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Time's been whizzing by and we've been having fun!
Surfest was as exciting as it is each year, some of the world's best surfers converging on Merewether Beach for a week and the associated hoop-la set our little beachside hamlet alight. Many of the drone shots on the coverage captured our unit overlooking the action, but try as we might, we couldn't quite time it to be on the balcony when it was flying over!
Our nephew, Michael is a delightful, uber-intelligent young man who has carved a professional niche for himself in Canada after following his equally charming sweetheart back to her home country. Lucky for us, the couple decided to wed in Australia, and we were able to attend the ceremony on a clifftop in Merewether and a reception in town when they made a flying visit for the nuptials. It was a lovely day and evening and Helen and Neil as well as Michael and Arielle spoke eloquently to entertain the assembled family and friends.
Cassy's birthday was celebrated with a lunch at the "hatted" Yellow Billy restaurant in the Hunter Valley. They served us one spectacular morsel after another, each surprising and innovative, using ingredients in different ways and clever combinations. Their home garden provided most of the vegetables and we were full in the stomach and happy in the soul by the time we hit the road in the afternoon after a bounteous three course feast with accompanying wines.
A catch-up phone call with Ross in Dunedin highlighted the fact that they would be travelling the following week to their "wee batch" in Queenstown for the school holidays and suggested we needed to see each other soon. After a quick check with Cass, I texted Ross back and suggested we could crash the second week of their holidays if it suited. He and Ains were very enthusiastic, so we booked flights then and there. They picked us up from the airport, just a 10 minute drive away from the bach, and we had a very special stay in their recently renovated A-Frame. We spent hours chatting, eating Ross' beautiful home cooked dinners, drinking red wine and generally having a good laugh and solving the world's problems! Each day we had adventures that were variously enervating, invigorating and fun, including hiking up to an alpine lake in The Remarkables, catching water taxis across the sound, checking out historic villages like Arrowtown, or catching cable cars up vertiginous mountains before flying halfway down again on a luge!!
We attended a MusicaViva concert with Mark and Erin recently and were mesmerised by the elegant, impossibly young and ridiculously talented Esme Quartet from Germany as they transported us away to other-worldly realms with some sublime music. Just recently, we dined with Wayne and Josie to celebrate our birthdays at Bella Italia before going to King Street Hotel to see Pseudo Echo, the second time for us in just a few months. They were similarly skilled and polished as before, but both the two and a half hour wait for them while standing in a crowded venue, as well as a mind-blasting, crazy-distorted sound mixing made for a less than spectacular result. We felt sorry that Wayne and Jose hadn't seen them at their optimum with us in Launceston!
Oh, and I did the obligatory birthday push-ups again: did I mention that it gets harder every year?! Up top for a while and here later.