4 seasons in one day

Well here is an update at last! I am currently in Napier and it is the day before the wedding! The sun is shining (thank god those cyclone warnings came to nothing) and I have taken the opportunity to pop off and update before meeting some of the others at the side pool for a refreshing dip. We have been on the road so I haven't really had any opportunities to spend any time on-line and I am now going to have to struggle to remember everything that I have been up to, so this will be a topline summary.

Well, when I left off Sam & I were heading to Mount Eden (great views of Auckland, I took lots of photos) and having lunch (Belgian bar/restaurant where I had the hugest pot of the largest mussels I have ever seen, couldn't finish them all!).

That evening Tom & Sam, Ruth & Stephan were going out with Tom & Ruth's dad & his wife for dinner so Glynis and I had a lovely quiet girls night in, making exciting recipes with the left over food, drinking white wine and watching chick flicks (or straight to Stephs as Jo Lambert likes to call them). That was a real treat as I can't see me getting the opportunity to do that again any time soon.

The next day it was an early start as Sam & I went to her parents salon to get our hair done (Sam was having a practice run of her wedding hair). I had the loveliest massage first (it's a hard life I know) and just gave up trying not to drool. I must have looked like one of those dogs with major saliva control problems by the end. After that I got lots of my hair chopped off and my head felt so light and floaty it was fab (you should have seen the piles of hair on the floor, it was liberating to get rid of it). Don't panic Mum, I haven't gone for a crew cut or anything, I can still just about tie it back in to an action pony tail.

After that we headed over for Sam to have the final fitting of her wedding dress. OK, I admit it that I did almost cry when I saw her. The only thing that stopped me was Sam looking at me getting teary saying "don't you dare, of all my friends I thought you wouldn't blub, I don't want everyone crying at my wedding" or something like that. So I pulled myself together, but she did look absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to see her tomorrow with all her make up and flowers etc.. I am definitely taking tissues to the wedding!

After the fitting we went for a spot of lunch, popped round to her sister's place so I met the adorable nieces (soon to be flower girls) and than headed over to Auckland Airport to meet Jo B's plane in from Sydney. Sam and Jo had a short time to catch up in the airport before Jo & I had to go get our little plane (Jo was kind of worried when she saw it) over to Nelson

The flight was wonderful (jo is now a convert to the joy of little planes) and Max & Pierre were in Nelson to meet us. As it was evening, it was literally a case of picking up the keys for our cabin at the campsite (very nice, had our own kitchen and everything), dropping our stuff off and saying hi to the bikers in the cabin next door (against stereotype I think we were more noisy and disruptive than they were!).

The hunt for dinner was interesting as it was gone 9pm (shock horror!) so most of the restaurants had closed their kitchens (Jenny, does this remind you of our trip round the Deep South or what!) but we finally found a nice Thai place where we got some take away and a sneaky bottle of wine. It turned in to quite a late night with the 4 of us drinking, chatting, listening to music (my Ipod speakers are fab - long live ipod) and generally mellowing out.

the next day we woke up to glorious sunshine. Now if we had known that was going to be the only sunny hour that day we would have run to the beach in our pyjamas! Sadly we were oblivious (I should have known better given the trend so far of having 4 seasons in 1 day here) and missed the sunny window. Now comes that time to thank the guys from Fox for the travel scrabble that they gave me as part of my leaving present. Without it we may well have gone completely mad! As it was Jo was very grumpy, with Max closely following in the "unimpressed with general quality of weather"stakes. I think I annoyed them by not minding, as unlike me they don't have months of travel ahead of them

The next day was glorious but we were leaving the Nelson area to go to wine country (Marlborough region, place called Renwick near Blenheim). We had the best time! The weather was lovely (sunny with a breeze, exactly what we needed), we found the most wonderful place to say called Watsons Way Backpackers, where we could rent bicycles for the day for a few quid complete with helmets and we explored loads of the vineyards, sampling some really lovely wines. In the end Cloudy Bay was probably our favourite, very closely followed by Herzog and Allan Scott (where we had a gorgeous lunch). So it is all swings and roundabouts, bad day before, lovely day after. We needed it.

Once we had tasted enough and were feeling saddle sore (don't think the others were as bad as me though, my bum is far too padded to cope with those uncomfortable bicycle seats, you would think that my natural padding would help, but on the contrary it just gave me a larger area that was in pain) we headed back to the packpackers for some cheese, wine, grapes and scrabble, followed by some petanque (I still suck, never could get the hang of that game, I throw like a girl).

We eat at a local pub before heading back for another game of scrabble (I think we might be addicted), while writing rude notes about the noisy Canadian girl who you could probably have heard talking back in London. Loved the bit where a woman came storming out of her room wearing nothing but a towel and asked her to turn it down a bit. We would have done that, but already felt a bit like old farts since we weren't pissed and were playing scrabble. To be fair she did seem very sweet, just that her volume control was obviously damaged by the alcohol.

The next day we had a bit of a lie in (until 9am - yes mum I now consider 9am a lie in!) before checking out, heading to the chocolate factory to check it out (yummy heaven), going to Cloudy Bay to buy some wine and hitting the road for Picton where we were getting the ferry over to North Island.

The ferry journey was great with us all lying up on the sun deck. It was lovely and sunny but sadly too windy to play scrabble (although we did try). I had taken a travel sickness pill so was knocked out straight away and snoozed through most of the 3 hour crossing). After the pleasant ferry journey we faced a 5 hour car journey to Napier. Pierre, bless him, drove the whole way. We had a call from our friend Andy that had landed in Auckland that day from Sydney and was leaving Auckland at the same time that we were leaving Wellington. The race was on to see who would be first to the motel. Despite some bad traffic (or awkward traffic as they like to call it here) we were the victors, so had time for a shower while we waited for Andy to arrive, before heading to a bar called Shed 2, to meet up with an incredibly drunk (and text happy) Sam and co.

A night of drinking and chatting followed. Everyone mingled (friends from NZ, friends from London/Dublin and family) and had a great time. Sam was very very very happy (although I hear not so happy this morning for the 10am wedding rehearsal, poor love) and it was great to have almost everyone together (we have more people arriving today, at which point we will pretty well have taken over the motel! only 1 room is not occupied by wedding guests, so I hope the people there are tolerant and have a sense of humour, as we could get rowdy).

Today has been lovely with brunch by the port, a potter round Napier taking in all the art deco buildings, the sunken garden, the beach etc... As it is the last weekend of the Art Deco festival (it finishes on sunday and will have run for 9 days, it is the 75th anniversary of the earthquake that devestated Napier and led to everything being rebuilt in Art Deco style) there are people in 1920s outfits all over the place and loads of really gorgeous vintage cars. I am not even that in to cars, and I can appreciate that they are beautiful. We are hoping to come in to town tonight to check out more of the festival related activity, as it really should be something and everyone here is so friendly (people in costume are more than happy to pose for pictures). Quite surreally there is a London Bus here too (going to Harrow Rd, starts at Tottenham Court Road) - think it is a little bit lost! Next time you are standing at a bus stop wondering where all the buses are, they may well have taken a detour to the anitpodes (explains a lot! I expect to see a 37 in Australia - rubbish bus route)

I had better head off now, as I dread to think how much this is going to have cost me.

Want to say big HAPPY 30TH BIRTHDAY to Hannah for Saturday (18th). I am expecting an e-mail with all the gossip from your party love!

Right, now I just need to work out where the pool is, as I need a refreshing dip... umm must be in the direction of the beach! Yes, I know that was me gratuitously rubbing it in! Sorry : )