TIIIIIIIMMMMBBBBBEEEERRRRR !!!

We've found a guy that can, and no it's not John (I wouldn't let him do it!), to start taking down our overgrown and unruley pine trees at the top of our land. His name is Troy and he chopped 3 of them down this morning, the dogs and I hid in-doors!


It's now John's choice to do the clearing up himself, he has to get in with his chainsaw at some point.

Only another 17 to go!!!!

Not All Roses

We have had a couple of comments in the past that life in New Zealand is just too damn good, well I thought I would include this addition to my blog to let you lot know out there that crap happens over here occassionally too.

This weekend we discovered water pouring through our ceiling in the downstairs guest suite and on further investigation, ie. calling insurance company then plumber then carpet driers, we had a burst pipe in the cavity wall upstairs. As you can see from the photos our beautiful house now needs a bit of repair, once it has dried out.

Circus Tricks

This weekend, John was practicing his Circus routine on the roof......not really, just doing a bit of bird proofing of the guttering, reminded him of the good old days of Aquila in the UK.

Doggie Sitting

We're doggie sitting for my niece Sonya. She has been given a teeny weeny dog for her birthday (Chihuahua x miniature German Pinser) that she's named Pebbles. It's just soooooooooo small. Millie is scared to death of it and Titan is being very patient while it chews on his ears. Not sure if Mother will want to give it back at the end of the weekend.

Developing the Garden

To tidy up the land around Mum's bach, John has been hard at work again, building a planter bed to run the length of the new fencing for Mum to plant full of flowers and veggies. It's really starting to come together in the garden.

New Book Shelf

John has been his amazingly creative self again and built us a book case for the landing.

I managed to get the painting of the banisters and the new book case finished today and now we can start enjoying the area as our reading corner. With our big comfy chair its a wonderful place to just tuck up and relax.

Ronan Keating in Napier

For my Christmas present, John bought me tickets to go and see Ronan Keating at the Church Road Winery in Napier, so this weekend we headed down there via Taupo.

Once we arrived, we checked into our wonderful B&B accommodation on the hill in Napier and then went down to the winery.

We had seated tickets with an amazing view of the stage and Ronan was excellent, with a beautiful warm summer evening and surrounded by grapevines, it was a perfect!

On Sunday, after a full cooked breakfast we headed out for a drive around the local area. I can officially say that I have fallen in love with Napier, full of beautifully kept villa style houses and art deco buildings and all the surrounding area is full of breathtaking scenery and vineyards, it's just heaven. We drove up to Te Mata point, which felt like you were on the top of the world and then found a lovely winery (Trinity Hill) where we had a antipasto basket in their gardens listening to yet more live music, the weekend couldn't have been improved.


We came back on Monday feeling completely refreshed and relax, just like we'd been away for a week.