As I said, I was under some considerable pressure to top this. Luckily her parents are shouting her a trip to Bali for her birthday, so I was off the travel hook! Surprise-wise though, it's hard to surprise someone when they are partially, or at least subconsciously, expecting it! It's also a mission to organise someone who has no idea they are being organised!
The Mount is a special place for Hayley, she walks up it quite a bit, how could you not be happy at the top of it? You might even just be stoked that the climb is over, but that's enough to make you feel like you've accomplished something.
When I told her friends and family that they needed to be at the top of the Mount at 3pm on Saturday, I neglected to tell the ones from out of town that it was 20 minutes of decent exercise. We have some mates who smoke. I feel I've done their lungs a service.
Hayley was blown away on Saturday afternoon, she got to the top and 25 people were standing there singing her happy birthday, holding up a birthday banner. She also swore, though not as much as I did last year!
Apparently there had been a few false starts on the singing before we got up there. Sorry if you randomly got half of Happy Birthday sung to you at about 3.20pm last Saturday up the
Mount!
So it was a success, we had a big party that night with everyone at our good friend's house. We played beer-pong (Google it), I ended up having a little much and agreeing to swap clothes with Hayley at 1am. I also broke the necklace I gave her for her birthday while I was doing that. There go all those brownie points I earned!
(Will Johnston is host of The Hits 95FM Day Show. Live and local from 9 am till 3 pm, every weekday in the Bay of Plenty)
