Family fun

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- FOOD: More bacon sarnies, a good old BBQ with very good BBQ food, NZ wine - mmmm. Firewater, oyster and vodka shot - not so mmmm. Fry ups and Sunday roasts made better by the fact Stuart cooked them.

- AREA: Such a nice house to have some luxuries in - our own room, a BATH with fluffy towel, general relaxing amongst family. A party like one of mine. Some local sites.

- PEOPLE: My lovely cousin, his lovely wife and their ADORABLE baby. Jo's welcoming parents.


Sat 30th July: We got out of Thames as fast as possible as it had no atmosphere and stopped for a bacon sandwich in a lovely big, green field area.
Arrived at Stuart's at long last - him and his wife Joanne and their 3 month old son Reuben live with Joanne's parents - such a lovely house. Stu wasn't back but Joanne made us feel very welcome and Reuben is SOOOOO CUTE!
I had a bath - heaven, my first in the whole of the trip, with a nice big fluffy towel to dry off. We each had our own room and it was so nice to see Stuart again after we calculated 13 years!!! He was amazed to see me all grown up, I was amazed to see him all married with a baby (and how he adores him too).

We went to a BBQ at his mate's house (so nice to have a BBQ again) - it was cold outside but fantastic food - steak, South African sausage (Stuart's introduction me thinks), beers and a constant flow of wine (and a very strange drink of firewater, an oyster and fejoa flavoured vodka - nuff said). Reuben was very well behaved for his first party and spent practically the whole time sleeping. The party was so like one of mine - high emotions, Jewish dancing etc. Very good fun but we left to watch South Africa play Australia in the tri-nations. Stuart's supporting fan clothing helped as S Africa won - HOORAY.


Sun 31st: After a nice long lie in Stuart did me proud and cooked a good old fry up. After we'd recovered from the previous evening's entertainment, we ventured out for a tour of the town seen from a local's point of view - even though it was raining very heavily.
We went up One Tree Hill which is now No Tree Hill as the Maori's chopped down the largest 'pa' tree which was growing there in an act of rebellion. So there is now just an obelisk but good views of all of Auckland.
It's possible to see the almost perfectly circular Mount Eden along with many of the other 48 extinct volcanoes. It's strange to see how narrow Auckland is from coast to coast with a lot of beautiful lakes, greenery and hills in between.

We carried on to Devonport - a quaint little area across the bridge where we checked out the old tunnels and fortifications built into the volcano in response to Russian invasion fears (and paranoia!).
Still feeling a bit worse for wear we went back home where Stuart and Joanne made the next amazing meal of the day - A SUNDAY ROAST (another first in 4 months) with lovely NZ wine, ate while chilling in front of the TV and chatting to Joanne's parents who had returned and made us feel just as at home as Stu and Jo had. Reuben was being very smiley and adorable. Me broody? NO, never...

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