I turned 40 last week.

I am not sure how that happened – turning 40 that is. I am WAY too young to be that old! I often look at Seth and think “how can I possibly be old enough to have a 10 year old kid?!” Of course it is not the end of the world. They say that “Life begins at 40” and that “40 is the new 30”,  “you are as young as you feel” and all that kind of stuff to make you feel better. Am I now officially middle aged?

Either way, I was turning 40 and Wildwood was launched in 1985, making her 30, so a damn good excuse for a party!

I was very spoilt on my actual birthday, with breakfast in bed, lots of phone calls, Facebook messages, cards, flowers, lunch with the family, champagne & dinner with Andrew, another dinner the following night with my girlfriends and their partners. It was fantastic!

But the weekend beckoned and so I gathered together a group of my best mates, family and kids and we headed up for some fun in the mountains. We stayed at an awesome place called Flock Hill Station. They have got a combination of cottages and backpacker rooms, all at a reasonable price, perfect for packing in 75 ish friends in to one place.

We headed up after school on the Friday night and had a huge pot luck dinner in the communal kitchen.

The following day was looking like the best option for some skiing, so a bunch of us headed up to Porters early to get a good position in the car park, while the non-skiiers slept in and then went hiking in the hills.

After carving up the mountain we stopped for one of our traditional legendary lunches. Out came the tables, chairs, ukulele’s and BBQ’s. We even had champagne on snow thanks to the lovely Ken. We took over the carpark for an hour or so while we cooked up a feast.

After lunch the clouds rolled in so we headed back down the mountain to Flock Hill to prepare for the party. Some more friends had arrived on the Saturday too. Flock Hill put on a huge dinner and I had booked the talented Jason Pemberton to provide the entertainment, and he kept the party dancing all night. My brother surprised me with a collection of old and new photos which were displayed on a big screen during dinner, and he took some lovely photos of people during the evening too. Then Mum did a fantastic speech along with a couple of speeches from my special friends too. We danced all night.

It was a slow start to Sunday morning. The weather had closed in on the mountains, so we opted for a walk instead. Some of us headed up to the Devil’s punchbowl in Arthurs Pass and others went exploring the Castle Hill Rocks.

So thanks to my lovely friends for making my transition in to the naughty 40’s so awesome and not as scary as I first thought. Let’s hope the next 40 years are just as awesome as my first 40!