Heading North to Picton

Today Katie and I headed up to Picton for the weekend to stay with my friend Rochelle. I took my mother along for the ride too, and she stayed the weekend with Rochelle's Mum, as they too were friends when we lived in Picton. Picton is 4 hours drive North of here, and is at the top of the South Island of NZ.

It was a spur of the moment thing and those trips are always the most fun!

We spent most of Sunday watching Rochelle's daughter Zoya play in a badminton tournament at the college gymnasium. She is only 11 but played in the U13 and the U15 grades in singles, doubles and mixed doubles. She got into the finals in all her games, and after 2 hours of non stop play, and 8 games in a row, she met her match for the singles final and lost by a very narrow margin against a player that had been on the sideline for a good hour or more. I take my hat off to Zoya, who had the stamina and ability of someone years older and fought to the end.
Zoya (11)























I took Rochelle's youngest daughters to the playground a few times to play and took some great photos of the two of them. They are real hard case girls.
Soraya (6)






















Jarrah (5)























It was fun walking around Queen Charlotte College, the high school that I attended from 1976 to 1981. A lot has changed, but some things still remain the same.



































We had a great weekend, and thank you to Rochelle for having us.

My sister Caroline came over from Nelson on the Monday that we left, and took our Mother back to Nelson with her for a week. So a great spur of the moment trip for my Mother too, that turned into 10 days away from home!