We had plans to see other travel / motorcycling friends, Janet and Scott, later this afternoon. By now, they also have three kids so we were invited for a catch up and dinner after naptime at 3.30pm. Which meant, we had almost a whole day to kill first.
So we opted to spend a good chunk of it at our favourite place in Dunedin: Celia’s and Tig’s house. There was time for showers, schoolwork, playtime, food, even more coffee…everthing that happens when 5 adults and 5 kids are in the same place. In the end, Celia came up with the plan to go on a walk at Mt Cargill. It took some time packing snacks, water and whatever the kids needed to go on a walk, but then we were off to a car ride and a walk. The weather was nice, everybody enjoyed to be out and about and the views of Dunedin were quite spectacular. The photos tell most of the story, really.
We were back at Celia’s and Tig’s place just in time to pack up and leave for Janet’s and Scott’s place where we would also spend the night. It was so good to see them again and meet their kids. After a lovely dinner with an astonishing amount of food having been eaten by 4 adults and 5 kids, we got dessert in form of banana bread that their eldest had baked. The two younger of their three girls took quite the liking to the AoE and not long after, they had a make-up party on the top bunk bed.
In the evening, we slipped right back into the good conversations we used to have when all four of us were living in Wellington. Good times were had!
After breakfast the next morning, we said our goodbyes as Janet plans every day very thoroughly, especially the weekends. It reminded me a lot of myself when we’re at home. So many things to do!
For the rest of the Sunday, we got Tig and the two younger kids to join us at St Clair Hot Saltwater pools, while Celia and Charlie went off to train for their big three day hike coming up in April. The pool was very cool, actually pretty warm and it had toys and goggles for the kids to use. Both our kids were IN LOVE with the goggles as they allowed them to dive without the sting in their eyes. So we stayed even longer than our friends, having an extra round of splashing and diving.
Back home at Celia’s and Tig’s, everybody was knackered. A rather quiet evening was had with one more conversation with the adults. I had managed to get through all my pre-prepared lists for the Hocken library in 4 days. Thus, we will leave Dunedin tomorrow after one week here instead of the planned two weeks.
