HOUSEGUEST!!!!

    I am sitting here waiting for my first house guest!!  We are so excited for my good friend and old college roommate, Jenna Diem, to arrive from the melting tundra of Minnesota.  We feel honored that she has made such time and money commitment to come and visit us in Gisborne.  Of course, we are living on a fabulous beach and have the extra room and I know there are many that want to come... but we know it is not possible for that many to actually make the long trip here.  And, it is a very long trip.  Jenna left Minneapolis on Sunday, March 20th, at 11:00 A.M. (monday, 5:00 A.M. our time).  She was due to arrive in Gisborne at 10:55 A.M. Tuesday, (4:50 A.M.  Monday in Minnesota).  Well, when I went to pick her up at the airport, I heard the airplane in the clouds (it was pouring rain) but it never landed.....

So, I started this blog almost two weeks ago.  Jenna ended up having her airplane diverted back to Auckland because the weather was so bad.  I had not heard from her and had been sitting on the computer, hoping to get word of what happened to her, so I had started to blog.  In the middle of my blogging I got a message on good 'ol facebook, from someone I didn't know.  It was titled "Jenna Important".   Apparently her flight to Gisborne had been cancelled, so they flew her down to Napier and she was going to be taking a 3 hour shuttle.  She did not have my phone number and ended up calling someone in the states who then found me on facebook to relay the message.   She ended up arriving in Gisborne at 6:00 p.m.,  37 hours after leaving Minneapolis.   NOT a great start to her trip... and, just to add a little more salt to the wound, it was rainy and cool.  It was still so great to have her there and she managed to haul a whole extra suitcase with her full of stuff from home for me and the family.  It was a little like christmas.   So, we got her settled in, and told her not to worry as the weather never stays bad for long, and told her about the things we had planned for the week.  Stay tuned to hear about how it all turned out... let's just say, the cancelled flight was not the end of the bad luck. But we did have a good time and we were sad to see her go yesterday.   And, I was kept busy, too busy to blog... sorry for the absence.

Jenna's cloudy Wainui Welcome

(oh yeah, did I mention, the road from Napier to Gisborne is considered one of the windiest, hilly roads in the country)