Part 13 - And we're off to windy Wellington

OK so I no longer work for the Best Café in Southland 2011 (boo!). I officially completed my last shift there last Friday (Sept 30th). I had a lovely day in work - the WHK receptionists gave me pink jelly beans (thank you ladies, they came in handy on the 11 hour road trip!), one of our regulars - the lovely Reece (I tried to spell his name the Welsh way - 'Rhys' - but he wouldn't have it) came in with a box of chocolates and 2 other regulars - Gordon & Mr Mug (that's not his real name) - bought me a gorgeous mug with a message about cake on it. The delightful Charlie from upstairs got me a lovely keyring which is so her and I absolutely love it. It's truly lovely and all the gifts were completely unexpected and made me quite emotional.

The Southlanders are such an adorable bunch - I felt that they truly took me under their wing and gave me a (very large) adopted family there. I will definitely be back. After work the B(i)atches had a few drinks and the owners did me a little leaving speech which was once again very emotional. They bought me a gorgeous gift which I will treasure and the absolutely divine Kate got me a stunning gift too. I'd wanted to buy it for myself and when I went to get it, it wasn't there so I assumed it had been sold. But the little monster had hidden it and presented it to me as I left. Thank you to all of you at the Batch. I probably didn't word it very well in my leaving 'speech' as I was truly overwhelmed by your generosity. I can never thank you enough for being my protectors, teachers (!) and friends during my time in Invercargill. You are an amazing mix of people. I look forward to seeing you over the Summer.

It's now the following Friday and we seem to have done so much since then.

On the Sunday we had tickets for the Wales vs. Fiji game. So we were up at 8am as we had to drive to Dunedin airport for the flight. We left Dunedin at 11am and got into Auckland at about 1pm where we had hired a car to drive to Hamilton. The drive was clear for the 1st hour or so then the traffic seemed to build up out of nowhere - this was only about 3pm and kick off wasn't until 6pm so it seemed a little odd. It was great to see all the other cars with their flags on their cars - so many Welshies and Fijians and we tooted to a few as we passed them. It was a really lovely driving experience. As 2 lanes went into one we assumed that this was why the traffic had built up, then as we drove along the road we came across a house with a big Welsh flag in the garden and a lady with her daughter watching the traffic with their Welsh tops on. We tooted to them and the daughter screamed with excitement and the mother cheered us on. It was just lovely and strangely made me truly proud to be Welsh (not that I wasn't already).

When you haven't seen any fellow Welshies for so long it's just amazing to come into contact again. After that the traffic seemed to disperse so it seems that we weren't the only ones tooting and cheering - that house was probably part of the reason for the traffic build up! But what a lovely welcome into Hamilton so well done that family. We got to our motel and checked in - it wasn't the greatest service in the world: the owner was clearly busy as we didn't see her once during our stay and were served by her 2 daughters (?) who were probably about 10 and 12 in age and of no use whatsoever when we asked about public transport. Still - I digress, this is not a motel review site. The motel was based in Cambridge which is just outside Hamilton (there was no way you could get accommodation within Hamilton that night - it had all been booked many moons previously!) So we checked in and I decided to be designated driver as the tickets were bought for the OH's birthday and I'm just nice like that ;-)

So we adorned ourselves with red paraphernalia - I had the OH's Ospreys top on (my Welsh top is in our shipping stuff which is still in storage) and I had a Welsh flag cape, red feather boa and red pom poms in hand - the OH had his new Welsh rugby shirt on and we made our way into Hamilton. We parked up in the main town and started walking to the stadium. Every now and again a bus would drive past with 'RWC Stadium Bus' on the front - so we decided to hop on. Turns out they were free buses into the stadium from the town. What a fab idea. It turned out this particular bus had about 2 Fijians on it and the rest were Welsh - and what do the Welsh do when they are en masse particularly when the rugby is on?? Sing of course! After various choruses of Sosban Fach and Delilah and the OH being asked if he's Stephen Jones' brother we alighted at the Stadium. As we took our seats (about 4 rows from the front near the posts - great view) it was great to soak in the atmosphere. The seats were pretty equally filled by red and blue. I was in my Welsh flag cape sat next to a guy in a Fijian cape. It was lovely - everyone asking "where are you from?" (the Welsh are always convinced they'll meet someone they know...and we usually do) and just the general air of anticipation. Then the game happened...and what a game it was. The final score: 66-0 to Wales. Amazing. Admittedly though by the end we were willing the Fijians to get just one try - on the other hand we'd never been to a game where Wales had managed to keep the other team from scoring at all so it was pretty amazing to watch.

