This will be my last blog-post from here for a while. We only have eleven sleeps before we fly to the USA, from our wonderful home in Wellington, New Zealand. I will set up a new blog when we are settled over there, and keep this one to look back on (maybe come back to […]
Month: July 2013
Snowplanet – where the weather doesn’t stop the action!
On our trip to Auckland and the winter-less north, we found one place where it snows all year round – ‘Snowplanet‘. We’d been before, over three years ago (when Alice was just a few months old, bundled in a front pack and a snow suit). This time round Alice was old enough to have a […]
Wardrobe Wednesday – just because I have a new blue dress!
I haven’t joined in with this linky in a while, but today the sun is smiling and there’s a hint of spring in the air here in Wellington, New Zealand. The rumbles and shakes from the earthquakes over the weekend seem to be subsiding (touch wood!) and it’s a day for smiling (despite the thought […]
Prose for Thought | In Transition – Preparing for an international move (whilst the ground shakes beneath us!)
It’s pretty crazy in beautiful New Zealand right now. We’ve had some big wobbles in the shaky isles, which have been rather unnerving – but that goes with the territory here! This map, from GeoNet, shows all the quakes from Friday 21 July up until earlier today (Tuesday)… Pretty crazy amount of activity. We live […]
Country Kids go to Brick Bay Vineyard Sculpture Trail!
Less than an hour’s drive north of New Zealand’s largest city, Auckland, is a stunning sculpture trail at the Brick Bay Vineyard. Nature and art combine to make a beautiful and fascinating walk. The sculptures entranced even the youngest of our tribe, Miss 3 – Alice, so that she happily walked most of the two […]
Silent Sunday
Things I’m Loving
In less than three weeks we fly away from our home of some fifteen years, New Zealand, to start an adventure living in Santa Barbara, CA, USA. Our new adventure may be for just a year, three years, or possibly more. In this past week we flew up to Auckland, from our home in Wellington, […]
Prose for Thought | Life’s Flow
I enjoyed a beautiful run as the sun set over the Cook Strait, between New Zealand’s north and south island. It was a perfect winter’s evening, with just enough of a breeze to support me in finding my breath and driving my step. It was the kind of evening that cannot be passed by without […]
Things I’m Loving this wintery week in Wellington
The countdown till we leave New Zealand is sadly on. We will fly out on 7 August, but as that time draws closer we are enjoying a close coming together with the people that have meant so much to us in our lives here. This past week, being the last week of term 2 here […]
The Photo Gallery | Sun
Winter here in New Zealand and the colours at twilight are often my favourite. It is when I feel closest to family on the other side of the world, basking in a well over-due heat wave. As the light leaves our sky I know it is stirring in their sky. I love the sun, not […]
Write to Read iPad App – Perfect for recording those special memories
I was delighted to be asked to review a ground-breaking new iPad app, which has just launched on the App Store in the UK, called WriteReader. It is aimed at 3 to 10 year olds (and I have three children in that age bracket!). My children are absolute technology lovers, which I am okay with […]
Grateful for an evening of greatness & a moment by the bay…
It’s been a blustery few days and I’ve been caught up in life, children and de-cluttering in preparation for our big move, but today I knew a run was definitely needed; especially after a little over-indulgence of champagne the night before – in the grand company of my neighbour… we sneaked out to watch ‘The […]
Prose for Thought – The greenstone that seeded my love for New Zealand
Before I ever laid a foot in Aotearoa (New Zealand) I received the gift of a pounamu (greenstone) necklace, beautifully carved in the eternity symbol, from my boyfriend who had left England to take up a job in Aotearoa. The year was 1996 and I had planned to join him in February 1997, on a […]