I said in the last blog that I would write soon. Well I didn't so here is a summary of winter so far!
Winter has flown by (as
always). The days are getting longer and the day temperatures sometimes tease
us by giving us a glimpse of spring. Lambs are becoming more plentiful in the
fields. So how have we spent our quiet season? As you could guess we have been
busy!
On the home front we put in
double glazing in the house. It has made the house much warmer. I don’t know if
it has been frosty overnight until I look out the window. We also put in a new
kitchen, which has made a huge difference to our living space. We are really
enjoying using it, but we haven’t entertained too many people as Lisa has been
sick for a few weeks. It was a long process, many,many decisions to make and
about a week of disruption in the house. It is fitting that some money from my
Aunt’s estate paid for the kitchen, as many of my childhood memories are of our aunts cooking and baking and feeding my
sisters and I every Christmas and every Sunday and many other times as well.
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| The old kitchen |
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| The new kitchen |
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| The new kitchen |
We have also simplified the
garden a bit more by putting a slope under bark, so we don’t have to cut the
grass on the slope. We also got a new shed built for all the garden stuff.
We also went on holiday…..a
proper holiday out of New Zealand. We went to one of the closest places to NZ,
a 3 hour flight to Tonga. We went to a tiny island, a 40 min boat trip from the
main island. It was just like the photos until the wind, cloud and rain moved
in after 3 days and remained for the next 4 days. We got a lot of reading done.
The island had approx. 13 fales (beach house) and the main building with the reception, bar and restaurant. Each fale was out of sight from the others so you only saw people when you went to the bar and restaurant. There were only 20 guests. You could walk round the island in 20
mins and snorkelling and kayaking were the main activities. It was very
relaxing but good weather would have helped. Lisa also had been sick before we
left home and her cough got worse when we were there. We went back to the main
island to get some medicine and see a doctor. The doctor turned out to be from
a town 20 mins away from where we live. On that trip to the main island we also saw a whale with a calf close to our boat.
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| Our fale with our garden |
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| Our fale (beach house) called 'Sunset fale' |
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| Our section of the beach |
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| our view from the fale |
Work is also progressing
nicely. We have brought in a friend as a partner in the business so the 3 of us
are now working at the development side of it. It is all very positive and we
are getting a lot done with 3 heads working on our various projects. We have
quite a few bookings for the season already and we are launching new tours
soon. We are also getting a new website designed as the existing one is now 3
years old (old in web years).
We also have enjoyed winter weather and have been out cycling (without customers). I started up an outdoor circuits class in the village about 12 weeks ago. We meet at the waterfront park and use the park furniture etc to do a circuit. The numbers fluctuate, but there is a core group of about 8. I organised it as we couldn't find a class nearby that did old fashioned circuits. The venue is beautiful and if it rains we use the restaurant at the wharf. It has a big floor space, so we just have to push the tables aside. The 'fee' is a gold coin donation which we will give to a charity.
In some ways I wish the winter season could last longer, as we get to enjoy the area and there are fewer tourists around.
