage Park, a place with a fantastic view over the bays of the volcanic crater, while the reception was down in the township at the Gaiety Hall. It was a lovely day, the weather was great, and it was so nice to be able to share in their big day with them.

This morning breakfast was kindly put on for the guests that remained in town at Luke's mum's cafe so we headed down there. Also that was when Hannah & Luke opened their wedding pressies. It was such a lovely idea to open them infront of (and with) your guests. Really lovely. After that Joanne and I went for a walk. The sun was shining, the sky and sea were blue, and I remembered just how beautiful Nuzziland can be.

Culture vulture

This afternoon Joanne and I headed over to Mona Vale. The weather was awesome and the entertainment was an open-air production of Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost. It's great to be able to do this sort of thing every once in a while, something we wouldn't usually do. And hanging out with friends is always good. We went along with Sarah & Anthony, Pam, Andrew & Lydia, Tim & Melody and also Richard & Heather, friends over from London and in NZ for four days on a bit of a flying world tour.

I'm not the greatest officianado of Shakespeare, but in my amateur opinion, it was really good. I think a lot of the witty wordplay left most of the audience wondering (me included) but the cast was good enough to let us have at least the gist of what was going on. Also the precis, act by act, in the programme was a big help.

To balance today's culture injection, yesterday Al & Naomi came over for lunch with their kids. Barbecue and karaoke ensued.

Assimilated

I felt a bit more like a kiwi today. For lunch we had lamb chops with salad and fresh bread and potato salad of stuff. The lamb chops needed cooking, so rather than grilling them, or doing them in the oven, I just fired up the barbie. The kiwi way.

Oh yeah, and Julia brought some home-made curried rhubarb chutney. Oh wow!

Singing in the rain

If you're not of these shores, I would guess that you wouldn't recognise any of the three musicians in the picture above. If you are native to Nuzziland you probably can recognise at least any two of them, and probably all three. You'll definitely have heard of all three.

Left to right we have the leader from the band OpShop, Anika Moa and Dave Dobbyn. And they were all playing yesterday at the Mud House Winery as part of a summer winery tour. And we went along.

We went with Si & Bek, Al & Naomi, Al & Ruth and Sarah and it rained. Quite a lot. But we knew it would. We have waterproofs. And a tarpaulin or two. So we coped. It wasn't heavy rain, but that constant drizzle that just permeates all but the most waterproof of waterproofs.

On the plus side, I now know that my coat is most definitely waterproof.

It's quite a strange experience going to a gig where almost everyone around you knows most of the songs really, really well. And you're just hearing them for the first time. This is especially true of Dave Dobbyn, who is a real Kiwi legend. He was playing these iconic Kiwi anthems and I was oblivious. I was just glad that four others in our group are Brits too. At least I wasn't alone.

Despite the weather I think we all had a great time. It's just good to hang out, y'know. And I do now feel I understand a bit more of this whole Dave Dobbyn phenomenon. There were a couple of songs that didn't do anything for me, but most I really liked. And he does put on a real show.

OpShop were good too, and given they're relatively new kids on the block I recognised half of their songs. Anika Moa played some good stuff (although she swears too much, especially since it was meant to be a family show) and I really loved the reggae version of one of her songs that she ended with. Sometimes I forget how much I enjoy reggae. Bouncy.

The concert was only one part of what's been a hectic weekend for us. It started on Thursday with dinner out for Jo's birthday (excellent food; small portions; too much garlic in the veg), continued on Saturday morning as we caught up with Marvin & Tianhao and their (relatively) new arrival Eden at Monika's (good news - the PT Cruiser is still running smoothly!) and ended with us having Dave & Julia and John & Joan over for lunch after church (no comment in brackets for this).

Joanne's off playing indoor netball at the moment so I thought I'd take the opportunity to get this all down. It never stops, eh?

Swing a cat

I just learned this mind-blowing fact. And it's so mind-blowing I just had to share it with you.

If Stewart Island was divided into squares of 50cm by 50cm there would be enough squares for every single person in the world to have one. Put another way, every person in the world could stand on Stewart Island.

See, I told you it was mind-blowing.

For those of you with NE Lincs geogrpahical knowledge, instead of NZ graphical knowledge, that's pretty much like drawing a pentagon where Grimsby, Scunthorpe, Gainsborough, Lincoln and Horncastle are the corners and standing every person in the world in that shape. Market Rasen would be even busier than race day.

