Just a quick hello to let you know we have settled into Greytown, NZ. Had a good trip over last Thursday – caught the plane, watched a movie, had a meal, landed in Auckland, wheeled our cases to the domestic terminal, more food and then caught the plane to Wellington. Picked up by Stuart and Judith – house owners – and driven over the mountains to Greytown. Very straight forward and uneventful. Bit different to our last NZ trip when our plane was late into Auckland. I still have visions of us running through the terminal with our luggage, jumping the queue in customs, being driven by a kind limo driver to the domestic terminal, and just making our connecting flight to Whangerei. Much more sedate this time!
Stuart and Judith are now in Europe and we are happy living in their character filled home. The animals are great – Zeb a 12 year old Labrador cross, Belle the black cat who is 9 and sleeps most of the day, and Tosca the brown and white cat who is nearly a year old and full of energy and mischief. As is very common in NZ our new home is made of timber. It has plenty of heating and is very cozy. Greytown is great – full of character. The main street is full of quaint little shops, a couple of pubs – we have already visited the White Swan – a basic supermarket, post office and service station. It is a popular weekend destination for Wellington dwellers. There are also several wineries in the area – I am sure we will visit the odd one while here.
The night after we arrived we went to Masterton – about 20ks away – to hear the Wellington Orchestra. It was amazing!! Very spoilt. Other than the odd trip to shop for supplies we’ve had one outing so far – a visit to the beautiful Waiohine Gorge, a short drive into the Tararua Forest Park. Lots of mountains – snow in winter!! – and beautiful trees and rivers. We parked the car and walked throught the forest to a swing bridge that crossed the deep gorge and river below. A lady in front of us had ‘frozen’ as the bridge began to sway. Her husband had to help her turn around and walk back along the bridge until they reached solid ground. She was good humoured about it; you never know how you are going to react in situations like that! We enjoyed crossing over, swaying and all – fortunately neither of us suffer from a fear of heights.
Bye for now
Much love
Di and Reg
This entry was posted in Greytown, NZ, House Sits, New Zealand