New Zealand...

First up, here is a photo of the land! Doesn't it look great?! I don't like to sound like I'm bragging too much but we have been working and waiting years for this so part of me feels I'm allowed to brag a little bit :) Pretty much this is the view from where the deck of the house is going to be. This tiny photo does not do it justice.



On a clear day you can see the white sand on the beach. And in the middle of this image is a kind of yellowy bush area that is full of evil GORSE (boooo). Its a prickly weed that we need to get rid of. Luckily our brilliant neighbour, farmer Bruce, is going to arrange for his cow herd to get in there and eat around all the gorse so it is easier to destroy. We just have to put up an electric fence to keep them out of our tent... Which reminds me, this is where we are living at the moment! And that is the new car/van on the left. Bruce's house is the one behind on the far left of the photo.



The tent is great. We have a large double bedroom (hidden from view behind the car), a kitchen (complete with shelves and work surfaces), 2 old armchairs and a gas fire in the living area, and a front room which stores things like shoes and water etc. Its great! Mind you I'd say the novelty of living in a tent will wear off pretty soon, but hopefully shortly after that we will have our new barn up! Electricity and phone should follow that. I'm going to say out loud on my blog that we will have the barn up in 4 weeks complete with electricity and broadband internet. Hopefully that hasn't jinxed anything, it just means I can either come back and read this in 4 weeks and laugh at my naievity... or not even read it at all because I'm too busy lazing around our lovely new barn.

Here are some shots of the neighbouring farm animals who have discovered that we aren't farmers, and as a result have rubbish fences that they can crawl under. It seems we have the best grass in the valley because everyone wants in!



This was sooo cute. The tiny lamb had its eyes closed and was dreaming about suckling, and doing the actions in its sleep. I can't think of anything cuter!!! Thats our power pole by the way.



Tasty junior, Bruce's goat. He likes wholemeal bread.



One of the calves in the paddock next door.



They LOVE a good rub under the chin. Steven is making friends with this one so that when it is a massive bull, it will be big and scary but still want a tickle under the chin from him. That really is his plan. The only problem I can see is that when we are busy building the house there will be a bull getting in the way because it wants a chin rub.





A little bbq outside the tent one evening:



And here are just a few images from our trip down from Auckland with the new car (we didn't bother stopping in the end becuase it was raining). If it was up to me, we would have stopped every half a mile to take photos. Good job we didn't though because it took 2 full days to drive back down!








Coming next: a New Zealand Wedding Special Offer! Also some very cute photographs of the Barrett family (see below) and more photographs of our travels.