Hello All!!

Hope you are still enjoying the English Summer! We realised that we hadn't updated you all since going on our skiing trip so thought we better just let you all know that we are still alive and kicking after skiing around volcanoes!

Well, since we last wrote, we took to the slopes of Mount Ruapehu and indulged in some beginners ski lessons (ridiculously cheap compared to Europe) and had an amazing couple of days skiing and hiking the volcano. Chris of course mastered the art skiing by the end of one day and was ready to hit the black runs but after some negotiation from me we decided to go back in a few weeks time and complete our intemediate class before tackling any steeper slopes as they tend to have rather big drops either side! We stayed in Whakapapa (pronunced - Faka-papa), which had stunning views of both the snow capped volcanoes- Mount Ruapehu and Ngaruhoe. Mount Ruapehu actually erupted in 1995 and wiped out the entire ski field that we were on, but apparently where we were skiing in 'Happy Valley' (ahh) is desiganate a Lahar (volcanic mud) safe zone (how reassuring!!). We kept a close eye on the crator but luckily no smoke appeared despite some loud bangs and crashes! On that note, there have been several earth quakes over the last couple of weeks, mostly down on the South Island and to be honest we slept through them so didn't feel a thing! :O)

After our skiing trip we went on a little road trip to a small town called Wanagnui, which was very pretty and we relaxed there for a couple of days before heading back to New Plymouth to move into our new house! The journey home was stiffled by us being confronted by a heard of about 100 sheep walking towards us in the middle of the road, so after nearly suffering a head on collision with the front few, we er just stopped the car and watched them meander past! Stupidly i joked well at least they weren't bulls... of course as we rounded the next bend a heard of cows stretched out into the distance being hearded by one man and his dog (i'm sure there is song about that...although i'm sure it didn't involve cows...anyway...). After another 10 minutes of waiting for them to stroll into their field we set off and eventually made it back to NP in one piece and without any animals stuck to Bindi's bonnet.

Now on to our new abode...we are now renting a room in a very nice 2 story house (quite rare in NZ as they mostly have bungalows) with two guys called Matt (An Artist of the modernist variety) and Grant (a Mechanical Engineer)- both are very nice. The house is wood clad inside and out giving it a rustic feel and is on a slope overlooking a valley. Its only a 30 mins walk into the city centre which is very handy for work and nights out! (Pictures to follow). New Plymouth itself is a very nice coastal city with a gorgeous coastal walkway and has stunning views of our very own volcano called Mount Taranaki with lots of great walking and mountain biking tracks so having just bought mountain bikes at the bargain price of $100 (40GBP) each in the sale we plan to hit the trails at the weekend!

On the work front, Chris has started at PwC and is enjoying a new (?!) relaxed approach to work here in New Plymouth and forms part of the audit team along with two other ladies. The office seems to operate a 'no overtime' policy whereby at 5pm noone is left in the office at all! New Plymouth and New Zealand in general are very good at offering a work/life balance. I will also be starting work with PwC on Monday as PA to one of the Senior Partners having interviewed for it last week, so am really looking forward to that! My days of being a domestic goddess and baking are nearly over much to Chris's dissappointment :O)

So once again it is back into the realms of normality for us until December when we will be embarking on travels once again. We have several trips planned in the meantime so will update you again soon!!