England Trip: We made it to the Isle of Wight (in time for the annual pilgrimage)

After a week in the country, yet another awesome train ride, and a pleasant ferry crossing, we finally reached the Isle of Wight to meet up with family yesterday :) We are staying with James' grandparents for the next few nights before heading up to Alton with his parents.

We spent the afternoon catching up with James' parents, maternal grandparents and aunt/uncle/cousin and their dogs which was really nice. James' aunt's friend then invited us all, and another family around to a "traditional" dinner party where everyone brought a plate of what they were told to and we switched seats for every course to sit next to different people that we didn't know. It was a really fantastic evening with so many good conversations. We feel like we know half the island now!!!

James' Mum and Aunt seem really keen to go and take us to see things here and to show us around, which is really nice to spend heaps of time with them and also to not have to worry about transport to and from everywhere around the island.

This morning we went off to Shanklin Chine after a sleep in (sort of...mostly James slept in...) which is a small gorge walk. It was pretty tame, and perhaps not worth the four pound each entry, but it was a pleasant walk, and I got to see some tiny wee chipmunks even if they were in a cage and not native! I decided one of them should be named Alvin.

We also met a very friendly ginger cat :)

In the afternoon we headed out to the Needles with James' parents and Aunt Fiona. These are some very pointy rocks off the coast of Alum Bay. We walked up to the battery look out point which was about a 20-30 minute walk. It was incredibly windy (more than Wellington even!!) but very beautiful and so very worth it.

Lastly we headed out to a fort in the ocean which can only be reached one day a year on the lowest spring tide. Apparently the fishermen were the first to know about it being today and then word quickly spread round the island like wildfire. For something that you were supposedly needing to be "in the know" about a lot of people sure turned up with traffic jams round the island! It looked like we were all on a pilgrimage and was incredibly crowded out there! There were some very confused looking young children and dogs who did not understand why you would go on a walk out to the middle of the ocean only to turn around and come back again!