NZ trip home - February 2009

After being away from home for almost a year, it was time to head back to Aoteroa to catch up with old friends and family. We squeezed in three weekends, but had basically two weeks to cram in a year's worth of NZ gossip and goings-on, and of course spend some time with our 6 month old niece, Tiana.But the main reason we went home was for two weddings, the first being Warren's sisters. The wedding was held at Castaways, an amazing venue on the west coast of NZ, and we spent the weekend staying on site at one of the many chalets with a heap of friends and family. Here are some of our favourite photos:
The following weekend we had the second wedding, one of Ange's good friends that she met at Genesis. The wedding was in Hamilton so we braved it and spent the night down there. And so after two very busy but fantastic weeks it was time for a very teary goodbye and a twelve hour flight to China...

Snow in London - 1st and 2nd of February 2009

While we were inside enjoying a typical British Sunday afternoon in the pub, outside it started to snow.

When we emerged we were immediately covered in snow, but Ange and I had a Superbowl party to get to in East London, so cross town we went.

At half time (about 2am) they recommended that due to the weather we leave and make our way home to avoid being snowed in. So we got the event bus back to central London, but by that stage the public night busses had been ordered off the streets due to the snow, so we had to get a cab back to Putney after hanging around Victoria train station for about half an hour. This is our street at 3am when we finally got home.

Monday morning we awoke to see that the snow was still falling and to hear that London had been ground to a standstill. The worst snowstorm in 18 years meant that the tubes, the busses and the trains were all out of action which meant we couldn't get into work! While we did do some work from home, Warren still had time for some compulsory snowman-making!

Copenhagen (Denmark) - 23rd to 25th January 2009

After flying in late on Friday night, we got up Saturday morning for a walk through the main streets of Copenhagen, which include the longest pedestrian shopping area in Europe.

Luckily we had somewhere to be, so Ange wasn't able to spend the entire day in the shops. Copenhagen has its own changing of the guards everyday at noon outside the Amalienborg Palace, the Queen's winter residence. At the completion of its restoration it will also be home to Denmark's Crown Prince and his Australian "commoner" wife, Mary.

After the guards had changed and the band had stopped, we walked over to Rosenborg Castle, built as a country summerhouse in 1606. The castle is surrounded by a duck-filled moat, and exhibits the Crown Jewels in its basement. Its quite small as far as castles go, so we were able to walk through the entire building.

After a quick sausage and some Danish pastry for lunch, we walked up the Round Tower. It is a 17th century tower, the oldest functioning observatory in Europe, and unique in that it has no stairs, but instead a sloping walkway up to the top.

Still not finished we just made the last canal tour of the day. Luckily the canal boats were covered and heated!

After an expensive dinner and even more expensive drinks (Denmark is not cheap!) on Saturday night with an old work friend of Warren's, we jumped on a train Sunday morning to go North for 40 minutes up to Fredericksborg Palace. Situated on the edge of a small lake, the glassy (and partially frozen over) lake made for some spectacular photos. The Palace itself dates back to 1560 and is not electrified, meaning that it is quite gloomy and spooky inside.

We had a couple of hours to spare on Sunday afternoon so jumped on another train over to Sweden! The Swedish town of Malmo is only 35 minutes from Copenhagen, across the Oresund bridge. The bridge was only opened in 2000 and it actually half bridge and half tunnel, with a manmade island in the middle of the straight to link the tunnel section and the bridge section. It is the longest border crossing bridge in the world. Malmo is Sweden's third largest city but we only really had time for a quick walk through the centre of town and through a nice park nearby.

Back to Copenhagen to pick up our bags, grab a quick dinner, and get out to the airport for our 9pm flight back to London.

Flaine (France) - 19th to 28th of December 2008

We were up extremely early on the 19th to get out to Gatwick airport for our flight to Geneva. We spent a rather low key afternoon walking around Geneva's old town and waterfront and Ange climbed the Cathedral's tower (Warren had already done this when he was in Geneva in September).

