Reunion - part two

Saturday night found us all gathered at the Recreation Hotel for a celebration dinner. We had been able to go in earlier in the day and put Easter eggs at each place setting and although it doesn't seem so in the picture, it looked quite pretty. One sis had wrapped several eggs in cellophane bags and tied them with pretty curling ribbon, enough for a bag each for each person there. With wine and soft drinks on the table it added to the effect.

We started with an entree served at the tables followed by a buffet main course. This meant that those with special dietary requirements could have what they needed. Once again when 

it came to desserts we were served at the table. The food was delicious but it was a shame that the noise from the open kitchen made it difficult for people to hear our eldest cousin when he gave a tribute to our grandparents and then made the toasts. Luckily he had written it out and we were able to get a copy posted on our facebook page.

Immediately after dinner was over we cut the reunion cake. We would have left it a bit later as some people were still eating dessert but our Aunty was ready for home and we really wanted her to do the honours. The cake was made by my eldest grandson, very decadent, layered mud cake filled with chocolate ganache and iced with chocolate. Once again the theme was flags and daffodils, all made with chocolate - well the ones on the cake were anyway :)

Just after it was cut there was an accident with a wine glass and one end of the cake was covered with wine and broken glass. Luckily it was a big cake and we were able to salvage most of it but the waitress who caused it was very upset as she was new at the job.

A good time was had by all and not a cross word was heard. The little kids were all marvellous, and cousins of all ages caught up with each other. The four in the picture above all live in the same city but had to travel to the Coast to visit with each other :)

On Sunday lunch time we had a farewell at one of the local cafes, "The Gap". Sharon, the owner, was so obliging. When I rang her to confirm our booking it was the first she had heard about us wanting to use her cafe to say our farewells. She had bought the business since we booked and I rang her less than a week out from the event. But she reserved space and set up seating for 30 which worked really well as we arrived in groups of 10 to 20 and there was plenty of room for everyone at any one time :) The staff were very friendly and obliging as we were there on a very busy holiday weekend.

On Sunday afternoon those of us who weren't travelling did some exploring, my GKB and I went to Punakaiki to the blow holes but I'll write about that another time as it really warrants it's own post.

One thing we of the older generation find interesting is that our families enjoyed themselves so much that they all want to go back for holidays and do some more exploring. A real positive spin off as most of them have shown no interest up until now :)

Joining in Five on Friday

over at FAST

Diana

A family reunion

 Easter weekend saw 76 members of our extended family gather in Greymouth on the West Coast of the South Island of New Zealand. Home for the older generation of cousins and somewhere most of our kids had never been! 

On Friday afternoon we set up the hall. What could have been a big job was made easy when people just kept arriving and we ended up with an old fashioned working bee going. The men got to work putting  the tables up and the women got to work in the kitchen.  Some things never change :) When all was set up it was a quick dash back to our motels for a shower and change of clothes, then back to the hall for our 'meet and greet' evening.

We had hired a church hall and were very impressed with all the facilities provided. Because it was Good Friday we had fish and chips, hot cross buns and whitebait on the menu. This was supplemented with fruit platters and small cakes, with wine, beer and soft drink as well as tea and coffee. One sister, who shall remain nameless, ordered a slab of cake, thinking she would get something big enough for everyone to have a small piece each - it came in a wooden box and took up the entire back seat of her car! She'll take a while to live that one down.

We had a lot of fun that evening, meeting family we hadn't see for decades in some cases and also meeting their kids and grandkids. People had brought their photo's along as well as other articles of interest, the family bible, some iron ore from a mine our ancestors worked in England - the owner had smuggled it out of the mine when she went to see it. The family tree was there for anyone to take copies of and the family historian had interesting letters and other papers to look at. We decorated with daffodils and flags, Granma's favourite flowers were daffodils and Grandad's nickname was Flags, so we thought it was appropriate.

When people first arrived they took a balloon off the stage and had to find the person whose name was on the name tag. I was a bit iffy as to whether the men would take part but I think most of them found a kid and did it with them, that way it wasn't really them playing with balloons :) I loved seeing the big age range. I think the youngest was about 7 years old and my Aunty was the eldest at 86. At the dinner on Saturday night she told us all there was one week and one month between her and Mum, what she meant was one year and one month. We all had a good laugh over that. That's her below with balloons all over her wheelchair. We were all very proud of her as she had a stroke earlier in the year but managed (was determined) to attend most events for at least part of the time.

