Another year arrives, and I hope that wherever you find yourself, that 2007 will be a good one for you.  A very Happy & prosperous New Year to you!!

Nelson is very picturesque, with beautiful beaches that attract a large amount of people in the holiday seasons. It reminded me a bit of our trip along the Garden Route in South Africa. I didn't get any photos of Nelson itself, so I have added some I found on the net, just to give you an idea. We spent the rest of the day looking around Nelson and later drove to a place called Mapua. There wasn't time to go any further so it was back to Nelson and then to Picton where we would stay at a motel and prepare for the trip back to the North Island on the ferry the next day. On the way back to Picton we took the scenic route from Havelock via Queen Charlotte Drive which takes you on a narrow winding road along the Mahau & Queen Charlotte Sounds. Once again the look-outs along the way were awesome. On many occasions I wanted to stop and take photos, but there was no place to stop!  :-)

Photos Nelson & Mapua
Photos Queen Charlotte Drive & Picton
At 8:00 am we drove onto the Bluebridge ferry that would take us back to Wellington. We took motion sickness tablets before hand, but I still felt sick. The trip was a lot wilder going back and Bluebridge is not as nice as Interislander. It was a struggle, but I made it all the way without loosing my breakfast! Ingrid handled it a bit better, but also felt a bit woozy. In Wellington we jumped straight onto the motorway and headed for Auckland. The trip went well and at about 21:00 we finally rolled into our driveway. It was straight to bed because the next day it would be back to work. The adventure had finally come to an end.
One of my new year's resolutions is to focus a bit more on photography, as my hobby. In order to do that more effectively, I bought myself a new toy, the new Canon EOS 400D. In fact I wanted the more expensive one (the Canon 30D), but I thought "Baby steps Wayne!", the 400D is more than capable. I have added some of the first pictures I took with the camera, just to show you, I am making use of it :-)

Photos
Lily & Jack are over a year old now and have been with us for almost a year. They are certainly not kittens anymore, but you wouldn't say so - they are so full of beans sometimes! Burmese have very specific characters and are very different to what we expected, in a good way, but they do seem to be more demanding and require more attention than our last cats, Brandy & Fae. They are also very inteligent. For example, I didn't know a cat could be taught to fetch. Lily in particular, will bring me her toy mouse to throw down the passage for her. When I do, she will chase after it with everything she has, pounce on it, and bring it back to me again. This little game can go on for ages. When she gets tired, she will deliberately drop the mouse where I can't reach it and curl up at my feet. Oh, and I don't dare try and ignore her when she wants to play - I come second! Jack is just like a kid - he knows that he gets attention when he does something naughty (like scratching the bottom of the bed), so instead of being afraid that he will be repremanded, when he doesn't get the attention he seeks, he will go off and do something which normally involves biting or scratching something he shouldn't - well, he gets attention, for sure, but he is not supposed to like it??!

Photos