Saturday the 20th we were picked up from our hostel at 1pm for the hour and a half minvan trip southeast over the French border to Flaine. Flaine is 1600m up the alps and is a "ski in ski out" resort where the chair lifts were within about 50m from our hotel. This is our hotel from the top of the beginner slope:After picking up our snowboards on Sunday morning, we spent the week boarding during the days and partying during the nights. We had lessons for a few hours everyday so by the end of the week Warren was coming down the slopes from the very top (900m above the resort).

Christmas day we had a bit of a sleep in after a pretty big night (the main Christmas celebrations in France are on the 24th), exchanged some secret santa presents and then hit the slopes in the afternoon.

On Saturday the 27th we had a few hours boarding in the morning before we had to drop our boards back, check out, and get back to Geneva. We had a quick walk around Geneva before an early night for our flight back to London early on the 28th. An absolutely amazing experience and we are both looking forward to boarding again soon!

December in London - 2008

The chilly air seems to bring out ice skating rinks all over London, so on Monday the 1st after work and a nice dinner we went along to Somerset House in the centre of town and strapped on some skates. Absolutely freezing but great fun!

Given we weren't going to be spending Christmas day with Warren's sister Carolyn and her fiance Glenn, we went over to their place for a Sunday roast on the 7th. We swapped some secret santa pressies, ate heaps and played some games - good times!

On Thursday the 11th we had another Christmas dinner, this time with our friends Nicola and Candice.On Sunday the 14th we went up to Wembley in North London for the Race of Champions. It's a car racing event inside the stadium where they put down two tracks side by side and two drivers battle it out in identical cars. Unfortunately Warren's hero Michael Schumacher couldn't pull off the win, instead WRC champ Sabastian Loeb took out the main event. Again rediculously cold sitting in the stands for a few hours!On Tuesday the 16th we again met up with Carolyn and Glenn to say Merry Christmas and to hand out our pressies from our families that had arrived from NZ. Beforehand Ange and I walked down Oxford Street to check out the Christmas lights.

Ange had her Christmas party on Wednesday the 17th and Warren had his on the 18th, so it was a busy month before heading off to France for Christmas early on the 19th...

Bratislava/Vienna - 21st to 24th of November 2008

Booked only four days earlier, we decided to spend a long weekend in Slovakia and Austria. We flew into Bratislava and had time for a quick walk through town and a pint.

Saturday morning we were up early for a walk through Bratislava and up to the Bratislava Castle.

We then got the bus out to another castle, this one in ruins, in Devin, about 20 minutes out of Bratislava.

Back into town for a real Slovak meal of dumplings with sheeps cheese (i.e. macaroni cheese) and fried spinach pastry, before jumping on the train to Vienna (just over an hour). We had time to head out into town for a few drinks and dinner, and didn't let the snow stop us!

Sunday we jumped on a tram for a loop of the ring road, before making Ange's weekend by spending a few hours in the Christmas markets.

We then crossed the road for a tour of the Hofburg Imperial Palace, the seat of the Austro-Hungarian empire for around 600 years. We went through the State Apartments, the Silver collection, and the Sisi Museum, and learned all about the 16 year old Elizabeth ("Sisi") who married her cousin, Franz Joseph (yes the man after whom the Glacier is named), the Emperor of Austria.

Monday morning we were up early to climb up the tower at St Stephens Church (I say climb, but actually the only way up was a lift!).

We had time for a wander around a different part of town and some food markets. After some purchases for lunch, we jumped on the underground out to the SchonBrunn Palace, which was Franz Joseph's and Sisi's summer palace. They spent most of their summers there, although it looked pretty spectacular in the winter too.

From the palace we picked up our bags from the hotel and headed back to Bratislava for a quick meal before jumping on our late night flight back to London. A very cold, but very romantic weekend in the snow!