Day One - Saturday 13th

Well after breakfast and hanging out with the family in our pyjamas and playing with Buoy the family dog - a big black portuguese water dog - i then had a wee mid morning nap. Sarah went to dance class and then Sam and i had a look at haka videos etc on Youtube. Then.... Coco arrived, she's a wee puppy, same breed but about 10 weeks old. Very cool. So we had lunch together and then i was picked up by Mary and taken to Don's house. Don was hosting the St Charles Rotary Alumni party - in a small mansion. So everybody met the new zealanders and i did a small obama vs mccain poll, which also took into account bumper stickers and signs on front lawns. So far its 5 to 3 in favour of Obama. The GSE team and some brave americans played ping pong downstairs in the basement - which was nearly the size of my house sitting house. From this party we were then taken to a welcome party at Don C's house. We were formally introduced and we all said a bit about each other and performed our first waiata. It was very relaxing and we met some wonderful generous and welcoming people. But it was great to get home to bed and chill out, pity that wee puppy coco had different ideas. She was a bit bereft wthout her litter mates so i had a wee chat to her at one point and encouraged her to go back to sleep!