Love this country!

The Ahuriri

Where else in the world can you go and see sights like this?? I love this country! It was a great, relaxing Easter as well. Felt a little like summer but slightly colder.

Just by the Ahuriri Valley Track

More photos to come on my Flickr. It's almost enough to make me want to throw in my job and just go live somewhere that's NOT the city and wake up to the mountains every day :)

Freedom!

Well, it is officially Easter weekend for me due to a mix up in when Isaac's graduation is. (It's Thursday, not Wednesday)

But that's ok. Initially I was planning on spending most of Weds with the kitten, but that has obviously gone out the window now. So I am filling my day with things like baking and going to Journey Towards Easter and preparing for heading down to Ohau. Again, we originally weren't going any where for the holiday but with kitty gone it seems like a good time to get out of the house as it's a little uncomfortable-feeling here sometimes.

Sometimes I think I see the kitten sitting somewhere on the floor. It always ends up being my shoes or something like that. But I don't expect him to walk into the room as much any more :(

So tomorrow will be okay. Just me. My parents get back tomorrow so may stop in for a visit and Isaac and I are planning on trialing the delights of Wagamama tomorrow night as a pre-graduation celebration.

I feel that I will probably have to take a few deep breaths. But that's okay. I'm doing okay and that is really only due to the grace of God.

We are looking at places to move to. Places to buy. Looking into how much we can/need to borrow. It's all very exciting and grown up. I'm believing for the right place and the provision to get it.

Still haven't heard about the job I applied for. But that's all good. Supposed to hear by the end of the week - but I'm not there (haha). I'm not worried though, I still like my current job well enough and part of me would feel bad for leaving in such a time of change.

6 days off work! Whoop!

*sigh*

Well...all good things must come to an end I guess. I have to go back to work on Monday - which means we are leaving Ohau tomorrow morning :P

I really, really don't want to!!! *sob*

Although right now I'm in a lot of pain. So I'd probably sob over having to move off the couch. We went mountain biking today. Hard core!!!

Weather when we started out...see that little trail up the hill? THAT'S where we were heading!

It was so lucky that I've been doing 3km around the village pretty much daily since we've been here. I think if I'd done no exercise at all I'd have been in A LOT of trouble...lol. As it was it was pretty intense. Lots of hills and pretty rough terrain.

Geeky husband lol

Our intrepid leader - excepting he is behind other people

Isaac doesn't really like biking - well, he never used to. He's more of a runner. But I basically never run because I don't like the impact. (Possibly because I don't have proper running shoes!) Anyway, am hoping to talk him into getting bikes because that will actually mean that I will possibly be inspired to get some exercise when NOT on holiday.

Me all hot and sweaty - awesome :P

I have not the ability or stamina to make it up this hill. But if you peer closely you will see the intrepid leader make his way up!

So yes, two hours (approximately) there and back. 8kms total...but felt a LOT harder than that, probably because we weren't on the flat. Parts were very windy and rainy. My Columbia outer served me quite well when we were waiting for the really fit ones to make it up the hill and back.

However, it really fined up for the ride back :)

So yes, sore and holidays are over. Much sadness! But I'll sleep well tonight!!!

All artistic-like

So being on holiday is good for the soul (I totally didn't mean to get all preachy in the last post...btw - Elinor has responded and she pities me...good thing I care fairly little about her opinion! Really I pity her for her narrow minded-ness.) I have finally had a bit of a chance to play around with photoshop with recent photos :)

Candle in a bar that we ate at in Queenstown. I think it's called Brazz???

Lillies in the Queenstown botanical gardens

The gateway to Narnia...

Pretty roses :)

Thistles out the back at Ohau

Glenorchy

Queenstown was fun :) Good-ish weather and we had a gorgeous little apartment to ourselves which was quite self sufficient really. We were only there two days but it was a pretty good way to unwind.

So yes, am having fun "playing" and am actually quite pleased with the results of what I've played with. Shall have to do more as long as this holiday lasts! SO not looking forward to going back to work :P

Belated Christmas...but here's to 2009!

So...I am finally on "official" holidays! Whoop! I did have four days off over Christmas - just long enough to get out of "work" mode only to go back to work again! But it's not been all bad. The latest I've finished all week is 2.30 and today I got back from lunch at 1.30 and left at 2! So I'm loving it!

