Happy 2007!

First and foremost, I hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas and NYE, wherever you were celebrating! It was really nice hearing from everyone! We have had a great time here in NZ. Leading up to xmas was a bit hectic with trying to organise food, presents, what we were actually going to do, etc. But the actual day turned out to be quite nice. We had a champagne breakfast with croissants in the morning, then packed up all the food we had prepared earlier (well to be fair, Nic organised most of the food - including a few of her traditional xmas treats like stuffing balls and "pigs in blankets" [sausages wrapped in bacon.. mmmm the cholesterol] for lunch and treacle, sponge and custard for dessert - and delicious it all was...) and drove out to Rimutaki Forest Park on the eastern side of Wellington harbour for a picnic lunch. Cloudy was the forecast, but no rain - we did even get a few rays of sunlight through so we were happy about that! It was a great day and xmas spirits were made higher with our wearing of our authentic(ally purchased) santa hats. I made Glühwein (a German drink we were introduced to in Munich, similar to mulled wine) a little later on and we sat down to watch some xmas DVDs for the rest of the night.
The intermedial Christmas-NY week was pretty relaxed but we did manage to visit Te Papa Museum (6 floors!) and the Wellington Zoo which is celebrating its 50th year this year. We've watched plenty of DVDs and also quite a few movies at the cinemas, The Queen and The Holiday being the stand-outs so far.
For New Years we decided to drive almost the length of the North Island to a place called Mount Maunganui (or simply the Mount to the locals) on the northern shore, south-east of Auckland. This is where we heard that most of the youngins tend to go NYE - and boy were they youngins, most were still in their early teens.. On the drive up we again experienced 4 seasons in one day from roasting to freezing, sun to rain, even hail.. It was chilly at the Mount but it didn't rain too much which was good. The beach was where it was all happening and they had set up a little mini bar/club out there which is where we spent most of our time drinking. With about half and hour to go we stumbled down to the stage that was set up on the shoreline ready to count down to 2007.. Fun times.. Since we didn't decide to spend NYE at the Mount until the day before, all the accommodation was booked out so after all the celebrating was done we had to sleep in my car! I did bring my sleeping bag along, but I fell asleep before I got it out of the boot so I froze my tits off! Brrrrrr... Still a great night though.
So I'm back in Welly now and back at work today. No rest for the ugly as they say. Last night we went bowling in Wellington's only (very classy) bowling alley. I, of course, kicked arse again with strikes throughout and a perfect score of 300 - yeah right! Haven't been bowling in what feels like years so it was good fun.
I really have to tighten my buckle for the rest of the time here in Welly so I can save enough to fund the rest of my trip (and so my pants don't fall down). Xmas and NY cost a lot more than expected, so from now on no more spending.. The exception being the not-to-be-missed BDO in Auckland on the 19th. Tool are going to be there - Yeeeeehawwwww!

Well, that's my life up until this point → •

Pictures soon

Photos:
1. Pulling a traditional xmas cracker in front of the tree - I think this one had a beer-bottle opener inside!
2. That's the spirit!
3. A very festive house in Lower Hutt
4. Little guy at the zoo.. I just like the photo..
5. A Māori display inside Te Papa Museum
6. I doubt even beer goggles can help this poor fellow - Mt. Maunganui
7. Gettin' smashed...
8. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
9. Fireworks on the beach
10. Cool, calm and collected at the bowling alley - see the computer says I got a strike.. is that my lane??