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| | Catch UpOk time for the catch up on whats been happening in my life.
Since my last entry - Where Gary and I had just returned from NZ, Skiing, visiting family etc. We decided on returning that we just had to take the girls over with us and immediately started arranging another trip. We took the girls over for 2 weeks in January 2008 and they loved it. I have heaps of pics but most of them are on Gary's computer at the moment so I will post them when I've transferred them across to mine.
We flew into Christchurch again and spent the first night in a hotel - the girls had their own room with an adjoining door to ours. We spent that evening wandering around Christchurch city. The next day we travelled from Christchurch to Nelson along the east coast. We stopped at Kaikoura and visited the seal colony, but didn't really see much there. Then finally arrived at my bestest friend in the whole wide world's house. We spent five days in Nelson and travelled around the area - one of the biggest highlights was going horse trekking out at Cape Farewell. There was the five of us, Terri, her step son Phil, and friends Aiden and Darley - we each got saddled up and trekked along a ridge overlooking Farewell Spit - the day was really hot, blue skies and clear - it was awesome!!!
We did heaps of other stuff while we were in Nelson, like celebrating Sarah's 16th birthday - this was really funny cos Phil (14) and Darley (13) commandeered the microphone off a band that were playing at the nightclub we had dinner at and sang her happy birthday - that is after introducing themselves and dedicating the song to "a very special lady"
We went swimming practically everyday, at the beach, in rivers. Had a magical time at Paynes Ford, just outside Takaka - the water was so warm and swimming around the rocks in amongst the trees was just awesome. The kids all had a great time on the hydroslide - got some amazing pics from that!! The youngest two, Jessica and Emily had an absolute blast helping out at Terri's Cafe - Zippy's. It was really neat to see them collecting coffee cups from patrons and having a little chat with the customers, taking them out the back and then waiting, watching to see what else they could do. They looked so proud of themselves!!
Being in Nelson with Gary and the girls, and Terri was just amazing - while we were there I started to feel this overwhelming love towards Gary - it felt awesome, but scary at the same time.
Then we had to leave to continue with the next leg of the journey. As always it was really hard to say goodbye to Terri, she is such a special person to me. One day we will live in the same country again.
So we packed up and drove over to Picton to catch the Ferry across to Wellington. Every moment of our trip was exciting for the girls - they loved that we were actually driving our car onto the boat!!! In Wellington we had arranged another hotel for the night. We could have stayed at my Aunties in Karori, but I thought with five of us that might be a bit much - but we arranged to head up to hers for a BBQ. My brother and his girlfriend also came up so that was awesome. We checked into the hotel and then caught the cable car up to the top, then my Aunty came and picked us all up.
The next day was a long day in the car - we drove from Wellington to Rotorua. By this stage car travel was getting a bit annoying for the kids all cramped together in the back seat - we kept getting crys from the back, "Dont lean on me. I want to sit next to the window. Im feeling car sick (trying to get a seat next to the window) Are we there yet?" and many many more comments. By the time we arrived at Rotorua, my fuse was very short.
I had booked two nights in a hotel in Rotorua - again with the girls in an adjoining room. Prior to arriving at Rotorua we took a tiki tour out to Orakei Korako and got there just in time to catch a ride over on the boat to have a look at the thermal activity. It was great to see both the girls and Gary's faces as they had never seen anything like this before. Then we finally made it into Rotorua and went for a walk to find dinner.
I reached a bit of a low point by this time - I'd had enough of travelling, constantly hearing the girls whinging (not that it was all the time) and after dinner I just snapped - I had to walk away from them all in a totally different direction. At the time I felt really disappointed at myself and kept asking myself if I could handle this. I was questioning the relationship with Gary and me telling myself if I couldn't even handle dealing with the kids then I didn't deserve to be there. I still want to have a baby and I even started questioning myself on this. Basically I found myself feeling sorry for myself and trying to make excuses as to why the relationship just wouldn't work. Looking back on this now I can see that I had reached a really high point on the trip with an overwhelming sense of love towards Gary and my unconscious self had started to put barriers up - to stop myself from getting hurt I started making up reasons to get out of the relationship to stop myself being hurt. Silly silly girl.
So I went for a walk along the lake front, I had a little cry to myself and then returned to the Hotel room where Gary gave me a big hug and I fell asleep in his arms, to wake up in his arms in the morning.
The next day we took the girls Zorbing. For those of you that dont know what zorbing is, its where you get put inside a big plastic bubble and they push the bubble down a big hill with you inside. I had already done this with my little sister and step sister about 2 years before. I thought that the girls would absolutely love it as they are sooooo adventurous. Especially Jess - often described as the tomboy girly girl - rides a trailbike takes risks and gets muddy, but is right into the latest fashions and makeup.
