On Sunday night we got back from our amazing 10-day holiday in New Zealand. We spent the first 5 days at the top of the South Island around Nelson with Fraser, Moira and Lily who arrived the week before from the UK. The last time we saw them was exactly 2 years ago when we visited them in Scotland. Back then, I was pregnant with Florence, and Scarlett and Lily's
9-month age gap seemed huge. On this trip, they got on like a house on fire, played really well together and had a ball. From the base of a great house Moira and Fraser had rented we explored the local area and the fringes of Abel Tasman National Park. It was a trip down memory lane for Rob who spent many happy holidays in Nelson visiting the Russells. It was Rob's SatNav Man-brain that directed us to Aniseed Valley for the morning to swim in the river. The weather was amazing so the icy water was welcome.
The next day we jumped in the cars and headed off on a gorgeous hour's drive through orchards and farms towards Abel Tasman. Here we were loaded onto a speed boat on the back of a trailer and were pulled by a tractor along the road to the bay to be lowered in at low tide. We then enjoyed a spectacular, very fast and exciting boat ride around the bays before being dropped off at a beach in Torrent Bay, only accessible on foot or by boat. We spent the day picnicking on the beach, swimming in the lagoon and allowing the current to sweep us out around the sand bar to the ocean. It was an absolutely brilliant day and ended with a bbq at Fraser's aunts house.
Most of the orchards in the area specialise in growing boysenberries and raspberries. You can PYO, buy fruit and tuck into fantastic ice cream made from the fruit.
Bumpa Booooooooats ! Near the house there was a little kids theme park with a huge water slide and these hilarious bumpa boats.
As well as enjoying the commonplace amazing NZ scenery, this was also a great trip for catching up with old friends. Rob's mate Sue Frost, who he met years ago when he lived in Texas, was in Nelson at the same time and we hooked up with her at her sister's place.
And Gordon, Linda and Cindy, who Rob and Fraser knew from their Wellington days, were all also in NZ at the time and flew down from Wellington to see us, just for the night.
We were very sorry to see Fraser, Moira and Lily go when we all headed off on New Year's Eve, M& F back to Scotland and the snow and us onto the North Island for 4 more days.
Glenys and Gerald have been friends with Rob's Mum for years, and it was their move to Greytown from Wellington that inspired Barb to do the same a few years later. It's a fantastic village in the Wairarapa, only an hour from Wellington that has great shops and restaurants despite feeling very rural. It's close to the wineries at Martinborough and the coast is half an hour away. Glenys and Gerald are in the middle of renovating their lovely old villa, but despite the dust sheets and scaffolding, still managed to throw together a gorgeous new year's eve dinner, with their friend Odelle and her daughter Maya, with only an hour's notice that we were coming. I wonder if that is why they work in hospitality.
As a base for the area we stayed in the lovely apartment they have renovated above their cafe and deli in the village.
On New Year's Day we headed back towards the Kapati Coast to visit Rob's dad and his partner Margaret. Ian is recovering from major surgery but was surprisingly chipper and we had a great lunch together, and Florence got to meet her grandad for the first time.
From there it was back to the Wairarapa for the races on January 2 with Rob's sister Catherine , her partner Bob and his family, Glenys, Gerald and Odelle. It was a stinking hot day but we had a ball and the kids loved the horse racing, the jumping castle and the picnic.
We spent our last day in Greytown visiting old family friends Margaret and Berta before heading to Odelle's for dinner. She lives on an amazing block of land where she has planted an olive grove that supplies her olive oil business, grows all her own fruit and veg, and keeps chickens and pigs.
After final goodbyes early in the morning of Jan 4, we drove back to Wellington, to Island Bay to visit the place where Rob and his siblings scattered Barb's ashes.
The big push towards Scarlett's first day of school began yesterday with her last day at Wattle Lane, the day care centre and preschool she has attended twice a week since 2005. Most of her mates left before Christmas so it wasn't too emotional for her. Instead she got to have a big cuddle with some of the women who have looked after her over the years and with two of her mates, Jean and Juno (and Florence), who don't start school until next year. She'll still get to see the carers when we go to pick up Florence who will stay on there two days a week.
In other news, it is absolutely roasting here at the moment. We are getting up at least once a night for cold showers, our fans are on full blast and we are trying to keep the house cool in the day by shutting all the doors and windows. I know we shouldn't complain, but jeez Louise, today it is supposed to be getting up to 35 degrees. Even the lizards are looking for shade. At 8am it was already 27 degrees. As a result of the heat we can't get our grass to grow at all as it is either getting fried or getting too much shade from our gum trees and tropical palms. Rob turned action man tree surgeon last weekend when he scaled one of the trees to hack away at some of the bigger branches in the hope of liberating the grass.
