Christmas eve and Christmas day

On Christmas morning we went to Milford on the east coast for a swim and then...
Christmas lunch with Heidi the christmas angel! and our friends (Karl & Eliza, Heidi's parents) and of course with....Mike's long time buddy Nick. We had a lovely day. The weather has been spectacular over Xmas so far and we 2 more weeks holiday to enjoy!















































Christmas Eve we went to Muriwai on the west coast for an evening swim, the water was amazing...

and to have a picnic and watch the sun set



The Pohutakawa flowering on Boxing day at Wenderholm beach. Natures very own Xmas decoration!

When work has benefits

Last night I stayed in Taupo, my hotel room opened out onto these views and I had some little feathery visitors...
Mt Ruapehu and Mt Tongariro at the foot of the lake...still snow covered

Natural geothermal hot streams trickle into the lake...

ahhhhh cute!

Claudia & Halloween visitors

Claudia has been staying with us this week...we have taken her to some of our local favourite places

On Karekare beach

We had some trick or treaters arrive on Halloween....spoooookkkkkyyyy!!!!

Labour Day weekend

My darling husband scrubs up nicely when he has a shave and puts a clean shirt on!

It's Labour weekend here in NZ so were making the most of a few days off work...

On Sunday we built the garden furniture so we could christen the deck with its first bbq...
Michelle, Aaron, Helena & Sean came over we also celebrated my birthday, Michelle made her famous Chocolate Mousse...mmmmmyummy!

on Saturday we went to Te Arai, to fish off the rocks and soak up the spring sun, we caught a few of these Sea Perch's

Introducing Maximilien Brooks Johnson - My Nephew

As his Dad puts it 'he's just amazing'...

we think Max is perfect too and can't wait to meet him next year in France!

guest room is ready...

The Guest room is now ready for any overseas friends or family that may wish to come and visit us...

Deck building commences

the patch before the deck building commenced...

deck timber arriving...

Todd and Nick get measuring...
digging holes, muddy mess, ready mix concrete...boys love it

the sub floor is in...

our house in the middle of our street

1 Aug we moved into our new home, Michelle and Aaron helped us shift our belongings...

we enjoyed a well deserved glass of bubbles at the end of an exhausting day!

Jo goes to Sydney

Illuminated art installation on the Opera House...

Kirribilli Luna Park

I had a weekend in Sydney staying with Dicky & Louise who are very fond of the talking dog!...

fog on the Tyne's all mine all mine

some familiar sights...

Wombat on the road to the Hunter Valley for a day of wine tasting

where there's

wine...there's Hope

dicky in the Hope cask room

we saw real live in the wild (or in the Hunter Valley) Kangeroos...

me and my friend Cyndy took a tiki tour of the coast...a very grey Bondi

some real live 'Bra' boys in the surf at Maroubra beach...