NYE

Welcoming in the new year with old friends at Tim's parents place, YMCA style.

Rotorua

Having some much needed time out with a night in a Rotorua motel, complete with our own private spa pool!

Mud!

 My Christmas present from Tim was a mud bath at Hell's Gate spa - an interesting experience!

The Bach

Round two:  Christmas celebrations with the Strange's!

A Kiwi Christmas

We spent Christmas Day with my family this year.  The day began with brunch, followed by a walk around the Mount and a swim at Shark Alley.  That evening we enjoyed Tim's lamb on the BBQ for Christmas dinner before opening our presents.  The weather was good to us, it was probably the best day of our entire visit!

How the other half live

T

We've swapped our post work week night swims and poolside barbecues for characterful English pubs and pints of ale.

Home Grown

This is one of the things we miss about home, being able to grow and harvest our own fruit and veg.

Horses

A Christmas treat for the horses up in Oropi.

Turquoise Tree

The tree at Mum & Dad's decorated by me!

Surprise!

Tim finally arrives in New Zealand  - a surprise for his parents and a relief for me after days of secrecy and lies!  He's put straight to work cooking up a huge feast of NZ mussels!

Sad

Much of the Mount base track remains closed due to the oil spill caused by the grounding of the Rena.

Spreading the Cheer

When we lived in New Zealand, Tim and I started a tradition of decorating Mum's preschool, Daybreak, each year for Christmas.  Since we've been away, my brothers have taken over, spending hours putting up the lights ready for car-loads of excited children to admire in the weeks before Christmas.

Cafe Culture

One of the things we really miss living in London is the fantastic New Zealand cafe culture.  Alimento is one of our favourite haunts, they do a great bruch menu.  I enjoyed a kiwi classic, sweetcorn fritters topped with avocado and bacon, washed down with none other than a flat white of course.

Mickey

Home Again

My favourite view in the entire world.

In Transit

Hong Kong is definitely preferable to LA, I managed to squeeze in a massage and a bowl of dumpling soup in the two hour stopover en-route to New Zealand.

Santa Run

We ran 5km dressed as Santas along with 300 others in Hyde Park on a freezing drizzly Sunday.  Tim did very well with his first ever race,  having been out till 4am the night before.  It was all in the name of a good cause, with the proceeds going to Help the Hospices and it certainly helped us get in to the festive spirit!

Christmas Shopping

Christmas decorations at Covent Garden.

Getting in the Spirit

I couldn't wait to put up the tree this year, even though it was only a fake one, it went up as soon as December arrived.

A Friday Night Favourite

Pub Golf

Tea for Two

Tea and cake at Kenwood House.

Calabrese

We love our weekly vege box as it introduces us to new veg we've not tried before.  Calabrese is like a cross between broccoli and cauliflower and tastes pretty good drenched in cheese sauce!

Autumn Leaves

Chicken Soup for the Soul

From 11-12-13 santa run +

The ultimate Sunday night comfort food; Tim's chicken noodle soup.

Nent Hall

We spent a couple of nights relaxing at Nent Hall in Alston, Cumbria on our way back to London from the Lakes.  Most of the time was spent  in the bar in front of the cosy open fire with a drink in hand.

Go Black!

We watched the World Cup final over breakfast at a pub in the Lake's District.  There were some pretty tense moments but it was worth it in the end!  Sorry Estelle, it seems your lucky garlic isn't so lucky after all!

Lakes District

We enjoyed a long weekend in the Lakes District organised by the newly engaged Estelle and Simon.  Despite the windy conditions we managed a couple of long walks, sampled plenty of ales and partook in a few very competitive board games!  Staying in a characterful YHA Hostel overlooking Lake Wastwater it felt a bit like being on school camp with separate boys and girls bunk rooms, but it was a lovely weekend with lots of laughs.

Ladies Day

Pam and Kirsty organised a girls day out in London.  First stop was a chocolate show where we enjoyed the free samples on offer, followed by a wander through the Camden Markets, drinks, dinner and a comedy show.  Thanks girls, was a fun day!

