Hello everybody! Just thought we'd better quickly check in to let you all know that we haven't disappeared off the face of the earth (or into a vat of wine!), we've just been worked to the bone all day and night and haven't had the time to update the blog for ages!! Actually, that's not strictly true! We've been having an absolutely wonderful time here at Ash Ridge Vineyards, where we've been looked after incredibly well by Jon & Emma Peet, but the time lead...

Hello everybody, As you may have already seen from the latest round of photos, we've been out and about a little more this week, sampling some more of Hawke's Bay's delights. Trevor had the fantastic idea one gorgeous sunny day of packing up a little early and going to the beach - obviously we needed a huge amount of persuasion to stop moving logs and put on our bikinis and suntan lotion! Christine packed us a delicious picnic and we all set off for Ocean Beach,...

HAPPY EASTER EVERYBODY! (And apologies for being a little slow on that - I prepared this yesterday but couldn't get to a computer!) Well, Su and I are still very happy here at Beehive Gardens, it really is a beautiful place, as you can hopefully see from the photos. There is something wonderful about surrounding yourself in nature and good physical hard work - we're tired in the evenings, have even allowed ourselves the odd afternoon nap, but we do feel fit and...

The Napier Saga So we left Auckland, content and prepared to find work. The journey to Napier was, in places, jaw-droppingly amazing - no wonder Kiwis say awesome so much, there are few better words to describe the stunning landscape of this country. We both failed miserably to read even a page of our books as we were so busy staring out of the window, open-mouthed, but the iPod was a godsend - we put on some excellent driving music and contented ourselves nudgi...

Hello all, Well we've just learnt a valuable lesson with uploading photos - do them little & often! They took soooo long to sort out! Anyway, whatever jetlag there was has now gone (I could not think what to write for my first blog in Auckland - my brain seized!) and we are having an awesome time! We decided to stay in Auckland for a week to get our bearings and just enjoy being here, and while it does have a reputation of being a place that backpackers pas...