We are so unbelievably happy right now I don't really know where to start!

Firstly, our new home. We left Ann & Bob's on Tuesday morning and meandered down the road to the Mapua Leisure Park, picked up the keys to our new home and jumped for joy. It is a little A-frame cabin (a smaller version of our childhood home) into which we immediately unpacked and made ourselves at home. I settled into the double bed downstairs and Su into the little triangular space at the top (though of course she unpacked and organised the kitchen first!) Then we popped back into Richmond for food supplies, came back for lunch of dippy eggs with asparagus, seated on our picnic table, luxury, before going for a walk to check out our surroundings. This place is so perfectly placed we can't believe our luck; reached over a little road which crosses the estuary, cutting the park off from Mapua village, you can walk around the perimeter of the park, from the estuary with heron, pied stilt, and a favourite kingfisher perch, and along the little beach, which looks down to the wharf at Mapua and over to the gorgeous Rabbit Island. You also get a wonderful view of the tide rushing in and out of the estuary, which has a very strong current, and a floating raft that is always populated by shags. The Park is currently very quiet, no doubt the reason we could get such a good deal for this time of year, though with the weekend about to start and next week a school holiday we'll no doubt find out what the future holds as spring turns to summer. But for the time being all we hear is the sound of birdsong; there are tui everywhere singing their beautiful song as they partner up for the summer, blackbirds and song thrush - I haven't heard song thrush sing this much back home for ages, and Californian Quail rustling about in the bushes, popping up with their striking crests to see what we are doing, or what we've dropped, and refusing to move from the car's path. Plus at night the stars here are amazingly clear so we stop and admire the night sky on our way to the toilets. It really is quite wonderful.

And then our new job - although we've only worked for 3 days so far I think it is by far the best job either of us have ever had! Didn't start off quite so well for me though. The first night we were here I sat up at our little table, finishing the last Mapua blog on our stay at Ann & Bob's (which I've also added today as I couldn't get to a computer before - you'll have to go to the dropdown menu at the top of this page to read it) and I got up to go to bed, only to find that my bottle of water had leaked in my rucksack for work. Initially I was mildly p***ed off as I thought it had soaked my bag, but that turned to horror when I realised that my bag was fine but the water had soaked through my bed and all of my bedding, roughly slap-bang in the centre of my big double bed so I couldn't sleep to either side! So at 11.30pm, rather than snuggling up for a good night's sleep before my first day in my new job I was pulling the covers and duvet off the bed (luckily this cabin provides us with bedding), trying to mop up the water and lay towels down before building a bed with our sleeping bags (which we'd both packed away at the bottom of our bags as we thought we didn't need them here! Doh!) And then the next morning I got up only to find that I'd left poor Shadowfax unlocked all night! Double doh! But after all that everything went exactly to plan!

Dean's Nursery is delightful. For a start, it is run by two genuinely lovely, caring people, Jamie and Susie (who also know some of our part of the world as Jamie's parents lived in Southwold.) The nursery is in the grounds of their home, with the most beautiful gardens - at the moment it is all about spring with cherry trees in full blossom, trees and flowers beautifully laid out, all coming into bloom and a field of wildflowers at the side of the driveway - because 'it's not all about profit, but about having something beautiful for customers, staff and family to look at'. At the moment the wildflower field is just starting to flower, but they have pictures up from last year, when it made it into the local papers, and it looks amazing - we want to skip through it! And then we work in a wonderful little team, with Trudy and Helen, both locals who are full of interesting stories and good walking advice. As for the work itself - at the moment we are grafting grape vines so Su and I are jointly responsible for getting the rootstock and bud wood ready, then I help Trudy and Helen with grafting the vines, while Su and Susie pack the grafted vines up and Jamie comes in and helps where necessary as well as deals with customers and brings in new supplies of rootstock and bud wood. If you want a brief technical description, it works thus: they grow their own rootstock, which originally comes from wild grape vines in California, as this is resistant to many viruses. This is cut to similar size lengths and the buds are cut off. Then they buy in lengths of bud wood (at the moment we are working on Sauvignon Blanc) which are cut up into individual buds. Then it's over to the machines. Firstly you hold the rootstock and make one cut, then add the bud and cut again - both cuts are an omega shape and the wood is held together without needing any taping. Then they are packed into boxes and put into warm storage for 3 weeks or so before being sealed with molten wax and planted out to grow. One year later they are dug up and prepared for sale. Of this process about 60% of the grafts are successful. It is a wonderful team to work in, a calm atmosphere, with the radio playing and hopefully soon some talking books to listen to, interesting conversation. Their youngest son Ollie is still at home, doing up a little studio for himself in the grounds while he prepares to start chef school, and he pops in from time to time, along with his adorable little daughter Grace. We take breaks together, sitting outside in the sun, where the smell of flowers is divine and even skip back to work from the bathroom, which is at the bottom of the drive - as you step out of the tin-built building and turn back to the workspace you are surrounded by flowers, your path is lined with cherry blossom, and in the distance you can see the snowy peaks of Mount Arthur. And then of course we come home to a welcome cuppa on our picnic table outside, a little stroll to the beach, then dinner. Tonight we ate smoked fish from the Mapua Smokehouse, the sweetest fish, with mash, while listening to Reading in Bed by Sue Gee on the iPod (after washing my hair for the first time in 6 days! And I really don't care, how liberating!) . And we're just off the look at the night sky. Do this for the next two months? Yes please!

And before we sign off for today, we have another message. Happy Birthday to our Uncle Robert - we believe you about to draw your pension! Hope you have a wonderful 65th birthday on Monday!

With all our love, Jo & Su, xxx