Post 6

We are back in London after our glorious 32 day break from work.

Christmas was spent at home in London with Andy's parents and brother travelling down from Yorkshire to spend it with us. There was no snow but plenty of eating and drinking making it very Christmasy.

We left for NZ on the evening of December 27th and arrived in Christchurch on the 29th after a good flight and two hour stop over in Singapore. It was a bit weird but very exciting to be there. We spent the afternoon looking around town with dinner at the Dux de Lux then left for Nelson at 5am the following morning as jet lag and excitement wouldn't let us sleep much. We took the coastal road up to Nelson, stopping in Kaikoura for breakfast and arrived in Nelson late morning. Nelson looked gorgeous and it was great to show it off to Andy. The next week and half was spent in Nelson catching up with family and friends and travelling round the area. New Year was in Mapua where I caught up with many people who I hadn't seen in a long time.

We took in the sights of Kaiteriteri, Golden Bay, Wharariki Beach, Farewell Spit, Pupu Springs, Abel Tasman - boating to our own little beach with friends and getting out on the biscuit - Lake Rotoiti, Marlborough - where I was the lucky sober driver on a winery tour and Andy bought up large - and the Rai Valley to see family. Around Nelson we enjoyed swimming in the Maitai (Andy's first swim in a river!), Rabbit Island, sailing in a boat race along the Boulder Bank, apricot picking in Waimea West, Mount Heslington to see family, Wearable Art and lots of eating out, eating in and spending happy time with many family and friends.

We left for the North Island on January 11th travelling as passengers of Blake and taking the scenic trip to Picton through Queen Charlotte Sound. After a sunny three hour ferry ride we arrived in Wellington and set straight off to Hawkes Bay for a flying visit to Napier. We arrived late and spent the night with friends then checked out Napier in the morning before heading off to Tauranga. We stopped of in Taupo where we swam in the lake and went for a kayak. We also stopped briefly in Rotorua then arrived in Tauranga late afternoon. We stayed at a beautiful apartment in Mount Manganui right by the beach. Dinner was had with friends at the Mount. The following day was my birthday which started with an early morning swim then breakfast and shopping in Tauranga. We set off for Auckland early afternoon with one stop at Waihi Beach. Once in Auckland we went out for dinner at the Viaduct with a visit to a bar afterwards. The next day we had breakfast at Mission B ay then checked out the views from the Sky Tower. After looking round town we got the ferry to Waiheke Island where we spent the afternoon on the beach then went out to dinner at the Mudbrick Cafe winery which had a amazing views over the water to Auckland in the distance. We got a late ferry back then flew to Nelson the next morning.

We spent our last day and night in Nelson driving out to Mapua, looking at wineries on the Waimea Plains and saying goodbye to family and friends.

We drove to Christchurch via the Lewis Pass taking in the lovely scenery. We had three nights in Christchurch staying at a lovely apartment by Sumner Beach. The time was spent seeing more family and friends, lying on the beach, going to the End of the World, Taylors Mistake, along the Summit Road overlooking Bank Peninsula and enjoying the relaxed restaurants and cafes of Sumner.

The flight back was fine with another short stop in Singapore. We arrived in London on Tuesday morning and went back to work very tired but very tanned on Wednesday.

On Thursday we went to a rugby charity dinner. Andy had booked a hotel room over looking the Thames and Big Ben. I arrived to find a path of flowers, champagne and Andy on bended knee with a gorgeous diamond and platinum ring he had designed and made in Nelson. Of course I said yes so we are now engaged. We had a great night at the dinner meeting some of the England rugby team and seeing the World Cup (it should have been ours!).

That is enough for one post, photos to follow soon.......

Bec

Post 5

Busy time at work for both Bec and I, plus we are getting very close to our trip to New Zealand, hence plenty of things to plan for.

I'm still smiling about England winning the Rugby World Cup. It is a shame that it wasn't an England vs NZ final though.

Bec is currently enjoying a girl's Christmas lunch with Ruth, Jules and Laura, hence I am banned from the house.

Nothing much of interest to report since last week. I went to a RPM Records party on Wednesday to celebrate the release of the soundtrack to a cult sixties film set in East London called Bronco Bullfrog. Howard Werth from the band Audience who wrote the soundtrack sang a few songs.

