Lazy days of late summer.

It has been a while again, I know.

Gordon has been far to busy sleeping to blog. His favourite sleeping regime now is to sleep on the bed all night and the sofa all day. Interspersed with a few nights out terrorising the locals. The D-I-E-T is going well and being allowed to eat more seems to suit :)

After the Taupo run we came back to Auckland to spend more time with Jenny and Martin. They had fun catching the slowest train in the world to Wellington and back, with a few days for exploring in the middle.

We explored the wild west coast, a few more vineyards and the scary Matakana Valley Road (Never take a short or long cut in the wilds of nowhere with a Pom reading a bad map!!). Still, there was a lovely vineyard at the end of it!

We celebrated Mother's Day and the end of Jen and Martin's stay at a lovely Croatian vineyard just outside Auckland. We have booked back in there for Easter dinner - a Croatian Wine Harvest Festival. Feasting, singing, drinking and grape squashing fun!!

Since Jen and Martin left we have been having a fairly low-key time. I've been looking for a job and Will has been working at his. We've been to the beach (eeking the last good beach days out of the summer).

We're preparing for our next visitor already - Emily. She's half way here with a course in California so it seemed sensible to pop over the Pacific for a couple of weeks. So we're planning for Will's birthday - a longer trip to the mountains than our drive-through after Taupo. The Ruapehu crater walk is on the agenda (eruptions and weather permitting!!).

The veggie garden has been producing lots of goodies. We've had chilli peppers (with no heat!), capsicums, lots of herbs and the salad is rampant (but saving us a fortune!!). Bigger garden plans are cooking for next year. We have a new addition - a dwarf lime (Gin and Tonic) tree in a lovely black granite pot.

It'll be time to find a new house soon - then I can unpack properly and we can be warm all winter.

I'll be back soon.
Kx