The Fijian & Welsh teams

After the game we went out in Hamilton. On our way we were stopped by some reporters with a camera and a (very) bright light who asked us if we were Welsh and then promptly interviewed us on camera. Not sure where they were from but please let us know if you think you may have seen us - I was also wearing a red fedora style hat by this point. First off we went into an Irish bar which was absolutely rammed as Ireland were playing next. After one drink we took off and headed to the Fan Zone. These are set up in the towns that are hosting the matches. They are manned by security & police and they generally have a brilliant feel about them. All the fans getting together to either watch the game on a big screen set up within the zone - or in one of the various pubs which make up the fan zone. We went into a pub which had a sign outside saying "unofficial Welsh embassy" and inside was a sea of red - dotted with the odd green jersey. The Irish singing at the Welsh and the Welsh singing at the Irish - it was great. Then as we left the bar and headed back to the motel we bumped into 2 of the Welsh players: Adam Jones & Alun Wyn Jones. The OH was a bit star struck...we had our pics taken with them and then headed back. So tomorrow Wales are in the quarter finals and we take on our Irish friends...in Wellington.

This brings me neatly onto my next instalment of 'moving house: episode 44' (OK so that's only what it FEELS like). We got back from Hamilton on Monday (after only 4 hours sleep the night before) and packed all of our stuff up and got it all into the car (this is no mean feat - we'd bought a TV cabinet and we have a bit of a sporty car...not made for TV cabinets!) After an early night we were up and said our goodbyes to the lovely Courtney (another person who I would like to thank massively for helping us out when we needed it) who we were living with (insert more tears here) and we hit the road. but first we needed to get some breakfast and coffee...where should we go...? No contest is there?! The Batch it was. We stocked up with flat whites; cheese & bacon scone; toastie and a vegetarian bretzel (they're amazing guys - they are a winner!!) and after final good byes (more tears) we were off. We had a 12 hour road trip ahead of us (which only turned out to be 11 hours in the end) and I kept thinking we were going to hit rush hour. I had clearly forgotten where we were living as there isn't a 'rush' hour in Invercargill - there aren't enough cars about. The drive was lovely (OK, OK I was the passenger - not the driver), all green and animal filled. We saw sheep, sheep and more sheep (and loads of baby lambs!), lots of horses and foals, Shetland ponies, alpacas, cows and calves, deer and of course the beautiful views of land and sea. I thought I saw goats at one point which prompted me to shout out 'GOATS!' as we went past....turns out they were just shaved sheep. So, no goats.

After 11 hours we got to Picton and checked into our delightful cabin for the night. Another early night ensued as we had to be up at 6am for the ferry the next morning. The ferry was scheduled to leave at 8am so we had to be there at 7am at the latest. We got to the ferry terminal and waited to get on the boat...we waited...and waited...and waited. Eventually a lady came over and advised us that the ferry was running late and would be leaving at about 8:45am instead. This should have set alarm bells ringing - or at least prompted questions of why was it running late? But it didn't - after all ignorance is, as they say, bliss. So at about 8:30am we were finally loaded on to the ferry and we left the ferry terminal at about 9am. For the first 45 minutes I loved it. We were still in the confines of South Islands 'arms' at this point and the seas were calm and lovely. We went to the café and had breakfast and 2 cups of tea and took our seats to read the paper and watch the world go by for the next 3.5 hours. Then we left the South Island completely and ventured into the big open sea. This is when things started to go a bit askew. The ferry was riding HUGE waves then coming crashing down onto the sea - it was entertaining to begin with and I was stood up by a French group who were watching it. I even managed to take some pics of the waves crashing against the side of the boat. Trying to walk around was quite difficult but I got back to my seat and continued to marvel at the might of the ocean with the OH.

The waves crashing up against the ferry - the last pic I took while travelling by boat...

