19th Dec day 65 Wellington here we come .....

Later this afternoon we are going for my first ever visit to Wellington but before then Nicholas has his friend Ella's birthday party at Ocean Spa. But even before that he and I had a project to do - transferring the height chart and his handprints from the back of the bathroom door onto cards, for both his Mum and Dad. The record of his growth started when the family moved into 904 when Nicholas was just 11 months old and Simon was keen to have it as a permanent record before the door is consigned to a skip during the renovations. 

The first part of the process was for Nicholas to trace around the 5 handprints - now that's a lost art - tracing. Having done that time-consuming part we could trace the hands onto the back of the gold paper, cut them out and stick them onto the red card. He then had to put the dates next to each handprint, inside list the annual height measurements and finally put in his own personal message to his Mum and Dad. The whole process took ages but Simon was delighted with the result and I am looking forward to being there when he gives Philippa her card.

We dropped Nicholas at the pool and then went back to 904 for a yummy, very unhealthy lunch of hot pies and cakes - well it's the hols isn't it? We delivered the car back to Carol's friends who had lent it to us, that was such a blessing. Finally we packed up, collected Nicholas from the party and started the journey of over 4 hours down to Wellington. It's only just over 300 kilometres so in the UK, with our excellent motorway network, would take less than 3 hours. But it has to be said there was no traffic and fabulous views, but at times along windy roads. These pictures certainly don't do it justice but we were moving at speed!

Wellington is on the west coast of the North Island so finally we had a sea view - yay.

The hotel in the city centre is lovely with us sharing a suite that has a twin and a double room, both with their own bathrooms and a lockable adjoining door - perfect for our requirements. We were all tired by the time we went out for dinner and it was cold. Wellington is known as the windy city and that bit of windchill didn't help. So in the event we settled for the nearby Nudel Bar where they did the most delicious Thai food, including of course - noodles.