I managed to sleep across the Pacific, so the traveling wasn’t too bad coming back this time. After a non-existent Saturday, I arrived on Sunday to find Mum waiting for me at the airport. Not a large contingent, but hey, it was early in the morning and I made it clear I’d see everyone later. ^^

Mum took me back to her place and I finally got to look around. Having never actually seen the place (Mum moved in a couple of days after I left for the US), it was nice to finally understand all the jokes that my brother had made about it being the HMS O’Rourke. There’s a split-level in the main room with an accompanying deck, as well as a big sail over the outdoor furniture. Anyway, I threw my luggage down in Mum’s “spare room” – this room is actually the computer room, and barely fits the bed in it. Bit of a tight squeeze!

I hung out with Mum for a while, had some breakfast and a hot blackcurrant – I really missed my hot blackcurrant! Dace came over and I hung out with him for a bit as well, although he had to motor along. I knew I was going to be seeing him later, so I wasn’t terribly concerned. Rach came over and had a cup of tea with me, then it was road trip time! We saw Abby randomly on the street (and got promptly invited to a party she was having) as we were driving by her. We saw Cam back at The Ric (Rach and Cam’s inestimably interesting flat) and hung out with him for a bit before dropping him off where he needed to be. From there we went and saw Daniel, it was really great to see him again, I know I’ll see a lot more of him while I’m in NZ. After hanging out with Dan for a little bit, Rach and I then headed up the hill to see Shirley, her Mum. She’s officially made me her web-guy and I’m now in charge of developing the website for Shirley’s Kitchen. After that Rach dropped me back at the house. Big thanks to Rach for taking the time to road trip with me!

Back at Mum’s it was dinner with Mum and Dace, as well as a trip to see Dace’s flat (which I also hadn’t seen). Dace’s flat isn’t really a flat, it’s a townhouse that happens to house students – very slick.