Wellington again!

Hi all!

Sorry it's been a while! So... what've we been up to. Let's see if I can remember.

We moved into Anne and Ian's house as mentioned. They're fantastic, and completely spoiling us! So much so that they might never get rid of us.

We spent a few more days in Wellington. I took James to his first ever karate class. It was the first one back for the club after xmas and so they decided to make it a real killer. The boy done good - we must have done over 3000 punches/blocks at the start interspersed with sit ups/push ups etc and then some fighting at the end and he didn't get put off at all. So we'll probably be going back again tonight. On Saturday, Anne very kindly took us for a drive around Wellington and up to some viewpoints and then bought us a lovely breakfast. See... we're being spoilt rotten... so we got our bearings and saw lots of gorgeous views of the city.

On Sunday we headed over to the South Island to go and stay in the Bach (wooden house type thing) with Ian, Anne's husband, who had been there for the last month or so. The scenery there was absolutely stunning, and it was nice just to sit and take it all in without having to do anything! At Ian't suggestion we went out diving for a day. The water was a chilly 16 degrees and we were both wearing semi-dry suits, with a full hood and gloves. It made us look like US navy seals! The suits were pretty much brand new, so no leaks (YES!) and we were snug in the water. As we'd both anticipated freezing to death this was a welcome surprise! Ian came along with us on the boat, and at one point was the only man on deck, prompting him to ring Anne and tell her that he was skipper! We had a dive in a marine reserve, teeming with curious Blue Cod that came and nibbled our fingers, and another dive on the wreck of the Koi. Good fun. We're hoping to go back and dive the wreck of the Mikhail Lermentov in the near future.

What else... We went into Blenheim for a look around. Ummm can't remember... Came back with Ian to Wellington yesterday. Currently we're looking at ways to get up to Auckland and when we should go so we can meet Tomek on the 1st. Hope all is well at home!

Oh yeah.. Happy (belated) birthday Dan! And HI Gran!

Katy xx

Wellington, New Zealand

Hello!

So we're in Wellington now. I can't really remember what we did in our last few days in Sydney, apart from climb the Harbour Bridge! That was pretty memorable. As you can see from the picture we got to wear a really sexy jumpsuit for the experience. High fashion indeed. The climb we did is a new one called the Discovery Climb. Basically you walk/climb up the lower arch until you hit the road, and then get onto the upper arch to climb to the top for the obligatory cheesy photo =) Definitely hairy at times. I can't imagine what it would've been like actually working on building it and not being roped on. We both had a fantastic time wandering around up there with our roommate Dan.

... and then we left Oz! Sob! However, here we are in Wellington and absolutely loving it. Completely different from Oz. Colder for a start (we've both just bought hoodies, and it seems the old board shorts might be remaining in our bags for a while!), but that's probably because it's so windy here! Both loving the city, it's fantastic just to wander around in and people watch. We haven't done too much apart from that yet, although we spent a wonderful few hours in the Te Papa museum getting very excited about the only Colossal Squid specimen on display in the world. Mmm cephalopod-tastic!

I've been in touch with a local Goju-Ryu karate club and am off to train with the Chief Instructor for NZ in a special dan grade class on Sunday which should be good. 4 months of doing nothing might hinder my fitness somewhat but I'm looking forward to it! I've also sent an email to the president of the NZ Northumbrian Pipers Society (such a thing does indeed exist!) but I haven't heard back yet so we'll see if anything comes of that. I'm sure that would completely melt my brain =)

We're not entirely sure of our plans past this next week or so. We're getting prepared for the arrival of Tomek on 31st and then my parents two weeks later, so plans are being made to fit around that. For the moment we're happy hanging out here. At the moment it looks like we'll be moving into Lisa's flat on Tuesday (thank you!) with the help of her wonderful mum Anne (thank you!) and then we'll take it from there.

Hope the weather is picking up at home!

Katy x

New Year Photos!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!

Christmas and New Year!

Hello all in 2009!

So we're getting towards the end of our stay in Sydney! I wish I'd been able to update this earlier as I can't remember what we've been up to. Seeing as none of you know though I could make it up and you'd be none the wiser. Hmmm.

Anyway. Christmas day. We woke up to a fairly overcast day. All of us from the dorm decided that a swim in the sea would be a good start to the day. THe water, however, was absolutely freezing so we beat a hasty retreat to the hostel to warm up. There was a bit of lunch provided by the hostel and so we sat and ate by the beach as the weather got steadily hotter. Many drinks were had (!) and we sat there chatting until 11pm when the police cleared the area. The atmosphere was fantastic - so many people on the beach, both tourists and locals, and there was no hassle at all.

The day was marred slightly at about 1am when a drunk lad threw himself accidentally from the 3rd floor balcony of our hostel. He was very lucky to land on a tin roof on the floor below, but he still fell a good 15m. James ended up doing the first aid, which can't have been fun, and we were all very proud of him for getting on with it and taking charge. The lad has ended up in hospital with severe internal damage. What a nice Christmas!

On boxing day we went to watch the start of the Sydney - Hobart yacht race leaving Sydney harbour - very cool.

On the 27th I was lucky enough to be taken for a wonderful dinner courtesy of James' parents (THANK YOU!) at Wildfire. We were seated looking directly at the Opera House, which was beautifully lit up. Stunning food and we both laughed like idiots the whole night. Fantastic =)

Hmmm losing detail as I run out of time! New Years Eve was a day and a half. We went to Cremorne Point at 11am to make sure we had a spot to view the fireworks from. It was completely manic with people getting horribly possessive over every square inch of space. The day passed pretty quickly. Thankfully we managed to get a good view of the fireworks and they were absolutely spectacular. Definitely worth the wait! I wish I could get some photos up, but these computers are rubbish and I can't. Promise I will soon though!

The journey back took up about 3.5 hours. We were really unlucky... got a broken bus, then a broken train, then had a big wait for our final bus. People who left 2 hours later than us got back to the hostel first! However we had an unforgettable night so no complaints!

Ok... the time is going. Had a grand day at Taronga Zoo with Jimbo today. We're off to New Zealand on the 5th. Still a few bits and bobs to do here.

Happy New Year to all our readers.. (and much love to Gran, who I know reads the blog avidly!).

xxx