Blogs from Porangahau, Hawkes Bay, North Island, New Zealand, Oceania

Big news! Got woken up by Lucy the pregnant sheep bleeting and making very strange noises, she was due at any moment and after a few hours out pops a brand new Lamb. My mum was very proud and Lucy has bonded well although think the lamb has got her under her little hoof as she won't let here out of sight for a few moment to eat, think she will be a very skinny Sheep soon if she doesn't calm down. Very cute, name yet to be decided, we think it is female as no winkle seen. Ta ra for now. Gem.... read more

Greetings, informative blog coming, Tomorrow is the start of our serious travelling. Lots to do today, packing and organising and making sure we don't forget simple things like passports (Dave take note), lots of lists and lists of lists to tell us where we left the last lists (try saying that after a few shandys). We will be driving down to Wellington tomorrow and staying overnight and dropping the car off. On monday we fly to christchurch and pick up the campervan, we plan to stay a night there and then off we go, firstly crossing over to the west coast and just keep going. Hopefully around friday/sat of next week we should be doing a walk on the Franz josef Glacier. I have been trying to talk myself out of my fear of heights as ... read more

Rang the next door neighbours (Lance and Karen) today who own the surrounding farm consisting of 1400 acres. They had previously offered to take us for a day on the farm to see the sites and help out, so off we went at the crack of dawn! We came accross a sheep having difficulty lambing twins which unfortunately did not survive but thanks to a half an hour struggle by Lance (the farmer) and Gem, the mother is now doing fine (i was just taking pictures and urging encouragement from the sideline as a true guy should do!?) Fantastic experience, got completely covered in mud but learnt the invaluable art of mustering cattle through gates and answers to those questions only known by farmers like whats a hoggit? and how hard can a cow pat really ... read more

To those who have been keeping up with our "adventures", I have been slow in reporting on the ladies night at the local pub on friday night. Okay, let's just say even I was shocked and appaulled by the antics of NZ strippers, they would get sued in England for things they did. I can't even describe the women, my mother being top of the list. My reserved mum got dragged up on stage and had to spank a strippers arse!!! I will have to apologise to everyone that I was laughing so hard I did not get a decent photo to post on the site. I will just end by putting it as an "experience" I never wish to repeat, seen it, didn't do it and the t_shirt stank! By the way the troup were ... read more

Hi, What Dave forgot to include in the last entry was the picture of his flower power movement!! Thought this had to be shown, especially to people knowing Dave for his disco Dave era, now comes flower power Dave, the picture explains it all except why the hell he is covered in flowers! Enjoy!! Also include one of my stage performance to even up the embarrasement. Also HAPPY BIRTHDAY NEVILLE, 21 again eh!Hope you have a lovely day, hope to speak to you soon, Love Gem Ps I hope to write again but may be banned after this one!... read more