Category Archives: family

bikes, city, family, food, friends, MTB, NZ, travel

NZ Visit – Northern Week

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Ben & Gina’s upcoming wedding finally provided me with the motivation to spend considerable money & annual leave to return home to New Zealand for a brief visit. I was a little concerned that a wedding at the end of winter would mean that I would have a rather cold & gloomy visit home.  I need not have worried, it was a generally stunning & warm fortnight – especially after all the prior rain I was told about.

I had planned for my inbound flight to arrive on my birthday – much better than the other option of missing one’s thirtieth through time zone changes – & was very pleased that favourite sister, Adele, made it all the way up for the night’s celebrations.  After picking up the rental car & navigating new roads, we made it to Mt Eden.  Andrew & Shelley’s house (they have returned to NZ after many years in London – the latter few during which I spent a fair bit of time with them) was in a fair state of disarray as the kitchen area was gutted for next week’s new kitchen.  It was a gorgeous & warm day to head up Mt Eden with a good old steak & mushroom pie to catch some views of Auckland.

We decided a local B&B was a much better option for sleep than a rather crowded lounge next to a (de)construction site – so after a jet-lag induced nap, it was time to wander up the road to Mt Eden Village & the bar where I’d organised a small gathering to see a lot of people at once.  I recommend having a birthday when visiting home – it’s a good excuse to get everyone together.  A most enjoyable night catching up with many old friends – a little odd for me being the only one that knew everyone else & therefore having to actually mingle & talk to everyone, imagine that!  Was my usual slack self at taking pictures of people, but pretty pleased with this one.

Another clear morning was enough excuse to wander around Mission Bay with Adele in the sun, before having lunch with cousin David & dropping Adele at the airport.  Straight down to Waihi Beach & the farm, where strangely Rosemary & the children were missing (gone to Te Puke).  While Dave continued milking the cows, I had another big nap before a bit of a boys night eating well too much down in the village before returning to watch the All Blacks.

Sunday Brunch with catching up with Tori & Greg down at the Mount before strolling along Main Beach reminiscing (my first school is not too far away).

Up in to the hills behind Tauranga to check out Bruce & Sue’s new property (they’ve recently moved from Pukekohe) before taking the back roads in to Te Puke for another gathering/birthday celebration. It seems plenty of kids have arrived since I left, there were almost as many children running around as there were adults (not running around) that evening.  Penny excelled in the cake department, yet again, & there was the general abundance of food that comes from a good Te Puke shared dinner.

I’ve just realised that the rest of the week continued in the same way – I drove a fair bit & saw scores of close friends & family.  I’m still tired from the return flights & going straight back to work, so it’s to the highlights we go.

I was thrilled that my first bike ride post-shoulder operation was in the Redwoods & on my singlespeed that I haven’t ridden for over three years (I brought it back with me, it’s now assembled & awaiting Thursday’s after work ride).  A relatively easy ride which the shoulder & legs handled admirably.

More Auckland outings with Shelley & Amelie in the sun, plenty of good food too.  By the end of the week, I’d seen that Auckland is actually quite a nice city – if you can get down to the water.

From Devonport

Auckland City from Devonport

Rangitoto from Devonport

Other good visits included a return to Ironmaking at NZ Steel; Pukekohe visits to my old flat; and a coal dinner.  The wedding was down south of Hamilton on a vineyard (who knew there were such things in the Waikato?) halfway through my visit.  It was just warm enough for the service to be outside (but that’s easy to say when you wore a jacket & weren’t one of the ones with bare shoulders). It was a super sweet service & most excellent to see two close friends clearly so happy; the food & cake wasn’t bad either.

One last stop before the South Island was necessary in Wellington to see Elizabeth, Nigel & recent-addition Cara. I’ve not been more thrilled on hearing a friend was expecting a first child as I was when Elizabeth told me she was pregnant, so there was much delight in catching up with this expanding family. In what seems to be a common thread of these visits, the food was once again scrumptious.

family, food, UK

London weekend

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The chance to see Rhys Darby (a NZ comedian best known as Murray, present, from Flight of the Conchords) near the end of his UK tour had me in London for weekend last. Saturday either side of noon was spent doing an unhealthy amount of clothes shopping (which in my book is setting foot in a clothes store), with the redeeming factors being tapas for lunch and Trish’s eye & advice.

I met a few other Kiwis in SheBu for a drink & meal before the show – I think that’s the first time I’ve been in a Walkabout pub, not bad for all this time in the UK. I only knew high school friend Jeff, but as it turned out one of his other friends couldn’t make it so I got a significant upgrade in my seat. The show was fantastic, not quite as side splittingly funny as I perhaps expected – but hilarious all the way through & a couple of tears of laughter shed.

Second-cousin Catherine & Chris have recently finally found a house to buy in NE London, so I was keen to visit & catch-up, almost a year since I saw them shortly after returning from Canada. Summer finally arrived with vengeance on Sunday, so Trish & I set off to lunch. Olympic preparations were obvious & our drive took us past the impressive stadia – the journey was a bit slower than it otherwise might have been, but not any slower than taking the trains & walking at each end. I’m just glad that I’m well away from the Olympics & won’t have to deal with all the congestion as I choose from thirty-odd BBC channels to watch whatever might be going on.