After about 10 minutes one of the on board crew came around with cups of ice asking if people were OK and if not suggesting that they have a cup of ice as it makes you feel better. By this point I had started to feel a bit uneasy so I had some ice and it seemed to do the trick. The OH went off to find the toilets and ventured off onto the deck to take a look outside. I stayed put. Another crew member came around with sick bags and started putting them on the tables - this was not, in my books, a good sign. Within a matter of minutes my hands had started to shake and I was boiling hot. I was starting to get clammy and was wishing that the OH would come back. I stuck with the ice and kept wishing for his return. I couldn't ring him as I didn't want to make any sudden movements - it was awful. Then the guy directly in front of me starting vomiting into a sick bag.

Eventually the OH returned and I explained that I needed to go to the toilets....like now! So we got there and that was pretty much where I stayed for the next 3.5 hours. I had been so excited about the ferry trip as I've never suffered with travel sickness to my knowledge previously but boy was I sea sick. It was awful and it felt like the journey would never end. It was like being ill after a really really heavy night out but when you've been sick it doesn't go away. The OH was ill once too and there were a number of 'green' people on the ferry that day. Apparently it was the worst crossing that some people had ever been on and it was just typical that it was the ferry we were on. Then as soon as the ferry was in calm waters again the feeling completely disappears. There's a lot to be said for flying, that's all I can say.

So we got to Wellington - albeit 3kgs lighter - and made our way to the beach bach which we've rented for a couple of weeks while we find somewhere to rent permanently. Now I've had a number of friends and family asking me what a beach bach is - a certain Mrs M (and many other people I think - including my dear mama) assumed it was a wooden hut on the beach... A beach bach isn't the 50's style brightly coloured wooden beach huts that line the beach as we in the UK imagine them to be. They are more like one or 2 bedroom flats which are free standing (i.e. they're not in a blocks of flats) and look more like a small bungalow. They are minutes' walk to the beach and a lot of Kiwis have them as holiday homes away from the city. The place we're currently based in is called Paraparaumu and it's about 45 minutes outside of Wellington CBD. There's a brilliant train service and cable cars in Wellington as well as buses so public transport is easy enough to access. We're looking for a place a bit closer to the centre - maybe with a 25 minute commute into the city. The weather difference in Paraparaumu to Wellington is astounding. We'd heard about it but you don't quite believe it until you see it. Take for example yesterday - we put washing on the line and headed into Wellington to sort out internet access and so on. We left the bright, clear, sunny skies of Para and jumped on the train...as we got closer to Wellington the skies darkened and when we alighted it was to a cloud filled sky with drizzle. Then coming back to Para it was a notable temperature rise. It's very bizarre and I'm not sure why it happens (possibly due to the pollution in the centre?? That's my only guess) so please feel free to educate me if you know more.

Our beach bach in Paraparaumu

Yesterday in Wellington we found our way to the Welsh Dragon Bar (the only Welsh bar in the Southern Hemisphere) and it was just amazing. I'm not the type to go searching for British bars when I'm on holiday but as we live here it's so welcoming to know there will always be a Welsh contingency just down the road. Inside the bar the ceiling is covered with flags all signed by various visitors - the owner is a Swansea man and when you enter you are greeted by a sea of Welsh accents (all asking each other "where you from then?") It's a lovely home from home.

Within 2 minutes of entering a lady approached me with a microphone and a voice recorder and asked me what I think of the game against Ireland on Saturday. I was a bit over-awed so probably sounded a bit meek but I responded to her questions - again, no clue where she's from (I assume radio??) but will listen out for myself. Having only spent enough time in there for 2 drinks we left with a 2 business cards: one from a Welsh gentleman who lives here and the other from a South African gentleman who lives here and we also met and spoke to various other customers. One of which was a delightful Welsh chap from a little Welsh town near Llanelli - he had come over the day before on his own and he's here for 3 weeks. We were talking to him for a while and he asked where our Welsh tops were as he had his on. We explained that we live here and mine was in shipping anyway. As time went on we were talking to other people and this guy came back and said to me "before you go come and see me as I have a surprise for you" and we joked that that sounded a touch ominous and off he went again. About 20 minutes afterwards he came back with a t-shirt which he had bought from the bar for me. It says 'Welsh Dragon Bar Rugby World Cup 2011' on it and has a Welsh flag in the shape of a rugby ball on the front. What a genuinely lovely guy - he refused to take a drink from us but we insisted that if we see him in the bar on Saturday or in the fan zone then he has to accept our drinks. The random acts of kindness from strangers never fails to amaze me. Thank you so much to that man - he didn't even tell us his name but we know his face and we'll be looking out for him tomorrow!

