Yesterday was cold and rainy....and we had the EGGS Year 12 Ball till way after midnight....so we had thought we'd have a slow day BUT the day was TOO beautiful. So after church, we raced to the beach for a cheeky windsurf. Not lots of wind, so ideal for me and Phil had a cheeky go too.

After the windsurf we jumped into the car for the highlight of recent times....A FLYING LESSON! Shorty & Nick and Nick & Debs had bought us this treat at Christmas time. And it was such a treat - something we would probably not have thought to do and we were completely spoilt by wonderful flying conditions. Thank you so much guys :)

So at the airfield we each had a plane and were pretty much told to jump in and put on the earphones. Quick briefing on how to taxi the plane along the runway and then we were doing it!! I looked ahead and Phil was already in the sky!!! Crazy....and then I was told to push in the throttle and pull back the joystick and before I knew it we were in the air too. We flew out from Ardmore Airfield, past Clevedon (where our friends the Pages were looking out for us) and out over the Hauraki Gulf and Kawakawa Bay. It all looked stunning.....

Phil was doing some cunning ducking and diving, so I tried to follow him a little bit, but I was probably a little more in tune with my lurching stomach to be quite as bold as he was. We did some flying alongside each other....bit like Top Gun....( I was disappointed when we reached the ground that we hadn't done more radio chat "there are bogies all over me" style)...all a bit too professional! So after some more nipping around we headed back to the runway, did a quick loop around it to check it was clear and then lined up for the touchdown. What an amazing feeling! What an amazing day!

Up in the air! That's Joey at the controls over the Hauraki Gulf

Maverick eat your heart out - Phil is in the cockpit at the controls

Phil and his tutor

Flying alongside each other

Phew, back on terra firma - and sharing experiences of the amazing time in the air .

Joey heading out into the main shipping lane

Oops, this is winter and it's cold!