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Published: August 28th 2007
Us on the yacht
With Joe trying to look enigmatic in the background...We had a fantastic welcome to New Zealand from the O'Neill family, our friends from England who emigrated to New Zealand a few years ago. Kim and her youngest son Harry picked us up from Wellington airport and took us straight to Chocolate Fish, a beach cafe which is a Wellington institution, for hot chocolate...and chocolate fish, overlooking the sea. Joanna then proceeded to get sunburnt in about half an hour - an early reminder that there are gaps in the ozone layer around here! That night we had a proper 'down under' barbeque at Kim and Joe's house, where we were staying, giving us a chance to catch up with their three children living at home (Harry, Jack and Emily) and the rest of the family, namely their dog Boris and cat Zorro! We were made so welcome that we spent 6 nights there, relaxing, pottering around Wellington and generally enjoying being part of the family, before catching the ferry over to Picton to begin exploring the South Island. We also met up with the family a few weeks later in Kaiteriteri on the south island (of which more in the next posting) and returned to spend two more nights
with them in Wellington before we started exploring the north island!
We had such a lovely time with the O'Neills and we're really grateful to them for putting up with us for so long! Highlights include walks on the beach and in the park with Boris; ice creams with Kim and Harry on the beach at Oriental Bay; visiting the excellent Te Papa museum, a lovely evening trip with Kim and Joe on their friend Steve's yacht (though it did end with Joanna bumping her nose and breaking her sunglasses - well if she will get in the way of the mainsail...) and countless other happy moments. More than anything, it was lovely to be with our friends, to see them so happily settled in New Zealand and to be in a family home again after a few months on the road! Stephen's undoubted highlights were teaching Harry to play poker (bad influence!) and joining Joe and his Dad in a great deal of cricket watching!
After thoroughly wearing out our welcome we reluctantly dragged ourselves away to get on with what we came here for - touring the country!
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