School holidays….

The train trip was amazing! We had a lovely day leaving from Dunedin station. The building is so spectacular! They spent months renovating it, at last all the scaffolding has come off to show it in all her glory.

It was really interesting going through areas of Dunedin and surrounds that you cannot drive by car. Much of the bush area is not accessible except to walk in, or of course, if you ask the train driver to drop you off. This property is completely off grid and this is exactly what happens, (note the bath down by the river). This is our sort of place, love it!!!

The bridges across the ravines look a little perilous but seem to work well 🙂

We ended in Hinton , not a lot there, it is a very tiny place 🙂

This is a tribute to the collie dog, who help the local farmers farm this area. The remote sheep stations here are thousands of acres, working dogs are essential.

We enjoyed it so much that we are looking into another one called the Trans Alpine, apparently one of the most scenic train trips in the world, (here in little old NZ!). The logistics are tricky but we are looking into it 🙂

Speaking of NZ. This came across my feed recently showing the island we live on. Very cool photo! See the cloud to the right, Dunedin is under that! 🙂

Luca has been on school holidays for the past 2 weeks. Lots of relaxing and hanging out. This is what happens though, when you stay out until the early hours, but Mum makes you get up anyway 🙂

He goes back to school tomorrow. 🙁

The holidays always goes way too fast! Fridays nights I generally come home to a gaggle of teenagers, with Rich cooking up a storm to feed them! As a belated birthday gift I got him an air fryer. He loves that thing, has used it every day since it has sat on our bench ! I was skeptical, but have to say it does so much more than I thought, and the food is super tasty!!!!! Sometimes we are privileged enough to have the kids join us at the dinner table, we hear all about their adventures, big future plans and there are some great robust conversations that go on. I LOVE these times, they warm my heart.

The boys have all gone out to buy their first suits over this holiday, it has been on their, to do list, for a while. They scoured the Op Shops and came home very proud with stylish bargain buys! I have yet to get a photo of them all together but here is Luca…

I love the hat and suspenders!

We have had a lot of rain this winter and things are very muddy, but then the sun will rise beautifully…

and the days will be incredible

We take them when we get them and make the most of it!

Luca and I grubbed the blackberry from the big paddock last weekend. It is not a nice job and back breaking, (I am still pulling thorns out of my hands), but we got it done and now I can let that pasture come back.

I am break feeding the sheep and pigs, this essentially means moving them about the property, grazing down the pasture before moving them on. It is working well. I am in love with this breed of sheep. They are so easy to handle, hassle free and come when I call.

Rich has been working hard on the wash house. He has almost finished the gibbing, not an easy job but it is looking good, photos to come…

At night this is how you will find him after a hard days work, chilling with the girls. Love this photo 🙂

This weekend was my brothers birthday and we celebrated at his. It was a lovely evening and great way to end the school holidays.

This next photo made me pull out the one taken back in 2019 when we first moved here. Nige had come down to visit, (this was before he moved here). Luca has gown so much in 5 years I can hardly believe it!!!!!