Michael's visit

Michael dragged himself away from his Island hideaway and made it to the mainland for a visit to our place, we showed him our local area...

went to the west coast, saw the gannets, walked the great beaches and saw lots of grey clouds!

the boys checking out the rocks...

Kelly Slater eat my shorts!

Surf dude Michael on his new board catching a wave at Muriwai...

Its all shiney and new!!!

Nick who is super surfer...

Christmas Day

Christmas morning in our garden with Nick...

Nick in his christmas jumper from his mum...

Mike opening hamper from his mum...

Morning swim at Milford Beach...

Mike waxing his new surf board from santa...

catch up with some mates round at Jon & Tanya's...

Trev being manly and fixing the deck...

the dogs hanging out for their xmas dinner...

Mike being a sightseer Wellington

Us in our hotel room in Wellington...

Mike and a statue of an old Wellingtonian and an old Wellingtonian dog...

Mike and some scultpture in the sky...

Mike and a crane and the Wellington waterfront...

Mike and all of Wellington from the top of the hill where the cable car takes you...

Mike and the 'beehive' NZ parlimentary building

Tarawera take two

seven of us went to Lake Tawawera for the weekend, we had stunning hot sunny days, a great place to stay and plenty of food and wine...

these are the beautiful Tarawera Falls and a crystal clear stream...



we had a swim in the lake as it was a scourcher of a weekend...

Tracey taking a paddle...

a weary Michael in the holiday home after a grueling mountain bike ride with Tanya, Jon and Trev...

relaxing in the Polynesian Spa on the edges of lake Rotorua, from left Trevor, Darren, Tracey, Tanya, Jon and Michael...

stunning Puriri Moth which we found in the holiday home, this one is not even fully grown...

early morning mist on the lake was a good sign for sundays half a day fishing expedition with Trevor and Tracey...

for some unknown reason I was the star fisherman of the day catching seven rainbow trout!

I was very excited as you cannot buy trout in NZ if you want to eat it you have to catch it! This one has gone in the freezer for us to throw on the BBQ Chrsitmas day as trout is a real treat...

Trev caught the biggest fish of the day...

Tracey and her prize catch...

lessons in gutting and cleaning...