Not such a lazy Sunday afterall

We ran out between rain showers to wash the car and then do some muddy weeding. The weeds at the Normandale cottage are just ridiculous! I have one control garden where I decided to stop weeding just in case the "weeds" were actually from flower seeds planted by the owner--- well the control garden has revealed that it is in fact full of weeds. The problem is that the other flower beds-that were just weeded last month- look just as bad as the control garden that was never weeded! ARGH! One the bright note, the succulents and sunflowers are looking awfully happy. Well I think the sunflower wishes for more sun but I probably shouldn't project my feelings onto it.

Anywhoo, while I was out front attacking the garden, Bryce came out to visit. We were near our mailbox and he remarked that he wondered why the mailbox is so big-- we only get letters in the top slot. He looked behind it (which meant getting in the wet foliage and evading spiders) and found that the mailboxes do in fact have compartments for packages that can only be accessed from the back. And-- we had a box in there! Crazy! It was from Becky, a fun Christmas present of a Seahawk xmas ornament, a "W" ornament, gingerbread cookie mix, and a cute Christmas card. Luckily nothing got water damaged. As you can see by the mailbox, it isn't exactly waterproof :-)

Erin and Dave left us with some potatoes, so I used up most of them to make cream of potato soup. I used my homemade vegetable broth, just to make myself feel extra "Little House on the Prairie"-y. Bryce even made bread bowls. Pretty awesome dinner; looking forward to gingerbread cookies for dessert!

Wellington

Wellington is well known for its cafes. They have the best ambiance and yummy food too. A woman at work loves to show off the best cafes to me and some of my other coworkers. She recently took some of us out to Havanna cafe, a cool spot that you would pass right by if you didn't know it was there. Tucked into a wide alley, the tiny place is full of light and is filled with old fashioned furniture and espresso machines. I took Bryce there today, he loved it.

Right now summer turns on and off like a switch-- we sat by a beach for as long as we could until stormy weather forced us out.

NZ birds and paua shells

Busy day-- went to work in Porirua while Bryce, Erin, and Dave got to stay home and have fun. Work is pretty fun still over the holidays-- I got lots of work done and found out cool things like the NZ birds on Boardmaker:

Bryce had an interview today and took Erin and Dave in to town so they could tour and shop around Cuba Street. Then they picked me up from work and we went shell hunting at along a beach in Porirua. Erin won the prize for finding the coolest paua shell-- huge with vivid blues, purples, and greens. People catch the paua (abalone) offshore, pry the meat off, and toss the shells back into water so tourists like us can pick them up. I like using mine as a soapdish, it's purty. I just ignore the scrape marks in the center of the shell where the shellfish was pried out ;-) Bryce got a call that he didn't get the interview, which wasn't the worst news in the world because he had an interview with another agency lined up for Monday. We stopped by Doug and Laura's place to say hello, and then went to yummy wonderful Noodle Canteen for some honey chicken noodles and nasi goreng. Our last night with the four of us hanging out together; Dave and Erin take the campervan on to the north end of the North Island. We will miss them, it was pretty easy living and vacationing with them.

Oh Happy Day

Erin and Dave arrived today in Christchurch!! We met them at the tui campervan park, where Erin presented Bryce with the camera he ordered and had sent to her (cameras are MUCH cheaper in the US than in NZ). What a happy Bryce.

We all piled into the campervan that would be all of our home for the next week (two weeks for Dave and Erin).
We did a clock-wise tour of the South Island, starting with Lake Tekapo.

Earth and Sky tours picked us up at our holiday park to take us to Mount John, the location of several huge telescopes. It was an amazing tour. The town of Tekapo is legally required to use lights that only shine downward so as to make the night sky even more clear. We saw small clouds that were really galaxies (NOT the Milky Way), found where several constellations including the Southern Cross were, and looked through powerful telescopes to see nebulae, the moon and Mars. Here's a picture (that Bryce took using a special revolving tripod available on Mt John) of the Southern Cross (the 4 brightest stars to the left that form a box...or form the end points of a cross). We all loved the night sky tour. We were really happy we got to go as it had been cloudy all day, but managed to clear up by evening. I was so happy that Erin and Dave had such an awesome first day in NZ-- it was definitely one of my favorite days! Best friends, beautiful sights, and telescopes!!