The Old Bakery South Island

... it was pretty dam tasty! Wednesday afternoon brought a nice suprise with another lamb and a calf. Only the sly little calf managed to jump the fence and do a runner while i was feeding dunkan and ian was chasing the other lambs! So the calf chasing commenced. This must look pretty amusing to any onlookers, the sight of 3 adults and 2 children running around swinging their arms about. I felt that the lambs would agree with this as they stood blocking ...

... gave it to Ashleigh and so on. Ugh. Anyway, had a nice weekend, babysat most of saturday so me and the kids went out on the quad in the morning, Ashleigh strapped to my back, Ian on the front then played lots with the lambs and chicks and spent some quality time in the sand pit. In the afternoon i decided to go for a nice drive and had a good cuppa at a nice cafe then back to sit by the fire with my book. The evening ws babysitting again ...

... it was drizzling. Got to Masterton around 5:30 PM and decided to push on further up the coast, so headed for Woodville. About 15 KM before Woodsville we saw a sign for camping near Pahiatua, so pulled into the Carnival Park camping ground; virtually deserted but a very nice site, very spacious with lots of area for the kids to play.

Distance Travelled today – 131 km. Total Distance travelled 2435 Km.

... didn't seem to keen after a while in the pool but Ian certainly enjoyed it and loved a little play on the park afterwards. Friday was the begining of a lovely weekend in the sun. Out on the quads to watch Andrew and Hayden vacinate the cows then back out after lunch to move some more cattle with the dogs.
Morag, Angus and Fred came to stay for the weekend so we all went out on the farm in the ...

... being hearded away into a big truck! Then Friday we moved the cattle along to a different field, dont think they were too pleased either to have their quality grazing time disturbed!
Am getting back into baking, did a lovely banana cake which has already gone in less than 24 hours, mostly due to Andrews massive sugar cravings! Also had a trip into the town today for the kid's visit to the dental nurse and grocery shopping. Back to a wee bit of civilisation! Had a ...

... firework display from the comfort of the car. The kids were throwing fireworks at each other while the parents stood and watched, slightly dangerous but the adults didn't batter an eyelid. Tomorrow I reach Wellington where I meet a couple of friends I haven't seen for a number of years. Will be good to catch up after so long. Staying in Wellington for a few nights before flying to the south island to begin the tramp.

... coated seal collapses, blood turning the clear blue ice red" (McConnico). Hunting is a central element to the Inuit culture of Greenland, but this way of life is facing the tough challenge that is climate change. The number of hunters in the area has dropped in recent years from nearly 500 to about 200. Yet this change presents opportunities. Twenty years ago, when visitors were rare, the fjords and ...

... whole life! KT: It was really good to cathc up with Katie and Rhys from my school Worksop College (just by luck kt's mum and dad were over from the UK too). It was a real treat relaxing over dinner with drinks, lovely food (had pavlova for desert - traditional NZ desert - gorgeous), and catching up on all their news. Katie's children entertained us most of the night and it was ...

... went off to work and we made our way slowly there via a few shops and lunch at Cafe Cuba. After the game finished, we went back to Cafe Cuba for a hot drink and cake, and also to sit on the sofas with the tiger! Look at the photos and you'll understand! The rest of Saturday was a lazy affair. The lads had talked about playing golf, but Graham was too hungover to contemplate this! We had an early night and then woke up ...

... to see amazing views of crates, lakes and of course mount Doom. It is a seriosly long walk which we were hating our guide that morning as we dropped us off at the exit (this would mean walking a 1km incline in stead of 0.5km) to walk to the start, effectively doing it the wrong way round. The bonus being we had much of the walk to ourselves (start and finish), walked down the devil stairs case as oppposed to up. However we did have the ...