Hello. I must start this blog by sending many, many congratulations to Sarah and Lyndn on the birth of Ellis Ethan Gauntlett-Boak, born at home with no pain relief and only 14 days late! Thank you so much for sending the pictures - he looks absolutely gorgeous and I can't wait to see you all when I return. As you may have noticed I've been a little quiet with the blog recently, but I'm gradually catching up - I'm sorting the last 3 photo albums and have added th...

Hello everybody! Apologies for being out of touch for a while. Actually, it probably isn't that long, but it feels like an absolute age since we had our farewell meal at Dean's Nursery and packed up our tiny cabin at Mapua. Since then we've had a couple of trips into Abel Tasman, been up to Golden Bay for a little explore, and headed down the West Coast through Westport, Punakaiki, Greymouth (briefly) and are now in Hokitika. Phew! We've done a huge amount in a ...

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...