On the website front, I've added a link to the website of a friend from Leeds, Graeme Moss. Graeme and Kim, whose own site is already linked, are expecting a baby soon, good luck to them both.

Andy

Post 4

We finally have a dry day in London after what has felt like endless rain. I was half expecting Noah to roll out the ark.

We have had a busy few weeks. In case you have been living in a cave and hadn't heard, England won the World Cup. Yup, that's right, England's rugby heroes are now World Champions. Full credit to them though, it was a great game and they deserved to win. With the help of Brad and Tim I managed one small triumph for New Zealand and beat all my Pommy workmates to win our World Cup Dreamteam mini league. Result.

Andy has been very busy at work finalising budgets but we have managed a few nights out with friends and also had last Friday off work. We went out for brunch in South Kensington then went to the Natural History Museum which was very interesting. There was even a Moa! We then went to the V & A which was filled with lots of things. I liked the Japanese room and Andy was quite taken with the Casts room. After looking at old things that we couldn't buy, Andy uttered the words which every girl dreams of hearing.....'I need shopping therapy'. Once I had recovered from my shock we headed off to Harrods. It was the first time we had been there and it didn't disappoint. It was fab. Everything was fab. I loved all of it, the jewellery, the food, the clothes, the make up (oh the make up) and the shoes. Andy even voluntarily sought out the Jimmy Choo shoes. After a blissful few hours (for me anyway) we headed to Wimbledon for the movies and saw Love Actually which was very good actually. A lovely movie which I thoroughly recommend to anyone.

This week, we went out for dinner with Lydia and Neil on Monday. Last night (Wednesday) we went to a Brits pre show thing at Clapham Grand with Paul and Rachel. Muse, the Sugababes and Big Brovas did a couple of songs each and it was a fun night. It is getting televised at a later date but we weren't on camera as we were sitting up in the balcony on a comfy sofa rather than screaming at the front. Must be getting old.

On the website front, we have added some photos of me and young Oliver in Bournemouth. Ol's website has also been added to our list of links.

Bec

Post 3

I am back from Edinburgh where I had a fabulous time with Katie and Lesley. We had a most enjoyable weekend spent mainly lying on the couch under duvets, watching rugby, videos and chatting. Not to mention eating. We hit the town on Saturday night after Lesley whipped us up some of her Mum's famous strawberry cocktails. Top marks to Lesley and Johanne Hay.

I'm sure Andy missed me terribly but I'm glad to see he got over his woe long enough to add plenty of photos on here.

On Monday Andy and I had booked a day off work and we decided to spend the day as tourists in London on a Big Day of Fun. We went out for brunch by Wandsworth Common then went to town where we explored South Bank under The Eye. We then went to The National Gallery in Trafalgar Square which was fabulous. We decided to head for The British Museum off Tottenham Court Road but got waylaid by a screening of Kill Bill at The Empire in Leicester Square. Andy thought it was excellent but I would have liked more blood and fighting. The Museum had shut by the time the film finished so we did a spot of shopping (result!) at Covent Garden then found a nice looking Mexican place where we had a very nice dinner. It was called La Perla and did fabulous mango margaritas. Then excitement of excitements we went to see Chicago! It was on at The Adelphi on the Strand. The only famous person in it was some old chick off Eastenders who goes out with Brian May but it didn't matter. I loved it although I suspect this time, Andy would have liked more blood and fighting.

We have put some photos of our Big Day of Fun in London on the site as well as few random others. I hope you like them.

Bec

Post 2

The site has now been updated with some more archived photos. In addition we have also started to include narrative with some of the photos. Click on the latest photos section to see. Eventually all the photos will be presented like this, but it will take sometime, as the presentation of the site is changing over time, as we learn more about HTML.

Bec is currently in Edinburgh, Scotland for the weekend visiting friends. As you can see, I am using the opportunity to update the site.

Apart from enjoying the rugby, not much else is happening.

Andy

Post 1

Welcome to the website of Rebecca Mackie and Andy Ellis. We are just learning the dark arts of HTML and therefore this site is work in progress. As a result some of the links may not work.

We hope you like the site, please let us know of any problems with it.

Andy & Bec