So anyway - we put all three girls into one bubble - they chucked a bucket of water in with them and pushed them down the hill. Unfortunately Jess hurt herself on the way down, banging her elbow and bruising nerves in her arm - she came out crying whilst the other two came out with huge grins on their faces. It was too expensive to put her on another ride (which she wanted as she didn't enjoy the first one). Poor thing, her arm hurt for quite some time after that. That afternoon we went to a river we had seen whilst heading out to Orakei Korako and went swimming. Jess went swimming to and eventually the pain in her arm was all forgotten. The river was awesome and we had packed a picnic lunch - a free activity yet was so much more enjoyable than any paid activity.
After Rotorua, we drove across to the west coast of the North Island to Taranaki where we stayed with my Mum. Over the next four days we just cruised around, up to the Mountain, swimming in icy cold mountain water, down to the beach, swimming at the river mouth and in the ocean. Paul and Gary attempted fishing again, early one morning, but the swell was at least 2 metres and they didn't have any luck. We visited Pukekura Park at night and saw all of the lights in the park - cruisy, but exhausting days.
Then on the last day in Taranaki, we packed up and headed out to the farm. It was my uncles birthday and they had a pig on the spit. My Aunty and Uncle had set up a big tent for us all to sleep in and heaps of other family members and friends were out for the night. The girls took one look at the pig on the spit and declared themselves vegetarian. Sarah and Emily stuck to this, but Jess didn't last - she is such a carnivore. The girls all had a go at milking the cow with my Uncle and Auntie - poor Emily got pooed on which didn't go down so well especially as some got in her mouth - yuck. But they all stuck it out and had a great time.
The next day was another long day in the car, travelling the back country from Te Wera out to the coast and then up to Auckland. We had a slight accident in the hire car (cost us the excess - bugger) but lucky none of us were hurt and the car was still drivable. It happened on a gravel road headning from the farm to the coast. The road is very skinny and large gravel stones pile up in the middle of the roadway. As we aproached a tight bend, there was a large pile of these stones in the middle which we moved further left to avoid, unfortunately right on the corner was a culvert that had been washed away leaving a huge pothole on the left side of the roadway. We ended up in the pothole and pulled into the culvert scratching and denting the whole left hand side of the car - as I said before "BUGGER"
But we made it Auckland, were it was another one of my Aunties birthdays - she had booked a restaurant for all of us right on the waterfront in Auckland City. We arrived at my Nana's where we were staying, unpacked the car, got changed into going out clothes and jumped on a bus for the city. The restaurant was not like any I had been to before. They have two sittings a night, one at 6pm and the other at 8pm. The waiters just keep bring food around until you've had enough. There was roast pork, lamb and beef. Sausages, salmon, mussels, salad, prawns, breads - and they just kept coming back with more. We had a lovely night but all that travelling had finally paid it toll and the two youngest started to fall asleep in the restaurant. Emily was fast asleep by the time we left and we had to carry her to a taxi to get her home.
The next morning was our last day in NZ - so we went for a walk down to the water front from Nana's and looked out at Rangitoto - a volcano in the centre of Auckland Harbour. We had a coffee sitting at the beach and then walked back to Nanas for lunch. Then off to the airport.
All in all it was a great holiday. All of us went through ups and downs and again I overanalysed every feeling I personally went through.
Since arriving back in Australia - Gary has spent pratically every night with me. He is spending majority of his time at my place and I love it. The girls keep saying they want to go back to NZ and we will definately do that again sometime. They have met most of my family now and that is a really big deal to me - my Mum really wants Gary and I to get married. She loved having the girls around and would love to call them her grandkids. She said if we were married it would feel more committed to her. I've never really thought about marriage like that - for the extended family's sake. I've never really found it to be something I needed - but I can see where she is coming from. Something to think about I guess.
So now we have been back at least two weeks - Im back at work - things are better there too - the bully Crime Manager has gone and Im not being picked on anymore. Im actually starting to enjoy it again.
I haven't re started my renovations yet - very very slack - I need to get them finished now.
I have another dog - so now I have Max and Loki - Loki is a Blue Cattle X (something - possibly rotti) and is still a puppy - yet another stray I have taken in - doing all the usual puppy things like chewing everything to pieces - arrrrrgggghhhhh.
Til next time
Dusk 
| | | Posted 2/7/2008 9:39 AM - 8 comments
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We'll chat all about it soon
Sending hugs 
