Rick, Nicky and Claire in NZ

Our communications technology has finally joined the 21st century this week, with the completion of our fibre broadband internet connection. The modem arrived on Tuesday, and the technician booked for Friday came an hour early (though had two cups of coffee before actually starting work). This not only gives us a good fast connection (especially compared to hot-spotting off our phones), but also a local area network. This means I have now been able to set up our technology in the way which I had planned. Pat and Clem came for lunch on Wednesday, which was a lovely treat. They had been having a few days in Ohakune and took time out to come and have a look at Whanganui and to pay us a visit. The morning ended up being a bit fraught, as I needed to do some shopping and Nicky had an appointment at the Medical Centre. This would have all worked out fine if it had not been for the roadworks on Somme Parade. Fortunately we had left a key for Clem and Pat so they were able to let themselves i...

The weather has started to get a little more autumnal this week, with some lower temperatures at the beginning and end of the day, some rain, and a major storm pre-breakfast on Saturday. There have also been good periods of sunshine and we have really appreciated the solar gain from our north facing windows in the living area. When Frances called in on Wednesday afternoon she commented on the warmth of our home, especially with there being a cool south westerly edge to the wind. We are also really interested to see where the sun is now falling in the house as the season progresses. The late afternoon sun has been giving us some lovely views from the back of the house: A couple more steps in the right direction have been made this week. On Monday and Tuesday the external work for the fibre broadband connection was completed. We now have a very thin wire coming out of the conduit on the north-east corner of the house. Late on Thursday (after 6pm) Reagan called in from Total Windows and...

We finished the long weekend off with a very pleasant Easter Monday. Nicky had made some chocolate peanut brownies, so while she did some laundry I delivered some to our neighbours Paul and Naomi. Later in the morning we walked along the road to see Frances and her QT Nursery, and swap brownies for eggs and a cherry tree sapling. We had a good long chat and tour of the nursery and really enjoyed our time with her. We were very late back for lunch, and then Nicky started making bread for tea while I dealt with the laundry. In the evening we watched the concluding episodes of The Undoing which was very good and well done. I was very pleased that it had a satisfactory ending. The majority of the rest of our week has been occupied with unpacking. Nicky’s sewing room is currently full of stuff and boxes, particularly of books. We had both come to the conclusion that it might be near the end of the year before we have the fitted book shelves installed and that we didn’t want the sewing room...

 It has been a wet week. So much so we had to run outside on Monday afternoon to do a bit of “redirecting” of the water as it gouged trenches in our builders gravel and soil and into the wilderness. We had more very heavy rain later in the week and then when things started to get a little drier on Friday we spotted how much cleaner the sheep were looking: As a result of the wet weather, we have had a much quieter week with staying indoors much of the time. It’s the first time since moving in that this has happened and it was really rather nice. It was good feeling cosy and safe as the weather rained down. We played lots of games and did quite a bit of cooking and watching telly programmes that we had recorded. The weather hasn’t prevented our steady trickle of visitors, Eleanor and Jack on Friday, and Louise and Steve yesterday. Bert called on Wednesday to do lots of small jobs including fitting risers to the drains on the driveway so that they will meet the Code of Compliance ...