At 9:30pm when it was time to go everyone pitched in again and it only took about an hour or so to clear everything away and make our way to our beds. Well, those with kids headed to their beds, my branch of the family met up again in my youngest brothers motel and we spent a couple of hours reminiscing and catching up with each other. Two of us live in NZ and the other two who were there are living in Australia, and two didn't make it. My daughters and their families didn't join us either as they had to drive quite a way to where they were staying. We socialised with them later in the weekend. And that completed our Friday night.

Did I say it poured with rain all day and night on Friday? Well Saturday morning when we were due to go to the cemetery to put flowers on our grandparents grave we were still being blasted with torrential rain, the tail end of Cyclone Cook. Those of us who grew up on the coast weren't at all fazed as this sort of rain is quite normal for the area but I think one or two of the younger ones wondered what had  hit them. We had a good turnout of people at the cemetery, mostly the older cousins as we were the ones who spent time with our grandparents, but it was nice to see some of the younger ones there as well. And as you can see, although it was grey and cloudy the rain stopped and the weather continued to get better and better as the day wore on.

My eldest cousin (the family patriarch) said a few words 

and we had a minute silence before  we all went our 

different ways for the rest of the morning.

My GKB and my son and daughter in law and I all went down to the beach which was just below the cemetery. It was cold and blustery but it was nice to relax and take a walk before we all gathered again at Shantytown after lunch. My son takes some quite arty photos and I followed him trying to get the same shots - but mine are not arty at all :( 

And Shantytown is going to have a post of it's own, 

so I think I will stop here and continue another day.

That's more than five photo's and probably not quite

 five minutes of reading but I'd still like to take part in:

Five on Friday

********

I would also appreciate prayers for my little mother as she has been staying with me since Easter and is on complete rest. We travel to Hamilton on Monday for a CT scan (don't ask) and the plan at the moment is that they will send us home again on Wednesday then send us another appointment to go back for her heart operation. We are praying the operation will be done while we are in Hamilton without the need for another trip. We live in Dunedin in the south of the South Island, Hamilton is in the middle of the North Island and we will be travelling for about 4 hours. Many thanks.

On 'The Coast' for Easter

Meet and greet.

At the cemetery.

Shantytown.

The main meal.

Heading up the coast road.

What do these photos have in common? 

They were all taken at our recent family reunion.

joining in the fun at

Five on Friday

Diana

Heading north, then west

Our family arrived from Japan on Wednesday. 

It is so good to see them. 

This coming Wednesday we will leave to travel

 to our family reunion at Easter time. 

Already family members from Indonesia and Australia

 are in New Zealand and others from Australia

 are travelling in the next day or two. 

Most of us will be 'home' by Thursday

 and we'll be enjoying a meet and greet evening on Friday. 

I'm looking forward to seeing cousins I haven't seen 

for several decades and meeting their families.

I'm thinking we'll all be blessed one way or another.

I'll share about it when we get home but just so you know,

 I may not be checking in for a week or so. 

************************

And as it is Palm Sunday let me wish you all a blessed Easter

 no matter where you are or what you are doing.

Diana

preparing for a reunion

Just over two years ago my little mother's sister died and so of course there was a family gathering at the funeral. Afterwards we had a 'family only' gathering at one of the cousins homes where it was decided that we needed to get together for a happy occasion for a change and just enjoy each others company. Who to organise it we all wondered? 'Well Diana, you are the only one here who is retired so you could do it'. Silly me, in the excitement of the moment I said yes. 

Mum on left and two of her sisters

There were six siblings in Mum's family, one boy with five sisters. Two families in a way as the first world war interrupted family life as it did for so many. Only my little mother and her younger sister are left and unfortunately they are both in indifferent health. Little mother will be unable to attend as we need to travel and my aunty will attend what she can, if she can. We are going back to where most of us grew up - HOME :)

Eventually we formed a committee of sorts which made decision making easier (and didn't leave me with all the responsibility).

So...where to start? Put up a facebook page someone suggested, then we can all chat. So I did and we did. It's been more and more fun as more people joined and started sharing some of their old photos and making suggestions. And contacting each other again. Some of us haven't seen each other for over forty years. And some of us are still to meet. 