Inside the Welsh Dragon Bar

So here we are in Wellington searching for a home and work - wish us luck. I will keep you updated as the search continues...

Now to a completely random subject. My taste buds seem to have been doing some changing in the 5 months that I've been here so, specifically for my mum, I thought I'd enlighten you to some foods I now love that I didn't used to (I must now officially be a 'grown up'):

• Spinach: Raw only, I still won't eat the cooked spinach & egg meal you all love but I do make a mean sweet chilli king prawn salad with raw spinach
• Pumpkin: Yep, we actually eat it here and don't just put it all in the bin to make nice lanterns
• Olives: OK so I started liking these in the UK but the love has continued and now they're a staple part of my diet
• Lemon curd: but NOT lemon meringue pie. Lemon curd is amazing - we have it at The Batch on something called a lemon slice....yummy!
• Sweet Potato: Also called kumara here, it's nice and tastes a bit like honeyed parsnips
• Natural Yoghurt: It's just divine and goes so well with sweet desserts like brownie and the aforementioned lemon slice
• Coriander: I was never a huge fan - far too overpowering for my liking - but now I love it and cook with it
• Ginger beer / ale: I KNOW!! I used to despise this stuff. My nan loves it. But it goes so well with Canadian Club and lime and is so refreshing just on it's own!!
• Canadian Club: That led me on nicely to this. Canadian Club is whiskey - which I HATED. But now I love it.
• Quinoa (pronounced keenwaah): Admittedly I don't think I'd ever tried this in the UK. The chef in the Batch made a gorgeous veggie quinoa salad - it looks like a mixture between cous cous and alfalfa - and it was simply stunning.
• Dates: OK so I think these were the things we used to eat with a plastic stick thing at Christmas in the UK. I wasn't a huge fan. However, put them in scones and you're on to a winner. Date & orange are my bests.
• Eggplant / aubergine: now there's a reason why this is at the bottom of my list. This is because I'm still unsure....I've had it once on a vegetarian pizza slab and I didn't dislike it....the jury's still out on that one.

Part 12 - Ooooh hello my thirties! (and a HUGE hello to the Rugby World Cup 2011...oh and a little place called Sydney too)

Well first and foremost I need to sincerely apologise for being soooo rubbish at writing for over 3 weeks! When I started this blog 4 months ago (really!) I remember thinking: "this will keep me busy, I won't have time to miss anyone because I'll be so busy writing this" and look what happened - I got too busy to write. So apologies for that little slip, I promise it won't happen again (I might have my fingers crossed behind my back but it's the thought that counts).

So much has happened since I last posted. For those who actually know me in real life will know that I have just turned 30. Thank you all for your birthday wishes and cards and presents - you are too kind. I felt truly touched by how many people remembered. It's supposed to be this HUGE milestone - but to be honest I don't feel any different: I still feel like a little child who's pretending to be an adult. I seriously panic if I leave the house without my ID because I know I'll still get asked to prove that I am over 18....part of me thinks some day I'll get found out for not being old enough. But alas - I am well over the legal age limit. On that note, if someone says to me "you should be thankful, what a compliment!" again when I am ID'd then I will scream. It's not a compliment, it's very frustrating and time consuming and sometimes even downright embarrassing. The most annoying thing is that I can go out and spend $150 on shopping and have ONE bottle of nice red wine and I'll get ID'd...do they seriously think I'd be spending that much money on one bottle of wine if I was under 18?? I'd be buying something cheap with the alcohol content equivalent of turps or meths surely? Rant over.

