Image above: Flying over the majestic scenery of the North Island as I head towards Wellington. [Friday 11 September] / [View all photos]
Arriving in Wellington on Day 7 (having lost a day crossing the International Date Line) to visit Richard and Clara, I spent my first day simply catching up with them as well as having fun playing with the kids.
Rewinding back a bit, Clara and I first became friends since we did our Masters at City University together way back in 2000 and we’ve somehow stayed in touch all this time. About six years ago both Clara and her husband, Richard, emigrated to New Zealand having fallen in love with the the place when they got married there in the year or so before and since then they now have two seriously active kids: Tom who is four and Nico who is two.
So it was a really great reunion not just with them but also getting to meet their kids for the first time. They say that you know that it’s a good friendship when after years of not meeting you do meet it’s simply just like you were only hanging out with them yesterday. And that was definitely the case here and it was so good just to be so welcome and be kinda like part of the family.
The latter part especially as it wasn’t too long until I was helping out where I could with the kids whether that was keeping them entertained or helping Clara and Richard out. And so started what would be my first day of crash course parenting. Lesson 1: whatever the eldest kid has the youngest one will always want it – no matter what. I actually had fun playing with both of them even though I was seriously jet-lagging by the afternoon.
By the evening, I even got to cook dinner for Richard and I whilst he put the kids to bed and Clara was out having dinner with a few Spanish friends. Didn’t think that I’d actually be cooking on the trip but with Richard recently turned vegetarian I had an interesting time trying to put together a tofu sausage and vegetable dish in an unfamiliar kitchen with a very different set of ingredients! The food didn’t turn out too bad and both Richard and I survived the meal. Phew! :D
Coming up next … the fun and games I had taking Tomas to Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand, by myself. And nope, I didn’t lose him!
Travel Stats:
- 7 days travelled of 29
- 4 places visited in 3 countries in 2 continents
- 26.5 hours spent in 6 planes
- 20,320 km travelled
- 12 time zones crossed
- RTW – Los Angeles – Part 1
- RTW – Los Angeles – Part 2
- RTW – Cook Islands – Part 1
- RTW – Cook Islands – Part 2
- RTW – Cook Islands – Part 3
- RTW – Wellington – Part 1
- RTW – Wellington – Part 2
- RTW – Wellington – Part 3
- RTW – Wellington – Part 4
- RTW – Wellington to Melbourne
- RTW – Melbourne – Part 1
- RTW – Melbourne – Part 2
- RTW – Melbourne – Part 3
- RTW – Melbourne to Perth
- RTW – Perth – Part 1
- RTW – Perth – Part 2
- RTW – Singapore
- RTW – Hong Kong
- RTW – Macau
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 1
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 2
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 3
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 4
- RTW – Siem Reap – Part 5
- RTW – Phnom Penh – Part 1
- RTW – Phnom Penh – Part 2
- RTW – Hong Kong
