Photo #10

This one is probably the favourite from my holidays.

This is Glenn's niece Megan - latte-making Brandon's little sister! There were a few santa hats lying around on Christmas Day which Megan had been playing with off and on. In between the unwrapping of her presents, she just put this one on and stood still - for all of about 2 seconds!

It's all about timing and that's always a fluke!

And the Road Trip ends!

Stage Three: Picton to Christchurch - without air conditioning!

A little hard to see I know but the blobs on the rocks are seals! Driving the coast was pretty amazing. A little different to what I remember but that was about 5 years ago! The brown countryside along the way (although a little browner than usual apparently) was splotched with random patches of green which was a little weird but the views of the sea were awesome.

We stopped at a cafe in Kekerengu - the only place around for miles, in fact, the only place there at all! - and man, talk about a slice of paradise. The cafe had a wooden floor throughout and great big windows all around. The doors opened out onto a deck and the view was straight out over the ocean... put a few palm trees up and it was like you'd driven onto a tropical island in the middle of the Pacific!

An old flatmate of mine (Sarah) had been on my mind a bit of late - you know, New Year and all, time to catch up with old friends - and who should sit down to share our massive table in the shade during lunch? None other than her parents! Random! We spent some time catching up which was great and then hit the road again - without air conditioning!

The summer sun was definitely up for the trip pretty much until we were just outside of Christchurch. It wasn't too long though and we were checking out my new 'digs'! Four bedrooms, separate lounge, dining and kitchen, two toilets... more than enough room to lose myself in!

And there ended the Road Trip - without air conditioning!

Was there a funny moment you may well ask? ...many mindless laughs, which always make a road trip fun, but it would have to be the first time I have ever actually seen a driver choose to stop at roadworks lights in order to get out and walk around the car (almost 3 times!!) just to cool down because - wait!... you guessed it!... there was no air conditioning!! Ahhhhh....things we do eh?!

And the Road Trip continues...

Stage Two: Wellington to Picton Ferry - with gross amounts of natural air conditioning!

Well, no photos here. Simple reason really. The cameras were in the car... on the fifth deck... which was out of bounds once we'd set sail... and was too far to walk anyway!

Funny moment? - an almost Titanic re-run coming into Picton. No, not the prow of the ship scene!! The screaming to their death sliding down the deck scene! Had anyone on the top deck have let go of the railing, they would have been blown to the back of the deck in a matter of seconds!

Another funny moment? - standing next to someone in exactly the same top and not noticing... for AGES!

And then there was... the Road Trip!

Stage One: Hamilton to Wellington - without air conditioning!

We went the other way round the mountain and I had great fun winding down the windows and just mucking around on the digital camera to try and capture the different view.

If you look really closely, you'll see there's 3 layers - light coloured grass at the bottom, dark trees in the middle and then the snow of the mountain. Kinda cool to be able to get a different view and just as well we did as about 5 or 10 minutes later, cloud settled all around the top of the mountain and you almost couldn't see the snow.

What can I say... it's just another of the favourites really!

Funniest moment? After finally deciding to take strawberries with us to dinner do you think there would be any fruit and vege shops on our side of the road for the last 2hrs of the drive? NO! ...and I mean NO! So we end up at New World spending twice as much as intended but I must report a rather marvelous find. Has anyone seen the magazine called 'KAREN'?! I kid you not! It looked pretty cool at a glance - glossy pages, full of fashion... dead cool if you ask me but hey, maybe I'm a little biased!

 

"Untle Lenn!"

I thought it was about time for at least a photo update. This is Glenn's nephew Brandon who just adores his 'Untle Lenn'...

A regular sight over Christmas was the latte kitchen scene with Brandon sitting on the bench asking as many questions as he could until his chocolate fluffy was ready. He'll be making coffee in no time!