So, I knew my fiancé had prepared a pretty hefty surprise for my 30th as I needed to book a week off work. There are so many places in New Zealand that I want to visit that I just couldn't pinpoint what he had in store. Stewart Island maybe? Or possibly Milford Sound?? Maybe we were going up to Paihia - where we spent Valentine's Day in 2010?? (If you don't know these places then look them up online, they're truly breathtaking) My mind was awash with places we could be going to. I had NO CLUE if we were going by car / boat / plane / on legs. For all I knew it could have been a ginormous elaborate ruse and we could have spent a week at home having picnics in the lounge. He would throw me off the scent each time I questioned him. You can imagine it can't you? "So what time will we be leaving the house?" "How long will it take to get there?" "Can I take my entire wardrobe?" "Do I have the right clothes for wherever we're going?" "Can I swim there?" the list really is endless and how he didn't end up just calling the whole thing off to save his sanity is beyond me. We went small suitcase shopping the one day (yep, now you can tell I'm in my 30's!) and I thought 'here we go, we must be going on a plane' but then we only bought one and when questioned his response was 'it's for when we go and watch the Wales game, we only need one as we're only there for 1 night.' So that was that - nipped in the bud. So it was our birthday on the Thursday (for those of you who don't know me in real life, my fiancé and I share our birthday - rare as that may be, no it's not cute and it's not as good a thing as you think. Buying presents for someone else on your birthday is never fun, and there are always disagreements about who should make the birthday breakfast). We were finishing work on the Tuesday and leaving on Wednesday morning. Sooo.... Tuesday night came and I was presented with a small suitcase and told to pack it with what I wanted to take. One clue was that I didn't need any big jumpers / coats. The suitcase wasn't the one we'd bought....it had been lent to him by a friend. The sneaky monster had foreseen my questioning and found a way around it!! So I packed.

Wednesday morning we were up at 8 and had to leave at about 9:30am. So I was insanely excited - still none the wiser as to where we were headed. We got in the car and drove...after a while I noticed we were on our way to the beautiful Queenstown as we've been there for a weekend previously. We passed the signs for Milford Sound so that was crossed off my mental list! After 2 hours we arrived at Queenstown airport. How exciting, now I knew I was going somewhere on a plane. I absolutely LOVE flying so this was a great start for me! We checked in and only by looking at the destination on the screen did I know we were flying to Christchurch. The only other time I have been to Christchurch was when I originally emigrated to NZ and had to catch my link plane to Invers from there so I was excited to go back and keen to see the place. After a short flight we landed in Christchurch and strangely the OH (Other Half) was looking for a phone - he found one in the airport and rang a random number.

The beautiful Queenstown Airport

I just stood dumbfounded as he didn't say hardly anything but took in (lots and lots of) information from the stranger on the other end of the line. At this point I felt like I was in a movie, some random instructions from a random person - not aware of where I was going or why. Then we were off - out of the airport and into the car park...apparently waiting to be picked up. After ten minutes or so we were collected by a lovely woman who informed us that 30 minutes earlier they'd had another aftershock which reached a magnitude of 4.7. Another big aftershock for ChCh residents - makes you realise how lucky we really are. Fifteen minutes later we were booked into the delightful Papanui Motel - if you go to Christchurch then you should stay here - just the loveliest most helpful owners and a fantastic little room stocked with all the amenities you could wish for. We took a little walk to the shopping mall and stocked up with a bottle of wine, some sushi and some potato wedges (all the essentials) and settled in for a few hours. At this point the OH (Other Half) informed me that we needed to leave before 5am for stage 2 of the magical mystery tour. Perplexed I took to my old questioning technique and used it again as a form of torture for keeping all these lovely secrets from me. Knowing that I would find out as soon as we started out the next day he decided to let me know where we were going. On his laptop was a document titled 'Read Me'. So I did. After a number of clues it was revealed that I would be celebrating my 30th Birthday in true style in the heart of SYDNEY!! I was completely gob smacked. Not only had he managed to arrange everything in secret, with no input whatsoever, we were also leaving the country and he'd been applying for visas and everything on my behalf! To say I was astounded would be an understatement. I certainly didn't think we'd be leaving NZ. The rest of the trip went a little something like this:

At 4am on the morning of my 30th and the OH's 35th the alarm went off. After not a great deal of sleep because I was so excited we had to get up. My excitement hadn't abated one tiny bit! We were picked up by the airport shuttle and taken back to Christchurch airport to board the flight bound for Sydney. After 3 hours (and a little nap) we touched down. The cabin manager was the best member of cabin crew I had ever come across. As the pilot flew into the airport we had a short taxi on the runway to our destined stop. The cabin manager came over the speakers and said "giving you a tour of Sydney airport now, on the left you will see tarmac and the airport....and if you're seated on the right you'll also see tarmac and the airport." He was very witty indeed. So we were now in Sydney AND it was our birthday. We got on the tube at the airport and made our way to the hotel to check in (perfectly placed in Wynyard and right by the tube stop) and decided to take a look around and find our bearings.

