Collage of Mum's trip

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Tourists

I was hoping to get some posts up here more regularly while Mum is here and as I was off work but it wasn't to be - too busy shopping and being tourists.

We spent a lovely few days in Rotorua where we went to the sheep show,took a farm tour, zorbed(!), went to the thermal spa pools, rode the gondola and luged!
It was heaps of fun! Mum also got the opportunity to see some amazing NZ scenery on the drive there.

Oh and how can I forget - we saw some geezers, or should that be geysers(!) too.

I was hoping to give you more pictures but blogger seems awfy slow this evening and I keep getting error messages.
Will get some more photos on soon. In the meantime, Mum's time here is flying by and she flies back to Aussie Thursday so am going to spend some time with her rather than on t'internet!

Oh and Tawny Owl - if you're reading this - hope you having/had a fab time in Vegas!

Constant Rain

Well Mum arrived for her big trip to NZ on Friday around midnight. She saw a little bit of sun on Saturday morning and since then it has been raining - constantly! There is a crazy amount of rain happening here!
Our garden is no longer a garden - it's a series of lakes, the dog hates wet grass and refuses to step out on it and anytime we go anywhere we get soaked!
Lovely! Welcome to Beutiful New Zealand Mum!

Here is a picture of once of our new lakes:


We have still got out and about though and it's been fun. We did some serious shopping yesterday which was great and managed to find all sorts of bargains - including a free pair of shoes when we bought 2 pairs!

We had a BBQ on Sunday for my birthday and of course it was raining! So Graeme BBQ'd in the garage and we set all the food up inside. It was a great evening and Helen baked me a huge chocolate cake - it's yummy!

Not too sure what we will get up to today - I am hoping for a little strip of sun to come streaming from the clouds at some point to warm us up and dry out the lakes!

Slide....

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Sunburnt? In October?

Looking at the title of this blog, I will forgive you all for thinking that it's me that is suffering from lobster coloured, burning, stinging skin.
I imagine you will be surprised to know that it was actually Graeme that got sunburnt last Sunday! I was a little pink but relatively unscathed whereas Graeme had a very attractive red neck line come Sunday night.
He did spend a little longer outside then I did as he was cutting the grass on Saturday but it was Sunday after we went for a walk with some friends and Rhett that we noticed he 'had caught the sun' (what a euthanism!)

Here is some evidence of how we spent last Sunday afternoon:

We took a stroll beside the Manawatu River and then went into Victoria Esplanade and flaked out on the grass with some cool icey refreshments. As you can probably tell from the photo, the dog is rather partial to a raspberry flavoured ice lolly (or ice block as they are called here) and especially enjoys getting splinters on his tongue from chewing on the wooden stick once he has finished!

Here's hoping for more of the same weather over the next few weeks as Mum is due to arrive next Friday for her first stay in New Zealand, first look at our new(ish) home and first meeting with the mutt himself!
I am really looking forward to her visit - it will be great to see her again (after a year - the longest I have ever gone without seeing her!) and it means I get to play tourist again as we show her the sights of NZ. We have plans for a trip up to Rotorua and plan to go here, here (although I won't be wearing a lime green swimsuit thank you very much!) and here. Graeme is especially looking forward to the luge and I am wondering if we will be able to convince Mum to have a go at zorbing. What do you think?!
So hopefully I will have plenty of photos and news to show off over the next month so you might hear from me a little more often!

Post No 115 - Fire!

With summer just around the corner we went mad in the DIY/home stores at the weekend!

First of all we bought a lawn-mower - thank goodness cos the lawn really was in good need of a trim!

Then we bought a table and chairs set for the garden. One that folds up and can get put away in the garage so it doesn't get puppy chewed whilst we are out!

And finally, we bought a metal basket thing which you put stuff in to burn it! (I don't know what they are called!)

So on Sunday we got the basket full of garden trimmings and after a few attemps managed to get it alight! Then I ran inside to dig out the bag of marshamallows we had and we set light to some - hmmm, tasty!
Then we text some friends, another UK couple, to come round so we could show off our fire and break in the new alfresco dining set!
Once the fire had burnt itself out we all headed over to Ashhurst Domain for a Sunday evening walk with the pooch. A lovely end to a quiet and relaxing weekend!

This weekend is when daylight savings kicks in here in NZ. We will be 'springing forward' in the early hours of Sunday morning which means we will temporarily be 12 hours ahead of the UK until the clocks over there 'fall back'.

Post No 114 - Spring is sprung...or at least springing

I won't even start with all that "sorry I haven't done an update in so long" nonsense - I am sure you are all fed up hearing it!

Instead I want to show you some photos of stuff in the garden. I hear the UK is starting to get a little chillier now and Autumn is just around the corner. Meanwhile, we are coming in to spring and everything is green and growing!

Here are the gorgeous daffodils from our front garden - they look very unusual to me!



And from the back garden, our lemon tree, which is absolutely laden with fruit!
We have been making lemon flavoured muffins, lemon meringue pie and traditional lemonade and still they keep growing!



We also bought some strawberry plants yesterday and put them in a strawberry planter - photos to come when they start growing fruit. And we are growing cucumbers and lettuces - how very domestic/organic/the good life of us!

Post No 113 - Where are you?

Anne McAllister and Kate Hardy (both authors whose books I enjoy reading) both have cluster maps on their blogs which I think are quite cool. So now there is one on here too! It shows where people are that look at your blog.
Please note: I am not planning to stalk any of you and other than the little dot on the map I won't get anymore information about you so your secrets are safe!

I'm enjoying a clear sunny winter's Saturday. Graeme is over at the army base playing soccer, the dog is lazing on the back doorstep and the neighbours are cutting their grass! I am contemplating my latest assignment for the journalism course and have decided to limber up by writing a post here! Then I might dilly-dally a little longer and make some scones - how housewifely of me!

We are hoping to get down to Wellington tomorrow to go to Te Papa as the Lord of the Rings exhibition ends on the 20th of this month. There is also a John Constable exhibit on so going to see if I recognise any of the views! We might try and squeeze a quick zoo visit in too seeing how we have annual passes.

I'm getting into scrapbooking and have a couple of classes and get togethers coming up with friends that are starting out too. It's going to be so great to have all of our New Zealand travel photos nicely presented with a story on each page as well. I might try scanning one of the pages I do and show it on here - the scanners a bit too small though so will probably end up chopping some of it off!

One of the pictures on my Auckland scrapbook page

Have a fun weekend!