 A venue was decided on and just a month or so back the menu was agreed. I made up a welcome pack and that was sent out a month ago. We have people coming from Japan, Indonesia and Australia as well as around New Zealand. We decided to try and get a group concession for Shantytown, which is a replica pioneer village just a few miles from where we are gathering. Family friendly and the kids of all ages can see how our grandparents lived, ride an old steam train through the bush and go gold panning. I think it will be a bit shocking for some of the youngest generation - no electricity, no ipads, long drop toilets :) Oh well. This is still a work in progress, the concession seeking, but I delegated that job to one of my sisters.

As a surprise I have printed off copies of the family tree and will give it to each family at the meet and greet on the Friday night. It dates back to 1775 and covers 8 generations with another 2 or 3 generations at this end to be added in. No I didn't research it, another family member did and I'll give her the credit on the day.

We have been sorting photos and asked people to bring their own or any items they might think will be of interest to the rest of us. My GKB has been making a photo board and this is him working on

 PB Mk1 or photo board mark 1. I think it is on it's third incarnation at the moment. That's okay, it'll be done in time. All we have left to do is print some photos and get ourselves over there with our carload of gear. 

 I'm looking forward to it but have to admit there have been times that I've felt quite daunted and overwhelmed, but that is all behind me now :) So it's almost time to relax and just go with the flow.

Enjoy your week,

Diana

Two intrepid walkers - on a road trip

I hope you will take a few minutes, maybe five, 

make yourself a coffee or tea and join me 

as I take a road trip to my childhood home.

Well it's been over for a week or two now but when my little sis was here on holiday from Australia we went on a bit of a road trip. All in the name of the reunion we are having at Easter next year. 

We had intended heading back up Central and knocking off a bit more of the rail trail but got chatting and decided on a completely different plan. Dunedin to Greymouth and back in four days, because I had a meeting to get back for. That's a round trip of over 1130 k's and meant we were on the road most of the time without a full day anywhere.

After making sure my GKB was okay with baching for a few days we got on the road. He didn't fancy a menage a trois of any kind anyway and quite honestly even though the campervan was supposed to sleep four it would have been pretty crowded. Comfortable enough for two though.

After a couple of hours on the road, we decided to stop for lunch at one of the rivers we crossed on the way. There was a fair wind blowing but we got out and stretched our legs, took a photo or two and some of some tourists as well, with their camera. (We are so nice like that, ha ha). The name of the river eludes me now but it is the same braided river I showed you in an earlier post with the ducks swimming on it. The photo above is a tiny sheltered braid close to the bank. Very pretty but the river itself is rugged. If you look hard you can see the Southern Alps in the background on the left. And then we headed for Christchurch to stop for the night.

There are a lot of road works and rebuilding going on and at one point we went round this roundabout into a little detour and came back out where we had gone in. Don't ask! I think that was as we were trying to get onto the Coast Road as we left the next morning. Anyway we went through here several times over two days. We had just enough time to get parked up at the camping ground/holiday park when we arrived when my grandson rang to say his partner had just finished work and was on his way over to pick us up for dinner. Time for a quick wash and tidy up and away we went for a lovely roast dinner.

The next morning, after an early start and finally negotiating the road works we turned inland and onto the West Coast Road. That is the Southern Alps we are heading for and which we had to cross. Heading home, well to my childhood home which I love.

Above is Castle Hill, no castle just these rather wonderful rock formations which from a distance do look like a ruined castle, we pass this on the way. And then a bit further on we come to the Bealey River, we're up in the mountains now and although there is no snow where we are, it's on the tops and cold.

Over the bridge and before we knew it we were in the Otira Gorge and driving over the viaduct. So different to when I was young, when you had to drive a lot higher up the mountain on an unsealed road with no barriers to stop you going over the edge. 

The photo above is taken through the van window, a waterfall above the road with the sluice to carry it across the road above the traffic. We stopped for lunch in Otira village, next to the railway station at some picnic tables and then carried on to the coast. We were on the downhill run now. We can hear the call of home :)

And I think that is where I will leave you today. I'll pick up here again in about a week and tell a little more. 

Joining Amy for 

Five on Friday

Diana