Moms & Dads, Christmas and New Years

Sooo much has been happening this last little while. Karla and I (with an emphasis on my own slackness where the blog is concerned) are admittedly way behind. Here is the 11 point update on what's been going on:

1. My mum and dad (Chris and Ben) arrived in New Zealand just in time for my birthday at the end of November. We went out for a lovely dinner and I got lots of neato gifts, cards and phone calls from all the really lovely friends and family in my life. I'm so lucky!
2. Mum and Dad run off to see New Zealand during the week, while Karla and I work our butts off finishing projects. We see each other on the weekends, exploring Wellington, and also Queenstown, where we have a great time seeing Milford Sound (amazingly beautiful) and jet boating at 75 km/h down a really rather narrow canyon.
3. Karla's friend Andy arrives, and they head off together to see the massive caves and marvelous glowworms at Waitomo.
4. Me and Dad head to a car auction to look for a car. After feverish bidding and $1800 we are the proud owners of a 1996 Mazda Familia. Giddy up, we got wheels people!
5. Karla's mum and dad (Margaret and Wayne) arrive shortly after my mum and dad get back from Christchurch and the South Island. We all head out to the Wairarapa region to a beautiful countryside cottage we'd rented, and drink way way way too much wine following tours of the plentiful local wineries. It was great to get out of the city and show the folks some rural New Zealand. You should have seen the stars. Breathtaking.
6. My mum and dad leave November 18th, and me and mum nearly start bawling at the airport. It was so great to have them and share a little of our life here. I miss them lots and Karla does too.
7. Karla's mum and dad (so thankfully) are here to chill out for at least a little while. So we don't do much of anything for a few days. It's great to just hang out after lots of running around, though there's still Christmas shopping to do...
8. Christmas! We drink champagne on Christmas eve, and have champers and orange juice for breakfast Christmas day at Wayne and Margarets apartment. Presents fly everywhere! We receive lovely gifts from all over Canada (thankyou everyone!!). Big Santa score for Davey: Karla is taking me to Tahiti in February! Holy moly I'm lucky!
9. A flurry of organization by Wayne, and we are off to Christchurch for New Years. Wayne scores us an amazing apartment at the Holiday Inn in downtown ChCh, right in the heart of the action. One night, I nearly got carried off by drunken Kiwis at an Irish bar after an amazing time at a place called Octagon, that specializes in Jazz and blues. New Years Eve, Wayne, Margaret, Karla and I head out to one of those Japanese places where they cook dinner in front of you (Teppinyaki?), which was SO cool. We rang the New Year in at a bar called the Stock Xchange, and the party continued until about 4am.
10. Next day we head off through Arthurs Pass to Hokitika, famous for its jade. We have a great time inspecting the wares, and then head off up the West Coast to Picton, where we head home.
11. Yesterday we went to Kapiti Island, a nature reserve that only allows 50 people per day admittance. We saw wonderful scenerary (ie New Zealand as it probably looked 500 years ago), and met lots of native birds who were pretty curious about their visitors. All that walking left us pretty tuckered out, but Wayne and Margaret still managed to find themselves in Maori family gathering, where they were telling stories, and ensuring that everyone was well fed. They even managed to get us an introduction to a genuine All Black who played for NZ in the 80s.

So that is the story to date. We have lots of pictures too, so those will be up as soon as we can get them up at the magnificent HelgaHume Flickr site.