Getting Stuff Done and Dinner in Town

Wednesday 27 May

With Jez in Auckland and Abby working hard in the Moho, Louis and I knuckled down to some admin & blogging then put on our gumboots, filled a couple of buckets, grabbed cloths & a sponge and set to work cleaning the outside of Banjo.

Previously we’ve always used the big truck wash on Greywacke Road but whilst it is great for an overall clean, it’s hard to get the fiddly bits done, so we decided to do it by hand instead. It’s not perfect, but we did remove about 10 weeks’ worth of dust & grime!

I popped over to Rangiora for my quarterly blood tests at Awanui Labs 🩸 (all good - I should make it through winter at least!) then we dropped in on Ella and the hounds to have lunch there. Ella was most rude about my cauliflower cheese which descended into mush when I reheated it… proper hospital food! 😉🤣. Didn't deter Jessie - she was keen to help with the "dishwashing"!

Next mission was out to the airport to collect Jeremy before the Tomkinsons got packed up, hitched up the Tasman balloon trailer and set off for Timaru via Prebbleton where he dropped off Abby for a night with Est before SHE flew up to Auckland on Thursday.

We did a quick turn around, pulled on our glad rags and drove over to the Cashmere hills to have dinner with Matt & Emma and Tui the dog. Matt was at uni with Louis in another century and we try to catch up with them both when we are in town. Emma is vegan and she had created an incredible fully plant-based lemon meringue pie for dessert - I'd never had aquafaba meringue before, but had heard all about the magical qualities of chickpea water... and it was pretty good, just a little soft. Fabulous evening with lots of gossip and Emma gave me hot tips on places to visit around Southern Christchurch & the Banks Peninsula. A late night for us as we got back to Banjo not long before midnight! 🕛