For xmas Steve had bought me tickets for Bon Jovi.  Of course this was BB (before Bullet!).  We set sail on the Bluebridge on Sunday morning.  Morning sickness has kicked in and being on the ferry only served to make it A LOT worse!  Arriving in the South Island was like taking a sedative. For all the best reasons!  Instantly people were warm and friendly and every turn showed us new and beautiful scenery.  We have some awesome memories from a few years ago touring the South Island.  We laughed and recalled all of these as we drove to Christchurch.  Steve had booked us a room at the Chateau on the Park.  A bizzare castle style hotel, just ever so slightly bordering on tacky!  But a great place to stay none the less!  I was feeling pretty bloody awful when we arrived.  But my desire to see my gorgeous Jon on stage gave me the energy to go on!  Watching a concert in NZ is a far cry from being in the UK.  The audience are sedate and pretty hard to get revved up!  At times it was almost painful to watch Jon trying in vain to pump up the crowd!  Mind you, he was pretty bloody knackered and made plenty of references about how far he'd travelled to get to NZ!  The audience mostly seemed to consist of middle aged women and men looking like they'd been dragged along!  Ah well, singing some of the classics was a lot of fun.  By the end of the night, I had swollen ankles, a need to puke and a feeling of such extreme tiredness my body wasn't functioning.  In all I looked like the locals!  We were fortunate enough to get a taxi, swollen ankles aside as soon as I spotted a taxi with its light on, I was off!  The next morning we decided to head to Hanmer Springs, our favourite place in the world!  We decided to drive through Arthurs and Lewis Pass.  It was awesome!  So spectular!  Of course we had lots of food/toilet stops!!  At one point we were stuck on a road for over an hour, waiting in traffic.  Now, here in Welly I would have blown a gasket!  But in the South Island, I just sat and read my magazine while Steve chatted to some landrover owners!  Our journey was filled with lots of 'wows' and 'ahhhs'  Trying to explain how gorgeous the SI is just too hard!  Arriving in Hanmer (on a scorching hot afternoon) we did a quick tour for a motel.  We found an awesome new one where the owner was so just friendly.  We headed out for a drink and dinner, but were amazed to find most places closed!  By 10pm hanmer was shut down and everyone was in bed!!  We drove around for a bit, pointing out houses we loved and deciding if it was at all possible for us to justify moving there!  We were supposed to head back on Monday but opted to stay another night.  I text the office to tell the boss my plans and so we enjoyed ourselves.  We drove back to Picton so we had time to eat and relax and we found at awesome fair trade shop with beautiful objects from all over the world and incredibly good prices.  It was such a great find!  We bought an elephant for Moons from Cambodia, a teddy made in Peru for me and some incense from India.  Not to mention a necklace from Mexico!  I could have gone crazy in there!  And all for a good cause as well!  It was sad to board the ferry, but fortunately knowing our two beautiful girls were waiting for us was more than enough to stay focused!  I must admit to getting quite emotional when it came to leaving them!  Our time away was most surreal, we were able to lie in until 8am (we used to think 10am checkouts were terribly unfair and we used to have to set our alarm for 9.45!).  We could for a night time drive, and we didn't have to make toys out of napkins in the restuarants!  Although Steve said he still had to put up with the constant demands for toilet breaks, demands for food and worse still, are we nearly there yet?!!  We felt so relaxed while we were away and I wanted to remember the feeling as much as possible when we got back.  Unfortunately that was shortlived.  This morning my boss tore strips off me for taking an extra day off.  She informed me I hadn't earnt the right to a holiday and I had let the team down.  I informed her that I wouldn't get paid for it, she'd been forewarned about my plans to travel and I'd worked really hard before I left.  She'd conveniently forgotton that I'd mentioned my holiday - although the whole world is quite clear I was going to see Bon Jovi.  I stood up for myself and she hated it and kept putting me down.  Eventually I said that only the 'team' and actually supported me and told me how well I was going, she was full of criticism.  She of course said that wasn't true.  I ended the meeting because I didn't want to cry in front of her.  I took great pleasure in cancelling all of my new business presentations, telling them to go with a competitor.  She's told me that my new business means little to her, so I'm damned if I'm wasting my petrol trying to line her pockets.  Anyway, some better news!!  I went for a scan today.  Saw the baby, well, blob.  The scan was incredibly short and sweet.  Quick look and then I was dismissed!  But she found a heartbeat of 153bpm.  Everything looked as it should.  I know I should feel some relief, but I am still anxious about the pregnancy and keen to get passed these next few weeks.  Our new Nanny has written to me to say she wants to travel instead.  So again, we have no Nanny.  Steve and I will have to take turns in taking time off work for now.  Other good news!  My car FINALLY passed its WOF!!!  Only took two tries and two failed attempts from my local mechanic!  I never thought it would make it without costing me thousands but the biggest job was covered with insurance - a crack in the windscreen.  YAY!!  The beast survives another day!