Our 2008 Winter Holiday - Day 1

Well, here's for a few lines. We set off from Timaru on Sunday 6th July; just after lunch - about 12:30pm. Drove the 2 hours to Christchurch; and visited friends of ours, the Armstrong-Gales. I had repaired a radio-control Dalek owned by one of their children; she was delighted to get it back, all working again. We then carried on to our relatives' house, where we transferred all our gear to their van - my people-mover stayed at their place while we were away. Our sister-in-law drove us to the Airport & dropped us off. It was very exciting for the kids to be going on an aeroplane; especially the Twins! I gave Ben the window seat; he held my hand during the take-off! I didn't have anything on the 'Plane...I did NOT fancy buying a drink, or a souvenir, at a $10 minimum! ::-)

WE arrived in Wellington, our capital, at around 5:30pm. We got an Airport Shuttle bus...it was a long & winding route through the hill suburbs! Finally arrived at the Ace Car Rental office; it was CLOSED! We had sent them an email saying we would need them to open up, for us...they hadn't bothered to do it! Margaret rang them; the bloke, Kerryn, said he would "Be there in 15 minutes." 25 minutes later, he still hadn't arrived. Zoe said to me, "Daddy, I don't want to live here!" Aww, bless her! A minute later, Kerryn arrived. He let us have a 2002 Toyota Estima, which was very good. It wasn't the diesel van I had requested; but that vehicle is, apparently, very unreliable! We got to our relations' house in Petone for a late Tea; it was good to see them.

We carried on to Palmerston North, where the holiday camp we stayed at was cold, cold, so cold...and we were in a Cabin, which meant walking 50 metres to the toilets...oh well! We were in Palmy!