A wander downunder

It was a brief but very fantastic trip back home. Great to catch up with family and many friends...unfortunately we couldn't get to see everyone in the short time we had. Big thanks to all those who could drop by for a visit.

After the killer trip of 20 hours – Doha to Dubai, Dubai to Sydney and Sydney to Auckland we arrived to a lovely warm and humid Auckland afternoon. Dan and Anita were there to meet us and it was just great to see them. Arrived at Huia road just as Jared was getting home from work – in time to help unload our bags from the car. Woolly the cat was very pleased to welcome us home with repeated requests to fill up his bowl...some things never change.

The garden was looking green and great with much growth since our last visit – those palms are going to grow into the power lines soon, and the house was looking very tidy and clean. It didn't take very long before the coffee machine was pumping out machiatos and flat whites. The beer and wine were chilling in the fridge and we felt very at home indeed. Jo, Raymond and Asher dropped by for the evening and we all had a great get together, dinner and a few quiet ones around the dining room table – it was just like we had never been away.

One of the main reasons for coming home apart from catching up with everyone was to finish off the house ( Council building consent requiring that work be finished and signed off later this year ) and it didn't take too long before Brian had re-acquainted himself with his tool belt, fired up some power tools and work had begun. Apart from one family get together weekend and a trip to Napier to see my Mum, I was flat out every day gibbing, gib stopping, sanding, painting and finishing off all the necessary trim. The day before leaving N.Z., the work was complete and a jolly nice building inspector signed off on the project much to my satisfaction and relief. Well done that man and during the course of all this work I have come up with the next fashion setting home improvement (reversing the trend where most people go for a colourful feature wall ) we now have a colourful room with the All New White Feature Wall....It wont be long and everyone will want one...just remember that we did it first.

It was really great, on the middle weekend of Lynne's brief stay ( only 12 days although Brian stayed on for another 10 days to finish off required work ) , that Rochelle and Charlie arrived from Geelong for a visit, along with Grandad / G Dog Graeme, up from Tauranga. Charlie who had probably heard the stories of what happens when the three sisters get together, finally got to witness the ensuing cacklefest and story telling he had probably been warned about. He was however able to get together with some of his cousins who he has rarely met before and even managed a trip out to the beach for a surf although conditions weren't the best.