Get Your Kicks

When I was just a teen, my favourite TV program was Route 66 where 2 young guys travelled across America in a Chevrolet Corvette.  Buzz and Tod were very cool and nobody imagined they were gay, which they certainly were not.  Today, Martin Milner is 81, George Maharis is 84, and I am 66.  When I informed my brother Rick of that number, his reaction was a mix of dismay and sadness.  It sure made me feel much better about the whole thing.

My best present was a visit from Chloe and her parents.  We sent the adults down to Queenstown for New Year's Eve while we kept the kid, who is 6 these days.

.

She swam in the bay on Rabbit Island, rode horses, ice skated, petted baby goats, played with ducks and eels in the river and laughed, danced and told stories for days.

Plus we had a birthday party with cake and ice cream.  I have been forced to eat what was leftover in addition to the carrot cake which was baked by Kimberly.  So you can imagine what I look like these days.

Then we all went to Golden Bay, the sweetest spot in all of New Zealand.  We had secured a bach on the estuary where we hiked, kayaked, swam and cooked.  By the way, Brandon has an exercise program that was created by Green Berets or Navy Seals.  It was hard to watch his going through the manoeuvres.  But he is in amazing shape.  It is good to see him keeping up my tradition.

The Grove where much time was spent hiding and looking for Hobbits.

Wharariki Beach cave with seal peeping behind the rock.  

This place is wild and natural as when the earth was molded by Jesus.  It is often extremely windy.  But that would not stop us.  We hiked in and as long as Chloe had her sunglasses and was wrapped in a towel, all was cool.

Nearby was a cave so we went down with a group. There were the usual stalagmites and tites, but it was a dry cave, so no glow worms.

Back in Nelson, Chloe met some friends of ours that had a proper collection of stuffed animals.

So to review.... I am way younger than my early heroes   We had lovely visitors.  I am fat.
Some of us are not so lucky.  They are only 57 and planning on living forever.

Lucky for me, this gal is blind.