Well Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Its now only a month till i leave Auckland and get on my travels around NZ again so i thought i would put up a few pix from over xmas for you all to have a look at . And as u can see it consisted of rather a lot of alcohol........Waiheke island was a much needed break for a weekend out of the city, its only a 35 minutes ferry ride from auckland and covered in lots of native bush and beaches. I spent a whole day and a half walking around and god my ass hurt once i went back to work on the monday. it was all hilly and up and down, but the views were fantastic and i got a bit of exercise out of it too so i cant complain. i think the most exciting this about the trip was the hedgehog - it was soooooo cute

Since Waiheke i have just been pottering around Auckland - working in the weeks and spending the weekends either in the park or on the beach as the weather has finally decided to give us some sunshine for a change! Over xmas i got a couple of days off and the same for new year (they actually have the 2nd off aswell - and i get paid for it, even better) Xmas eve i spent the early part in the park and then headed off to the backpackers where i met santa in a rather dubious pair of brightly coloured shorts and a rather matted and crappy beard...hmm cant say i was impressed with his efforts! :o) and then, omg, then i cooked the most perfect roast chicken EVER on xmas day, half a bottle of wine can do wonders for your cooking skills let me tell you.....i cooked all the extras too and had mince pies and xmas pud later on. i was half asleep by 6 O'clock but there were some good movies on to occupy myself until i headed to bed. I missed u all terribly though - never ever again am i spending xmas away from home it sucked :o( but i had to make the most of it and i spoke to various members of the family over the xmas day/boxing day which was nice. One moan. and this is a BIG moan. Never EVER buy a box of cadburys roses in New Zealand, they taste like s***e. i was so dissapointed, i mean you always have a box of roses under the tree over xmas to have on boxing day and it totally spoilt it. Totally not the same as back home so im boycotting cadburys entirely (maltesers are ok arent they?) Anyway not to let one krappy box of chocs spoil my boxing day i cracked open a few beers and ate the left overs from xmas day instead and mmmmm mmmmm it tasted good!

ok so that pretty much sums up xmas in Auckland - New Years was at the backpackers and watching the fireworks from the Skytower which was cool - not as good as Sydney fireworks but still, they did a good job! got home around 1ish to wait for phonecalls then i went to bed - well it was either that or some westlife concert that was on TV, so it was a no brainer to be honest.

and that brings us up to the new year - oh yeah, the work xmas do! i forgot about that one......as you can see from the pix it was an 80's theme party at the Hyatt and it was rather messy as it was free alcohol all evening - they did feed us but still, u have to drink the champagne dont u? For my sins i was forced to go onto the stage and mime alog to an 80's classic to try and win points for our table, i didnt come first, actually i have no idea where i placed in that competition but who really cares - and why send someone that was born in 1984 to do it - i mean how am i supposed to know the lyrics to some dodgy 80's track!?!?!!? to cut a long story short we got very very drunk and didnt win the quiz, but it was good fun nonetheless and i passed out when i got home.

Ok so i finally think thats it! Hope u all had a great xmas and new year and missed me terribly coz i missed u all soooooooo much! loads of love and hugs

Vix. xxxxxxxxxxx