..a hike through the Manawatu Gorge.. 3 hours with a lot of uphill to get to the Lookout (Frank kept asking “are we there yet?”) …

Asa was my walking companion, and either I’d be pulling him along, or it would reverse and he’d be waiting for me…with this look! A real “Kiwi”.

…aw, a chance to rest at the Lookout, and the thrill of knowing we were half way done..

We came across this sculpture of Whatonga..about 18 feet high! there was a picnic bench near by, where we had our lunch..

The hike back was downhill. The day was our “rest up” day, and though it exhausted us, it was also so refreshing.

Arrived in N.Z., where Will’s mum kindly picked us up and immediately “made” us walk a beach before heading to the countryside. Beaches…wherever they are, just make you relax and yet feel energized.

Now at Jen and Will’s. Astrid led me about to see some of the animals…many born since we were here last year.

“Clover ” and Astrid just hanging out. The three pigs are so much like pet dogs.

…and look who’s very new, hiding there amongst the other alpacas. Now to go to sleep…many more days here.

..at Tisha’s for a quick 2 days…Maya off to her school’s musical  rehearsal …

…these two dudes wrestling in p.j.s…

…while Tish and I enjoy the sun and chickens!…

…and then a trip to the Saturday Burbank market..minus the singer/dancer..then we’re off to N.Z…no time to let the grass grow between our toes (is that the expression?)

The short story is…we spent 24 hours getting to L.A. from Halifax!! The longer version includes waking at 3 a.m. to catch a 5 a.m. flight, which, after hours on the tarmac in heavy fog, left at 10 a.m. … then, having missed our connection, spent 6 hrs at the Toronto airport, only to sit on the tarmac again for hours as the L.A. airport was constricting “flow”…(suspicious)  Arrived at Tish’s  about 3 a.m. our time. Now, of course, awake because our bodies know it’s 6:30 a.m. back home!  On to N.Z. tomorrow night, already dreading that flight!  The good news is, we made it, no big trauma, only exhaustion, and looking forward to the family waking up so we can see them!

The workload was heavy going for Drea..

but with some help, she got the job done!

..then leapt for joy!

Frank is turning into a Mole! He spends most of his days in the basement, working on making it a place we can actually use. Eventually it will have food storage, book shelves, a bedroom, bathroom, exercise area, rec room area, workroom, other storage…a big undertaking.

Here you can see that it’s a “sort as you go” kind of job. Frank created the bookcases to the left…then we were able to unpack the boxes of books. Unseen is the food storage area under the stairway, all done and lovely. Now he’s insulating, wiring, etc. and creating more shelving, this time for photo albums…those things that have become so unpopular with the advent of computer photo storage, and which also take so much room! But we’ll love seeing those boxes unpacked next. Can’t wait for the storage area to get created so that we’ll have somewhere to hide all those things that can’t be shelved….actually, I bet a lot of them could be…right out the door to recycling or a rummage sale.

Can’t really say who’s having the most fun here.

At Gaspereau Fibres today…always inspiring..

And Miss Purl…

…and the shaggy sheep, made my day.