Whee!

Today at stupid o'clock we left home and drove to the ferry in Picton.  I slept for a lot of the crossing.  We had planned to spend the afternoon with Finn and his family.  We were going to do this before Christmas but events with my sister caused us to postpone it until now.  After lunch at Finn's house we went to a playground.  It is bit further north from where Finn lives and has a multi cultural  population.  It felt like being back in Rotorua.  Families were enjoying the equipment, having picnics and cooling off in the splash area with water spouts.  There is a manmade pond but Finn told me the water is yukky and he must be right as no one was in it.  It was a hot day and we had a Mr.Whippy ice cream before going home.  There was a queue and Finn and I sat in the shade  and I talked about the people we could see and counted the ice creams they each bought.  He listened and added the odd word.  It was a lovely conversation and I was delighted to have him sit so close and be still watching and listening.  I should have taken a picture of him eating his tub of vanilla ice cream with sprinkles but I was eager to eat mine before it melted and dripped.  The forester took the blip photo with me pushing the swing. 
The forester left us and started his drive to the Wairarapa.  I got to sit beside Finn in his dad's car and be driven to the airport.  There wasn't any conversation from Finn because he went to sleep.  We drove the scenic route around the bays of Wellington harbour and every scrap of beach was covered in people sunbathing and there were people swimming.  My flight was on time and Andrew kindly picked me up from the Nelson airport.  I was shattered  and went to bed early but happy to have seen Finn again and his mum and dad are doing such a good job with him.