The Party

And the reason we came... the party!  It was Derek's 80th Birthday and Rae & Derek's 25th Wedding Anniversary.  Talk about reason to celebrate!  It was a grand time.  The photos speak for themselves.

Their friends are many...

Did somebody say party?!!

Time With Our Friends

This is our third trip to New Zealand.  It all started 15 years ago when I searched online for somebody to play chess with.  I came across Derek from New Zealand, and we started playing email chess.  That got rather tedious, so I began looking for better options.  I taught myself some web programming, and eventually created a chess website where Derek and I could painlessly play some chess and chat.  The chess site, Papa's, is still going and Jan and I have met about 25 people from around the world that I originally met on Papa's.  Small world, indeed!

Derek was going to England to visit family, so on a whim I told him to stop in Denver a few days and stay with us.  He did.  We hit it off famously.  And now we've visited Derek and his wife, Rae, in New Zealand three times.  You gotta love the Internet!

Herewith some photos of our time together on this trip...

Derek's allotment...

Time to party!

All Aboard

We boarded the ferry with the car for passage across the Cook Channel to Wellington.  Jan spent most of the time out on deck enjoying the water and salt air.  And me... well, they had WiFi on board the ferry.

Then on to Upper Hut, where Derek and Rae live, to meet them and their friends for lunch at a local pub.  Clockwise from lower left... Bray, Rae, Lorraine, Jan, Dave, Papa, and Derek.  We had met Lorraine, the sweetest person you'll ever meet, and her husband Dave on previous trips to New Zealand and we always enjoy their company.

Seeing Lorraine always puts me in mind of the Uriah Heep song, 'Sweet Lorraine, Let The Party Carry On'

Then on to Rae and Derek's home and their familiar guest bedroom with a thousand eyes... Rae collects stuffed bears and the room is lined with shelves holding hundreds of the bears she has collected over the years... including one Derek got in Colorado at 'Build A Bear' when he visited us in 2002.

Papa and Charlie and Name having a nap in said room

We stayed with Rae and Derek for 12 days this trip, always the highlight and reason for our New Zealand trips.  We feel welcome and comfortable in their home which is always alive with chatter and laughter... and dogs and cats.

Name

And the inimitable Charlie

Whenever Rae takes a rare break from taking care of everyone, you're sure to see a dog or two on her lap.

Derek has always had a fascination with the American Old West.  Apparently I won the argument here as I'm wearing his beloved cowboy hat.

When Derek visited us in Colorado, I took him up to Idaho Springs for a buffalo burger at the Buffalo Bar.  Cowboy that he would be, he declined to try the Rocky Mountain Oysters!

East Coast of South Island

We continued our way back northward after the Otago Peninsula, and ultimately to Picton where we would take the ferry across the Cook Channel to Wellington, the capital of New Zealand, on the north island.  Rae and Derek live about 20 miles north of Wellington, in Upper Hutt.

We stopped by the famous Moeraki Boulders.  From Wikipedia: The Moeraki Boulders are unusually large and spherical boulders lying along a stretch of Koekohe Beach on the wave-cut Otago coast of New Zealand between Moeraki and Hampden.

 Onward up the coast.  Our lodging on the other side of the mountains...

We stopped near here in 2004 and were able to get right down with the seals.  You had to be careful you didn't step on one since they look a lot like the rocks when they are still.  These lookouts weren't here then, and the colony was not protected. 

We stayed a final night on the south island, north of the seals.  About the only thing I remember about the place is that you could go over to the adjacent creek and feed eels!  That, and waiting an hour to get a hamburger at a local eatery.

Then on to the north island, our friends, and the big party...