Greetings for Christmas 2008 from Rotorua
Our year began with most of the family home here for a change, although Alex and little Thomas flew back to France a few days after Christmas
… a long arduous journey for them both. John Swales was relieved to have them back home safely after being in New Zealand with us for 3 months, whilst he was renovating their home in Chavanay, in between
his daily job, so it was quite onerous for him.
Karl, Bonnie and little Molly were with us from Queenstown, and Kevin, Teresa, Ella and Amelia flew over from Melbourne and we all celebrated the New Year together. Little Molly at 5 months was christened here in Rotorua, whilst a few of us family were together.
Kevin and family rented a house over at Ohiwa Beach for a week and we joined them all there for a few days. The following week they were back in Rotorua where the two girls attended the Suzuki Musical Summer camp just down the road in Hannahs Bay where listening to the violin, flute (which the 2 girls play) and piano as played by all the children at the camp in different age groups, was truly astounding. The concert in town at the end of the camp was just memorable to say the least.
Jay and I then flew to Sydney and Kevin and family flew back to Melbourne. We met up with the rest of Jay’s family to attend a niece’s wedding …Charlotte Menzies who is Jay’s younger brother Brian’s only daughter. After leaving the heat of summer in NZ, we couldn’t believe how cool it was in Sydney, quite unseasonal and the day of the
wedding on the 19th Jan, it was wet and cold.. .such a pity, as the reception was on a boat cruising around the harbour. However, when night-time came, the lights of Sydney’s tall city buildings, was something to behold out on the harbour.
We flew on to Melbourne with Jay’s other brother Michael and wife Ritva, whom we stayed with in their downtown apartment and were fortunate to watch the International Tennis Championships at the Melbourne Tennis Centre and see Roger Federer get beaten by Dokovich (Serbia) in the finals, which was a momentous occasion.
Mid Feb, Jay and I drove down to Wellington to catch the ferry over to the South Island, and leisurely drove on down to Lake Ohau, past Mt. Cook, where we stayed for a week on a Sheep Station that Jay’s 2nd cousin had recently purchased. We thoroughly enjoyed the tranquillity and ambience of the surrounding mountains in the area. 
When we left there we motored up to Mt. Cook to meet up with Karl, Bonnie and Molly again, as they were heading up to Christchurch for the weekend. We continued on towards Nelson, where Jay stopped off in the Lakes area, where he set off on his own to walk one of the tracks there for a week and I continued on my own driving on to Nelson, where I stayed with Carmen (my old friend since teenage days) who lives in a delightful part of Nelson right on top of a hill with fantastic views all over the city and beyond towards the North Island. 
We had a week of non-stop talking catching up from where we both travelled to London in the late 50’s, when Jay and I met. We had lots of laughter.
Jay joined us after his week’s walk and then the 3 of us drove to Carmen’s holiday cottage in the Marlborough Sounds where we spent 2 or 3 days in tranquil atmosphere, it is a delightful part of the country.
Unfortunately soon after returning home, Jay developed the painful heel complaint that I suffered 2 or 3 years ago.. .planta fasciatis, where the tendon pulls away from the bone. He felt it may have happened during his long walk in the Nelson Lakes area, when he was carrying a very heavy pack and was on anti-inflammatory medication at the time for a gout problem in his toe and would not have felt the heel pulling away. He was incapacitated for four months with having to keep his foot up whilst healing… .it really is a very painful condition and is not a quick fix. He had many visits to the Physiotherapist, plus acupuncture, finally resorting to cortisone injections by a Radiologist Specialist, when the pain finally subdued… .eureka!
He was then laid low again with both legs and feet bandaged for a week or so after visiting the Skin Specialists in Tauranga to have a couple of cancer growths from his leg and foot. Unfortunately when you reach our age, the sins of the past in sunbathing begin to show their ugly heads.. .quite an expensive exercise.
So apart from the earlier part of our year, the rest of it has been quite tame in comparison with no further trips overseas, due mainly to now talking to our family on Skype. It was great to be able to talk to Annemarie, Ron & Isabella on New Year’s Eve and toast each other looking at the Computer screen…it certainly is great to see our grandchildren on the computer screen quite regularly, without the means of flying all that way and building up on carbon foot prints.
Having said that, we are flying down to Queenstown for Xmas with our daughter Clare (who has just completed a Diploma in Marketing with honours) her son Joshua (now 6 and a half yrs) to enjoy the festivities there with Karl, Bonnie and Molly, plus Karl’s twin brother John, his wife Marilyn and their 3 sons, plus Marilyn’s mother, are all flying over from Cairns to join us all there. It will be a wonderful Xmas with them all and I get to have a break from cooking the meal for a change !
Best wishes to all for the coming New Year
Love Marie & Jay