Dancing dragons

Every year Christchurch City Council along with the Asian NZ Foundation organise a Chinese Lantern festival. It started in 2006, I think, so last weekend was the fourth annual running. I think it started originally as a sort of celebration of the Chinese New Year and Chinese culture with a few lanterns down by the Avon in Victoria Park but has grown into a whole cultural experience. As well as the lanterns, some of which are pretty amazing really, there are Asian food stalls and Chinese entertainment, such as dancing, music, singing and traditional puppet and face-changing acts. I think the highlight for me was probably the face-changing thing or maybe the face-changing puppets. That was an impressive combination.

The lanterns were really quite impressive too. I'm not quite sure what I expected but maybe the traditional type lanterns. You know, the sort of pop-out corrogated paper ones, with a candle inside. In the end, they were really amazingly detailed, as you can see from the photos. Well worth a wander round to have a gander. It was pretty busy though. Some of the biggest crowds I've seen in Christchurch.



Another totally original act, the like of which I've never seen, involved this elaborate crane-like contraption and a whole load of ropes, and dancing orange dragons. Hopefully you the video will give you a bit of a taste of what the show involved. I still cannot figure out how they turned the dragons round to make them go back to their house. And I'd hate to imagine the hassle it would be sorting out all the ropes if they got tangled.

This weekend has been quite a social weekend. On Friday night we had those involved with the Exploring Discipleship course over to ours for a bit of a debrief about how the course went last term and how we might tweak it going forward. Then yesterday we had a pot-luck lunch over here for Joanne's indoor netball team and their other halves, while today, after church, Tim & Christine had us and a few others over to their new place for a barbecue to thank us for helping them move back in December.

"While the cat's at home with girlie mates trying on clothes...

...the mouse goes out taking photos."


On Monday Joanne hosted an Undercoverwear party at our place and had ten girlies over. I was duly banished from the house. So after I finished playing touch rugby at about 8pm I went for a drive and found myself at New Brighton. I had only ever been during the daytime and I'd been told that at night the pier lights up in pretty colours. I wasn't disappointed. It gave me an excuse to play around with some night-time photography and shutter settings and stuff too.

The square of the hypotenuse

Usually I ignore those T-shirt ads you see in the sponsored bits down the side of websites. Most of the time the designs don't do anything for me, but this one tickled me particularly. You might have to be a bit of a maths geek to get it, mind.

If you don't get it, trust me, it's funny. And clever.

Those magnificent men in their flying machines

When my dad was here last year one of the things we did was visit the air force museum at Wigram. Today they held their annual open day. Part of the programme involved an air flying display. I've always like planes (wanted to be a pilot in the RAF for a while, until poor eyesight ended that idea) and used to go to air displays with my dad as a kid. As a result I couldn't pass up the opportunity to go along to a display only a couple of kilometres from home.

The display wasn't quite what you'd see at a big European or American air display but it was still good. I was always going to enjoy it, I think. I'm always so impressed with what the pilots can do with their aircraft. You never expect helicopters to fly almost vertical or large planes to perform the tight banks and steep climbs that they do. And the close-quarters synchronised stuff is pretty special. The highlight for today for me though was probably what the pilots of a Boeing 757 and a Hercules managed to pull off. Just amazing.

The best seven

There are certain moments when it's good to be an Englishman in New Zealand. This is one of those moments. This weekend the IRB Sevens World Series has reached its Wellington leg. New Zealand were at home, favourites and looking to retain the trophy they won last year. 43 games passed. Two teams remained - New Zealand and England. New Zealand led 17-5 at half-time. As the hooter sounded to end the second half New Zealand led 17-12. But unlike football play continues at the end of normal time until the ball goes out of play. So England had one last chance. Which they took. A try under the posts, duly converted. England win 19-17. In the Kiwis backyard. Ouch! :)

Yesterday, making the most of the lovely weather and the public holiday that is Waitangi Day Joanne and I took our bikes up to Bottle Lake Forest Park for a ride around. It's a lovely place on the northern edge of town, with tracks and paths where people ride horses, walk, cycle or run or whatever. It's so nice to get out and do some outdoorsy stuff whenever we can.

Last night we went round to Jona and Jane's, friends from church, for a bit of a party type thing, which was nice, to catch up with a few people. And this morning we went round to Dave & Kylie's for morning tea. Dave is the new assistant minister at St John's and one of his responsibilities is Bible studies and that includes the Christianity Explored and Exploring Discipleship courses. It was really just an introductory thing so we could get to meet them and so that he could hear from us about ED and from Cam & Jo about CE and stuff. If you are after prayer requests by the way, it would be great if you could pray for the Christianity Explored course that starts at church a week on Wednesday, that people would come along and have open hearts and minds to what they'll hear discussed from Mark's gospel. We're not involved in leading at CE any more of course, with our involvement in ED, but it'll still be great to have you joining us in prayer for the course.

