Familiar Faces

Over the past week I've made my way back from the South Island, to Auckland, ready for my flight to Melbourne later today.
In Wellington I had a chance to catch up with a friend, Jillian, who is about to leave New Zealand after a year and a half here. Jillian kindly treated me to dinner. Note to anyone else meeting me on this trip, this is greatly appreciated.
We had a lovely evening eating great sushi, discussing visa's we'd like to apply for and generally putting the world to right!

My cousin Ian moved to Auckland a year ago, although as is often the case with families that live close to each other we hadn't seen each other in years. I had Ian's mobile number and gave him a call to arrange a meet up. We agreed to meet in a pub on Queen's Street (the main drag), later that night.
I entered the pub a little nervous, thinking would I recognise Ian. Thankfully we had no problem recognising each other.

Thankfully Ian no longer winks for photographs. I still like to eat.

Some years later, Ian and I at Mount Eden

We went to a great Japanese restaurant, The Cave, that was lively and fun. After that Ian took me to a couple of bars around the city centre. It was great to have the chance to get to know one another, but also have some common ground to start from.

We shared the beer.

Ian suggested a trip to Mission Bay for fish and chips and that's exactly what we did last night. I also got to meet friends of Ian's and we finished the night at a great ice cream parlour, where I ate far too much.
It made for a lovely end to my time in New Zealand. Being able to catch up with Jillian and Ian, made for a lovely change of pace. The only problem with travelling, although you meet lot's of people, conversations always tend to begin with "So where are you from?"