Kia Ora Aotearoa

Welcome to the Land of the Long White Cloud. Welcome to New Zealand.

We are feeling incredibly grateful - we have been given the opportunity to spend the next 7 weeks in a beautiful house, in a beautiful village by a beautiful beach. We cannot thank you enough Colleen and Craig for this opportunity, and we can only hope that you get as much out of your visit to our part of the world as we hope to get from your lovely little corner of it, (even if we fail to make you world famous!) We also hope it gets a bit warmer in Hove soon! Do you want to know that it is a lovely 24º and sunny here? This is our local beach, Mairangi Bay on Sunday afternoon (a 10 minute walk, even for a man who has had recent foot surgery)! This is it looking busy!

Having arrived Sunday to be met by their son James and his partner Steph, we have been made to feel incredibly welcome. Even the customs officials who required us to unpack our bags to inspect our walking boots did so with a smile and a laugh. (Although I could have done with out the 45 minute queue, after a 10 hour night flight from Singapore!). New Zealand has pretty strict biosecurity in place so our boots had to be washed and returned to us after everything else had been x-rayed. Nareesa got her special tea bags in though! Phew! I mean you never know, maybe you can't buy them here! (I'll get punched for that).

Our first, but doubtless not our last, selfie by Mairangi Bay beach. This is Tuesday - crowded it isn't. I might even be swimming in this soon!

So what have we done so far? Well, not that much really, as we are still trying to overcome a 13 hour time change. First night here I could not keep my eyes open past 7pm and caved in for a 12 hour snooze! But we are nearly there, I managed to be up till 9.30 last night and then woke at just after 7 this morning.

We have wandered around the local village of Mairangi Bay, had a beer in a local bar, coffee in a local cafe and bought fruit and veg in the local grocery - exciting eh?

We've even managed a "proper" shop in a local supermarket to stock up - on essentials like beer and wine! In Browns Bay, the next but one bay along the coast. Tough eh?

So that is about it for now. If this hasn't sent you to sleep, nothing will. There will be a bit more adventure in the days and weeks to come - hopefully, or I will have nothing to write about!

And I should, of course, be fit enough soon to follow this (haven't actually checked where or how far it goes!)

A typical pose at The Stoned Cow in Browns Bay. I'm assured it is named after a painting, not the effects of smoking weed!

I do too, and I've only been here 2 days!

A last look at Browns Bay - on a sunny Monday afternoon in the late summer. Rockin'!