Mussels Wrapped in Bacon

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Instead of flying back just for the wedding I decided to stay on for Christmas and New Years and a bit of summer. Calgary winter could wait.

The summer was spent relaxing, I had intended to do some work but that fell through. Real shame that. So it was days at the beach, playing tennis with my brother Todd, golf with the family, watching loads of cricket on tv and many other strenuous and stressful activities.

Todd was living at home over summer, he plays cricket professionally for Canterbury and then in Aberdeen in the off season. I was stoked for him when he scored his first first-class hundred for Canterbury against Northern Districts. Hopefully there'll be plenty more in the future.

So a lot of time was spent hanging out with Todd and Mum and Dad, if that wasn't the case I was generally staying at Fitch and Frans who had also recently got engaged. Whilst in Christchurch they purchased a house, so it was exciting to share their enthusiasm when the deal went through. Brendon spent quite a few weekends up from Dunedin, and Chris "cannonball" Pasterz whom we went to uni with came down from Napier too so the group of us went on various outings. We went to watch a Black Caps cricket match, went to this crazy rope course in ridiculously high trees that was exhausting, and watched a buskers show in the cental square which I somehow got roped into and had to wear pink fluffy handcuffs.

This crew along with Callum and Ginny, Frankie and Pete and a collection of others celebrated new years together. The day was spent playing some drunken baseball until a crazy dog kept stealing our ball and Callum was in danger of throttling it. The night entailed a delicious bbq including Callums speciality mussels wraped in bacon, listening to good music and general partying, you get the gist.

Christmas the week before had been only my second at home in five years so it was nice to spend it with my family. We had a nice relaxed day and caught up with my Grandad Cyril, Uncle Howard and Auntie Rose. Over the next few days I went with Mum and Dad for a drive out to the coast. Dad has taken up Salmon fishing so cast off in the river mouth. He didn't catch any, in fact he didn't catch any all season. Not sure if I'd have the patience for that.

My cousin Tracey has a daughter Natalie that I hadn't met before so was pleasantly surprised when they made a trip down to the South Island. It was good to catch up with Tracey and we were all blown away by how smart little Natalie was. She is only 5 and could probably read War and Peace.

Other events that summer included a weekend trip to Hanmer Springs, showing Nicola's brother around who was travelling around Australia and New Zealand, catching up with my old boys cricket teamamtes of old (and even fielding for Todd's team in an emergency) and getting a sh#tload of injections so I didn't get any jungle fever in South America.

It was sad to be leaving NZ after a great summer and catching up with everyone, but I was looking forward to seeing Nicola and furthering my travels of North America. A big thanks to Mum and Dad and Fran and Fitch (my second Mum and Dad) for putting me up and changing my nappies.

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Photos

Hottie
A photo that Nic's brother Ryan took. Isn't she lovely?