Ok so we have loads of photos so here are a selection of some that haven't been included so far...... read more

After a food and drink fuelled Christmas Day arrived the Rugby match to burn off all the recent good living. Forget six nations, forget World Cup yes today was the all important Northern hemisphere V Southern Hemisphere New Zealand v Wales Rugby game of the year! Such was the importance of the day, Den and Daryl came out of retirement for the occasion, and Cath made her debut for Team Jones. There had been some strong discussion about who should captain the team, some cast doubt on the capability of Carey Jones, suggesting his strategies may not work, but those with faith invested it accordingly, and Carey stepped up to skipper the side full of injury. What would go first? Gareth's foot? Daryls shoulder? Rhydians shoulder? Rhys quiff? Daryls other shoulder? Daryls hip? Daryls Knee? Dens ... read more

We definitely picked the good days for the beach as when we woke up this morning it was dull and rainy. We left to drive to Rotorua, and could tell when we were near due to the smell. Reuben wasn't impressed and wound the window down to get rid of the smell-unbeknowing that is where it was coming from, so resorted to sticking his fingers up his nose after that! Rotorua has the nickname 'Sulphur City' due to the hydrogen sulphide emissions which give it a smell of rotten eggs-nice! It was one of those days where the was plenty to do but everyone couldn't seem to decide on what exactly. We found somewhere to park and had a 30 minute discussion about it, then Daryl suggested a cafe where we had food and spent a ... read more

Carey, Cath and Daryl were up bright and breezy to walk up the Mount-I decided to have a little bit longer in bed, and meet them for breakfast afterwards. We went to a little Cafe on the beachfront called the Slow fish-recommendation of Caths and what a lovely breakfast it was. Carey was trying to persuade Daryl to jack work in and move out here, and i was assured he'd be sorted out with a visa by the time we returned from our afternoon trip! Afterwards Cath and I picked the other girls up from the main house as we were going to the vineyard for lunch. It was Mills Reef winery in a little place not far from the port of Tueoranga, called Bethlehem which was nice and festive-especially for Jan who is finding the ... read more

We'd told jan and den nothing more than that we were leaving at 10am and all they needed were comfortable walking shoes. Today we were going to Hobbiton! This is the set of The Shire and home of Bag End where Lord of the rings and The Hobbit were filmed. Jan had planned on cooking a Cottage Pie today, and not to let a day out get in the way, she was up frying the mince before 8am. The drive was a couple of hours although when we got to Matamata, Middle Earth wasn't very well signposted at all. We'd asked for directions and been told two different ways, Gareth was threaders and ready to turn back and go home, everyone jumped on the food box for the BBQ leftovers when we next stopped to ask ... read more