Sheep

South Island

The last weekend in April, Judith and I headed across the Cook Strait to Picton in the South Island - my first time on what used to be known as 'the mainland'. The weather did not cooperate on the first day, when it rained A LOT, so we headed to Blenheim and some wineries. This is the heart of Marlborough wine country. We both learned a fair bit about wine and had a great lunch at Hunters restaurant (the food was delicious, although the service was a bit sketchy!).

Vineyards turning Autumn colours near Cloudy bay in Marlborough. We may have been a bit lost at this point!

At the Montana Vineyard.

On the second day the sun came out and we took a boat trip around the Queen Charlotte Sounds.

Pulling out of Picton.

The Interislander ferry across the harbour
.
Sailing around the Queen Charlotte Sounds....

Looking at dense bush like this in a very sparsely populated area, it was hard not to imagine that no one had ever set foot on this particular bit of the shore. And possibly no one ever has!


The general spookiness doesn't quite come across in the photos, unfortunately...





We then caught the Interislander ferry back in the afternoon, which proved the sunniest weather we'd seen. We stood out on the deck facing back towards the South Island and also observing some sheep, presumably on their way to slaughter. See next post for Sheep pics!

Wellington In February...

....looking a lot like Wellington in December and January. This is the Botanical gardens again, righ tin the centre of the city.

Hot Fuzz!

Back whenever it was (March?) we went to the NZ premiere of Hot Fuzz! THis is a pictue taken inthe queue as The Stars arrived. It was introduced by Peter Jackson and the films stars/director - Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright (see v. blurry photo below). Which was all really quite exciting!


(This was quite near towhere we were sitting, despite the blurriness of the photo, honest!)

Mike and Joshie do Wellington

Mike and Joshie ride the Wellington Cable Car.

Joshie plays with Thomas The Tank Engine toys.


Judith does a Mona Lisa impression!


Mike and Joshie meet up with Katy (his and Judith's cousin) and her son, Bruno (the blur of activity on Mike's knee!).

Okay!

So there's been a bit of a blog black-out in effect recently. For a while there I was in the blogzone, but... well, I don't know what, really. Still, I'm back! (If you're reading this months after it was posted and it's still the most recent post, feel free to chuckle to yourself at this point).

First, some more recent pictures from when Judith's brother, Michael, and his son, Joshie, visited us from Japan back at the end of February. This was the first time we had met Joshie, just before his third birthday.