Holidays!!

We headed off for Nelson at 9am and finally got there at 7.45pm. I am now very concerned about how they managed to get from Nelson to wanaka in 7 hours when I was in Scotland. I may have insisted on a couple of coffee stops, and I couldn't resist the beach, but 7hrs and 10 and 3/4hr's is a hell of a difference!!!
It was fantastic to get to the sea. There was big surf and it felt suddenly very exotic, which New Zealand hasn't really felt, up until now. Less exotic was the long black to wash down the salted cashew nuts, while Spook and the kids tucked into chocolate cake. but hey, I'm going to be soooo vibrant in a few days. It was a long journey, which the kids coped really well with, and we all coped well with Finns new love for conversation (doesn't translate down telephone wires or on Skype, where he is likely to bare his butt when he doesn't know what else to say), which he subjected (sorry, entertained) us to (with) the entire journey.
It was wonderful to get to Robbi's warm and welcoming house (Roddy is away until Friday), and to eat some bloody good gluten free food!! I knew it was a wise week to do this. Kind of broke down over the dairy bit as I asked how she got the cheesy sauce to taste so good without dairy products. She lookded horrified and thought I had developed a terrible allergy and was now poisoned - of course nothing was going to taste so good as real milky sauce and real cheese! she was relieved to discover it was merely a fad. I forgot that Hamish's food was only gluten free. But what's a wee bit of cheese and milk. I had a liquorice tea to make up for it.
It was dark when we got here, so I can't wait to see what the top of this Island looks like. Meg can't wait to show me what the local recycling centre looks like!