Delivery Duty

Yesterday I hiked with Katie into town (Paihia), and it was a great walk, once again, even with a bit of mud to make it interesting. It takes about 2 hours and it is great exercise. We had Brandy and Marc over for hamburgers last night so we could spend some quality time with them before we leave on our delivery trip, cause they may be gone when we return on Dec 15. Hopefully we will rendevous with them again in Whangarei on Christmas, before I come home.  We leave on Thursday morning on s/v Vera, once Buster, helping friend Nick take the boat around the north tip of the North Island, down the west coast to the
South Island, delivering her to Nelson, Nick's homeport. This should only take us 4 days, depending on the weather of course, and sailing into the Marborough Sound should be wonderful (again, good weather
providing a warm experience!) It will be nice to be on a different boat and we look forward to the adventure. Hopefully, with the sun still shining, we will be able to borrow Nick's van and drive over to
Golden Bay, which is supposed to be spectacular, and we missed going there last year. We also hope to visit Helen and Adrian, from s/v Mandala, who also live in Nelson. Nick is flying us back to Auckland
early morning on Dec 15, so we will be spending most of that day busing our way back up here. Sooooo, we will not be in touch with you from Thursday through Sunday. I will email you as soon as we get to
Rick's home in Nelson, letting you know we are safe and sound. I did send a birthday greeting to Paula before she left and she was very excited about going to NY. I will look forward to going out with
the girls when she is home during my stay and celebrating with you; hopefully someone will find something for me to wear!  I am returning with very little clothing and will definitely need to go to my storage shed before settling into Laguna life! Of course, I have no ideas about style any more, but did I ever?! Love, Suzi