Christmas and New Year 2012-13

Another long silence from across the oceans.  Not surprising, really.  Christmas is always a time for hectic activity, and none more so than when you are a priest with six services falling on 3 consecutive days!  Preaching, presiding, assisting, it’s all go. Suffice to say it was busy but also wonderful.  

And family featured strongly throughout. Roy’s sister, Cindy, once more braves the long journey from Milan and arrives midnight 20 December, this time staying nearby in St Heliers, able to come and go easily.  Makes a huge difference.  So at this our second Christmas out here it is just the four of us, our smallest Christmas since 1984! 

[Roy, Cindy and Louisa ready to tuck in to Christmas lunch]

 It rains and is blustery.  No BBQ this year.  Roy and Cindy take charge of Christmas lunch (another first!) and I gratefully sit down and put up my feet.  And then Louisa falls ill, victim of a flu bug, and misses the wonderful wine tour on Waiheke Island we had long planned. Three vineyards and an olive oil tasting - Gold medal winning olive oils (Rangihoua)  especially and unexpectedly delicious.  Quite a day.

 [The boat trip out to Waiheke; my favourite island. Motukorea, ahead]

[Mud Brick winery, complete with herb garden]

On New Year’s Eve Oliver and Gillian arrive for their first visit.  Gillian, nearly 6 months pregnant, manages to tame jetlag and arrives fresh and eager for all that New Zealand can offer.  Apparently the trick is to stay awake for the whole of the first leg and then sleep the second.  Well, it worked for Gillian :)  Very impressive.  Although not surprisingly neither of them quite makes it to midnight....  But Roy, Cindy, Louisa and I stand on St Heliers beach and watch the fireworks launched from Sky Tower 10km away, as New Zealand ushers in this new year.

[Roy, Cindy, Louisa, Oliver and Gillian, cosied up on the balcony]

They spend 5 happy days with us seeing a bit of Auckland before heading off to explore South Island. 

[A rare photo of mother and son, down at the Waterfront]

Meanwhile I pack up my new tent, sleeping bag and wind-up lantern, and drive up to Matakana school grounds for New Wine and another few days of spiritual uplift.  I finally meet up with 2 people I’ve been friends with on Facebook ever since I arrived out here, but haven’t yet seen.  And somehow out of the whole field I have mysteriously pitched my tent right next to theirs…  gotta love the way that works.  Great worship, great company, great teaching.  And my palms burn daily.  Thank you, Lord.

[My fab new tent - this one I can actually stand up in!]

At which point Philly arrives.  We take a holiday home on the Whangaparaoa peninsula, at Matakatia Bay, and spend the week swimming, eating, laughing and playing games - notably Quiddler, a brilliant present from American Julie (if you haven’t got it you’re missing out!).  The boat features highly after Roy single-hands it up to a nearby marina.  We are 50 yds from the beach.  We have a big balcony with sea view.  We are all together, if only for 4 days.  What more could you want?

 [Balcony view overlooking Matakatia Bay]

 [My handsome husband - I love this photo]

 ['Quiddling', as we called it]

[Gulf Harbour marina, Kahu's home handily nearby on the peninsula]

 [Roy and Oliver bring Kahu to our bay; Rangitoto in the background]

 [Picnic at the beach, Shakespear (sic) Regional Park]

 [Joy!]

[Final meal together at Moreton's]

And our old friends Colin and Val Ferbrache, over from Guernsey for their son's wedding, join us for a swim and BBQ.

[Roy, Colin and Val, friends for the best part of 4 decades]

All good things, etc.  One by one – or rather two by two, as it happens – all our offspring depart, including Louisa whose 4 happy months with us is now up - though at least I can now reclaim my iPad :)  Feels a bit like Salad Days.... 

But not before trips to visit Bastion Point, One Tree Hill (Maungakiekie) and Mount Eden (Maungawhau) - all iconic sites not to be missed, and who knows when next the girls might have the chance?

 [The memorial to Michael Joseph Savage, first Labour Prime Minister in New Zealand, 

1935-40; credited with introducing the welfare state, and loved by pretty much everyone,

including Maori - which is why his memorial is at Bastion Point, scene of the 

18 month sit-in by protesting Maori in the 70s]

['I don't do heights', said Louisa as we climbed up to the top of One Tree Hill]

[Louisa and Philly, in front of the impressive crater of Mount Eden, 

Sky Tower in the distance]

And somewhat unusually on our last full day with the girls, we share a tribute picnic lunch to the memory of Robbie Burns with museum colleagues on the Domain.  There are even poetry readings :)

[Ode to a long-gone Scottish poet, in the shade of a venerable Moreton Bay fig tree]

And a final evening at Annabelle's, before a last stroll along St Heliers Bay.

 [All dressed up with somewhere to go]

[Our beach, at dusk]

It is now just the two of us again, and the house settles down to a quieter existence once more.

Five days after Louisa returns to UK it is her 23rd birthday, and when Ryan asks her to marry him she says yes!  

It seems I might need a new hat :)