It’s hard to believe but the NZ Escape is drawing to a close. I’m sitting in Air New Zealand’s Auckland Koru Lounge waiting on my flight to Los Angeles. The retail stores at the airport are still closed but Duty Free is open, which is encouraging. NZ has just opened Read more…
The days are full, and I am tired at the end of them. Catching up today, Sunday, but the farm chores don’t take a weekend off. On Thursday I drove to Whangarei, about an hour away, to meet my friend, Lesley, for lunch. Lesley and I met in our early Read more…
Yesterday was a gorgeous sunny day here. I spent part of the morning finishing my report and set off with Helen (who had already done more than a day’s work milking cows and feeding lots of little animals) to do some farmwork. The latter is like housework, never complete. A Read more…
Mostly about food …. Sunday morning in Auckland was rainy, but the showers stopped long enough to let me walk to the Cathedral for the early morning service held in the glass Bishop Selwyn Chapel – which is on the site where the first Bishop of Auckland actually preached before Read more…
All told we’ve had some impressive achievements over the last few days. Jim travelled from Auckland, NZ to Detroit, Michigan and arrived more or less unscathed. He received Vax jab #1 the day after arrival. Timing is everything! Jim found that Auckland international departures was nearly empty, LAX international arrivals Read more…
And the NZ Escape team is wrapping up! Jim had his pre-departure Covid test yesterday and today received paperwork stating that he tested negative. Yeah! He’s packed and almost ready to make his masked way halfway around the world tomorrow. Frances will take him to the airport after an early Read more…
Happy Easter! We had a lovely weekend. We attended Whangarei Anglican church for a rousing Easter service. Again, we found the parishioners friendly and welcoming, and we felt fortunate to worship in person even if we were a bit creeped out with the insistence of other worshippers that we should Read more…
Easter blessings to everyone! Tomorrow we look forward to going to in person Easter services at the nearby church. If ever there were a time for hope and resurrection, this seems to be it. No big adventures over the last few days. We’re putting up with our small and noisy Read more…
We’re taking a bit of downtime to get caught up with ourselves. Our stay in Taupo was just that, quite relaxed for us. Everyone else was working quite hard as there was an Ironman Race. Exhausting to behold. We stayed at the edge of Lake Taupo at Two Mile Bay, Read more…
With a practiced military precision, the group of intrepid hikers worked as one to clean up our cottage and depart on schedule for our various next missions. George made quick work of getting us to Christchurch airport, where we checked ourselves in and then enjoyed a flat white and a Read more…