photo time

I'm in a fabulous cafe called Caffiend (it's so good, I don't even mind the pun), drinking a huge latte in a bowl and eating a savoury muffin. Yum.

you too can enjoy my sunburn! 

we're going to the zoo... today

Hot and sunny in Wellington - yay!

Against her better judgment, Sandra has agreed to take me to the zoo today. One of her friends works there and can get us in for free, which is very nice.

We've done so much since I last updated - wine tasting, seal watching, coastal driving etc. Not to mention river rafting, jetboating and the hot springs in Hanmer. The springs were super relaxing, and even the sulphur pools were very nice, once you get your head around the fact that you're sitting in something that smells of eggy drains. Supposed to be very good for you anyway. The wine tasting was also good. We even visited Cloudy Bay, where all the Pelorus everyone drank on my 30th birthday came from! Had some incredible nutty lamb linguine with blue cheese at a nearby vineyard too. 

It's been so excellent to spend lots of time with Sandra - backgammon has figured highly, and she has also introduced me to Radler's beer, which tastes of lemonade and is perfect for summer. I need to find it in the UK! It's made by Montieths. Any beer-seekers who come across it must let me know. Sandra's been cooking up a storm during our visit too, and last night made an excellent vegetarian sausage roll. Her mate Ange came over with brandy snap ice cream which also went down very well... I had to go to sleep about 10pm, which is still a bit lame and early, but I don't see the point in forcing an extra couple of hours at this stage, as it will just be harder when I go home. We'll see how it is when we move to Australia on Monday :)

more pictures

I actually saw about 30 dolphins, but it was so amazing that I couldn't bear to look away and get my camera. Alice caught this one - right at the end - but seeing all of them together playing and leaping was pretty incredible.

and some more pictures:

Backgammon Cat

Obviously appalled at my backgammon skills, Rosa decided to make the move for me...

then in a game of Geek versus Cat, it was anyone's guess...

Photos!

I'm writing this from Sandra's computer again, which means I can't upload photographs yet. I'm going to do my best to find an internet cafe today so that I can post them, as I have some really good ones - including one of a sign saying, 'Penguins Crossing' :)

We had an excellent day yesterday. The weather didn't look very promising in the morning, so we decided to go for a drive round the bay, which yielded some pretty spectacular views. It was super-windy when we got out of the car for a better look - so much so that I was leaning right back just to stay upright! Guess I know now why they call it 'windy Wellington'! After a bit more of a drive, we were heading towards Mount Victoria when we came across a festival in a bit of Wellington called Newtown. Never able to resist free music, funky stalls and festival food, we got out, and ended up spending the whole afternoon there. It was pretty great. We saw an excellent New Zealand band called the Phoenix Foundation. I'm going to try and pick up some CDs of theirs, so if I do, and also if I find a better internet connection somewhere, I'll upload a song so you can hear them. I also bought some funky jewellery, including some earrings made of silver and copper from a local designer.

In the evening, we just has time to run back and get changed before heading out to Sandra's parents' house for dinner. The food was excellent, and it was fun to meet her family, who all seemed really nice. We stayed awake until about 8.30pm and then had to leave. Probably got to bed about 9pm... which was a 2 and a half hour improvement on yesterday - it's getting better! I woke up around 1am for a while, but then went back to sleep until about 7.45am. Definitely feeling better (apart from the sunburn we all have from our impromptu lying in the sun festival activities yesterday).

Human again

We arrived in Wellington at about 9.45am yesterday, and Sandra was there to greet us, which was lovely. We arrived then, but unfortunately, our bags did not. So there was much waiting around until a courier finally brought them over to Sandra's place in Petone - which meant that we missed the queer festival we had been going to drop in on. It rained pretty heavily though, so that may not have been a bad thing.

Sandra's house is gorgeous, as is her cat, Rosa (full name: Rosa Parks Free Cat). Her house is a five minute walk to the sea, so we had a little paddle yesterday. Alice was keen to have a swim, but it was definitely not warm enough. Today's much the same - warm, but quite windy - not suntan weather (yet). I think we're going to go for a coastal drive to see some of pretty Wellington, and then have dinner with Sandra's family later.

Managed to stay awake until 6.30pm last night, which, seeing as we set off from home at 11.30am on Thursday, seemed quite impressive. I slept until 4.30am, and then was wide awake for a couple of hours. I watched the first episode of 'Heroes' on my iPod, and am now looking forward to seeing the rest. Went back to sleep until about 8am, and definitely feel more human today. Sandra made pancakes with walnuts and maple syrup for breakfast...mmm... It's really good to hang out with her again and talk about setting the world to rights. It's been three years since we could do that in person, which is really too long.

I've got pictures, but will have to wait for somewhere with wifi to upload them, as I'm writing this from Sandra's computer and not my laptop. More soon!