After Christmas

On Boxing Day Jared suggested a trip to the Glenbrook Steam Railway so two carloads set out. The train is beautifully maintained by a team of enthusiastic volunteers and the whole thing including the station was very cute. One of the carriages had been hired for a kids' birthday party.

Kasi came with us to visit some rellies from Fiji, Archie and Liz Seeto, who were in Auckland visiting their son. Then we hit Ponsonby Rd and in particular, Minnie Cooper. MC is a shoe shop predominantly with bags and a few clothing items. Sandy Cooper is the owner/inventor and she was for many years the girlfriend of Aunty Tina's youngest son, Mark. Mark's sister, Charleyene (in the Christmas pics) has run the Auckland shop for Sandy for a long time and I like to pop in whenever possible to drool over the gorgeous stuff and usually leave with my wallet a little lighter (watch out for the green shoes and bag ensemble in some later cow pics).

We managed to fit in some fine dining at one or two of our local establishments, this one being One Tree Grill where you can walk on a piece of glass floor right over the extensive wine cellar below just like the scary glass floor at Sky Tower. Jenny and Jessye demonstrate that they are related. This was our goodbye dinner with Jenny and Aunty Jane.

The next day we farewelled Jenny and then I gave in to Rosie's constant plea for more Mall experiences. We visited our fourth, Botany Downs, which was my personal favourite and capped it off with seeing a movie in the Gold Class section of the theatre.

I was lucky enough to have a short time as a piano student of Janetta MacStay at Auckland University before violin became the priority. Janetta and Bryan Sayer, himself a former student of hers, taught us as a team and I remember when I told Janetta that I was giving up the piano in favour of the violin she uttered the immortal words "Bryan WILL be relieved." She may have long forgotten her utterance but it's stayed with me all these years and I've dined out on it many a time. She is still an amazing lady with razor sharp intellect and wit and I love seeing her when I'm in Auckland. She's always interested in what the girls are up to, having heard about them and seen them since they were babies and she was particularly pleased to meet Peter for the first time.

Since we were in that neck of the woods we popped in to the revamped Museum

and on the way home, detoured up Mt Eden where we chanced upon a gathering of cows at close quarters.

That night Aunty Tina, Charleyne and Caleb came over for a nice, relaxed dinner.

Gill Ansell (NZSQ violist) was staying just a couple of paddocks away at her Mum's place for Christmas and we arranged for our violin teacher, Heather Smith to come over for morning tea at our place.

A little later the rest of the Ansell clan - Gill's Mum, Lorna, Gill's two brothers, Simon and Chris (Simon was also a violin student of Heather Smith), Simon's wife, Madeleine and assorted offspring came over for a barbie lunch, swim and game of "Articulate". The keen observer will also note the presence of Peter's cousin, Catherine and her husband, Cameron who also live conveniently close to Barb and Dick's place. We were so lucky to have the use of their house which made such gatherings such a breeze.

Since this was the only day we could see my half-sister, Lena because of her work commitments over Christmas, we had to leave our guests to finish off the game and let themselves out while we went to meet her at Lynmall. She met Peter for the first time and the girls and me for the second. This was our last day in Auckland before driving to Whitianga for the next phase of our holiday.