General (Page 2)

Three nights ago 18th April while walking outside to head over to see Sam and Amanda, Jude looks up and spots a lightish glow in the evening sky. It was a unexpected Aurora, the Southern Lights is always a spectacular event especially when the skies allow a clear and grand view. Out comes her camera and the compulsory “Shane you will look and share with me!” look. I must say that it doesn’t excite me as much as my girl gets excited, but hey I do enjoy the look of utter joy on her face with such events. The iPhone camera like most of themRead More →

Yesterday was my little sisters 65th birthday and to celebrate this special birthday, Jude and I joined my sister Colleen (birthday girl) and her partner Grant and Sue Kereama and husband Barry at Ziffs Restaurant out at Otatara. Unfortunately my sister Dale and and her good man Joe could not be there due to that seasonal virus that had knocked them pretty hard… hope you guys make a speedy recovery.. We had been to Ziffs before after a walk around Fosbender Park for a coffee, so it was good to see how a evening would go. Well the main course was surprisingly very good andRead More →

It’s become a seasonal task growing spuds for the family and so as per ritual early in the summer Jude and I cleared a bit of a paddock, rotary hoe’d enough soil to dig in 5 rows of potatoes. Yesterday we dug up the bounty a mix of Agria, Desiree and Purple Passion. Leaving them out over night and this morning to dry off. This afternoon we managed to fill four sacks of potato’s that should see everyone through to next season (hopefully). Nice of Tessa to come over with the sack and help with filling.Read More →

It’s been a quite a long time in the Deep South this year as we have allowed time for Judes hip to make a full recovery… well that only took 6 weeks anyway. Now months later still here and have enjoyed doing little jobs around Tom & Kimbo’s cottage, constantly taking Blake for walks around the farm and a few day tramps such as Aparima Hut and Long Hilly Track. Tried my hand at carpentry putting shelves up in the cottage using all recycled timber and iron which gave me a justifiable excuse to buy a bench top planer and thickenesser.😁👍🏼 The Shelves were fromRead More →

Hello people, it’s been a long time since our last post and we have done so much since then that it will be a difficult job trying to catchup and post everything… it’s just laziness on our behalf. So as from this post and onward we will be posting regularly on our webpage. Yes now and then I will post bits and pieces of what we have previously done between the silent period and will put the date at the start such posts. Jude and I have been living fulltime in Aotearoamer for nine year now and we a have discovered that the quality ofRead More →

Jude and I (well Jude anyway) decided to walk a section of the Long Hilly Walking Track located in the Longwood Forest at the base of the Longwood Range in Southland, the Long Hilly Walking Track, also known as the, the Round Hill Walking Track, is a glimpse into New Zealand’s goldmining history. The short, easy rainforest loop walk takes you along paths once used for gold mining, however over time it has been slowly reclaimed by native shrubs and trees. The walk is a short, easy loop of approximately 2.3 km and takes around 45 minutes at an easy pace. The track is mostly gravelled andRead More →