My family and other animals

We left Napier fairly early yesterday and completed the drive in good time. There was a mixture of lovely countryside and some which was more ordinary.

The weather was glorious when we left Napier but it was dull and wet by the time we arrived in Palmerston North.

Our trusty guidebook, Lonely Planet, has a particularly interesting way of describing Palmy as it is called. John Cleese, who presumably visited for some reason, said that if you wanted to commit suicide but lacked the courage, then a visit to PN should do the trick. We would both admit that it has little to recommend it to us and we know that we would not have visited it had it not been for family reasons. Apparently, PN got their own back by naming a rubbish tip after Cleese.

Anyway, we found Caroline's house and had a very pleasant and interesting lunch with her, my aunt Joan, and Caroline's two children, William and Campbell, together with their two dogs and one cat. Needless to say there was a lot of reminiscing and historical discussion. It appears that unknown to me two of my mother's brothers had gone to NZ before the war and started a fishing business in the Bay of Plenty. It was her parents and her youngest sister who followed then after the war, leaving my mother and her other sister Peggy in the UK. Eccentricities in the male line of the family, of which there are definitely regarded as being examples, apparently originate with my mother's father, Joseph!!

We said a fond farewell about 3.00 pm and headed south, picking up the coast road and called in to see a business contact who is from NZ, although now based in the UK. His brother owns a lovely house at Peka Peka with broad views over the sea, and most of Gus's family (and it seemed lots of others) were there for a family party today. We enjoyed a glass of white wine with them and then headed to Wellington, arriving about 7.00 pm.

Once in Wellington we celebrated the great Ashes victory with a bottle of sparkling wine and some Thai nibbles. We shall miss it as we have much enjoyed watching it from time to time when we came back from walks, although we may see some of the one days matches which are coming up. Also the Pakistan team have arrived to play NZ.

Today we spent about 4 hours visiting Wellington, including the Botanical Gardens, the Parliament Buildings and walking along the harbour, stopping to soothe our feet in the sea by the main beach. It has been a good day.

We will shortly head of our tonight for supper and have an early start tomorrow as we have the three hour trip to the South Island. Believe it or not, we are over half way through our trip and we have not had a bad day. We have enjoyed every minute of it.