Visitors

We had our first visitors from England since we got back. Just like buses though, you wait for ages then two turn up together. Linda and Colin who are University friends and I hadn't seen for many years until last April, were on their penultimate night in the country.

Penny and Alex  on the other hand who'd last been here for Amy's first birthday were over here for much longer, but just happened to be here that day. Luckily they were able to stay an extra night to catch up.

Back Home

 We finally arrived back around mid-day on 29th December, 19 and a half months after we left. The house was in reasonable condition considering. Here we are on New Year's day, cooling off. From the state of the grass, the summer has been a lot better here than in

Auckland. In fact since we've been back we've had only one day of any appreciable rain, but only the sprinkler has managed to green the grass up again.

Amy has started pre-school two days a week. Here she is about to leave for her first day. She loves it. She'd really started wanting to interact with other kids.

After almost three weeks, we finally ventured as far as central Christchurch to see what progress had been made. Most of the barriers are down - apart from the building sites, but most of the work has been on demolition. This is Cathedral square and a view you never used to

get. All the buildings on the north side have gone. No big loss as they were mostly 1970's concrete monstrosities. Shame about Bailies Bar though The trams are finally back running, but the centre is almost unrecognisable from four years ago. Here we are having a quiet coffee in what was once the throbbing heart of a bustling city.

Some things hardly change though. Time for a picnic lunch in Hagley Park. A few bites snatched between playing in the great playground and paddling pool, on yet another scorching Canterbury day.

Heading Home at Last

On Boxing day, we finally pointed the van south and set off for the 1200 km journey home via Tauranga. Here we are on the morning of 27th in Mount Maunganui with Adele, Lucy, Annabel and Matthew King.

Crossing the ditch - well actually still in Wellington Harbour at this point. An evening crossing, hoping a tired girl will have a sleep. Sadly she didn't until we were an hour into the south island and parked up for the night.