Helen and Randall on the road

Arriving late into Auckland on Friday night after a rather too leisurely morning at River valley, we landed on Sid and Judith (Randall’s uncle and aunt) with all our baggage then they and Keith (Randall’s cousin) took us out for an evening curry in Titirangi, then home to Sid and Judith’s for another bottle (or so!) of wine and a more-complicated-than-it-should-have-been attempt to Skype ‘big Randall’ (Randall’s dad, Judith’s little brother).

The next morning we had a mad rush to get the van cleaned and dropped off before midday, then Keith met us for coffee and drove us to Greenhithe where he dropped us at Adrian and Rachel’s for lunch. Adrian is an ex colleague and friend of mine, so it was great to see him again and to meet Rachel, Charlie and Edward (no pics though…fail!). After an amazing roast lunch we headed to Gav and Joyee’s for dinner and a catch up before a reasonable early night as then next morning Gav was swimming the Auckland Harbour Crossing:

It’s a 2.9km swim and people swim it REALLY fast! There were around 1300 participants so it was pretty busy:

Still, we managed to catch Gav on his way out of the water: Happy Face!

Then Keith, Judith and Sid joined us all for brunch:

Sorry Sid – you don’t get out of the photo THAT easily!

After which, at Judith’s insistence that we did ‘something cultural’, we left Judith and Sid to break their way OUT of the car park they had broken INTO, and Keith took us to the Auckland Contemporary Art gallery:

I rather like this ‘Flower Chandelier’ work. Choi Jeong Hwa, Flower Chandelier – Auckland Art Gallery.

Then it was time for Keith to take us back to Sid and Judith’s as were were having a family dinner. Of course, the Hargis-Perrey-Lewis axis are a shy retiring lot so it was a subdued affair..

The lovely Joan (neighbour and friend)

I feel short!