Wellington once again

We experienced our first Air Asia flights to Kuala Lumpur and then on to Christchurch. The flights are cheap but you are nickel and dimed to death after the booking so need to be sure how much baggage you want to carry and if you would like to eat or drink ANYTHING on the way—even water is charged for. Despite that we managed to get to Christchurch without issue and then on to Wellington unaffected by earthquakes. We were met by Kristen and the kids and it was lovely to see them all again. We stayed at Lynda, my sister’s as they were away in Europe—unlike us they like to find cold weather on their holidays!! Sven, my nephew generously had a car available for us so life was easy. We spent the next few weeks visiting my mom and the rest of my family. My mom other than her mobility, which continues to slowly decline, is mentally alert and happy. She has mastered the kindle I had bought her so I was able to load on a pile of new books that I had bought for her. We had dinner with Anne and Harvey several times and it was good to catch up with them. We also enjoyed a visit from Devala and Mike from Sea Rover who came over from the Sounds to visit us while we were there. We had a great day touring the wineries of the Wairarapa after having introduced them to our favourite meat pie shop. Kristen and Kyle took the opportunity to take a few days in Queenstown and we made the most of being Nana and Papa again. It is definitely what we miss most with our lifestyle and will be the biggest factor in deciding to finish our cruising. We enjoyed typical Wellington activities, the cable car, botanic gardens and the waterfront which continues to impress us with the energy it offers. Ken went to another cricket game with Kyle and Grayson to see yet another woeful display by the Wellington Firebirds. It was overshadowed by Grayson along with the other kids who were all encouraged to go onto the field at half time to develop a new generation of cricketers; hopefully they will have more talent than the present team. We were impressed with Adleyn and Grayson when we took them for Chinese New Year for Dim Sum as they ate well although the dragons seemed to scare Adelyn a little. Grayson has worked on his haka since watching the impressive display during the world cup and it was hard not to laugh when he seriously would perform for anyone interested—he would instruct us not to laugh which made it even more difficult not too. He is sports crazy and needed to change his clothing regularly in order to look the part in whatever sport he was playing at the time. We had taken several “Rooney” shirts which added to his soccer wardrobe. Adelyn is amazing to have a conversation with and once you are finished with the negotiating is very mature and bright. All too soon it was time to leave again and return to Cop Out in Malaysia and ready to sail to Thailand where we will spend the next several months.