Launch Weekend

Saturday, 3 December 2022

A few weeks ago we had the most amazing and fun St Helens launch weekend with lots of our friends.  It was absolutely perfect and I've found it hard to post anything in detail about it as the task seemed too big.  By the same token I don't want to forget an absolutely fantastic weekend culminating in a police visit the next day, so I'm going to give it a go.

Jett and I came to St Helens on Wednesday as soon as I finished work.  I immediately but us both to work with chores including painting the rusty old fence posts which looked particularly bad against the new fence pailings we'd had built since we were last here. We also finished off the entrance area with some matching paint on the pine edging:

Miriam and Jo arrived late on Thursday night, and on Friday it was time to put up the glamping tents (thanks kmart) in the garage.  I also put up the old 2000 Olympics banners which turned out to be the perfect size for curtains. 

Then our friday guests came, immediately livening up the place even more.  Inspired by a beautiful evening, we strolled down to the water with drinks and good vibes to check out the sunset - it was a beautiful evening.

On Saturday morning, most of the household went for a walk out at St Helens Point

Then some people headed off riding, while some of us went out to the shell dump to collect shells for my new gabion basket bench in the bike wash area. We only knew about this spot hidden in the bush just outside of St Helens because it happens to be on an orienteering map.  It has piles and piles of shells that must come from the local shellfish farms - perfect for my seat.

It looked amazing with the scallop shells  & we got it finished about 5 minutes before our first customer arrived home from a ride.  

Jon and Zali finally arrived in the afternoon (after Zali's work shift), which meant the party could officially begin.  We BBQed, drank cocktails, danced, used the fire pit and generally had a loud and fun time - it was a brilliant night.

The next morning there was more riding, but also more projects as we got help re-installing the old hills hoist:

Just as people were starting to pack themselves up to leave in the afternoon,  a police car pulled up outside.   Miriam went out to intercept him while we wondered whether he was there for a noise complaint from the party, or for our ill-planned evening trip to the back of the supermarket (in full view of the security cameras) to 'borrow' some milk crates for the fire pit area (which were still strewn around outside).  When Miriam came in to tell us that he wanted to speak to the home owners, I decided it must have been for the noise, so we nervously went outside ready with all our apologies and assurances that we won't do it again.   After introducing himself he explained that the reason he was there was because he is also building with Tasbuilt (our builders) and was keen to take a look around the house!   Apparently he'd been casing the joint for a while but no-one was ever home!  So that was funny - we showed him around then eventually levered him back out - he was quite a talker! The next day while I was tidying up, his wife also came around to check it out.

All in all it was a fantastic weekend filled with friends and projects and beautiful St Helens.