More Painting

It's always dangerous when I have a pot of paint and brush in my hand. Today, as well as clearing the garden I decided to paint the bird house. Looks like new now!

Happy New Year!

Wishing everyone we know and love a very happy New Year and may 2010 bring you all that you desire in life.

xx

Morning Tea

To celebrate the New Year, our dog walking group, minus a couple of people, met up for morning tea and yummy food.

Wishing everyone all that they desire in 2010.

Outdoor Painting

The job for today was to clear the entrance at the bottom of the drive and paint the very sad looking fence a bright, light, white. Another thing ticked off the list.


And John came home from work to find a large bough broken from the main tree in our garden so he needed to get the chainsaw and chipper out to do some clearing up.

Garden Development

As John had 4 days off over Christmas, we decided to spend one of the days in the garden. John rebuilt the steps going up to our Veggie patch and I cleared and chipped half the bank at the top leading to the steps. Good work done & another area of the garden that now looks neat and tidy.

Yehaw!

Boxing day and in true New Zealand style we headed on down to the Rodeo packed with a full picnic basket full of yesterdays leftovers, yum. Friend Jo joined us to help make a dent in the food!








It was another glorious day and great fun watching the cowboys do their stuff. The highlight was a big bugger of a bull jumping the fence and running thru all us spectators before it was wrestled to the ground by about 20 cowboys in their stetsons. Ride 'em cowboys!

Merry Christmas

Wishing everyone a very Merry Christmas. It was a lovely sunny day spent with Mum, Pete & Adele and Jim. We had the not-so-traditional BBQ'd lamb and meringue Snowmen filled with chocolate mousse for dessert, plus loads more between. Just starting to adjust to Christmas in the heat!

Sending you all loads of love over this festive season. x

Christmas Eve

We started early for Christmas with a festive drink with friend Lindsay this Christmas Eve. The sun was shining and it was lovely to be able to sit out on the patio. We were all grateful not to be in the cold and wet of the UK! x

A lick of paint

To match mum's very tired looking garage with her bach she decided to paint the door blue. It's given it a whole new lease of life.

Progress with the Fence

After a morning of fishing on the boat, we caught 2!, my darling husband set to work putting up the fence next to mum's bach. Back breaking work digging and cementing the holes but 4 panels are up and it's looking good.

Dogs - Ready for Action!

After a long wait, finally Titan and Millie have their life jackets to wear on the boat, and don't they look smart. Will have to give them a try out on the water to see how they swim in them.

Some Landscaping

This weekend the weather finally brightened up so it was time that the old scrappy hedge, next to mother's bach, was removed, with the help of friend Alec. He made easy work of it with his digger and truck. It's now ready for John to put up the fence, with the panels that he's been building over the last couple of weekends.

Christmas has arrived!

It has been such god damn awful weather this week, that instead of getting soaked going to town, what better way to spend the day than putting up the Christmas tree. It's now all sparkling and feeling festive in the house. Guess I ought to do the present shopping now!

Happy 50th Birthday John!

John was spoilt with breakfast out at the Marama Estate, a lovely resort just down the road from us and then we made the most of the good weather and took the boat and the dogs out to Lake Tarawera for a day out on the water, motoring around and trying a bit of fishing. No luck with the fish today but a lovely time and finished off with tea and cakes at the Landing Cafe next to the jetty on the lake and then fish & chip dinner, yum!

Dog Racing

Yesterday Mum and I took Millie dog racing. We thought that Titan would be too much of a thug wanting to play rather than race.

In all 28 dogs turned up and it was a random draw as to who you would be matched with, although Millie got a 'by' through to the second round, she was then matched with a fast retriever with much longer legs so didn't really stand much of a chance, although she did run her little heart out and showed so much talent that the organiser has asked her to come for agility lessons and gave her a prize for most mis-matched pair to race. She also won a prize for the fluffiest dog so it was a very successful day.

The competition is going to run once a month so hope to have more luck next time.

Sid the Goat

Just been up to visit friend Lindsay and she's babysitting her niece's pet goat, called Sid. How cute is he? Think mum was getting a bit over friendly though!

Dogs Day Out

While Titan was enjoying himself boating, Millie also had a fun time at the annual 'Dogs Day Out' in aid of the SPCA. She took mum along and met up with 100s of her friends for a walk around the Redwood Forest. I think she looks very smart sporting her new blue scarf.

First Trip Out!

It was a glorious, sunny and calm water day so perfect for testing the boat. Even Titan decided to join us, while Millie was walking with Mum at 'Dogs Day Out'.



We launched into Lake Rotorua (from Hamurana) and headed out around Mokia Island, then moored up at Hannah's Bay over the far side of the lake. Titan had a bit of a run around and we put the canopy up on the boat and John set up his fishing line. After about 20 minutes of trolling we caught a 2.5 lb trout, a tiddler but decided to keep it for dinner!






It was a wonderful first trip out and hopefully the start of many, only another 12 lakes to explore around the Rotorua area, then ocean here we come!

Early Birthday Present!

Has anybody got any suggestions as to how to wrap John's birthday present?

Off Hunting!

There's been an awful lot of preparation of kit for John's hunting weekend, he should be ready for anything! Should I get the freezer clear ready for the lovely big venison that he's going to bring home?

The Pink Walk!

Mum, Adele and I met up with hundreds of others this evening on the Green next to the Lake in Rotorua to take part in 'The Pink Walk' for Breast Cancer. It was a beautiful sunny evening and hopefully they managed to raise lots of money.

Mum's Arrived!

Has it really been five and half months since she was last here? It's wonderful to have her back and with the addition of a lovely little bach for her at the top of the garden, I'm hoping she'll feel right at home. Welcome home! xxx

Skiing!!

Now this is why we moved to New Zealand......
A couple of hours drive from home and we spend the day on the ski fields, unbroken sunshine and lots of lovely snow. With my new skis I managed to ski on my first black run today so very pleased with myself.

Beaching Again

It was a lovely sunny day again on Sunday so we all (Kate, John, dogs and Pete & Adele) all headed off to Nudics beach for a relax, play some frisbee and walk the dogs. We were also joined by a very cute seal who decided to head back to the water when I got too close, oops! x Managed to get a photo though!

Beach Bumming

The sun was shining so friend Lindsay and I headed down to a local beach to exercise the dogs. It was just heaven and the water almost felt warm enough for a swim. Roll on Summer days!

A true Kiwi!

To break Pete in gently to the New Zealand way of life, John gave him some chainsaw and log splitting lessons over the weekend. You can tell by the photo that he mastered the art of wielding an axe pretty quickly.

Arrived at last!

Pete and Adele arrived safe and sound yesterday to sunny weather and the prospect of a new life in New Zealand, very exciting, we know exactly how they're feeling! It's wonderful to have them here at last, another couple to escape the ever declining UK!

Queenstown

We've just had a fabulous week in Queenstown with Chris, Lue and the girls. The weather was perfect, sun every day, and we had a great balance of days between skiing and sight seeing. It was an outstanding holiday.