First stop: Darling Harbour. It's a gorgeous harbour (no...really?!) lined with cafés and bars (think a very large Cardiff Bay...but in Oz!) We took a wander to the town hall and bought a box of Chinese food which we sat on some steps and ate in the warmth of the Aussie sun (it wasn't bikini hot but it was cardigan warm...yes I'm definitely 30). Then we hopped on the ferry to Circular Quay. The best piece of advice we had as tourists in Oz was at the train station where a very helpful guard advised us to purchase the multi-trip ticket which enabled us to travel on the trains, ferries, light rail and buses as much as we wanted for a week - definitely advisable as the public transport is fantastic in Sydney and we used it loads. Anyway...Circular Quay is a lovely place busy with people mingling, catching ferries, eating and generally being sociable. We saw a man there playing the didgeridoo amazingly whilst a group of school kids watched and played along with knocking sticks and things. Very cute.

After we'd found our bearings we headed back to Darling Harbour for some birthday cocktails and had a lovely meal at the Meat & Wine Company. the OH had read about a place called the Marble Bar online so we went in search of it. What a fantastic find it turned out to be. It has set a new, very high standard for my favourite bar! It's basically underneath the Hilton hotel and you'd think you were a million miles away from there...it was a really bluesy, jazz style bar - with a very 'underground' feel (it literally was underground but I don't mean it in that way). It felt like we'd wandered into a funky 70's type bar. The live music was fantastic, modern (ish) tunes with a jazz / old school feel about them. Brilliant. We were both shattered however so we went back to the hotel for an early night - on our birthday! Still...we had plenty of time yet to celebrate :o)

The Marble Bar, Sydney

Find out more about the impressive history here: http://www.marblebarsydney.com.au/history.aspx

On the Friday we decided to go for a mammoth walk around Sydney. We made our way to Oxford Street in Paddington (yes, I had to double check that I wasn't in London too!) and had a look around the shops (same theme as London too), on to the Anzac memorial and then we walked through Hyde Park with the lovely fountains (still, London). Then we made our way to Woolloomooloo Bay (what an AMAZING place name, it deserves to be saluted - if only in my blog) and through the Royal Botanic Gardens which were absolutely beautiful and house one of Sydney's largest bat colony. There were hundreds of them! They weren't caged there, or kept against their will - they were free to fly off but they just chose not to for whatever reason. Then we wound up back at Circular Quay where we found a little deli café which did the most amazing home-made Lentil Burgers and Focaccia sandwiches. Simply scrumptious. Jumped on the ferry and made our way to the gorgeous Manly. A lovely surfer's paradise with all your usual shops - Billabong; Ripcurl, etc. We had a nice stroll through the shops and made our way to Manly beach which is gorgeous. It was a bit nippy on the beach so we found a beach front café called The Sugar Lounge which was again - gorgeous. All rattan furniture and nice cosy, relaxed atmosphere with friendly bar staff and lovely patio heaters on the front tables. The whole front of the café was a huge window which completely opens up so that you can see people walking past / on the beach. The type of place you'd aspire to own :o) We had a few drinks here and relaxed, watching the world go by and then ordered lunch. Their food is yummy too! The OH ordered a Mezze platter which was HUGE and I had pumpkin / goats cheese quesadillas and we shared a bowl of sweet paprika chips. It was all delightful and our eyes were far bigger than our bellies as we couldn't eat it all (try as we might!)

Having made our way back to the hotel we decided to go to The Rocks - an area of Sydney we'd heard about but not seen. Armed with inside information from a resident Aussie we were on the hunt for a rooftop bar called the Glenmore Hotel. We were told to look for a 'spooky looking staircase that looks like it leads to nowhere' and strangely enough we found it...exactly as described! We went in and the hotel looked like any dated hotel of it's time...nothing too special. No signs to be seen for any rooftop area....so after a quick scan the OH asked someone and by jove we found it! Views across Sydney, lovely patio heaters and just another great atmosphere greeted us. What a great little find this turned out to be. Not exactly a 'find' but we'll claim that one ;-) After a couple of drinks here we headed to Argyles which looked like a typical bar / club....until you went inside. The décor was quirky and very very different. It was really nice and clearly attracted lots of different groups of people - from young groups of friends - to families - to couples. It seemed to suit all tastes and it did it well.

