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Published: July 24th 2006
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The luckiest sheep in NZ
Taking a break from some hard core grass eating - plus two of them are pregnant but no babies whilst we were there :( Back at work now, plenty of IT opportunities - yet more downtime - so time to catch up with some more bloggin.
It is not every weekend that we manage to do something exciting enough to warrent its own blog but last weekend we decided it was time to get back on the road and see a bit more of the north island.
In fact when we arrived back in Wellington one day when we decided to avoid the post holiday blues and head off with Alasdair and Paula to visit Paula's mum Mari and her husband Roger at their home North of Wellington in a region called the Wairarapa.
Driving about an hour and a half north of Wellington in the dark, up a hill, round some hairpin bends, through the torrential rain that has been around in this area for a few weeks we were delighted when we got back into civilisation - because of course this means streetlamps, thus visibility - in fact we were DELIGHTED when we drove through a town called Carterton (I was feeling the family connections, honest), and couldn't help thinking that this was a good sign for the weekend. Just
Bigger than Jesus
Meet John, Paul, George and Ringo a short way past this outside the town of Masterton (I think they ran out ideas when they got around to naming the towns) we arrived at the house where we were greeted by a very excitable dog called Bonnie, and Roger, Mari and Paula (who had come up from Wellington a couple of days before) and escaped from the rain.
We had actually met Paula’s family once before when we were in France last July - for those of you who don't know Alasdair’s parents and Tom's parents are old friends who happen to have all moved to France and live close to each other. When we were visiting Tom's parents last year the kiwi contingent were over visiting Al's folks, see it makes perfect sense - and it was great to see them again. In fact during the weekend Roger told us a great story about when he was in France and he went to chat to one of the neighbours who came to greet him whilst he was walking past one of his crumbly falling down barns. After a brief chinwag and a shake of the hands Roger set off only to discover on his arrival
the boys
Tom, Roger and Alisdair back at the house that (oh by the way Roger by the way speaks no French and the neighbour no English) that he had agreed to purchase said barn, fantastic!
Since moving to their new home Roger and Mari have continued the B & B business started by the previous owners and they very kindly let us stay in their self-contained guest accommodation which is one of the many buildings on their property. It was very kind of them and we would totally recommend it as a place for people to stay in the area, it is in a lovely spot and really nice inside, and great hosts - it is called Amberlea cottage, near Masterton and their details are on the net I am sure.
As soon as we arrived we were whisked away for an amazing roast dinner with lots of wine and chat followed by some after dinner trivial pursuit, boys v girls. I have to say that it was very close but if forced to I would admit that the boys won, just. Of course it was the Australian which made it a little tricky for the English/Kiwi contestants.
The next day was
beautiful, after raining all night the sun finally came out and we wandered around the local town (Masterton) and the gardens admiring the sheep. Paula's friend Stacie also came down for the night so one more for the girls team. The house has some lovely plants and gardens which I think are perfectly complimented by the presence of sheep in the flower beds. There are also some cool chickens are on a constant mission to get into the house, a couple of cats and a kitten who are all looked after by the Roger and Mari, as you can see from the pics the animals (and the guests of course) in Roger and Mari's house are some of the luckiest around!
It is good to be back in Wellington and catch up with everyone. We are both spending a lot of time day dreaming about being on a beach somewhere warm and sunny - and trying to plan some sailing in SE Asia, it is amazing how many people on these round the world trips are looking for crew, sounds great (apart from the pirates? - but it is also strange to start thinking about leaving Nz now that
we have been here so long. We have already waved off a few of the people that we got to know best whilst in Auckland who have carried on travelling (Merridith who left for the south island yesterday) and American Liz who flew back to the states last week so it is definitely our turn to move on. We are planning to spend another two weeks in Welly before travelling back down south to go swimming with dolphins (yep in the middle of winter) down at Kaikoura and check out Christchurch before heading to Oz.
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