Okay, I'm starting this at ten to eleven, so don't expect too much in the way of a detailed entry. :)
As I (and others) have mentioned, we had an Austrian backpacker staying with us for a while. (I met her in Cornwall; she mentioned she was coming to NZ, and I gave her my email address and the offer of a couch.) While I hadn't anticipated that bringing her to Christmas dinner would make one of my uncles jump to the conclusion that we were engaged, she seemed to be amused rather than annoyed. It was fun having her around while I had my break, and ensured that I got up to a lot of touristy things that you hardly do when you live in a place, like visit Te Papa, or go up to the Mt Vic lookout, or wander around the Botanic Gardens, or visit the Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. I also got to see a bunch of my DVDs in the evenings. (Casablanca was only slightly marred by my work ringing me just as people were getting on the plane - this was at 8:30pm on the 23rd of December. I watched the rest of the movie before ringing them back and troubleshooting their FileMaker problem over the phone.)
Christmas was very good, by the way - I seem to have chosen pretty well for gifts this year, and I was diligent and gave Mum a useful list of stuff I might want. Also, the family gift giving went really quickly this year, since only four kids and one partner were able to be there. Or perhaps it just meant it was stretched out for longer - the family who were at dinner on Christmas Eve exchanged gifts with my brother and his wife before they zoomed off to have Christmas day with the wife's family, and we had yet more presents the day after Boxing Day in Foxton, with the other brother/wife combo.
While our Austrian visitor was in Wellington, a friend she's had since before primary school arrived, who was travelling with a Swiss girl. They had been travelling down the North Island for three weeks in a rental car - which they had also been sleeping in. The night before they arrived, they'd slept on Foxton beach, so I was really glad we were able to give them somewhere to sleep, and let them have a proper shower and a proper meal. (I did a roast lamb, on the principle that it was the most traditional dish I could whip up in a hurry. :) They stayed with us for a couple of nights, and then got me to drop them off at the airport at about 10pm, so they could be there in time for their check-in at 4am. I tried to convince them that it made more sense to stay at our flat and order a cab for 3:30am, or to wake me up and get me to take them (though I didn't argue very strongly for that solution), but they were adamant - so I left them with a couple of Almond Gold bars and half a bag of nut brittle to help pass the night. (The other half of the nut brittle we'd eaten that day at the Botanic Gardens.)
Our guest got on well with Giffy, who's arranged some further places to stay in the South Island. In fact, she went with Giffy and my brother up north to spend New Years with them and a bunch of their friends. I was planning to go out, but ended up watching DVDs with my remaining flatmate instead. (One upside of this was that I finished the cream that had been lurking in the fridge by making us toblerones. Since someone asked for the recipe, the book I used suggested 75ml cream, 15ml kahluha, 15ml Baileys, 30ml Frangelico and a spoonful of honey; I doubled the mixture for each of us (to use up the cream), and added a scoop of vanilla icecream.)
New Years day I picked Puggle up from work, and then scooted up to Taupo with new beau in tow. I spent the next couple of days tramping and swimming with those two, Giffy, brother and guest. I have to admit that the Tongariro Crossing was a fair bit more demanding than I had remembered - I think I would have been a bit more hesitant about going with a fairly fit person who was ten years younger than me if I'd known. (Or at least, I would have pushed harder for one of the other people who were closer to my level of unfitness to come; unfortunately, no-one else seemed keen to get up at 6:30am on a holiday.) The walk was a steady stream of people, and seeing their figures diminishing into the distance made the walk all the more daunting. There were a number of times where our Austrian visitor got plenty of time to photograph the landscape and wander off on side-trips, while I did my best to recover enough for the next assault. Even so, and despite the pain in my legs and the slight sunburn, I'm glad that I went - it really was pretty spectacular. And we had the novelty of having our bus egged while driving around Turangi (thankfully, the relevant windows were closed), though sitting waiting for half an hour while the bus company worked out whether someone had been left stranded on the mountain wasn't much fun - especially when all you want to do is go to the lake and have a cool, refreshing swim.
(One useful tip I can relate, which is obvious in hindsight - if you put a carbonated beverage into a thermos, then start walking up a mountain, you might find it hard to open at your first break; but then, if you've loosened it a bit, it may open itself for you while still in your bag. Atmospheric pressure is a wonderful, magical, and slightly sticky thing.)
Anyway, we managed to get home okay - the second half of the journey was an epic game of "Tennis, Elbow, Foot" - and Giffy took our guest to the ferry terminal on the 5th, as I headed back to work.
***
I would try to proofread more, and to work in my cousin-in-law's visit (and the wacky misinterpretation her sister had of our visitor), but it's nearly midnight, so I've got to wind things up. In closing, I'm going to point out that I do remember the visitor's name - I'm deliberately choosing not to use it, since I didn't ask her permission. :)
Next entry, I might talk a bit about some of the books I've manged to read over the break.
Posted by svend at January 6, 2005 11:54 PM