Friday's birthday adventures on a ferry
Last Friday (26th) was my friend L's birthday. She decided it was time for a small adventure so settled on going across on the Diamond Harbour ferry for dinner at Godley House. Friday is the only night the ferry runs late, with the last pick up in Diamond Harbour at 10.40pm.
L has a 4 year old daughter so I thought it would be a great idea to take my four year old nephew on an adventure and it would mean the children could play together (they know each other which makes it easier) leaving the adults to have adult time. Usually G. (4 year old daughter) is the only child at these events so it can be quite boring for her when we all just sit around talking.
I had arranged to collect nephew L. at 4pm but at 2pm I got a phone call from my sister-in-law to say that L. had decided that he couldn't wait any longer and needed to be collected then. Luckily my parents had called in so I sent them round as entertainment as I really wanted to get another 2 hours of work done! I knew that once I'd collected L., that would be the end of the work day.
He was almost bursting by the time I got there at 4.05pm, which was a bit unsporting of me. Part of his excitement was the ferry ride, part playing with G. but also staying up past his normal bedtime whilst his younger brother went to bed also loomed large on his horizon.
I'd decided to do a couple of work visits after collecting him as he's always very interested in that sort of thing - going to the bank and collecting work at the printers. Mind you, he wasn't so sure about the huge guillotine operating at the printers while we were there but was able to tell I. all about it later that night.
We'd arranged to meet everyone at Satchmos in Lyttelton before catching the ferry which was a good thing as half the party, including the birthday girl, were running a bit late. Eventually we walked down to the ferry with the birthday girl's party just making it on before we headed off. Its only $10 return, which I felt was very reasonable and it only takes 8 minutes to get across now with the new ferry. I can remember the old ferry that used to plough its way across but this one is a catamaran, has comfortable seating and is warm. We travelled across with a man and his dog - I wonder if the dog incurred the $1 bike charge or not?
The hill up to Godley House is just as steep but it took less time to walk than I remember. L. walked and talked all the way and I don't think he stopped once to draw breath. Very funny. Having walked up the hill we then found the room they put us in very hot so we had to turn the heaters off and open windows until we'd cooled down.
Had an excellent meal - not too expensive and plenty of it. Our pizza had huge chunks of chicken on it. After the meal I took L. and G. outside to run around and burn some energy off as they'd both been so good and well behaved. It was overcast but warm and they both ran and ran and ran. All I had to do was be in their general vicinity while they pinged around all over the place laughing and chasing each other. It was really nice to see.
Once L. started to say how tired he was, we decided that we'd better catch the next ferry back at 8.40pm. He was so excited waiting for the ferry to come in to the wharf and once we were seated, he was speechless with excitement (a very unusual occurrence!) and had a huge grin on his face. Driving back to his home he was pre-planning his stalling tactics for going to bed e.g. "I'll have a glass of milk and you'll have coffee, and I'll go to bed once you've drunk your coffee" etc.
All in all it was great fun. I was a bit exhausted from the continuous conversation from 4-9.30pm but its only because I'm not used to it. L. was really good and had a great time and birthday L. had fun as well. Any adventure that involves a fun ferry ride is always a good adventure.
L has a 4 year old daughter so I thought it would be a great idea to take my four year old nephew on an adventure and it would mean the children could play together (they know each other which makes it easier) leaving the adults to have adult time. Usually G. (4 year old daughter) is the only child at these events so it can be quite boring for her when we all just sit around talking.
I had arranged to collect nephew L. at 4pm but at 2pm I got a phone call from my sister-in-law to say that L. had decided that he couldn't wait any longer and needed to be collected then. Luckily my parents had called in so I sent them round as entertainment as I really wanted to get another 2 hours of work done! I knew that once I'd collected L., that would be the end of the work day.
He was almost bursting by the time I got there at 4.05pm, which was a bit unsporting of me. Part of his excitement was the ferry ride, part playing with G. but also staying up past his normal bedtime whilst his younger brother went to bed also loomed large on his horizon.
I'd decided to do a couple of work visits after collecting him as he's always very interested in that sort of thing - going to the bank and collecting work at the printers. Mind you, he wasn't so sure about the huge guillotine operating at the printers while we were there but was able to tell I. all about it later that night.
We'd arranged to meet everyone at Satchmos in Lyttelton before catching the ferry which was a good thing as half the party, including the birthday girl, were running a bit late. Eventually we walked down to the ferry with the birthday girl's party just making it on before we headed off. Its only $10 return, which I felt was very reasonable and it only takes 8 minutes to get across now with the new ferry. I can remember the old ferry that used to plough its way across but this one is a catamaran, has comfortable seating and is warm. We travelled across with a man and his dog - I wonder if the dog incurred the $1 bike charge or not?
The hill up to Godley House is just as steep but it took less time to walk than I remember. L. walked and talked all the way and I don't think he stopped once to draw breath. Very funny. Having walked up the hill we then found the room they put us in very hot so we had to turn the heaters off and open windows until we'd cooled down.
Had an excellent meal - not too expensive and plenty of it. Our pizza had huge chunks of chicken on it. After the meal I took L. and G. outside to run around and burn some energy off as they'd both been so good and well behaved. It was overcast but warm and they both ran and ran and ran. All I had to do was be in their general vicinity while they pinged around all over the place laughing and chasing each other. It was really nice to see.
Once L. started to say how tired he was, we decided that we'd better catch the next ferry back at 8.40pm. He was so excited waiting for the ferry to come in to the wharf and once we were seated, he was speechless with excitement (a very unusual occurrence!) and had a huge grin on his face. Driving back to his home he was pre-planning his stalling tactics for going to bed e.g. "I'll have a glass of milk and you'll have coffee, and I'll go to bed once you've drunk your coffee" etc.
All in all it was great fun. I was a bit exhausted from the continuous conversation from 4-9.30pm but its only because I'm not used to it. L. was really good and had a great time and birthday L. had fun as well. Any adventure that involves a fun ferry ride is always a good adventure.
posted by Whimsical Woman at 3:52 pm
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