Toast of Martinborough & 1st Christmas Night out

Ok we're very behind on the blog so take yourself back to November 2010, the next event in our calendar was the Toast of Martinborough which is a wine festival held at the 11 vineyards in Martinborough to toast the new season of vines.

We all met at the train station to catch the 9.30 train. Here I am with Hannah who was later known as Miss Marple thanks to her darling Dave who decided she looked like her in her new hat!

The boys found some time to play with dan's poker dice. They played with the monopoly money we changed up for cash, they don't accept cash at the vineyards during the festival.

When you arrive you change up your ticket for a wine glass which hangs around your neck. Then you jump on a shuttle bus and they drop you at the vineyards. the buses run all day doing a circuit to each vineyard. All the vineyards have a bar with with all their wines and food, they also have live music playing throughout the day.







Here we are at the first vineyard.


































































Onto the next vineyard and we've met up with the rest of the gang....





























Here's a distance shot of one of the vineyards to give you an idea of what they were like...































On the move to the shuttle bus and onto the next vineyard...





























Here's Dan proving you can still spill wine down yourself even with a wine glass that hangs around your neck!


































On the bus again...

This ones for Shelly - still practicing the poses - chins down eyes up!
































Krissie & Hannah laying down some moves...
































































This guy wanted to get 75 people on his stage by the end of the day, you would have to be completly drunk or a little crazy to even think of doing this, of course dan one one of the first on there.

The weather had been bad all day - check out the clouds - but the sun finally came out...






















Here was are on the move again. Now let's not let it be said that Miss Marple doesn't know when she's being photographed you can just spot her in the background in Coral....






















Getting closer...

Got ya!

When we got to my fave vineyard 'Atarangi' the sun really started to shine, so we laid out for a bit, this guy decided he wanted to share his red wine with Dan!!

Me and my Sis catching some rays...

The girls....

More poker dice gambling!

On the move again you can see all the baby vines to the right

We managed to blag our way onto to a private coach full of people and booze which made Justin happy as he doesn't like wine and unfortunately they don't sell anything else at a wine festival! I thought this Samoan dude was cool....

It was an amazing day and after testing all the wines it was time to get the train back to Wellington for a well deserved pizza!

Before we knew it it was time to put the Christmas Tree up... ok so we put it up at the end of November!

When you have a summer Christmas you have to go all out to get in the spirit check out our fairy lights...

Enough of that Christmas lark then it was time to start work on the 'dick' (deck).

Back to Christmas and our first and last 'Christmas' night out with Rona. To save on taxi fair home Rona sorted us out a hotel room at very reasonable price. Check out the views.....

Nice room...

We didn't have the room to ourselves for long before people started to arrive for pre drinks...

Rona had stocked the fridge with our fave drink falling water' which is a vodka called 42 below which is made here in Wellington, Chi herbal mineral water, ice and a large piece of cucumber. Here's our gorgeous bar lady :)

Out on the balcony..

Then it was time to see how many we could fit in the lift!

There was a massive Cristmas Tree made of lights accross the road with loads of bean bags to lay on while you look up the lights change colour, Rona and Dan enjoyed it a bit too much :)

This is the view from beneath it....

There were telephone boxes with direct lines to Santa! Dan could not believe his luck, this year he didnt have to write santa a letter.

Then is was onto a bar for some Christmas/Goodbye drinks...

Check out the view in the monring...this is Orinetal Bay just gorgeous..

Managed to find a spot in the sun for breakfast and a coffee in Wellington....

Every day I get the train to and from work I see a lovely walk through the gorge so we went to check it out...

It was gorgeous and got us thinking about the next part of our trip but before we pack up and leave we've got the arrival of the Lawrence's (my folks), Christmas and New Year. All that to come in the next blog.....

Spring + Birthday + Residency + God Parents + Norwich arrivals = partee time!

Well firstly sorry it's been so long since the last update, these things aren't as easy as they look and we've been too busy having fun ;)




So after a long (well actually it wasn't that long) cold (well it wasn't that cold, just felt it without central heating in a wooden house) winter, spring has arrived and at the first sign of sun we were out on the deck for the first bbq of the season. It probably wasn't that warm in Kiwi terms but any excuse we'll be out in it!


























Then is was time for a game of Norwich Monopoly...here's Dan reading the rules....














































Here I am taking more money for all my property's!






















Andy taking his role of Banker very seriously :)





























Now for a little story, Dan had a facebook message from an old friend he used to go to school with, Dave Harding. Dave and his girlfriend Hannah and her work friend Selina and her boyfriend Justin were all moving out to Wellington and one of Hannah's friends happened to be friends with me on facebook and had noticed we were in NZ so Hannah told Dave to contact Dan (still following!) So as soon as they arrived in NZ we invited them over for a BBQ to welcome them to Wellington. Showing what a small world it is we all worked out we had lots of friends in common from back home and it was lovely to hear the norwich accent again (thanks to Justin!).