Saturday we went to Sydney Tower. If you go to Sydney - I highly recommend that you go up and have a look across the whole of Sydney. We managed to work out where we had walked the day before and were proud of the vast amount of walking we'd done! The tower is 309 metres high and there is so much going on within it that you couldn't imagine from outside. There are gorgeous shops galore and one floor is dedicated to food of every variety you can think of. We had a nice coffee and a beautiful pineapple / coconut muffin at Becasse café. Yum yum yum. Then we went up to the observation deck - I think it costs about AUS$25 per person and it's worth every cent! We spent an hour or so up there and enjoyed marvelling at the lovely Sydney sights. You can choose to get harnessed up and walk around the top - actually outside! The OH was tempted but there was no way I could have done it. I remember walking up to the 2nd level of the Eiffel Tower years ago and my legs turned to jelly...I am no good with heights whatsoever. I do however, want to jump out of a plane...but that's another story.

After the tower we decided to head off to the fantastic Bondi Beach. Having seen it on the TV we expected  a really big beach teaming with people....but it wasn't half as big as I expected! Don't get me wrong it was lovely and there were people playing beach volleyball (as you'd expect) and heaps of people were surfing (again, as you'd expect) - it just wasn't as BIG as I was expecting it to be. One cool thing was as you go onto Bondi Beach there's a big bowl that looks like a human sized plug hole but it's for the boarders. There were quite a few skateboarders using that and it was good fun to watch. Whilst it was sunny and blue-skied, it was a bit too nippy to sunbathe on the beach - the sea was really cold when we had a paddle too - so we strolled along and then went up to the chip shop and bought blue cod burgers and ate them on the beach. Yet again GORGEOUS food (this post is seriously food oriented). Then we made our way home and freshened up ready for the evening.

That night we decided to find Ivy Bar (another bar the OH had read about) which turned out to be even better hidden than the Glenmore Hotel! We had to go down a side street (it looked like nothing was down there) and then round a few corners until we finally found a hive of activity in the shape of a number of bars clustered together. We got to the 1st security guard and he stood very close to the OH and asked "Where are you going?" to which we replied that we were looking to have some dinner. His tone changed immediately and he became the most helpful person ever: "well you've got plenty of options: Ivy Bar is there, Mad Cow is there, there's Thai food upstairs..." so we thanked him and walked on....to the 2nd security guard who also asked "Can I help you?" - again we explained that we were looking for some food. He walked us up to a desk where you could book into the various restaurants - on the way to this desk the 3rd security asked "can I help you?" and we explained we were being looked after by the 2nd security guard. We got to the desk and the guy asked us which one we wanted to book in to - we still hadn't seen a menu for any of the eateries at this point and as they only had a limited selection of menus at the reservations desk (and because I'm a pescetarian which can make it difficult) we asked if we could just walk around and and look at the restaurants / menus. He was fine with that and pointed us in the direction of Ivy Bar. We walked up the steps to be greeted by the 4th security guard who asked what we wanted. We explained yet again that we were looking for food and he allowed us to pass. Well what a palaver - but we were finally in! Ivy Bar is a stunning looking bar come restaurant with disco balls and strings of lights hanging between the trees inside and it has no roof - all open air (not sure how they cope if it rains??) It's quite upmarket to look at but weirdly when you order food they give you a buzzer and when it starts flashing & vibrating you have to go and pick your food up from the kitchen. I ordered a prawn dish and the OH had steak. The buzzer buzzed and flashed manically and we went to pick up our food. When we got back to our table I noticed something had been sprinkled on top of my delightful chilli prawn spaghetti....crispy onions? No... Some sort of herb?? No... A straggly spice??? Errrm, no. Crispy bacon in fact. So I spent some time trawling through and picking out bits of bacon (I'm not so fussy as to take it back or not eat it: I don't want to cut my nose off to spite my face) and the food (when bacon free) was absolutely delish. Whilst I was on bacon patrol there seemed to be a far few police who had made their way into the bar - they were removing someone it turned out. Then some more police arrived...with a dog. It turned out to be a drug sniffer dog who was shown around the bar and he sniffed all of us (I was careful not to drop any bacon on the floor in case I attracted his attention without due cause). He was a really cute dog too - I wanted to pet him but I didn't. It was like when I see a blind dog and I always want to pet them but it says not to so I have to refrain (not an actual blind dog of course, I mean a blind person's helping dog - if it was a real blind dog then I would pet and cwtch him loads).