Christmas was good - had brunch with Mum & Dad (blueberry pancakes and fresh fruit!) and then bummed around home setting up/playing with presents and such and then drove down to Ohau to meet up with Isaac's family. We arrived just as they were pulling Christmas crackers - awkward!! Lol. Stayed there for a couple of days - just long enough to get a wicked sunburn! All thanks to our 10km bike ride!

Surprisingly I have taken NO photos this time around - I didn't bring my camera and I think I needed a break! But it was very fun, and we had awesome weather on our last day there which was nice - hence the BURN.

By the way...HAPPY NEW YEAR people! We are (shortly!) heading over to the old flat for a bbq of the good old fashioned kind. And then are planning to ring in the new year with a few people and drinks and nibbles over there.

Speaking of bbqs - Isaac got his fancy new hooded barbeque today. It's still in it's box but I'm positive we shall get much use out of it. (Thanks Deloitte tax team!) Since he's been off work he's been very diligently trying to get the house sorted - which is good of him! We've made a number of other significant purchases in the last week including a massive bookcase (which I love) and a chilly bin. (Which I do not love quite as much as the bookcase but is useful nonetheless).

Off to Queenstown on the 2nd - gonna spend a couple days there and then back to Ohau to hang for three or four days. Then it's back home and hopefully the house will FINALLY be completely sorted. Good times :)

Counting down...

To a holiday at least!! Yay for short weeks. Boo for occupations that don't "sleep" so to speak. The newspaper must go on! (Apparently!)

At least I have real time off in the new year. Quite looking forward to it - firstly the getting away and secondly the finally managing to get fully settled into the house. We are slowly but surely getting there!

Anyway, most exciting thing for us recently has been the getting of the official wedding pictures. Some favorites:

Jen's hand is the other hand - I can tell by her engagement ring!

The Jo Po stand back and make sure everything blends...

Veil adjustment outside of the church...

Really cool via the parent's room shot!

Kiss! (Hehe)

Skinner posing for the camera...

Awww....

My favourite wee man :)

Okay...to be honest I have A LOT of favourites! So we shall call this one of two...

Ps...our photographer - Tony Stewart Photoshots (He is AWESOME)

Loving long weekends

I love long weekends. Have been so busy lately - every night this week we've had something on. (Excepting tonight, yay!) Basically am just exhausted. Crawled into bed last night at 10pm (after not one but two lots of work drinks) and was out until 8.30 this morning. ANNND I still haven't made it out of bed. I love laptops!

It has been a particularly trying week though. Every thing seems to go pear shaped in a long weekend at work due to earlier deadlines. Stressful! Plus top that off with one in our midst leaving us and the knowledge that we'll be short staffed for awhile...not fun. Somehow we power through anyway...

The last couple of weeks have been pretty tragic though. What with the seven people dying up north and Marie Davis' body finally being identified. It makes me wonder what the world is coming to. All these families are going through such a rough time. And that's just the ones we know about. Meanwhile the Edgeware Road trial has started and that makes me sad too. It sounds like such a debacle! All the fights and alcohol and everything just got out of hand. And again those girls families having to live through the whole thing.

It's just horrible. It makes me want to not read the paper - which I'm probably not supposed to say seeing as how I work there! But sometimes ignorance can be nicer. But probably not better.

The Sounds

The view from our room!

I am back from The Sounds. Yay - was SO good to get away out of the city and know that there was absolutely nothing that needed to be done because I am on mini-holiday. I am still on mini-holiday by the way :)

I've never really spent any time up the north end of this fair island...I've been down south a reasonable bit. It's really pretty there, but it's a different kind of pretty up north.


It's all rolling hills and bays up there. Down south it's more flat lands and high craggy mountain tops.

Still...very pretty. AND because we're so near the sea there's a lot of seafood. Which I love - Isaac does not love it quite as much as I do.

Mussels from the Mussel Pot!

We were staying just outside Havelock - which is apparently the greenshell mussel capital of the World. So we had to have some! Yummy!

Note, mussels are REALLY gross to look at if you look at them too closely...yuck!

It was fun times, even if we were only there for two days! We went walking, explored the area, slept lots and caught up on reading!

I love public holidays :)

We had a bbq last night, much fun. LOTS of food and drink. Jeremy inadvertently spiked Smiddy's coke with Bacardi - he was so sure he'd asked him if he'd wanted the alcohol in there! Haha, funny. We are such random people. So random in fact that I have an album on facebook dedicated to our randomness!

Also, finally managed to watch some Flight of the Conchords last night, funny stuff! Haha. Isaac's been hounding me about it for weeks now! Oh but he was right!

My current favorite!