New Zealand families.

grannyactivist It's not quite that warm further south but I have quite often removed my jacket when trekking home with piles of shopping in the middle of the day. It's tanking down this morning and I can't see the tops of the ranges as the clouds are low and grey. It is supposed to clear up this afternoon so I am delaying the shopping and colouring my hair instead. It's a good thing other gransnetters can't see me.

Spoke to my daughter in Aukland this morning and she said she'd been sitting at an outdoor cafe earlier with her husband wearing a T-shirt and her sweltering in a jacket.

She's OK - says her part of Christchurch still has power but her son and family are powerless.

Oh dear, absent! I had better phone my sister in Christchurch and see how she's surviving. That poor city certainly has had a bad couple of years.

Clever enough to move somewhere with one of the better microclimates absent.

The night-time temperature here in Richmond (Nelson Bays) is 8 and the daytime is 15-17 at the moment. The mornings and evenings can be chilly but the days are lovely and sunny at the moment. However, the radio news has just been describing gales on the Canterbury plain last night, fallen trees and power outages in Christchurch. I don't know about the weather in Wellington.

Electric blankets are essential item! When are you heading out next?

My older DD and S in L moved to Wellington just over 6 years ago, and have never looked back. They have a lovely house, nice jobs, and my little grandson is 4 and a half. We are incredibly lucky to have been able to downsize our home and put the equity into savings to enable us to visit them twice a year. Obviously we miss them all the time - we Skype regularly which helps a lot but miss the cuddles and hugs - but I wouldn't want them to come back, they could never have such a great quality of life here. Our grandson is developing quite a strong Kiwi accent from his pre-school! And when we first visited my husband had great fun trying to make himself understood in the supermarket looking for pegs - complete incomprehension on the part of the assistant until my husband said 'You know, those things you hang clothes up with' - 'Ow, you mean PIGS'!
We have noticed quite a few changes since we first went - more free range and organic food in the supermarkets, for example - but we don't expect to move there. One of the things we love most is - great cafes everywhere! And yes, it can certainly be cold in Wellington and the heating can be very variable - we stay in an apartment when we visit and in August we are armed with warm clothes (fleeces and gloves) and especially warm pyjamas, bedsocks and HWBs, and borrow a fan heater from our DD!

You sound like the kind of lovely person they would really want to visit - & not just out of duty.

Thank you GadaboutGran we are just so so happy to have them here and really it is like they have never been away. Except the DGC have a slight New Zealand accent which is lovely. They are all very happy and enjoying a very good life over in NZ and what more can we want for our DC and GC.

Have a great time Jess & Pam with your loved ones.

good plan greatnan

Jess and Pam - I am sure you will both have a wonderful time with your families
I am still a bit jet-lagged but at least it only affects me on the way home so I am quite lively when I arrive in NZ.
I am counting down to November, when I will be going out for three months.

Thank you JessM and oh yes it certainly is, I am on a countdown ha ha.

oh what a lovely treat positivepam

I cannot wait my DD, S in L and DGC are at this moment in the air on the way here from NZ, to visit for a month!! Have told them to bring winter woollies as think they might have a shock ha ha.

Welcome back both. Me next. Week Monday. I think the extra sunshine and daylight when you get there helps, not to mention the excitement. Worst thing is coming back here midwinter. I will take my waterproofs.

Welcome home, Gad - it has been snowing here today and I would have just hunkered down and dozed, but I remembered the doctor would be on holiday until after Easter and I was about to run out of my bp tablets, so I had to get well wrapped up and drove down the valley. I was reading until 4 a.m. this morning and I still feel dozy. I have no problems when I arrive in New Zealand, which is just as well, as my daughter usually has a full programme of walks/drives arranged for me!
I was glad when it finally rained in Nelson as things were getting very serious for people with livestock to feed.

Glad to hear you are safely back at home Greatnan. We got back on Monday too. We survived the long flight better than expected but somehow jetlag always seems worse after the return journey & I keep nodding off during the day & am wide awake at 4am. What lovely memories & how lucky we were with the wall to wall sunshine. The first item I heard on Farming Today on the radio was about the impact of the NZ drought on farmers - I thought I was back in NZ until I put my foot out of the bed. I'm feeling the cold after 30deg in Sydney on Sunday!

Good to have you back in Europe, though you seem to have stayed with us on line during your break. See you soon!

Sleep tight now.

I think tiredness has caught up with me - I was trying to say it never got dark.

Wellcome home!

Thank you for all the good wishes.....I am now safely back home on my own computer. I gave the Kindle Fire to Holly as I could not be doing with it, and she was very pleased as she did not have a laptop of her own. No doubt it is being put to good use in her bedroom sending pms to her friends and her boyfriend.
I left NZ at about 4 a.m. European time on Monday morning and arrived at the hotel in Geneva at 8 p.m. last night, so it was two full days of travel. It was wonderful to have a deep, hot bath and get into a lovely soft bed, but mainly it was great to be private again. I found it quite hard to be 'in the public domain' for two whole days, apart from the odd few minutes in the toilet but there was usually a queue outside which I hate. I didn't sleep much on the long journey home as we were chasing the sun so it neve
My daughter sent me a lovely Facebook pm to say she is missing me already, and so is the cat! I am quite convinced that moving to NZ will be the right thing to do.

Safe journey Greatnan