Ivy Bar, Sydney

Anyway, I digress. So we're at Ivy Bar, everyone's being sniffed by dogs, I'm trying not to poison myself by eating pig and then a line of 10 police purposefully stride upstairs. They were clearly on the lookout for something. So we had a lovely meal and drinks and some entertainment in the form of law enforcement. It was really strange as the bar looks so upmarket and seems to attract a smart crowd and yet all this palaver was going on inside. It was a very enjoyable evening nonetheless and I'd thoroughly recommend going there. After that we went to Marble Bar again and it didn't disappoint - still just a beautifully addictive place - not pretentious or uninviting, just a deeply soulful enjoyable place to be. We had a few Canadian Clubs here and then had to head home as we had an early flight to Christchurch the next morning.

When we got back to Christchurch we were let down by the place we were supposed to be staying at so we contacted the owners of the Papanui Motel again - and they were very obliging. Within 15 minutes we were back at their motel, all checked in and cosy. That night I experienced my first ever earthquake aftershock. Initially I thought the OH was wobbling the bed - until he said "that's an aftershock" and when I said "I thought you were trying to wind me up by shaking the bed" he laughed. You could hear the building creaking and the whole floor shook for a few seconds but it felt like a lot longer. It was frightening and you didn't know if that was it or if it was going to get more intense. I can't believe that residents of ChCh have experienced over 3700 aftershocks since the initial quake hit over a year ago. Admittedly you don't feel all of them but one was enough for me. It must be devastating not knowing if or when they're going to end.

So that was it. Amazing. We're now home and I am 30. The OH is 35 and I have only 5 years to plan something for his 40th that will match the amazing magical mystery tour that he arranged for me. For that I thank you with all my heart OH...it was absolutely amazing, I loved every moment and I can never thank you enough.

We came home to the beginning of the Rugby World Cup 2011 and how exciting has it been already?! On the Friday night before the game we booked last minute tickets to the Scotland vs. Romania game in Invercargill. Rugby Park is within walking distance of where we live and it was a great game - fab to chat to some Scots at the game and to get caught up in the whole atmosphere of it. I hope you all saw the opening ceremony - I personally thought it was absolutely brilliant (apart from the shipping crane ballet dancing bit - that was just plain weird). We have watched almost all of the games either on TV or at the pub. The Wales vs. South Africa game was heart wrenching. I think we deserved to win it but then I'm probably just biased. To be fair though our customers in the shop agree and if I had a dollar for every time I heard "you were robbed" the following week then I'd be minted ;-) The Ireland vs. Australia game was simply amazing! I'd have loved to have been in Ireland on THAT night, I expect there were a few sore heads the following day as they sure know how to party. As if everyone here needed an excuse to lay claim to an Irish grandparent. The NZ'ers were delighted. There's a healthy competition between NZ & Australia - not dissimilar to that of Wales & England.

Rugby Park, Invercargill

This weekend just gone Wales took on Samoa and it looked like a completely different team to that which played last weekend. We won - and I'll take the win - but we didn't play well and we need to shape up. After all, if we make it through to the quarters (and we should) then we'll be playing Ireland.

Other BIG news for you all in this post is that we're moving! After we've been to watch the Wales game we're relocating to Wellington, so that will be the next big thing.

Oooh I almost forgot: it's officially official :o) The Batch Café has won 'Best Café in Southland 2011'. Good news eh?! It's a pretty impressive accolade when you see the number of cafés dotted around Invercargill alone. It went down very well in work as you can imagine. We now have our liquor license and will be trading evenings and weekends before you know it. It really is a completely gorgeous café, if you're ever in Invercargill you should visit it, it's so relaxing, the food is completely amazing and the service is obviously second to none ;-) Also, we now have a live FaceBook page so you should find it and like it :o)