soapy©

The end of the year was fantastic for us as a family (we thought). Paulines brother had been out for most of September then he headed to port Douglas to visit his other sister. My older sister was arriving on the 28th of Dec then i was flying out with them to NZ for a week to visit my brother in Christchurch.
At the beginning of October Pauline’s brother in laws heath scared the shit out of us all, so it was lucky that Pauline’s brother was up there to help and Pauline’s parents flew in to help her sister. He was starting to recover by the end of November so Pauline’s parents decided to spend the last two weeks with us. As they were leaving they told us that the brother in laws heath was well enough to travel, so they decided to take a trip to melly to sell their vanilla (some of you might remember from older posts)
Pauline then reminded me that i still didn’t have my aussie passport or flights booked lol (most of you know what im like)
The headed for brissie first to stay at his parents first and Pauline’s sister was popping down every now and then. Things couldn’t have been better.
They stayed in the brissie area over Christmas and we spend a fair bit of time with them.
Christmas week was massive; I woke up to find my aussie passport in my stocking lol
We spent the day with lovely friends at the beach then headed home to have a family meal. It was the first year that it felt Christmassy to me. A few days later my sister and brother in law arrived and brought the rain with them. They spent the first day resting and Pauline dragged them about the coast on the second day.
I was still working and getting all rigged for NZ and then we got news that we all hate from Scotland (something im not ready to talk about yet)
We decided not to have the tartan party this year and headed for brissie with my sister and brother in law to watch the fireworks and caught up with some lovely friends again
So on the 8th we headed to NZ and the following day Pauline headed back to Scotland.
I arrive in Christchurch and was met by my brother and his missus at the airport, my sister and her man landed about 30 mins later and we headed to their place in Rangiora.

3 of us crammed into the back of one car for about a 30 min trip. MY legs and arms were dead by the time we got there.
I knew they lived in what’s called a lifestyle, but i really didn’t know what that meant. It was fantastic, some photos posted below.




I felt the cold the moment i left the car

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I felt at home right away

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The lifestyle was fantastic!







the first thing the lads did was test out the local


then headed to the local chippy and they had real chips!

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then back home

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We were doing a trip of the south island, so the car they had would not fit us all in unless i lost a few limbs

so we headed to Rangiora and hired a big stupid looking 8 seater. it was fab!



Rangiora



My brother took us a little tour of the local area and we ended up at Woodend beach



It was just a tad windy !

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So off we set on our adventure. Now I cant remember where all the photos were take or in the correct order, but i will do my best.
I just kept taking snaps



I remember this place below was Called Geraldine (the road sign helped lol)





we had to test out this pub. turns out my brother had a drinking sesh with the guy who runs it a while ago and we were made most welcome

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The we landed at lake takeapo

I loved this place it was stunning and the water was a fantastic colour, the photos dont do it justice



it was pissing down at the time though, so we got it on the way back too

Pollyana

Ooh goodie, nice pics to look at! How to get through a night shift easily, Chapter 4.......
Hope no-one wants any floods reported on tonight

Looks gorgeous mate

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some other places on the way down

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it was and the best photos are still to come

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we headed for queenstown first so we took a few shots









even found a british lolly shop

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more tomorrow

Pollyana

Ooh goodie, I have another shift then. Must ask the Bureau to make sure that cyclone stays on hold for a bit longer