Hi everyone!
We have just a little (or wee bit as they say in NZ) of time before we go, but it is getting VERY exciting. Today we received an invite for Christmas dinner from our soon to be "friends" in Napier NZ, Alan and Sally Monk. They tell us it's a typical Kiwi dinner of roast lamb, pavlova and Christmas pudding! Yum! We also received confirmation that the jazz tickets we wanted for the Nelson/Woolloston festival in January have been secured.
Alot of you have been asking me about geocaching since my last blog, so I've provided this link for you to check it out. Go to http://www.geocaching.com/ and look at "getting started" for more explanation. We received our "travel bugs" and have registered them online and so are looking forward to "planting" them in NZ.
My friend Courtney put me in touch with Lynn, from Napier NZ. She is my age and is studying to become a naturopath and is raising 2 boys. She knows Courtney through an Internet game and has offered to show us around Napier when we arrive. It will be fun to meet her. She found out that we were in Napier in 2000 with dad's orchardist group and wanted to know if I knew her friends that are very active in orcharding. I didn't recognize the names, but it is getting to be a small world indeed.
This last weekend we had a fabulous dinner with our dear friends Cheri and Farzan and their CA friends and ours, Chuck and Barb. Cheri fixed a wonderful Persian dinner with chicken, and rice and saffron, Jon contributed with his terrific bruschetta and I made "fall" pavlova with sauteed apples, cinnamon and a little amaretto to top it off. Chuck found out that we are going to NZ and that they have some good/great fishing there, so he jumped up from the table and proceeded to tie 3 flys for us. They are something that he has trademarked and what fun it was to watch him make them from his "kit". They are called purple mud daubers or dobbers one even has an "egg sack" on the underside. I've been calling them "woolly buggers" all wee, but Jon really wants me to get the name correct- you can tell I'm not a fisher woman. Barb tells me I don't have to be with this little fly, so I'm going to give it a try. Those fly casting lessons I took a million years ago might just come in handy.
We are celebrating Thanksgiving day with Adam and Donni tomorrow. Yes, it is a week early, but they will be out of town with Donni's parents - off hiking somewhere, so we are modifying our dinner tomorrow to be "similar" to the traditional. Next week we will be together with my parents and siblings for the "real meal". Looking forward to it.
That's about all the exciting news I have to share for now, the days are filling up with a million things to do before we leave. Here's wishing you and yours a safe and family-filled Thanksgiving holiday.
Jon and Joyce
3 comments:
I found your blog though Addies...and thought it cool that we'll be going to New Zealand around the same time. My husband and I are leaving on Dec. 8th and coming back on Christmas Day-for our honeymoon. We will be renting a car and covering the north & south islands hopefully. We should collaborate :) Enjoy your trip...so much to see and never enough time to see it all.
-Kriss (Rothenbuhler) Johnson
Kriss,
Are you the same couple Addie mentioned to me that got married this summer before she and Cary? I know you will enjoy your trip. We are planning a month on the NI, then SI in January, then the last month is up to discussion. We've been researching this for over 2 years, so let us know if we can give you some ideas. Are you going to be staying in apts. or hostels or motels? NZ has so many wonderful choices. Let me know of your itinerary. We really don't have one!
Joyce V
Oh, I'm so glad you guys made contact! Yes, Joyce, Kriss & her hubby are the couple I mentioned. It's kind of wierd to know two couples heading out to NZ this December... between the both of you, I expect to see a lot of great pictures!
The geocaching looks really interesting too. What a fun idea to add a little extra fun to your travels!
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