Neighbours!

These are our neighbours at our new house! They seem to roam the woods next to us and the field that runs behind the woods. I wondered what the noise was when I was in the garden and I heard a slight rumble coming from behind our fence! (along side the pool) We think that they are being reared for.... how should I say...ummm er!...'home (freezer!) use'..!

Our New House!

This is our new house. It was built back in 1983 and the people we bought it from had lived there since then. Towards the end of 2002 a side extension was added to create an upstairs studio and store room, and a downstairs workshop! At the same time the kitchen was extended. We are hoping to convert the upstairs store room into an ensuite for the spare room (was the studio!) and the downstairs workshop will be a 'rumpus' room!

These are the plans of the house from the original build, and including the extension.



If you click on the picture of the house below it will take you to a slide show. You can control the slide show by moving the cursor to a picture. On screen buttons will appear, allowing you to pause, go back, go forward...

Out and About!

We took a drive out to 'Otatara Pa' which is a Historic Maori Reserve. The word Pa means a fortified place. This is a quote about the site..

Otatara Pa is one of the largest and most ancient Maori pa sites in the Hawke's Bay. It is significant for its immense size and for the large number of terraced dwelling sites and food pits. Remnant earthworks of many of these sits are still evident today.


While Tony had his camera Louise couldn't help posing...




Then we went down to the River Tutaekuri which runs south of Napier.




It is mainly stoney and the kids spent time throwing stones at each other to see who could splash the other the most!

Speedway

On Saturday night we went to the Speedway. We had chips and hotdogs. Only hotdogs here are sausages in batter on a stick then dipped in ketchup..! They had junior classes and seniors. We saw 12year olds whizzing around the track on their bikes. We also saw the guys where one is the rider and the other is called a swinger. He leans right out on the corners. When I say leans more like hangs off the bike onto the track as they go round at very fast speeds. One swinger came off and slid down the track. This is a pic of them. You need to click on the pics for a bigger image.




There were other classes for mini, juniors and bigger stock (V8's) cars going up to what appear to be big V8 road cars like bangers, but they wern't supposed to crash into each other. Quite a few of the bigger stock cars had crashes where they hit the side walls and flipped over or two cars became wedged together with one half way up the wall. The race meet had to be cancelled around 20:30 as one of the larger stock cars broke the saftey cable between the car track and the fence where we were! Some more pics.


At the end of the meeting they had more fireworks. Ahhhhh!!! Ooooooh!

Moving out / Moving In..!

I found these old photo's of when the relocation packers were at our old St Albans house. I had meant to upload these at the beginning of this BLOG as they are out of sync! But never mind.!




And then here at our Rental in NZ.





Now we have to move from the rental to our own house but that won't be for a few months!!

Open Spaces..!

In and around Napier there are lots of Parks. These have swings, Skateboard bowls, picnic areas and lakes / large ponds. These lakes / ponds are teaming with different types of birds. There are loads of the normal Mallard ducks and others. These tall ones run very fast!!!





There are also lots of Black swans. I've not seen these before..

Fireworks!

Sunday 4th we went to Napier Marine Parade where a fireworks display was being held. When we arrived at the beach (about 8pm) loads of people had already arrived and had set up with beach chairs and their 'chillie Boxes'. They also had their own bonfires going and were setting off their own fireworks. Really strange to see all these groups of people with loads of seperate bonfires along the beach! UK Health & Safety would have a fit!!





There were a few rides for the kids. Dan met up with some friends so no pics of him!! Louise unfortunatly had to spend the evening with us! Lots of fireworks .....oooh....ahhh! and loud bangs!

Louise's Birthday!

Thanks for all the cards and international Money vouchers! Louise had a great birthday. First one at school as normally her birthday falls in the October Half term. I managed to get her name read out on the Local Radio for the 'Birthday Shouts' and a few friends of hers at school heard it so she was a little embarrassed..! We went out for dinner to a 'steak' place.. and tried to get Antony to order the MEGAAA 1k steak! Some how he resisted!

Flowers in the Garden!

Some pics of the various flowers growing in our Garden.. Don't know what they are called. The purple one we think is a weed! Click on the pics for a larger image!

Hawks Bay Anniversary Day!

Around the end of October was the Annual Hawks Bay Show... Like the Herts Show. They had all sorts of events and stalls. Show jumping, Rodeo, Cattle shows, Sheep Dog Trials etc.. Various Trade stalls to buy your new Ute!

The Pictures show 2 kids showing their Cows...In the UK they would be Dogs! A competion to lay a fence, another competion to chop thru logs the fastest!