Day 1 of our Trip...

Saturday 9th Jan
We took the dogs to the kennels the night before so we could get an early start (7am). The first road trip of our week away was Napier to Taupo, then to Rotorua, on to Waihi, stopping at Thames, finially getting to Coromandel town.

We stopped at Mac D's for breakie, and then drove on to Rotoura so the kids could have another go at the Luge runs..




Then it was on to Tauranga where we stopped for lunch and then on to Waihi where there is a huge mine (Martha Mine). It's 200m down to the bottom. Check out the diggers near the bottom!

The Cornish Pump house. This was moved from it's original site due to subsidence in Feb 2007. It took 3 months to move the 2000 tonne building.

Then we drove onto Thames where we stopped for provisions and on to our motel in Coromandel town, arriving at 5pm ish..

We've been away!!

We've just had a week away.... Touring the Coromandel Peninsula and a few other places on the way up and back.

Photo's to follow.... Here's a few to start!

New Years Day 2010....

Nice Sunny day....

Took the dogs for a run in the afternoon down at the beach..



This dog came galloping down the beach on his own... Stopped for a sniff and then was on his way again....



Dan wanted to try out one of his Christmas pressies.... an EXTREME Frisbee!!



More dog pictures....



Paw prints in the sand...

Christmas Day....

In contrast to the weather back in the UK... (photo of my brothers back garden)


We've had a hot, sunny Christmas day... In the morning we took the dogs down to the river for a swim and a run about. Dan and Lou ended up in the river with them as it was so warm...


We decided that as it was such a great day that we wouldn't go to the beach we'd stay at home and make the most of the day by splashing about in the pool..!!



No traditional Christmas roast this year.... Instead we ate outside and had Prawns and Steak on the BBQ, and then for pud a kiwi classic a Pavlova... Yummmmy!!



More splashing about....

Building work....

We're having some work done on the house and the scaffold has gone up at the front and back of the house. It went up in stages and now is over 7m high. Because of the new height (to meet the apex of the roof!) the man from OSH had to come out and approve it!

Tony, Dan and Louise testing it!




Notice anything different...! Apart from no window......



No bricks..... just wood!!

Hamtastic...!!

Tony came home from work and said that he'd won a prize in a raffle, but couldn't remember what it was.....

Few days later he came home with his win... A 6.5kg ham....



Looks like we'll be eating alot of ham over christmas......

Awwww! Foals!!!

Couple of weeks ago friends mare had her foal.... a filly... So we rushed over at 8am to see them. She's only a few hours old....





Then the following weekend another of their mares had her foal and it's a filly too! In these pics the foal is 3 days old...






And here are some of the first foal at 1 week old...