Pat's hill climbing abilities

All righty - I think Marea promised you all that I would start contributing to this blog in about November last year!!!!! Well I'm sorry everyone - but better late than never aye??

Easter weekend saw our first overnight trip out into the countryside in the van - the destination - somewhere in the peak districts!!! (not even we really knew when we left home:-)

Anyway - first stop was Marea's workmate Neil's place, who so kindly loaned his jigsaw for all our woodworking needs. Thank you very much Neil. Then we ventured towards the peaks (well rolling hills by NZ standards) and towards Castleton.

After catching up with friends and enjoying a pub meal, it was time to give Pat his first real test and take on a rather steep (but very picturesque) hill. Our friends had driven on in-front of us, so at least there were only strangers to laugh at us. We gave the van a good run up and started the climb!! It wasn't long before we had to drop down to second and the number of cars built up behind us. Poor old Pat, he really wasn't that keen on taking things quickly - so trusty old first gear had to come into play. Finally, we made it to the top much to the delight of everyone crawling up behind us, INCLUDING our friends who'd happened to have taken a wrong turn!!! Never mind.

Thank you for your very smart text Kerryn!!