The Gang In Christchurch

June 20th 2009

Day 1 - Saturday June 20th

The day finally dawns for us three gang members, Lotrfan, Ocfreckles and me Mamamia, to board the plane in Auckland and head off to Christchurch to meet the Cheeryatrics and join up with Biddyliz and Beachbelle from Wellington and Rosie from Greymouth, to have a GrownUps get together like no other get together before!!!

We also took a china sparrow of Sparrow7’s, which she gave to me, complete with its own feather fascinator to represent her on the trip, but there will be a separate story on her travels. Don’t know who had more fun us or the Sparrow!

The day started off with lovely sunshine in Auckland, and lots of laughter waiting to board the plane as well as on the plane on the flight down, had lots of smiling faces around us, Ocfreckles had arranged for a crane to take her off the plane in Chch if there were steps, but that didn’t happen she was able to walk off like the rest of us :P

We landed in Chch to wet weather, and Floosie found us and we set off to her house and had a lunch of homemade soup that Floosie had made for us :-)

The first event was going to be dinner at the Casino with the four of us and Rosie from Greymouth and Biddyliz from Wellington. Just getting ready for dinner was an event in itself with all the finery being decided on and which fascinator as well as all the jewellery (Bling) but eventually we were all ready and set off, we hadn’t gone far when I get a text from Rosie asking where we are, told her we were on way and she replied she was already there.














Floosie dropped me and OC off at the front door and we go in and meet Rosie, she recognised us straight away lol, something to do with the fascinators! Lotrfan and Floosie come in from parking the car after being told there were more of your lot round there by the security guys, hmmm think that had something to do with the fascinators too. So we are chatting away and getting to know each other while we are waiting for Biddyliz to turn up. Well her daughter and son in law handed her over to us in the foyer, and then very kindly took photos of all of us before going, promising to come back later for Biddyliz. Rosie was the only one who went out the door with more money than she came in with!

Day 2 - Sunday June 21st

The Mid Winter Xmas lunch, at last we were going to meet up with some of the Christchurch Cheeriatrics, we had decided to dress up with some festive Xmas decorations for the occasion. The Cheeriatrics had also planned to be festive too and were all adorned with tiaras on their heads and looked very regal. :-) The lunch was perfect with a lot of chatter and laughter, everybody mixed and mingled and the cameras were all going off to record this wonderful meeting of the North and South Island GrownUps members.

After lunch there was also a planned ride on a Harley motorbike for me (Mamamia), Biddyliz’s lovely son-in-law Chuck kindly said he would take me for a spin before he took Biddy home on the back of the bike. What a thrilling ride it was too around the back streets of Hornby. That was one of the highlights of my trip, the other being finally meeting Grannystitcher after nearly five years of talking online.

Day 3 - Monday June 22nd

Beachbelle from Otaki was meeting us at the tram stop at the Cathedral Square, the plan was that we would ride around on the trams till lunch time and then go on the Gondola and have lunch, but the tram ticket lady told us she couldn’t sell us Gondola tickets as it wasn’t a good day to see the views at the top, so we went on the tram and caused a bit of a stir as we were wearing our fascinators and the other passengers asked about them ……… Another reason was Beachbelle, she was causing a stir with the tram drivers. We were on and off the trams most of the day and attracted a lot of smiles and had people talking to us most of the day, and the tram drivers were getting to know us and when they stopped would get out the portable steps for us to get onto the trams.
















We also had a photo session down by the Square Police Station, Biddyliz went in to see if any of the officers would like to come out and have their photo taken with us, but they said no as they were having their lunch!!! She told them we were all armed ( with cameras) but they still said no it was their lunch break……… but one brave man who was a volunteer came out and he took photos for us with all our cameras.


















As we were leaving we noticed a police car at the side and thought we would hi-jack that and maybe the officers would come out but no it didn’t work. However some people passing kindly took photos of us and again we ended up chatting to people and promoting GrownUps :-)

As we were thinking it was time to eat, we looked across the square and there were these two young Gladiators walking around so of course we made a beeline for them and had photos taken with them, the rest of the day was spent riding on the trams with Beachbelle trying to seduce one of the drivers and having a great time laughing and talking to passersby.

Day 4 - Tuesday 23rd

This was a bit of a rest day for everyone, and Beachbelle headed off to Dunedin, I stayed with Grannystitcher Monday and Tuesday night, and had a lovely time being shown around some craft places and then taken out to dinner that night. Lotrfan, Ocfreckle and Floosie did some retail therapy around town.

Day 5 – Wednesday 24th

Wednesday is the usual Cheeriatrics coffee morning at Meschinos Café, so we all went along to join in too, on the way there I get a text from Biddyliz asking where me and Grannystitcher were, so I replied and said we were on our way, she text back and said she was sitting there wither feathers on and the place was full! We walk in the door and I can see Biddyliz sitting by herself at one side and some of the Cheeriatrics were sitting on the other side and hadn’t seen each other, and the place was really full. We had some more laughs and even had other ladies in the café asking where we were all from so of course we told them we were GrownUps and gave them the website so they could join too.

Day 6 – Thursday 25th

The last day of our visit, we had planned to meet Biddyliz at the Gondola carpark at 11am, but when we woke up Floosie was not well - text Biddyliz and was going to see if she could pick us up on her way, but didn’t get an answer. Floosie suggested that I drive us to the Gondola in her car and gave me directions to get there, so that is what we did. Only it was just me and Lotrfan that went and we got there no problems and Biddyliz was already there waiting. So we went up to the top and had some lunch and a look at the views from all around taking lots of photos. When we got back to Floosies she was still unwell so we told her to stay put and we would get a taxi to the airport to come home.

To sum up, it was an absolute pleasure to meet up with Biddyliz and Beachbelle from Wellington, Rosie from Greymouth and all the wonderful ladies from Christchurch, we were all made to feel so welcome, even the weather wasn’t all that bad either! :P

Read Biddyliz's Letter Here.

Published 16th Jul 2009

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