What better event is there to celebrate "Britishness" than a royal wedding? The build up may not have been quite as intense as back in Blighty but everyone at work was going to tune in and so we readily accepted an invite to a wedding party up in Christchurch hosted by Lou and Rog. That's how we found ourselves watching at least 5 hours television coverage of a wedding of people we don't know while dining on fish and chips and bubbles (a good wine match by all accounts!). One or two glasses were drunk by the select batch of expats such that Rog uttered the immortal words "this is just what they need back home, it puts the
Great back in Great Britain". What more can be said, we all got swept up by the occasion and had a great night doing so.
The rest of the weekend was spent on a Kiwi institution: the tramping route over Goat Pass. Once a year there is a multisport event, the Coast to Coast, that involves travelling from west to east with the running leg consisting of this 33km stretch. Amy and Lou, who joined us for the 2 day expedition, had considered competing in the event but I think were pleased they decided
against it by the time we had finished. The first day was 3.5 hours up the Minga river and the going was pretty easy. We arrived at the superbly placed hut, a hundred yards or so over the pass, just before dark having set off quite late and cooked up a good feed. We find ourselves taking more and more nice food and wi
ne away with us as we learn to take less needless kit and find more room in our packs. Day two was a different affair as we headed down the Deception valley, the route criss-crossing the boulder strewn river. It was pretty steep in places and involved a
fair amount of clambering up and down requiring good concentration to be sure not to turn over an ankle or worse. Running the thing would certainly be a challenge!
Another week flew by and we were soon on the road to Hanmer Springs with Ben and Becky, friends from home who are working in Oamaru for a few months to top up their travel funds. We
had planned on Mt Cook but the weather conspired against us with snow, rain and gales forecast. Soaking in the hot pools was just the ticket before cracking through a box of wine, debating the pressing socio-economic issues of our time and then hitting the pub to meet Lou and Rog. I'm not sure they knew what hit them but caught up soon enough! Sore heads were put right the following morning with a leisurely bowl of cereal followed by a couple of hours spent peddling furiously around the forest surrounding Hanmer. The tracks were just as fun as our last visit, a mat of fallen leaves protecting us from the worst of the mud while Ben encouraged us to go a little faster than otherwise, thankfully there were no serious spills!
With another planned Cook trip cancelled to bad weather, we ended up in by Christchurch airport tackling the single track running next to the Waimakariri river. We had enjoyed Hanmer so much another few hours on our bikes (again with sore heads) was eagerly anticipated. I think Amy coped a little better than me, she never has been one for hang-overs, and we were soon flying round the steeply banked corners with relative ease if not in complete comfort. On Sunday Amy had been willingly roped in to compete in a duathlon that involved a 2.5km run and 11km cycle all finished off with a 1.25km run. After her success at the longer Lake Hood event the pressure was on and with a time of
42 minutes 3 seconds she came in 2nd in her age group. All this in the pouring rain! Against the odds the skies did clear and Richard and I completed a slightly less energetic 9 holes of golf. I finished ahead for the first time but only by 1 shot having tried to throw away my 4 stroke lead on the final hole.
needing its hip put back in, nothing too serious and the rest of the day was quiet. Amy decided she wanted to stir things up a little on the Sunday though, as on her way to a pre-arranged call thought is would be far more exciting to try a little bit of off road driving. After coming to a stop upside-down in an irrigation ditch (thankfully empty unlike a month earlier) she managed to crawl out and knew the first farmer who passed by. The tr
uck was a complete write-off but thankfully Amy had nothing more serious than a little whiplash, a bruised sternum and an ear bashing about driving too fast on gravel roads! Not content with 1 incident, Amy decided she liked the local hospital so much that on Wednesday arranged for herself to be squashed by a cow, dislocating her big toe and badly bruising the rest of her foot. After 3 hours spent pushing her to various hospital departments we made it home just 
in tome to wolf down a McDonalds, have a shower and make it to the local production of Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat just minutes before curtain up. It was a great production and surprisingly professional considering the cast were all amateurs from the local area with the Events Centre being a fantastic venue. Something different for Ashvegus anyway!
With Friday off after the weekend worked we headed down to Oamaru, Amy hobbling around on crutches, where we had a lazy lunch, saw some yellow eyed penguins and stayed with Ben and Becky for dinner and wine. We all then jumped in the truck to get to Dunedin on Saturday morning where we were meeting Jude who had made her way up from Invercargil way. With plenty of gossip and catching up to be done we did 
not end up more than a few hundred metres from out motel, right by the Octagon in the heart of the city. Apart from 
simply eating and drinking we did make it to the Speights Brewery for a tour of the building followed by a 30 minute tasting session. Our guide had said that it would be the tastiest medal, their best seller, you would taste due to its freshness and that was certainly the case being cleaner and crisper than the bottled variety or that found in pubs. It certainly started us off nicely before a good meal and some cocktails later.
Come Sunday we were only good for a relatively late breakfast out before heading to the peninsular for a look around in the fabulous sunshine. We ended up again at Sandfly Bay and again saw many seals and sea lions. Little wonder then why we went back! In the right
weather the Otago peninsular has to be one of the most attractive areas of coastal landscape, and we were seeing it in the right weather. We polished off a hearty lunch in Portebello before reluctantly 
heading back north and home. In 2 weeks time we will be on the plane back to the UK for a 4 week visit. We have another on call weekend to negotiate first, hopefully it won't be so eventful!
