- Visiting the West Coast of Scotland
- This is it!!!
- On the road again
- Back Country – NZ
- NZ update – east coast
- Back Country – very different this time!
- Lake Taupo
- The Coromandel
- Mini-break
- More little adventures – NZ
- Getting out and about again!
- More holidays!!
- A new year of adventures
- The mountain cottage
- Ginny’s visit
- Another visit – Marni and Jodi
- More changes!
- First stop in Canada – Niagara Falls
- Quick visit – Toulouse and Venet les Bains
- Ffald-y-Brenen
- The Cotswolds
- Back in France again!!
- Barcelona
- A much more interesting path – crossing the Irish Sea!
- London to Loxton
- Enniscorthy – a quick visit
- County Donegal
- South Gippsland, Victoria
- Next port of call
- Victorian High Country
- Snowy River Country
- Reindeer Lodge – Tanjil Bren
- Hiccup to Blessing
- Have tent will travel!!
- Family and friends – hugs and kisses
- Road Trip to the West
- Very snail like!
Well here we are again to update you on our adventures. We recently spent four days in the Hawkes Bay region on the east coast of the North Island. We had a lovely time visiting wineries, tasting wines, and having some great food. The stand out was the Mission Estate Winery with its wonderful old main building, excellent tasting room, gallery and restaurant. We visited both famous and some smaller, lesser known wineries and enjoyed them all. Also spent a least 6 months of our wine budget but never mind! We stayed in Havelock North which is a lovely little village. Impressive lookout above the town – we made the most of it! Wonderful 360 degree views of wild, rugged hills. Also drove out to the coast and visited some fairly wild beaches with heaps of drift wood and debris washed up onto the shore. Something special about the sea when it’s blowing a gale!
Also visited the city of Napier – very interesting architecture! The city was rebuilt after a devastating earthquake in 1931 – in the art deco style of the time. Very uniform look about the place – reminded me a little of Alesund in Norway. It had been rebuilt in an Art Nouveau style in 1904 after a huge fire. Napier is worth a look – very different from other towns or cities in NZ. Also a reminder of the ever present danger of earthquakes in this part of the world!
You can’t drive straight across to the Hawkes Bay region from Taranaki – too many mountains in the way. We drove over via Wanganui – skirting south – and home along the northern edge of Lake Taupo, then across the mountains to the coast north of Taranaki. A big loop. Both great drives – NZ is such a beautiful country.
Manna Healing Centre – where we work – has been very busy. It has been an amazing few months since we arrived – with many rewards. We recently celebrated one of our guests birthday with afternoon tea and birthday cake – John lives here most of the time so is a real part of the place. It seems to be a tradition at Manna to make the most of birthdays! No-one misses out. We have regular and not so regular guests at Manna. From all adult age groups. They all bring something different – the feel of the house changes as people come and go. We recently had a younger guest – Rebecca – who came for a break. She was such a delight – so loving to our other guests. We often miss people when they go and there are heaps of hugs when they visit again.
Planning to return to Aussie over Christmas for about three weeks. Look forward to catching up with family and friends. Also keen to see our European friends but as we have said before the wings have been clipped!!!
Much love
Di and Reg