Kia Ora chapesses and chaps and welcome to the first real blog of 2007. I can't believe that I've taken so long to write this blog that summer has now been and gone! After a very slow start, summer eventually arrived in early January and continued on a warm, sunny and dry theme until just last week. Last week's weather madness was a cheeky wee storm that blew in with lots of rain, thunderstorms and high winds - luckily Wellington got off pretty lightly for a change and Auckland got it quite bad which was amusing especially as well get sent [View Full Entry]

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As some of you will know, I took part in a sponsored moustache grow for the Prostate Cancer Foundation. This occured in the month of November or should I say Movember which the month was renamed to for the purposes of the charity tache dash. I raised over $400 which was great and the office team, The Mo Szyslaks, raised about $1,200 in the end. As a reward for the generosity of so many people, I thought I'd share the embarrasing results with the world via the information superhighway - so there are the photos......never again. P.S. Happy new year!! [View Full Entry]

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OK, so it's now Christmas time but I have been kind of busy! No excuse really good enough for taking so long to do a blog of a holiday we took 4 months ago although I did have a big exam, etc, etc. Anyway, in case you haven't guessed we went to Fiji in August for a wee winter warmer break and this is the story of that holiday! If I can remember any of it.... NZ was having a poor winter weather-wise (and its not got much better to be honest!) so we really needed to get away to warmer [View Full Entry]

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I suppose a benefit from having such a cold and wet winter is loads of snow on the mountains and we took full advantage a few weeks ago when we headed up to Mount Ruapehu in the central North Island for a long skiing weekend. As before we stayed in Ohakune but this time we stayed in a place called The Hobbit Motor Lodge - New Zealand's first Mev Berwick themed accommodation. It also suited Jo-Ann's stature with its low hobbit doors - lucikly for me, the beds were more Gandalf sized. Like the last time we went skiing there (see [View Full Entry]

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Hi all from a very wet New Zealand. We've had a weird winter weather-wise - overall very wet but we've also had some beautiful weather in between all the crap and gloriously many of those days were on weekends! This blog is just a general update on what we've been doing and an excuse to add loads of photos showing Wellington on the nice winter days. One some days, we've been able to sit out on the balcony in shorts and t-shirts and on others we've been all fleeced up and I've even gone to work dressed in full golf waterproof [View Full Entry]

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Good old, Queen - whatever you think of her and her family, she does get us a day off every year. We took advantage of this year's Queen's Birthday public holiday to go away to Taranaki for the weekend. The 'naki is the peninsula sticking out of the west coast of the Central North Island and is about 6 hours drive from Wellington. We didn't fancy doing the whole drive in one evening so we stopped overnight at Wanganui which is about two thirds of the way there and headed onto our final destination New Plymouth the next morning. The next [View Full Entry]

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Hi all - another belated blog that's almost 2 months behind. This is getting a bit like my project at work but not quite as late or over budget, of course. Hope you're all well and enjoying some warmer temperatures - what I saw of the sport last weekend (Golf from Wales and footie from old trafford) showed that things were nice and sunny. Its also very sunny here at the moment if a touch parky, especially at night but it is now officially winter so can't expect too much. Now, where did I leave off? Jo-Ann's Mum's visit, of course.... [View Full Entry]

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I have been meaning to do some more blogs for so long but there always seemed something else that was more urgent - can't whink what, though. Anyway, its an ugly weather day today (there's been a few of them recently, you'll all be delighted to hear) so its a perfect chance to reel off a few lines and share some photos. Jo-Ann's Mum arrived a couple of weeks after my folks had headed off and it was great to see her - I know Jo-Ann misses her so much and she was so happy to see her. After a few [View Full Entry]

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Its shocking that its taken me so long to get round to getting this blog sorted out - no excuse really! My Mum & Dad left us about 5 weeks ago but then Jo-Ann's Mum arrived and, well we've just been busy! Doing what, I don't know. It was so great to have my Mum & Dad visit - we had a fantastic time showing them around and I know they had one of the best holidays they've ever had. I think its fair to say, they'll be coming back again. Overall, they did well with the weather - the only [View Full Entry]

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Wow, it’s been so long since I managed to do one of these - you must have thought we were dead or in prison. Luckily, neither of these is the case - we've just been very busy especially with first my Mum & Dad and now Jo-Ann's Mum visiting us. More of that later.... Apologies in advance for those of you who were hoping for dramatic photos of New Zealand scenery....sorry to disappoint you!! I'm now casting my mind back 5 weeks to the New Zealand leg of the IRB Rugby Sevens Circuit which is held every year in Wellington. For [View Full Entry]

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