Duly impressed by the new house & all the work that has obviously been done quite recently, we settled down for a great lunch on the patio overlooking playing fields & woodland. Silly me, didn’t even consider that it might be worth putting in a hat when I packed Friday night – but after the last two months, I think it’s understandable. Chris apparently has been wanting to used their not-insubstantial charcoal barbie for some time, so it was put to good use.

I do like that people choose to cook lamb when I’m over, I’m pretty sure I’ve had more lamb since leaving NZ than I did living in the country – it’s fantastic. The large piece of lamb served up didn’t disappoint & we were all well fed. Even though there were six of us, I imagine that there is still lamb in the fridge at Chris & Catherine’s. With all the new potatoes, asparagus & various salads – it turned into quite the feast that I wasn’t expecting, I’m hardly going to complain about that.

A not very well timed photo – that’s a large piece of lamb, & Chris too

So a most pleasant afternoon catching up with Catherine, Chris, Carol (Mum’s cousin & Catherine’s mum), Barry (Catherine’s dad) & Trish (also Mum’s cousin, but you probably should know that by now) and being well fed while sweltering in the sun.

city, family, food, friends, London, UK

On the Thames

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After two rather strange events at the end of last week – I joined a gym & bought runners (need to burn energy somehow while I’m off the bike) – I headed up to London for the weekend. Mostly it was to catch up with people I haven’t seen for some time. Since I last saw them two months ago just after my operation, Levi & Marki and Jeff have been to NYC, Czech & Turkey in different permutations. So with my Rome trip as well, there was a fair amount to discuss. Time was a bit limited as they were heading off to the O2 to see Kayne & Jay-Z (maybe I’m just boring, but I didn’t see the attraction). However, someone had decided that a good way to get to the O2 (which is well away from the centre of London) was to get a ThamesClipper (a pretty fast catamaran passenger ferry) down the river.

I jumped at the chance as while I’ve walked over, under & beside; driven over, under & beside; cycled over, under & beside; and ridden trains over, under & beside the Thames many times over the last four years I’ve previously never found reason to get on a boat on the river. It was good fun watching so many landmarks slide by from a different vantage point – I particularly liked going under Tower Bridge.

Meeting up with more concert-going friends in the O2 (I’d never been in before – it really is an incredibly large tent with all sorts of shops, restaurants, a squash competition & of course the arena), I joined them for a very late lunch before riding buses back to Sidcup. Trish picked me up & went out to watch the Bexley Village world go by as we savoured our Moroccan meal. I’m not sure acoustic Lily Allen & Lady Gaga is traditional Moroccan music, but whatever.

Sunday was spent driving north into Essex & visiting various family – the main point of the weekend away. A very pleasant cup of tea with my great-uncle (Grandad’s brother) as he regaled me with stories of his travels in WWII as a wireless operator. Still can’t picture Blackpool as a place to go & learn Morse code or why exactly Alan was shipped to Brazil, Durban, Bombay, Iraq, Cairo & Libya. But then war doesn’t make a lot of sense on much higher levels than that, so I’m really not too fussed. Always a delight to spend time with a very switched older generation (with a surprisingly good grasp on current news) – there’s some small hope that I won’t completely lose my marbles in fifty-odd years. Plus Alan was interested in my USA roadtrip (particularly Yellowstone) photos, so I got to show some of those.

A little bit back towards London, I spent the afternoon with Carly & her family. One of only two second-cousins on my maternal grandmother’s side (compared to the plenty on grandad’s side), it’s been sometime since I’ve seen them – the kids & house are now much bigger. As Carly & David honeymooned in Banff, there’s always plenty of Canada talk which is good fun; family also is a hot topic, as Carly’s brother, father & grandfather are all quite funny (/crazy) there is generally much amusement.

family, food, UK, vehicles

Christmas-like Easter

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A four day weekend was once again too much to stay at home & read & watch Spooks with my arm in a sling, so a good excuse to get away. Tedious buses & trains took me to Somerset for Easter weekend – which was strangely much more similar to Christmas than I am used to. It’s not Easter Sunday as it is in NZ, rather Easter Day. I’m not completely sure what is a normal Easter at home – but I wasn’t familiar with sitting around eating copious amounts of food, drinking well, fruit cakes, masses of cheese & biscuits and receiving cards & presents. I approve of little-Christmas – especially as all the exercise I could manage was walking to town & down the beach.

Gary was Stationmaster for the afternoon at the local miniature railway, so I escaped into the sun to watch for a few hours. There were plenty of little steam engines chugging around the 3.5″/5″ double-gauge track carrying a surprising number of children and parents/grandparents around. That smell of steam and partially combusted coal is still good on such a small scale. I managed to get a couple of loops of the recently extended track – but of course all I wanted to do was tinker with the little levers, fill coal boxes & water tenders. Alas. Anyway, that was different experience & I got to hear some proper West-Country accents (most of the people I know in the area are imports) – where you don’t have to have a eye-patch & a wooden leg for it to be acceptable to say yarrrr.