A Story in Pictues

Chris and I went out with his best friends Justin and Julia. We went to an area called Takapuna and had a beer at a bar then went to dinner at a nice restaurant. The food was great. I hate some duck and pate which are too things I secretly love but never get. It was weird because we were really the only ones in the restaurant. I guess everyone here travels for the holidays.
I think we discovered that Chris is filling a void left by Justin by being with me since I LOVE cheese and hate bench presses.
I could tell Chris and Justin were both very happy to catch up with each other. After dinner went to 3 clubs! That isn't as good as it sounds because it only took 5 minutes to go to all of them. Two were dead and one was crowded but too loud to talk. So we ended up going back to the same bar we had our pre-dinner drink at. By the end of the evening Chris had 5 beers which is a lot for Chris and these were high alcohol beers which I think is 8% alcohol. Anyway, we wanted to take pictures.

This is me doing that "hold the camera out and take a picture of yourself." I don't know what is wrong with Chris.

Take two he did better.

Now all of us!

Here is where I start trying to get a picture of Chris and Justin. Again Chris is being less than helpful.

Why is his picture face that of an evil clown?

What is in his lap?

Finally!

Justin, Julia and Chris

Hopefully, Josh and Emma are being nice to daddy today because he was out late and now he is sad that his Chrissy is going back to America.

We had a great time even though we are old at 11pm is late too us.

Day 12: This is the place that invented thrills!

So we get up to go to Shotover Jets (see links in post: South Island Adventure), I had to convince myself that this would be a good idea. It is the only thrill in Queenstown that doesn't involve jumping from something.
So the first time that our boat came mere inches from the cliff face, I decided I was probably going to close my eyes and cry through the whole trip but I didn't at all. It was so much fun! I took some 15 second video clips on my camera and I will get those up so you can see how crazy it is for a boat to spin 360 degrees in one spot. Videos at the end of this post.
Chris and I then went to Arrowtown which is an old gold mining community. Chris panned for gold while I ate the best meat pie ever! If you ever visit Queenstown then you need to drive over to Arrowtown and go to the Postmaster's Deli for a Steak Pie!
As I said in the title of this post, thrills where invented in Queenstwon. The first shotover jets were made of wood, downhill skiing has been going on since the great depression and in 1987 the year of the market crash - AJ Hacket opened the first commercial bungee jump site. Well, with his impending 30th birthday Chris Vogel has added his name to the list of those who have jumped off the Kawarau Bridge.

That's Chris in the next picture!

If your fiance jumped off a bridge, would you do it too? I thought about it but we all know I just would have paid the money to stand up there and cry and run away.
We had a nice dinner after. The most popular pizza here is chicken, cranberry and brie. I had some and it is really good.

Day 6: Maybe I didn't blog maybe it didn't happen

I am just kidding. Yesterday was whirlwind day. The weather was sunny and mid-70s.
Chris's parents had all their friends over for breakfast to see us before Hope left to go back to London. We had pancakes, sausage, fruit, coffee. I was all pretty normal breakfast wise.
After everyone left and we cleaned up I dashed out with Hope and Daphne to pick up some last minute things. We all saw Hope off at the airport. Chris's parents like to go in the airport and wait until you need to go to the gate. So we all went in and had a coffee. I actually had a water because I am all coffee and pastried out.
Then Chris and I went over to his best friends house. Justin and Julia and their two children Joshua (4) and Emma (2). Joshua had never met Uncle Chris but didn't have a nap yesterday because he was "too excited to sleep". He ran and hugged Chris and showed us all the toys we had ever sent. Emma was precious and I think Chris may want a girl first. Also, their cat Herbie was in Chris's lap all night. Everyone laughed because (stop reading Snoopy) Chris used to shoot the water hose at cats and would always pick Herbie up when he tried to sit on Chris's lap and pass him like he was toxic. Now Chris is a cat person. Yay!
We ordered Pizza from a delivery place called Hell. All the regular pizzas were named after the 7 deadly sins. The kids had a large greed. We had two gourmet pizzas called trouble and purgatory. The delivery guys drive hurshes. Check out their website.

Today we are going to a beach up North with Chris's parents. A relaxing day.
Here are some pics from breakfast. I will post some of the kids later.

Because I am a little bit evil

Check out these pictures of young Chris!


Who is the chubby cheeked kid? And when he lost the baby fat did he also lose his upper lip?
I am glad we met after we got much older. J/K I bet I would have loved him then too.

I will probably be punished for this. If my mom figures our how to post pictures in the comments she can post a "bad perm pic" or one of when my bangs were in transition.