Visit with Friends

To begin our busy March, Gay and I had our first round of visitors. My friends John and Nicholas from San Francisco spent some time with us. It ended up being a great and exhausting couple of days. I had a great time playing host and schooling the 2 of them on kiwi ways of life and particularly the lingo.
It started Wednesday afternoon where I left work early and caught a bus for a 4 hour bus ride down the west coast to Greymouth. It was a gorgeous ride and it didn't seem like 4 hours. I then spent the night with them at a hostel and in the morning we rocked up to Arthur's Pass and did a grueling 4 hour hike which was basically straight up then straight down. The peak was fantastic and we were lucky enough to be hiking in a small snow storm which made it really cool. The next day we went to Nelson and hit the town. Then the next day Nicholas began his journey back to the States and I began my journey with John to the Abel Tasman. The thing you have to realize about John is that he takes traveling VERY seriously and has dubbed himself "super-tourist". That said, his game plan was to do ALL of the Abel Tasman in 3 days. That meant an average of 7 hours of hiking each day. It doesn't seem like a lot when you read it, but when you're carrying a pack full of weight and going up and down hills all day, it takes it's toll. We ended up having a lot of fun and were absolutely exhausted at the end of it. True to form, I ended up remembering to bring the kerosene cooking tank but forgot the cooking pot (and the flashlight). So I ended up bringing a lot of pasta packets for dinner but we couldn't cook any of them... So we pretty much lived on peanut butter sandwiches, granola bars and apples. Needless to say we had a nice meal after we finished.

In 2 weeks Gay's parents are coming and while I don't think it will be as exhausting, I think it'll be great fun. Right now we're planning on doing the Tranz-Alpine train which goes straight across the South Island from Greymouth (east coast) to Christchurch (west coast).

This weekend should be fun. Friday is St. Patrick's Day which apparently is a big deal in Nelson. At work we're planning on having a pot luck lunch celebration where we're suppose to bring something Irish. Given that fact that most people at work love to "hit the piss" (drink) I think it'll end up being more of a liquid lunch. Then on Saturday Gay and I are celebrating my friend Debbie's 30th birthday on a "dinner cruise". The best part is that the band I'm in is planning on the boat. It should be fun, but it's starting to get cold here so I'll have to pack some gloves.

Gay and I recently joined a squash league. It's a very casual kind of thing and a lot of friends from my work are playing. We're all pretty much beginners, so I even talked Gay into joining. The first game was last weekend, I couldn't play because I was off tramping with John and Nicholas, but Gay played and apparently kicked some butt. Some of my friends were not so lucky as Thomas, my German friend, got beat by a "80 year old Grandma". My first game is tomorrow and I'm looking forward to it.

Pictures
Heres are some pics of the trips John, Nicholas and myself took. Hey! John and Nicholas, if you want any of he full size versions of these just give me a shout...
The last couple pics are of myself playing with my band. Enjoy.
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