Honda House Wellington

... socially too, which is good. Throughout the week we do Salsa Tues, Leszek has floorball Wed whilst I swim & I have running with the ladies Thu night. Other nights are kept busy planning, sleeping or catching up with Isabel. We have some Christmas party invites too, which we're looking forward to attending. We both miss our UK social lives & friends/family, so need to keep busy.

Leszek is patiently awaiting for the visa application to ...

On October 24th, Wellington took part in 350, the world's biggest environmental event. It was a great day, nice and sunny (probably due to climate change) and there was a real family feel to the events and activities taking place. The kids got to make their own tshirts, plant a few shrubs and try out some nice food. Millie has gone vegetarian and ...

... high ! Anyhow we finally made it to Otaki and then Wellington today. Welly was as great as we remembered and we made a pilgrimage to the Mac's brewery and bar to sample their brilliant beer in its birthplace (we also have a case in the van).

We leave for the South Island in the afternoon tomorrow, which gives us 10 days there before we head to Oz.

Love to all of you and thanks for the emails - will reply when we have some wifi connectivity.

Another Wellington Phoenix season got underway in typical rain drenched weather - very like a wet November night at Ayresome Park.

Dylan enjoyed it thoroughly, with an 84th minute long range free kick sealing the result and taking his mind off his permanent hunger at games. We missed Phoenix's first goal of the 2-1 win against Perth as, surprise surprise we were on a toliet run for Dylan. He was in good voice, miming/singing as this video testifies.

... for me it was too short time to evaluate.
Interesting thing about New Zealand is that they normally have no central heating system in their homes despite the fact it gets pretty cold in winter. Electric heaters are used instead.
Wellington was my last stop on North island...

Day 14
Early morning along with the couple from Australia we set off for a ferry trip to South island. The journey takes ...

... to the wind turbine and maybe head over to Hawkins hill radar station and down to Red Rocks or back over to Macara. The Skyline track from Johnsonville is really beautiful but a better walking track. Well at least until you get to Macara anyway. The Karapoti classic is probably the biggest event on the mountain biking calender. It is a grueling 50 km slog through the Akatarawa forests. The track was very wet and muddy and there was alot of bike carrying involved. Myself and ...

... Lu accidentally got her hand stuck in the elevator, but luckily it was okay. We went out of the museum and I got to bungy jump (sort of!) on a trampoline, and did lots of flips. Then we watched some kids jump into the freezing cold harbour! On the walk down to the beach, we decided to rent a four wheel bicycle, and rode it up and down the waterfront. Wellington reminds me of Cape Town a little bit. There are lots of mountains and ocean and a ...

... to do but sit and drink for an hour and a half until we could eat! After a good fish dinner we went for a longish walk around the city, which was nice and certainly busy but much like every other city. There did seem to be a lot of art galleries, both private and public, which I'd have liked to see more of but they were all closed by then. The B&B served a really nice breakfast at the table and there with 3 other couples all around a big table ...

... showed us some views and took us to 4 vineyards in total, supplying us with a fruit and cheese buffet at the first. Great afternoon - I learned a lot about wine growing and even bought a couple of bottles!! She dropped us off at about 5.30 and after a brief rest we went down to the Vic for dinner. Tuesday 17th February Nelson to Kaikoura Left Nelson and took a winding, scenic (is there any other kind?) route towards Picton. At Havelock we took a left turn and drove along Queen ...

... after the short trip to my cousin’s house, where I stayed with her and her family. It had only been seven months since I’d seen them in Queensland but almost-four year old Ryan didn’t remember me, calling me David for the whole time I stayed there. That was OK though, because whoever David is, Ryan seemed to like him a lot.

One of the consequences of being on holiday is the fact that it’s so easy to become cocooned from what is going on in ...