Christmas celebrations were spent with the nearest and dearest: the regularly scheduled immovable feast was duly consumed and the younger cousins continue to grow at an alarming pace. I had to suffer the ignominy of my sister arranging an identity-parade style photo of us all, in which I finished decidedly middle-of-the-pack. But that's enough of that lest I be accused of a bout of Short Man's Syndrome or some such.
The rest of my holidays were pretty well spent too. I passed a few days with the old gang in Te Anau, then meandered up to Oamaru to see the maternal rellies there, and then shot over the Lindis Pass to Queenstown for a reasonably sedate New Year's gathering with the old gang once more. Another couple of days in Invers sealed the deal and before you could say Johnny Whistlebritches, I was back in our nation's capital once more.
Ma and Pa had a more interesting time of things. They left on the 27th for a couple of weeks of R&R in normally beautiful Niue (home to the .nu) and for the first few days, all lived up to expectations - good weather, great diving and so on. Then Cyclone Heta struck. Oh, bugger. The intrepid holidaymakers were forced to rapidly decamp to New Zealand High Commission (kia ora Sandra) as roofing iron, palm trees and dishevelled chickens blew past windows and sturdy pool tables suddenly became an appealing mode of shelter. They lived to tell the tale (praise the deities) and were evac'ed out a few days later on a noisy old Air Force Hercules. Hurrah! Read about their experiences here.
Thus, for yours truly at least, there was a lot of driving, a lot of open skies, a good few barbeques, plenty of big landscapes and the obligatory eating, drinking and merry-making alluded to below. This resulted in a thoroughly refreshed and reinvigorated Dave and that's what holidays are all about really. Happy (belated) 2004 to you all!
‹ 8.1.04
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