Whoops

I'm not quite sure how I've let over a month slip by since I last wrote something. A bit slack of me, I know. I guess the month's just been a bit full on really and I've not really felt like sitting in front of the laptop of an evening when I've got home from being in front of a PC all day. Poor show, eh?

Well, what's happened since January 2nd? I guess it's worth mentioning the rail trail. The weather this summer has been pretty awesome. One day it wasn't quite so awesome was a Sunday a couple of weeks ago when the middle of the afternoon saw rainfall and thunder and lightning and hail storms and more rainfall. This was the day that Joanne & I and Blair & Amy had decided to try the Motukarara to Little River section of the rail trail. We'd heard forecasts of bad weather coming in but it was sunny when we left home. Even the 'omen' of me blowing a valve on my bike tyre wasn't enough to put us off. We set off and then the heavens opened. We put a brave face on it and cycled probably about 7 or 8km of the 20km section. It wasn't cold or windy. Just wet. Very wet. A little short of halfway we all kind of decided we'd call it a day and save the rest for a nice day. Three of us turned round and headed back to where we started, and the car. Blair carried on. The other car was at the other end you see.

Maybe if it's nice weather this weekend, what with it being a three-day weekend and everything, we might try again. We got a towbar fitted on the big car today and I plan to buy a bike rack tomorrow so at least it means we don't have to mess around taking off the front wheels to load them into the car anymore.

The main reason for the towbar and bike rack is so that we can take our bikes when we have weekends away. We've not really taken many weekends away since we've been here but we've recently planned a few for the coming months. First up, next month, we've got a weekend in Tekapo planned. April sees us head up to Auckland for Easter to catch up with Jo's family. And then in May we've got a weekend in Wellington booked. Air New Zealand recently had a sale on internal flights too. $49 one way to Wellington. Can't go wrong, eh?

This Sunday just gone saw the annual church family sausage sizzle. As I mentioned last year the sausage sizzle Sunday always takes me back to our first ever experience of St John's four years ago now, when Joanne and I visited Chch for a weekend. This time Joanne and I were in charge of cooking the sausages. We had 420 to cook. They were the pre-cooked variety you can buy over here though so at least there was no risk of giving anyone food poisoning.

It still amazes me sometimes how Nuzziland cannot quite let go of the reins that keep it tied to the motherland. News over here quite often picks up something news-worthy from the UK, you see. Like the recent snow over there. Sure it's some heavy snowfall and stuff but if we'd had similar record dumps over here I don't think it'd make the BBC news would it?

I am so looking forward to the football season starting again this year. The first game is at the start of April. I really enjoyed playing last year and as fun as the summer league has been, it will be good to play teams a similar level and not come up against teams from divisions way above ours. I want to reach my twenty goal target this year. I'm determined to do it but the matches missed due to the Wellington weekend away and the UK trip in June will mean less matches in which to achieve it. We'll see.

Parties, beaches, pipi and visitors

Happy New Year. A little belated, but heart-felt all the same.

So, another New Year's Eve another New Year's Eve party. Our fifth in a row and the tradition seems to be catching on in New Zealand. Most of our guests even turned up without eating first too. I think we had about 35 over this time so well up on the 10 or so we had for our first Nuzziland one. It seemed to all go well, I think. Enough people that karaoke wasn't compulsory, good enough weather to use the garden too, and enoough food for everyone, despite Jo's panics all afternoon prior to the party. Four chickens, a roast pork loin (with tremendous crackling might I add), some of Auntie Doreen's stuffing, a big dish of bobotie, and plenty of bread and salad seemed to satisfy everyone. I do love the way that people who swear they'll never sing in public weaken by the end of the evening though. It never ceases to amaze me.

Next week it's time for YLC again. Quite a few of the strand group leaders come over from Australia and often they need a place to stay while they're here. On New Year's Day a couple, Andrew & Jess, arrived. The conference starts on Monday but they arrived a little early so need a place to stay. We've got our spare room of course, so were happy to be able to open our home to them for a few days when we were asked. They're currently cooking us dinner and it smells pretty good, I have to say. It's always nice to meet Christian brothers and sisters you've not met before. Just having that one big important thing in common breaks down so many barriers. You might have nothing else in common but there is always a starting point with Christian family.

Today Joanne and I decided to have a day out. The weather for the past week has been lovely, right since Boxing Day, so we thought we'd head to the beach. Someone Jo works with recommended Tumbledown Bay, over on the south side of Banks Peninsula so we thought we'd give it a go, not knowing anywhere better. It was a lovely place. A long shallow beach protected by hills with clear water. We had a bit of a picnic, sat reading our books, went for a paddle and also 'caught' some pipi. I won't eat them of course but Jo loves seafood and catching them took her back to her childhood summers on the beaches.