country living kiwi style

stairs leading to our flat. june in typical kiwi kid gear.

so we're here. finally. after years of thinking and talking (admittedly not much planning) we got our collective booties over to neuva zelandia. transitioning has been quite easy. i'm even driving solo already. june is really blossoming and finds the beach to be 'lovely'. paul got all kinds of surf on immediately upon landing. we are settling in and figuring out how to be somewhere else for a while. weather is great and views are divine.

us at pakiri beach.

andy in my favorite shirt

we are living above a friend's parents in our own flat on a farm/ranch about 20 minutes outside of auckland. every morning we hear roosters (much like on E3), ducks, geese, cows, horses, sheep, goats, kitties and dogs. june makes her rounds every day to check on all the livestock and give them an excited 'hi' and 'bye'. yesterday she got to ride kerry the horse. she was alright with it.

june's new pal, thomas. don't tell paul about this one.

we are eating farm fresh eggs produced by chickens that eat our compost, thank you very much. we were invited down to dinner the other night and ate 'beast' and lamb right off the ranch. so incredible. occasionally i raid the garden for a bit of herbs and flower gathering - the flowers are vast and will deserve a post all their own. june's waiting for the blueberries and apples to ripen. lucky ducky girl.

one of the first days we were here an elderly woman stopped to show paul a coin she found in the gutter, 'my lucky day'; then commented on june being a 'wee little soul'. we also learned to call her 'grubby' from playground talk which fits the bill more often than 'wee little soul'.

grubby no more. june's washing machine tub. puro kiwi style.

just spent a fantastic weekend with andy, theresa and kyle at cook's beach/whitianga/hot water beach/ pauanui. we feasted and got in some good beach time. i managed to afford four stiches to my pinky finger as well. kiwi living may be tough but as we learned on our last trip,
'Every day's a good day to be a kiwi!'.
waxin and relaxin / pauanui 'the wave'