Gidday Manchester

Brooke Fraser played a very intimate gig at the Student Union Bar in Manchester, we even got her autograph after the concert.  What an incredible talent - she even played 'Arithmetic' as an encore, a special song for Tim and I as it was played at our wedding.

Royal Albert

Lee and I were given tickets to see Idina Menzel at the Royal Albert Hall by one of the mums at school who was unable to attend.  With seats in the stalls and complimentary parking right nearby it was a real spur of the moment treat.

Live at the Apollo

Pam scored us priority tickets meaning we had awesome seats for the filming of this show.  I haven't laughed so much in ages.

Back in the Game

The Ashridge 5 mile trail race: I've decided I prefer longer, less hilly courses, but it was a good reason to start getting my fitness back on track. The reward of a beer and cider festival at Estelle and Simon's new local made it all worthwhile though!

A Kiwi Classic

In honour of the All Blacks, I introduced a kiwi classic at school this morning: bacon and egg pie for all, served up with Watties tomato sauce of course.

Salad

I had to stay late at school for parent night tonight at asked Tim to make a light dinner for when I got home.  This is one of my all time favourite salads:  rare beef, blue cheese and walnuts - yummy.

UCS Girls

Me, Estelle, Lee and Gemma out celebrating Lee's birthday in Camden

Birmingham

We went up to Birmingham to visit family who provided an invaluable Italian connection during our recent troubles.  It was so nice to catch up at long last, I don't think we stopped eating the entire weekend!

Trogir

Saturday morning we said our goodbyes to everyone and caught a very hot and stuffy bus up to Trogir, a small town near the airport.  Surrounded by water and set within medieval walls, it was a lovely place to spend our final night in Croatia.  It had a beautiful promenade lined with palm trees and super yachts, which we admired over a glass of red wine served with ice cubes!

Cruise Day 7: Makarska - Split

Friday was the last full day of the cruise and most of the others had either gone on an optional day trip into Bosnia or were extremely hungover, so once again we enjoyed a very peaceful morning relaxing on deck.  We stopped for another afternoon swim before motoring into the harbour at Split, our final destination.

Tim and I spent the afternoon wandering around the markets in the old town before meeting up with some of the others from the boat for our last evening meal together.  One of the girls was celebrating her 30th birthday so it was a nice night.

For those who are interested, below are some pictures of our (very messy) cabin, which was actually really quite big and comfortable, especially with the air conditioning and full size bathroom.  We would hightly recommend paying the extra £100 or so to be on a premier boat, after hearing comments from people from some of the other boats, it was well worth it.

Cruise Day 6: Brac - Makarska

We can proudly say that we made it up in time for breakfast every morning of the cruise (it was only served until 9am) unlike most of the others who didn't usually get up till nearly lunchtime!  We had quite a party crowd on our boat, but in light of recent events we were happy to be in bed my midnight most nights.  Thursday morning we were rewarded for our early starts with a sighting of some dolphins swimming near the boat.  We first spotted them quite some distance away, but later on I was sitting up near the front of the boat when Mario, the captain, beckoned me to the bow where two dolphins were surfing along the wake at the front of the boat, so amazing!  I was just sad that Tim missed it as it was incredible to be so close to these beautiful animals.

The morning was spent crusing along the picturesque Makarska Riviera which is dominated by a huge mountain range.  Most of the others on board had decided to do an optional hike up one of the mountains so we pretty much had the boat to ourselves for the rest of the afternoon which was lovely.

Later on we sailed into Makarska, a beautiful town.  Feeling a bit adventurous Tim and I decided to hunt down a good para sailing deal, which was an amazing if slightly scary experiencing, somewhat lacking in any sort of health and safety regulations!  We boarded a boat and were taken out to sea a fair way before being told to sit down on the edge while they connected up to the huge sail.  Then without any explanation we were hoisted very quickly up into the sky!  Poor Tim didn't enjoy the experience too much as his harness wasn't sitting properly, not too comfy for a man!  He was wriggling around trying to get comfy which was making me very nervous!  But the views were breathtaking and it was good fun anyway.





We spent the rest of the afternoon on the beach recovering from our near death experience!  Then we had dinner at a little tavern which served up a very generous sea food platter, despite the slow service, it was well worth the wait.