Tom's Christmas Party

The theme was 'White Christmas Masquerade' ...

Movember

U2 with Kanye West

Garden Fauna and Flora

awwww... our friendly garden hedgehogs who were making a rather bizarre hissing noise that kept us awake one night (until we went out and shuffled them along)!

some of the gorgeous flowers in the garden at the moment- Tom's current photography project!

Labour day bbq spread

We fired up the bbq over the Labour day weekend and Greg cooked us up a beautiful spread. We followed the food with some rugby (the Air New Zealand provincial cup final) with Waikato beating Wellington 37-31

Mairangi to Takapuna Beach Walk

In preparation for January's Tongairio crossing Wendy, Leanne & Duncan joined us for an East Coast short tramp. After a pre-emptive and delicious pitstop at a bakery, we started out from Mairangi along the beach...

Having made good distance clambering over rocks and sand the incoming tide unfortunately meant we had to turn back - it was a bit too cold to swim!

Back on the road we searched for the Te Araroa walk signs which were so tiny, hunting for them took almost as much time as the journey itself (a bit like life huh!). Hence we found ourselves wandering in circles around JF Kennedy Memorial Park and the Rahopara Historic Reserve. The rain was quite refreshing at this point! Thankfully the sun came out again as we made our way through Castor Bay towards Milford after a short pit-stop at the children's playground...



Then we oooohed and ahhhhed at the huge, fabulously designed houses along Milford Beach. Following the North Shore City heritage trail (apparently over private property thanks to the good will of the owners - bless them!) we walked past Firth Cottage, Algie's Castle remnants...


the Sea Walls, took a seat in the Stone Throne...


...and admired the pretty flora, fabulous pohutukawa, stunning lava flow rock, and beautiful clear blue water.

Amy, Will, Imogen & Zuzana

cousins Will and Zuzana and their two lovely girls Amy and Imogen came to say hello, having recently made the same trip we did a year ago- they seem to be settling into Auckland and NZ life very well.

Mel's birthday bbq

This weekend Mel (daughter of our housemate Anne) celebrated her birthday with a barbeque round our place- the first of many over the summer let's hope!

Avocados in the garden

Fresh avocados in our front garden!

Roto(vegas)rua

Fun in Taupo

Skiing in Whakapapa

Photo that made it into the NZ Herald

Browns & Long Bay

Piha & Devonport

Jenitz' Yum Char Birthday Lunch

Our fab new place !!!!

For the full set of photos hosted on Kodak Gallery please click here