A fleeting visit

I am in New Zealand for a week.

On the 23rd I left London, Heathrow for Christchurch and arrived on the 25th (local time) having traveled 12413 miles via Los Angeles.

My friend had a very premature baby on the 12th October so I wanted to see her and meet her gorgeous little baby boy.

He is putting on weight and learning to feed slowly but surely. Hopefully he will come out of hospital in the next week or two. I have been lucky to have lots of cuddles with him and I have promised to teach him all the best mischief for when he is a bit bigger.

In between visits to the hospital I have managed to fulfil a lot of yearnings for foods that I didn't realised I actually yearned for until I got here. But that is a whole new story for another day.

I also got to spend this weekend with my nephew who flew down from Nelson - his first flight as an unaccompanied minor! He arrived Friday night and we stayed with my friend that night and then drove out to Hinewai Reserve, near Akaroa to spend Saturday night at Tricia's. Lucy came up from Lake Hawea so the (poor/lucky) boy spent 24hrs with 3 doting aunties.

Tricia and Paul have a beautiful little spot in the wilderness to call home. After a yummy dinner we walked to the beach and enjoyed the views, the sounds of waves and birds and watching my nephew as he inadvertently filled his boots with sea water.

We watched as a pair of Canada geese wandered along the beach with just one tiny baby. The parents headed for the waves and each slightly bigger wave would send the hatchling hurtling back up the beach until it could finally dig it's toes back in the sand. Very cute to watch but obviously hard work for the baby.