Rich’s brother (Chris) and wife (Dawn) have been visiting us from Canada. So wonderful to see them, it’s their first visit to NZ. There has been a variety of weather; sunny and blue, then torrential rain and wind, with weather warnings and devastation to further north. The summer has not been kind to the country …

There was much debate on their names on our way home with the boys. In honour of the recent watching of Pulp Fiction, we settled on Vincent and Jules. The 4-hour drive was SMELLY to say the least, and everyone was very pleased to get them out into the piglet pen. They will reside in …

This year Luca is not in school uniform. We are an op shop family as most of you know, (thrift store), rarely buying new if we can help it. These days secondhand shopping is really thriving; vintage or retro is sought after. Being a student town, these types of stores are plentiful and full of …

Midsummer brings with it happy, content, tubby animals and fruit, lots of fruit! Ahh Pica has really mastered the napping technique well. She has 3 beds like the above that she goes between during the day following the sun and desired outlook. After returning from our travels the weather was great for a while as …

Over this last week all the photos have come in from Luca’s travels. They are incredible, there are literally hundreds of them, I have tried to contain myself and not put them all on, here are some of my favourites… We asked Luca if he missed anything while on the boat, his response was he …

The bees are the busiest I have seen them. They won me some gardening vouchers recently, (a local competition), I will be rewarding them by buying more fruit trees, because who doesn’t need more fruit trees 🙂 Our buzzy friends continue to enable the vege garden to thrive, I am so appreciative, we are eating …

It would be fair to say Rich and I were holding our breath when we got to Nelson dock, hoping/wanting the trip to have gone well for Luca. Dropping him off he looked very unsure, and we worried we had put him into a situation that he would absolutely hate. We, along with a group …

Where to begin?!!!! The new year brought the sun, and it has continued since. Our little cabin in the hills, even more beautiful when the☀️ shines… The views as the sun rose and set were incredible!!!! We had taken Bananagrams, between that and our books, downtime was taken care of nicely. I have completed 2 …

We have arrived in our tiny rustic off grid cabin in the wilderness, in the worst weather our hosts have seen, it was QUITE the journey getting here, we arrived in Picton from Havelock at around 8am wondering if our boat ride would go ahead, the weather was not good at all. As we headed …

In 2002 Rich cycled NZ for 6 weeks. The West Coast was his favourite part of the trip, and he particularly remembers Punakaiki as being a highlight. He has been wanting to come back. It is also 20 years ago at this exact time, (between Christmas and New Years 2006), that Rich and I met …