I celebrated my first winter birthday yesterday in Queenstown, New Zealand with Alex. The picture on the left is from on top of the mountain, in brilliant sunshine after lunch. He completely spoilt me and made my birthday truly special and magical. Starting with breakfast in bed, then opening my cards and presents from him, my family and friends. Thanks Mum & Dad, Sandra, Great Aunty Helen and Yung for birthday wishes and lovely messages. I know more are on the way and I am looking forward to the extension this gives me in celebrating my birthday! ;-)
I set the cards up today on our bookshelf in the living room :) I really loved the poem by Emily Matthews "Your Birthday is a Special Time for Dreaming" on the card from Alex all about the importance of dreams and wishes! Today there is a new moon and my fabulous friend Geraldine sent me a message saying how you can make many wishes on this day - here is how you can do it! I'll be making my list later today :)I am also very grateful for all the email cards, messages on facebook and Twitter wishing me a wonderful birthday from all my awesome friends around the world. I managed to read some in the morning, more in the evening and all of them today! Anthony from Motivational Radio sang me happy birthday thanks to Tetka Rhu. I feel very blessed and honoured to receive them all. This blog is my way of saying thanks and sharing with you the joyous time I had celebrating it.
Alex arranged a day and night of skiing at Coronet Peak. This meant I was able to explore fully the snow park because I am not yet competent enough on my snowboard to manage the steeper more challenging slopes! We escaped at 1pm to Heidi's Hut at the base of the Rocky Gully T-Bar. The view you can see in this picture was taken from our table inside Heidi's Hut - reserved by Alex (one of the perks of his job)! "Intimate dining, pizza, pasta, coffee and a full bar service." We were right next to the window and fire place. The food was delicious and plentiful - we ordered bread (two loaves freshly baked - one wholemeal with seeds, the other plain) olives and dips as a starter. They'd sold out of the twice cooked pork belly main so we had pizza, which proved to be too much after the bread - dough! ;)
We washed it down with some local Central Otago Lake Hayes Pinot Noir 08 - described as "deeply coloured and packed with sweet ripe fruit aromas with a touch of spice ... a fine, silky texture." It was divine. The kiwis know how to make good wine!We continued playing on the slopes the rest of the afternoon, meeting up with Toby (our landlord) and his friend Max both snowboarders. I was impressed by their style and tricks jumping/turning mid air as they made their way down the slopes.
Alex is awesome on the board too (considering it's his first season - only a few weeks in) and a real speed devil, travelling at times faster than me on my skis!! And some of you will know how fast I like to travel ... or maybe I'm slowing down a bit now in my old age? ;-)
We stopped for some hot chocolate when it got dark, which allowed me to put away my sunglasses. When Alex came out with the drinks, he also had a a slice of chocolate cake with two candles on it!! So I made a wish as I blew them out and we then ate/drank it all.
The skiing at night was fun and the picture here shows you how pretty the place looks - we also experienced the sun setting making the sky that magical orange, purple, pink glow you see around the edges of the mountains! Coronet Peak stays open late on Friday and Saturday nights until 9pm. We didn't stay that long because Alex had another surprise in store for me at 7pm ...
A private indoors/outdoors hot pool high on the cliffs overlooking the Shotover River canyon thanks to Onsen Hot Pools. It was incredibly romantic because he had asked for the room to be set up like the picture to be lit up with candles! At the press of a button you can retract the picture windows (roof and front-wall) and suddenly you're outdoors. It was completely magical and breath taking to be able to look up and see all the night stars and the milky way! It was fabulous to experience an hour immersed in the views, the pure waters, and the fresh mountain air, allowing our mind and body to surrender to the deep penetrating warmth and gentle massage of the private pool. It was just what we needed to soak and relax our muscles after the days adventures.
We finished celebrating my birthday in Queenstown at the Patagnia Chocolate shop. We had ice cream cones with two scoops (dark chocolate, figs & pistachio for me; Alex had dark chocolate and banana split) and hot chocolate. We loved the ice cream and thought the hot chocolate was not as nice as the one's at Coronet Peak, maybe it was because the dark chocolate ice cream was sooooo rich = spoiling the taste? - or simply because they didn't come with marshmallows and M&Ms!
Today I have missed Alex's company because he's back at work :( However, thanks to his thoughtful birthday present - a wireless mouse as shown with my new laptop here - I've had an easier time navigating online!
Thank you Alex for my magical birthday, I can't wait to return the favour when it is yours and we are in Australia! And thank you everyone for your wishes, I feel totally supporting in pursuing my dreams :)
Big hugs and lots of love Emily xxx
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