Leavin' the Good Life (written 30th Nov) Wow, after almost 3 months in Mapua and just over 2 months working at Dean's Nursery and living in our little cabin by the sea, it's time to pack up and move on again. This is the longest we have stayed anywhere on our travels in NZ and is the longest that we'll be in one place until we arrive back in England next July/August for a belated Christmas with Mum & Dad. And it really has felt like home for a while and we b...

Well I have to start this next blog with an admission. Su and I are totally, completely and utterly, head over heals in love. And the lucky recipient of our love and affection is a wee 15-month-old boy named Stevie! Stevie came to visit us the weekend before last (sorry, I've been a little slack recently…) with his parents Ross and Helen, and once again charmed the socks off us! We spent the Friday that they were due to arrive anxiously looking out of the shed ...

Hello once again! Well, we start this blog with some excellent news. IEP, who arranged for our working visas and provide ongoing support, recently asked for photos of people WWOOFing. I sent a reply with the web address of this blog, simply saying if you want any of these let us know. And we received a reply from Abby, saying she'd gone to have a quick glance at our site and ended up looking over it for 30 mins or more, and that our photos were totally awesome! S...

A few weeks have passed since we began our stint at Dean's Nursery, and started exploring this wonderful part of New Zealand properly (i.e. we can now afford the petrol to spend our weekends exploring the entire Nelson area). Firstly, the news from Dean's Nursery. We have reached something like 50,000 vines so are certainly over halfway to our target for this year. Dad, you sent a recent email asking how long each graft took to complete - it takes literally secon...

Another week has just zoomed by, so what's new at Dean's Nursery? Well, for a start the place has now taken on a totally different appearance. The beautiful flowering cherry blossom has almost entirely disappeared, to be replaced by a fresh new green, and in the paddock the wildflowers are beginning to bloom and already look absolutely stunning - I've taken a few pictures but will take more over the next few weeks as it really does seem to change every day. But, ...