Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Hi! Jezz! What a lot of hi’s and hugs to give! Greeting everyone on the Extravaganza is no easy task. It was great to see everyone again.

That night I realized just how much I missed my friends from school. Leaving them was hard in the first place, but now they are gone it was worse than I had expected. It felt like a dull ache, especially now that Tiwai and Lettie are not coming until Timaru (two fairs away). Oh well I’m just going to have to suck it up and “make the best of it!”(our new family motto).

That weekend was the busiest start of season anyone has ever seen. And it was sunny!

We forgot about grumpy Mondays and boy did it hit us hard! We grumped our way around the city doing jobs and visiting op-shops, going to the Margret Mahy playground and picking up our new car.

Finally we made it to the New Brighton working men’s club (not glamorous at all!) and bunkered down for a wild stormy night.

Opps! I forgot one important detail. On their way to Christchurch for the Extravaganza Mels and Jonas’s bus caught fire in Wellington! They arrived back from dinner out to find the inside of their bus on fire, with their two Chihuahua’s trapped inside! They managed to quickly put the fire out and save the dogs. Mels had to give Izzy (the puppy) mouth to nose resuscitation, luckily she survived. Everyone came out almost unscathed apart from a few burns. They had to throw everything out. Completely strip out the bus!

OK back to us. The next day we moved onto Rakia gorge camp ground. Unfortunately it was right next to a loud under construction bridge, nothings perfect! I had developed a rather nasty cough, so when we went for a four hour walk I only did half an hour. Dad took me back to the truck while Mum and the boys carried on.

After that failed adventure we drove twenty minutes down the road to Te awa awa rata reserve, a favorite with the gypsies. We found all of the Lucky star crew fixing up the mother ship, (Mels and Jonas’s bus) so we gave them our moral support. Dad went hunting and shot a Red deer. Well done Daddy. The boys played with Koco (Mels daughter) and I made a delicious Lemon cake. We stayed at that peaceful haven for two nights, then sped off Friday morning for setup.

What a brilliant first week! Bye!