Friday 2 January At last - red sky at night, turned into shepherd’s delight as the sun rose over the vineyards. Up earlyish to take Harley for one last trip to the dog park. Louis decided to cycle over to join us but hit two huge nails and got an instant flat tyre so never made it to the park. Back at the vineyard Louis & Jez fixed the tyre while Abby sorted the Moho and Harley hid under our table as he was not happy about leaving! Just look at his face when they loaded him

Thursday 1 January The morning after the night before - bacon & eggs for brekkie and another walk to the dog park with Harley. Although the clouds were all around, somehow we were in the sun all the way there and back and it was scorchio! ☀️ Lunch back at the vineyard (salad with extra added fresh fig!) & siesta for Louis & Abby as Jez & I popped into town to dispose of NYE empties and replace my stick blender which started smoking the night before - yikes! The clouds along

Wednesday 31 December New Year’s Eve - weather forecast was pish like last year so Luke said we could use their space inside for our celebrations… but how to make it different from 2024/25? I know - an “Op-Swap” party! We all headed onto town, put the washing into Liquid Laundromat and hit the op shops with a brief to spend up to $15 on an outfit for the opposite gender… Sallies proved a treasure trove and we got most of our fabulous gear from there! Grabbed a quick bite of

Tuesday 30 December After a wild night of wind & rain - and the barn roof next door banging loudly as it had come adrift at one corner - we awoke to a grey, wet & cloudy day which never really improved. Abby & Jez took Harley out while we stayed in Banjo catching up with blogging and stuff. Louis and Jez went swimming in town while Abby & I chilled. I tried to walk Harley down the vines at lunchtime but one up and back was quite enough he reckoned! By teatime we were all stir

Monday 29 December A stunning morning at the Fitzroy Goldschmidt Vineyard - it was lovely waking up with Abby & Jez in the van just next to us. Took Harley for a walk to the Dog Park where he performed brilliantly on the obstacle course and put the Goldie (Bodie) & springer (Bracken) spaniel we met there to shame! On the walk back we found a couple of fig trees on Vintage Lane so Abby and I spent a while plundering them for their fruits - most of which were not yet ripe, but

Sunday 28 December Up early and packed much of our clobber out of the house and into Banjo before collecting Ella and Josh from the airport. We were delighted to see them again, but not nearly as excited as the hoodlums! 🐕‍🦺🐕‍🦺 Had a lovely lunch on the deck then we said out farewells and hit the road north. Paused in Cheviot, quick trip to the loos and the Harris Farm store for burgers for the BBQ, coffee, scone and a ginger crunch. Glad to see the upside down legs lady

Saturday 27 December Another busy busy day - Louis finished cleaning Banjo, and I continued clearing garden stuff - cabbage tree leaves get EVERYWHERE! Had lunch (more leftovers!) on the deck after Louis had been to Rangiora for a swim, then we hitched up the trailer and took all the garden rubbish to the tip. First pic - before and after - clearing the stones and dirt which had extended into the roadway. Second pic - before and after clearing tons of cabbage tree leaves fr

Friday 26 December Boxing Day - back to work helping out in the garden for me and cleaning Banjo for Louis. He was a busy bunny - also fixing the trailer electrics, swapping winter generator for summer kayak and listing stuff for sale that we no longer need. I did a dark wash then filled the trailer 3/4 full of garden detritus before my back decided it had had enough bending & raking! Took the hoodlums to the beach again in the evening and had the joy of Jessie coming polite

Thursday 25 December Meri kirihimete! Merry Christmas! However you say it, it was a great day for us and hopefully for you, wherever you were! 🥰 I woke early and snuggled with the hoodlum hounds until Louis & Amy surfaced 🐕‍🦺; had a lovely brunchy breakfast on the deck in the sunshine 🥐🥂; opened presents 🎁(not too many this year); cooked lunch 🍗🥦 then ate far toooo much; watched The Grinch 💚; took a walk on the beach 🏖️; ate dessert 🎂; took Amy to the airport ✈️;

Wednesday 24 December A pretty special Christmas Eve this year - featuring a wedding, a beach walk, catching up with Petra, carol singing by candlelight, a chance encounter and a lost handbag! I spent the morning prepping for Christmas Day while Louis went swimming and Amy hung out with the hoodlum hounds. After an early lunch we set off for Lacebark, a beautiful wedding venue where my young couple were getting married in a registry style elopement. Originally it was going to

