nz day 17-19: wellington

On December 7, we met up with the Jones family in Wellington!  Nathan has been friends with the Jones family since childhood.  Now, the children are all grown up, and Caleb (Nathan's best friend in high school) is living in New Zealand.  We joined with the family for a visit in Wellington a few days before Caleb's wedding.

This is the Jones family...yes, they took up the entire sidewalk. :-)

Kristin's journal entry: "On my New Zealand birthday (December 8) we met up with the Jones family at their place (Caleb came to get us to lead us there), and we all went to look at a Christmas store together.  Nathan and I went off for our own lunch together and then met back up with Cindy and Sammi for a bit of shopping.  We didn't buy anything but looked at a lot of shops.  We briefly split from them to buy Nathan an Icebreakers shirt, and then we all went to Ruth's place for dinner and wedding favor construction.  I enjoyed spending time with everyone and making the chocolate boxes.  They even surprised me by singing Happy Birthday and giving me a little carrot cake!"

Happy birthday to Kristin!

Constructing wedding favors - chocolate boxes!  We worked for several hours and didn't even get close to being done.

Kristin's journal entry (Dec. 9): "We slept in today and then met up with the group to check out the Botanical Gardens and rose garden.  They were pretty, but not the best we've seen on the trip.  We ate a late lunch in a pub, and then Nathan and I split off.  We went to Moore Wilson to buy the wedding gift (took much longer than planned due to an unexpected ATM run), and then we just went back to our cottage.  We wanted to go to Mt. Victoria (and the walk to Bree from Lord of the Rings) but never made it.  Nathan surprised me with a birthday dessert of homemade peanut butter cookies.  We didn't have an oven, so he had to make them in the skillet.  They turned into cookie crumbs, which I ate over my banana and Nutella (yum!).  After dinner, we walked to the psychedelic Christmas tree and watched the light show on bean bags.  Happiness abounded."

This trolley runs up the hill to the university and botanical gardens.

Looking down upon Wellington.

Playing in the park...

The rose garden...

Nathan spent over an hour attempting to make Kristin's birthday dessert - peanut butter cookies.

This was the end result...it was delicious!

It's not what was planned, but we had a dessert of cookie crumbles and wine.

On our last morning in Wellington, Kristin walked around with the Jones family to see some of the sights while Nathan waited with the luggage (he's a good man).

I forget the story, but Caleb was part of some Lord of the Rings rally here.

Carrie and Sammi Jones