222choppy: Partying down South

Another early friday morning dash to the airport. We meet Heather at the Wellington airport and had a good flight down to Dunedin where Jill picked us up. Gwyndyls (Rua's mum) arrived shortly after us so we all went back to Gourley street. Our house (BnB) that we were renting 2 doors down wasn't quite ready yet so we went to the supermarket to get supplies for the house and for our contributions to the shared meals. That night we went to Haszards for a shared mexican type meal and to sit on the new deck. It got a bit cold later so we were ready to get to bed and prepare for the next day.

We were really enchanted by 15 Gourley St - with lots of paintings by Tom and excellent furnishings and interesting objects throughout. We would thoroughly recommend it. (Booked through Holiday Houses)

We took things easy the next day but prepared for the party which started at 5pm. There was momentary chaos as the keg was not pumping!!! I suggested they suck... but fortunately Rua knew the brewery people well enough to get them to come and get it going. They stayed and had a drink too! What service!

Nic waits for the first beer

Of course the evenings are quite long here so we settled in for a drink or two.

Family grouping - Ang, Gwyndls, Duncan Heather and Rach

Rach, Ed (Rua's brother), Bethan and Ella - great family shot.

Millie and Jill talking to the LOGS (Ladies Of Gourley Street)

General shot of partygoers

Tony (Rua's Dad) front of shot.

The meal was quite early - steak, pulled pork and a variety of salads. It was YUM and went without a hitch. Later in the evening we have a sequence of Happy Birthday shots, with accompanying dance moves by Rua!.

Happy Birthday to you

Happy Birthday dear Ruuuua

Happy Birthday to you

Ella made and iced the cake with help from Millie

Half was banana, half was chocolate and a surround of cupcakes.

Jill had wanted a chimenea for the deck so Rua and Ed had manfully assembled this with just hours to go before the party. Here Ang and Millie enjoy the warmth from it. Duncan had chopped the wood from the pear tree about two years prior.

About 11pm Millie and Bethan turned on the sausage sizzle. Bethan is an early to bed sort of girl so she reallydid well to sizzle with a smile this late.

One of the first people Rua met in Dunedin was Nic (SoNic Smith is his DJ name).

OK and the mother-in law had to get into the act too. I had just gone around chatting to all the guests, announcing I'm Rua's mother-in-law who are you?? Quite a few had worked at AD Instruments but now moved on. Everyone was very fullsome in their praise of Rua, and very respectful. And this was probably the time that the keg ran out and they had to start drinking their own beer!

We left just after midnight but they partied on for another couple of hours. Millie was also sharing our digs and she came in about 1.30am.
More reading in the garden to start the day and after lunch there was an expedition to an exhibition at the Art Gallery. Heather and I watched a video about art techniques used in the 1400s. The artists were paid on an hourly rate just like tradesmen - a wage which typically included a litre of wine a day. The work was mainly for churches, and since it was to be viewed mainly by candle-light there was a lot of gold leaf and lapis. We also saw a rather disparate group of paintings by Francis Hodgkin and the stylised black and white koru designs by Gordon Walters.

We had to decide what to do about tea so went down to St Clair to the Esplanade. It has an Italian theme and it was very pleasant.