We've been back from New Zealand for a couple of weeks now and STILL haven't finished sorting out the pics that we took there so you'll just have to be content with a modest selection...

I've also noticed that I seem to have forgotten to take photos of actual family members -- although the horrid faces they pulled and the threats of physical violence when I tried to photograph them may explain the lack of happy snaps.

We arrived Thursday evening after a full day of waiting and flying and waiting and flying. John saw a pod of whales near Kapiti Island as we flew from Auckland into Wellington. I gained a new loathing of Air New Zealand. However at least we could land -- NZ has had the most hideous weather... Joc called us the day before to warn us that we might well be diverted to Palmerstone North because the cloud had been so low and wet for days... And in fact we were followed around by 'NZ sunshine', as JB called it, for the entire time we were there. The picture below was taken during a rare moment of non-pouringness at Apiti. Still, we got off fairly lightly -- elsewhere there were tornados and floods that wreaked havoc.

That tiny bunch of buildings is, of course, the throbbing metropolis of Apiti... JB and I were feeling rather proud of ourselves for having puffed our way up the hill, when we were completely upstaged by an obscenely fit Kiri pelting past us on her daily run.

We and Kiri and Kiwa were meant to be in Apiti in time for lunch -- in the event we arrived there sometime after 6pm somewhat delayed by hellish traffic jams from Plimmerton/Pukerua Bay onwards, but mostly held up pissing around having breakfast etc and dropping in to swap cars with Greg and, not very subtly, check out the impressive adultness of both Greg and Bevin... Greg is doing 1st year in industrial design at Massey University and seems to be thriving. We've invited him to look after the flat whilst we're in Turkey and he seems pretty keen on the idea.

Gordon and Lynne were away for most of Easter cycling around the Bay of Plenty with Lynne's brother and his young family. JB and I went over for dinner when G and L were back and G. whipped up a delicious green curry and then he and JB proceeded to drink their way through every alcoholic substance in the place... I hung out with Greg and Kiwa who were playing playstation. Kiwa tried to let me win at some car racing game but I stubbornly kept crashing into things and driving the wrong way (I'm a danger even on virtual roads), and Greg showed me some great games, things that he'd been working on, and the rudiments of PHP programming. I felt all-round humbled.

Anyways, Apiti WAS rather wet and cold but we had a great time. Especially the bits where Kiri and I ganged up to nag Joc about her diet, exercise and every other thing that we could think of... I bet she was so glad to see the back of us...

Kiwa and John had bonded from the outset -- something about a shared interest in weaponry and militarism -- and Kiwa spent a lot of time getting JB's input into various arms manufactures. We went to the river a couple of times, dodging showers and sleety wind, and helped Kiwa and his friend Shakeel construct a dam.

We continued the family tradition of hunting and gathering... Joc enlisted us all to gather blackberries which was lots of prickly fun...

And then later Kiwa turned our harvest into a delicious pie...

Eventually we returned to Wellington, mostly staying at Kiri's. She's done lots of renovations since the last time we were there and the house is looking great -- much more logically laid out and with french doors at the back onto the garden. her garden is still a fabulous wilderness although she has plans for it...

In Wellington we saw a bit of my father -- and tried to have dinner with the whole family lot but, inevitably, things went terribly wrong. We successfully all met up at a bar -- Gordon, Lynne, Greg, Bevin, Deb, Ed, the girls, and Ed-father (we had to differentiate between the Eds by calling them 'E1' and 'E2'), Kiri, Kiwa and us. We agreed on a restaurant on the other side of the city and jumped into 3 cars. Somehow it transpired that no one really knew where we'd agreed to meet -- and E2/Deb and kids had disappeared to some other place... We wandered the streets looking into restaurant windows with Gordon getting more and more agitated and carrying on like Mutley Mutt. I couldn't stop laughing which didn't help things any. Eventually we gave up (before G exploded) and had dinner at the next place we came to. It smelled of burning plastic and everyone was sulky but it was very cheap...

Ed/Deb etc had their dinner in lonely splendor at the much better restaurant we were meant to be at.

E1 was looking very well and got a clean bill of health from his cardiologist. We had a great conversation at Kiri's one evening -- one of the very few that we've had in the last 20 years. He had some hair-raising stories about the cyclones that hit the Cook Islands -- winds of over 400mph! -- and still doesn't know what the effect will be be on his bird populations. He's very involved in all sorts of projects and schemes and told me a bit about the background politics of Raro etc.

one night we stay over at Deb and Ed's. They introduced us to a very cute game -- although I can't remember its name for love 'nor money -- that involved cards and little people and was vaguely like 'Go'... surprisingly addictive... The girls are incredibly cute. Stella is now a small charming bulldozer and Hannah can converse on any subject. Deb's got a pile of good kid book ideas that she's working on. And they've got a new dog of exemplary cute scruffiness. E2 and I had some great conversation deep into the night and I was overwhelmed with good family feeling (!).

JB and I did a lot of exploring in the rain. And enjoyed it, I might add! We climbed hill and dale and I took lots of pictures of letterboxes... For some strange reason I hardly took any of the brightly coloured houses which are so characteristic of Wellington and fixated on rust and boxes instead.

We spent one morning driving around to Scorching Bay to have breakfast at Chocolate Fish -- not to mention gawk at the amazing paua grotto... Unfortunately the cafe was chockas with others with the same idea so, after a walk on the beach (there's a panorama at the bottom of the page), we ended up back in Newtown at a cafe round the corner from Kiri's.

And we drove with Gordon out to their property on the Wairapa coast. G. was intending to catch kai moana to take to his mother-in-law's birthday party that evening. Floods had washed out the road in places, swept away bridges and fords, caused numerous landslides and it was almost 4 hours from Wellington over the hairpin-bended Rumataka's. We got there we discovered that all the crap washed down by the flood had been deposited on the coast and it would have been like swimming through mud. You can see the disbelief on G's face...

It was such beautiful landscape. I got a bit obsessed with photographing sheds but everywhere one looked was some stunning panorama or lowering storm cloud...

And imagine the disbelief on John's when he realised that he had to drive back, through the darkening night, over the Rimatakas himself.

We were both more than a little white-knuckled by the time we made it back to Kiri's.

(BTW please ignore the fact that I've spelt all the placenames wrong... I suck at being an nzer)