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...

The Winterless North

We started our stay with 5 nights at 'The Bay Cottage' on Te Wahapu' pennisula, you can see our house just nestled in the trees...and the view from the bedroom balcony. A very quiet retreat for a very peaceful time.

we enjoyed our boat trips out one for dophin watching and one for fishing...Joanne is now an addicted angler and is very proud of her first John Dory!



This cheeky Shag followed us about golloping up a small snapper we threw back...

Mike on "Major Tom II" early morning out to sea...and taking in the mangrove forests on a major 12km return walk we did from Paihia to Opua

We spent the next 5 nights at 'Sunset Cottage' where we found the very rare 'North Island Weka' we were very lucky to have four of the inquisitive flightless birds in the cottage garden, even enticing one onto the deck with pieces of bread...

Sunset Cottage lived upto its name as this was the view from the deck across Orongo Bay