People are sunshine

Everyone in New Zealand is probably feeling like me this week. Soggy and missing the sun. In fact almost depressingly so. It has only been 5 days since the sun shone on my skin but it feels like months. However, yesterday I had a 'sunny' day amidst the drizzle. I know I need people to keep me energised and happy and I work with heaps of people everyday but yesterday I had two opportunities to spend time with new people and I felt fantastic by the time I went to bed.
Firstly, Alex asked me to join her at her BNI (Business Networking International) breakfast meeting at The George. I was a guest and just loved sitting around the big table listening to a group of motivated hardworking people talk about their businesses and enjoy each others company. Thanks to Alex I was injected with a dash of sunshine that made my work day.

In the evening I went to my first upholstery class. I had booked it to give me something to do in the evenings other than sitting on the sofa watching tv. And it was really fun. I took the piano stool along and along with eight other women, I spent the night chatting and removing tacks from my project. Being in the woodwork room where I spent three happy night class years was a bonus.

I am planning to head out in the weekend to find some fabric and buy a few tools. Silly to be excited about that but nothing like learning some new skills and meeting some new people.
In between my injections of new people I managed to clean 500 emails out of my burstingly full in box and had some great emails from friends when I got home. So in all a really good day.
People really are sunshine in the winter so make sure you see lots of them.

Long time no blog

Hi there, sorry for having not been in touch for a while. Been a bit busy and if you make the effort to check in regularly, I apologise.

Hopefully these pictures of our recent mini break to the West Coast will make up for nothing new for a while.

We had such the best time on our holiday. While the weather was murky and snowy on the east coast, we experienced the best winter weather you could ever imagine. Reminded me of some of the best days I have ever had on the ski field. It was obvious that although Jonty has whooping cough and is in a low state, he was energised and a peace in the mountains. I know he didn't want to come home.We loved the adventure of traversing the Southern Alps in the snow and ice as intrepid travellers. Once on the other side we sped off to Fox Glacier where we stayed for a couple of nights. We made the most of the sun and got going early in the morning and headed up to the Fox Glacier and then headed north again to the Franz Joseph Glacier. You can't fathom the size of these ice rivers until you are right there. And the colour, if it could be put on a palate, would be a best seller. We also headed to Gillespies Beach to experience the wonders of building sand castles with the Southern Alps as your back drop. Lovely beyond words. Along the way the next morning we came across lovely lakes

Mapourika and Ianthe and took a detour to Okarito Lagoon. So still and gorgeous.
We wandered up to Greymouth were it was frigidly cold but sunny as anything. Nice to have a playground for Nic to play in/on. We had a fabulous jolly night with friends John and Angela drinking to much red wine and eating meatballs.

The following morning we went in search of the Pike River Coal mine and came very close until we hit the barrier gate...not literally. We then headed to Jackson's via Lake Brunner and the Arnold River power station. We had a great mystery scenic walk which proved to be the first time we recognised Nic being excited about walking and not one complaint about tired legs. What a difference 6 months can make on capacity. Yay Nic. We stopped atop the Otira Pass for a bit of snow throw and headed home.

We can highly recommend a sunny winter holiday to blow the cobwebs away. I hope you enjoy the photos.