Tuesday 23 December Happy Christmas Adam… the one before Christmas Eve, biblically! Started with a stinky but useful trip to the tip to get rid of lots of decluttering stuff (already dumped 6 boxes at Kaiapoi op shops in previous 2 days) for Louis & me. It’s very cathartic lobbing bags into the crusher space at the tip! And this time I didn’t wear and ping off any bracelets as I did a couple of years ago and the lovely tip lady kindly rummaged about in the trash and found it

Monday 22 December Another busy but quiet day in and around Woodend Beach - Louis emptied out the Pajero and took it into town for a thorough cleaning while he had a swim and did some Christmas shopping; I pottered around cleaning up and keeping the hoodlums amused. I straightened all the sofa cushions, but Jessie was having none of it and refused to move! After lunch I headed to the laundromat (it was busy as - somebody was washing tablecloths from a wedding in most of the m

Sunday 21 December An early morning - up and out to pick up Ella & Josh then deliver them to the airport for their flight north to Christmas in Matarangi with the Whitefields. By chance, Abby & Jez were on a flight to Auckland an hour later so we grabbed airport breakfast (sushi for me - nom nom!) whilst waiting to see them and wish them “Bon voyage!” too. Back at Banjo we packed up, hitched up and dragged Banjo over to Woodend Beach to park up in front of McIntosh Manor (aka

Saturday 20 December Christmas celebrations start here! But first, my job was to try and dye Ella’s hair back to a slightly more subtle tone. In the middle of all this - a call came in from my sister Linus who was at yet another Christmas gig in London with the CdP Ladies - I think this was the Old Dirty Brasstards with their rendition of a Christmas 70s classic by Slade or Wizard or similar! Then a bunch of friends came over to their place to work on the big declutter ahead

Friday 19 December Friday chores day in Ōtautahi Christchurch - up early and off to DCB to get our new inverter installed in Banjo (yay - will be able to use microwave and coffee machine off grid from here on in!) then popped to Hornby for a coffee & an exciting visit to a Japanese supermarket where we were bamboozled by the packages of foodstuffs, but happy to stock up on cheap Kewpie salad dressings! On to Papanui - Louis went for a swim at Graham Condon pool and I trawled

Thursday 18 December Only a week until Christmas - so we are taking a leaf out of Chris Rea’s songbook, heading slowly towards Woodend Beach. (When I wrote this, I did not know that Chris Rea was to die just 4 days later, making this rather poignant) Watched the racehorses galloping then walked down to U-Bake to get coffee and a pie for Louis - I was still too full from Saikou to contemplate any of their delicious bakery offerings. Louis decided to have a go at clipping his o

Wednesday 17 December Still rather disappointing weather for summer - but we got out for a walk along the northern end of Kakanui Beach before any further rain fell. We followed in the footprints of a family of Canada geese for a while, they were taking their goslings for a dip - though TBF it looked like they were trying to drown them!!! See separate video on our FB page. From the sandy shore you could see the damage to Beach Road as it collapsed into the sea - no wonder it

Tuesday 16 December Wet and windy night - though we avoided a big battering in our sheltered wee corner at Old Bones. Walking outside in the early morning it was wall to wall grey clouds except for a small gap allowing the sun to turn the paddock in front of the next door farm a vibrant golden yellow. The sun broke through strongly as the morning progressed, so Louis got the bikes down early as more greyness was forecast for the afternoon, and we whizzed down the old Beach Ro

Monday 15 December Set an earlyish alarm so I could help out with the morning farm duties - and grabbed my Red Band gumboots as this was bound to be dirty work. After saying hello to Monkey the horse, the first job of the day was bottle feeding Caramello & Twix, the lambs again. On to the various different aged calves next - the youngsters got warm milk in a high trough with teats to suckle from, then a few scoops of dry nuts; the older calves had to make do with cold milk in

Sunday 14 December Benjamin Franklin famously said that guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days… so it was time to move on from Jonny & Debs’ place before we outstayed our welcome! After an impossibly stressful Arsenal game, we packed up, checked around the house 3 times so hopefully we haven’t left anything behind this time, and slowly pulled out onto McArthur Road where I took over the driving all the way into Alex - my longest & fastest towing drive yet! We took