Here's Dave & Dan....

It was a great night and as you can see we didn't get on well at all ;)

Here's Dan and Justin

So after a fun night with the new Norwich Crew it was time to plan Dan's birthday. When we flew out from Heathrow back in December last year Dan saw a watch he loved but as we were officially on a budget about to set off travelling around Thailand we couldn't justify buying it. So as a surprise for his Birthday I organised for us all to chip in and bought it for him. Thanks to his Mum, Dad, Krissie, Andy, Nanny, my Mum and Dad and of course me we got it for him and we actually managed to keep it a secret. Here he is out on the deck after opening his present....

After all the present opening excitement it was time to get dressed up and head out for birthday celebrations....check out the view from Krissie & Andy's deck....The forecast was rain that day and it had rained all night but check out the blue skies!























We headed down to the harbour in Wellington to a place called One Red Dog which has wicked outdoor seating for beautiful days like this. We planned to meet lots of people there so had to grab as many tables as we could, we look pretty sad just the 4 of us waiting for the rest to arrive, promising the waitress we did really have friends!


























Krissie and I pacing ourselves on Corona's this was going to be a long day of birthday drinks....


























Yay Hannah and Matt arrived - phew!

























Look who's got a new watch....































Everyone arrived and we no longer looked like a lonely group of 4 - so far everyone here is from the UK!

Time to move onto to another bar, here's Dan, Justin and Dave checking out the smoking area....





















Oh dear black zambuka's! That's Dan's work mate Ty, finally we have a Kiwi to keep the side up!

And look what happens when you have a black Zambuka, you grow a blonde wig!
Actually it was stolen by Dan from a stag party.

Here comes trouble, Rona's arrived and yes Dan still has that wig on!

Finally he got rid of the wig and picked up a hen party, does this remind anyone else of Peter Kay's Road to Amarillo?

Richard popped in for a birthday drink....

Hannah and Dave showing Dan some birthday love....

Me & my Sis & Bruv :)

Oh dear Dan seems to have developed a sensitivity to light!

Time for some glow sticks....

The new BFF's Hannah & Krissie

Of course it wasn't too long until Dan has persuaded the band he could sing and he was on stage singing his favourite Wonder Wall....

It went down hill after that and I have no further pictures to document it :)

So after a weekend of celebrating Dan's birthday it was then his actual birthday and time to open some more pressy's. Here's Shelly watching while he opens one of her presents....

Then we had a call from our God Daughter Macey and her mummy Em. How cute is she?

Then is was time for Dan's Mum to skype in for a Birthday chat...

Here's big Sis very proud of her birthday creations....I cannot describe how good they tasted!

'Happy Birthday to you, Happy Birthday to la la lal'.....

After all the birhtday excitement we thought this month couldn't get any better then we had a skype chat with our best buddies Em and Ross (mum & dad to Macey) who asked us if we would be Macey's God Parents. Well afer we double and tripple checked they were sure they knew what they were doing we proudly accpeted and then went out to celebrate at our local Montieths Bar....

After a couple of jugs practising new smiles seems like fun....

Not bad?

And the prize for the weirdest smiles go to Dan & Anday well done boys....

And if you thought that was enough celebrating you would be wrong! The next good news was Krissie got her Residency approved :) So we went over to Kylie and Richards for Curry and games night. Here is Krissie with the triplets and Lydia....how gorgeous :)

Check out the name of the bottle of champagne Celia got Krissie....

Here we are all toasting to Krissie's Residency.......

What a gorgeous pair, must take after their Mum ;)

Time for a game of Articulate and Mr & Mrs.... I wonder which couple will fall out over it this time ;)

Ok so I know the blog is very lacking in scenery this time. We took a short cut the other day via the water and we had to stop and take a pic it was such a gorgeous day. I know we'll miss this scenery when we're gone but right now we take it for granted because it's everywhere!

The next visitors we had from Norwich was Julie and Marty who were on their honeymoon, we used to go to school with Julie and it turns out Marty is Krissie and Dan's 2nd cousin, Norwich is way too small!! Here's we are flying the flag!

All the norwich girls, plus Caroline our token Kiwi :)

The family we never knew we had :))

Time for a drinking game, there's a guy out here called Dave Dobbin who's very famous and he does a song called 'Loyal' everytime he says Loyal you drink, you guessed it he says loyal ALOT!

Another drinking game, if you're seen holding your drink in your left hand you have to down it, Krissie showing how easy it is!

Selina & Hannah

Yet another drinking game, Cardinal Huff....this is the first time in 5 years of experiencing people playing this game that someone has actually achieved Cardinal Huff status, well done Justin.

The end of this night will not be documented to protect the drunk innocents but safe to say 2 people fell asleep as the party continued, one person fell over, someone was sick in their bed and someone else was sick the next day - now that's the dangers of drinking and drinking games I hope that will be a lesson to you all :)

Ok that's it for now, sorry it's been so long, next update will be The Wine Festival.....