Poor Pat!

This is what happens if you don't work hard enough!

Are you an ICE CREAM freak?

Jess and Pat were! They took advantage of the cheapest icecream prices in the country and had one just about every single day. Only 5 minutes walk to the dairy from our house.
For $1 you get 1 scoop and a half in a single cone ( this is kiddies size)
For $1.50 you get 2 generous scoops in a single cone.
For $2.50 you get 3 scoops in a double cone and hope it is not too hot a day!
For 50 c extra you can get the icecream chocolate coated.

Tip Top (New Zealand made) is THE best icecream in the world!

The local dairy has 12 flavours to choose from including top of the range only-in-New-Zealand-icecream flavour ...

HOKEY POKEY!!!!!!!

PUZZLED

We have a good collection of puzzles and since we started a 1000 piece puzzle on Christmas Day we are onto our 5th puzzle. It is great fun but, unfortunately, extremely compulsive!!! Matt's table is just the thing. It is big enough to do a puzzle on at one end and have a meal at the other end.

CROSS OVERS

We have had a lot of stays cross over each other with some coming and others going. Accommodation was stretched at Christmas but having Ami's room finished means wwoofers have been able to sleep down at the new house. Once Han left Jess went down there and enjoyed the space. The atmosphere of the house is apparently (!) lovely for sleeping. We are so-o-o-o-o-!!!! jealous as we haven't slept down in a bedroom yet.

Pat and Jess stayed 2 weeks and left fatter than they came! It is lovely to have people so appreciative of the meals and hospitality. Pat and Jess really helped out with the girls, I forgot to mention it has been the summer holidays here since some time during Kenji's stay. Pat and Jess got to get muddy and we made real progress on the completing the internal mud walls. They helped to lay out the grey water system and completed the planting (100 trees) so that project is as good as finished.

We only have the actual building details and the solar system to go and the house is done!

"Han"

"Han" was a honey. By the end of 2 weeks we could hardly stop her talking. The girls loved to chat and play with her as well. Han painted the area around the outside laundry and then helped me do a big mosaic around the mirror in the bathroom. I drove Han up to Christchurch and we caught the bus to Kaikoura together. I met the girls there returning from Wellington and Han travelled onto Nelson. Han was another puzzle addict and on our last night we stayed up till all hours before the puzzle got the better of us...we couldn't finish it.

Sachiyo

Sachiyo could stay just 5 days after a delay in Christchurch. Sachiyo looked after the girls a bit and did some gardening. Sachiyo and Han enjoyed their time in the evenings chatting together in the wwoofers room. Sachiyo is the first wwoofer to go from our place to our friends place just down the road.

Eaten by mosquitos

Well, we never heard back from Akira and Kayo, a newly married couple, who went off to tramp the Milford track so we are assuming they got eaten by the biggest mosquitos in the world. No kidding ...all the guidebooks will tell you about them. Anyway, Akira and Kayo stayed several days and helped to plaster the wall in Ami's room. But their main project was to cut and move the last of the kerfs (offcuts from the timber milled on the property 3 years ago) so we could establish our grey water system. Funnily enough, their name was "Mizuguchi" (water outlet=referring to the gap at the edge of the paddyfield where water is let out for the rice to dry out). I thought this was a very appropriate name as the grey water system consists of 2 long tubes with lots of little feeder pipes (water outlets). Akira and Kayo planted the first tree in the grey water garden.

Kenji's s-tile

Kenji proved to have great style while at our place. He had done a little tiling as part of his university study for architecture and so he was enthusiastic about having a go at tiling. Consequently, apart from plastering and sanding back most of the gib-board in the house he tiled the kitchen area and completed most of the tiling in the bathroom. Over 6 weeks it was a massive contribution.

It is great having long term woofers. Kenji became part of the family and got the opportunity to do so many things, especially as Christmas and New Year is a time of year with so much happening...Toastmasters and the club end of year BBQ, the local A & P show, our huge local festival-Strawberry Fair, Christmas in the park, Christmas Eve service, Christmas with the family, the Waimate rodeo, picnics here and picnics there, etc, etc... 6 weeks was also time enough to make friends with a couple from Toastmasters and Kenji went up to the lakes with Wim.

He enjoyed playing with the girls although we had to draw the line when they tried to get him to play Barbies!

Happy New Year

Lizzie got into the spirit of things at New Year and joined in our special New Year's treasure hunt. Her and the girls, and Kenji too got all dressed up put of the dress-up suitcase and we all trooped downtown for the girls' annual shout. They get given some New Years gift money ( a Japanese tradition) and so they have to buy the family an icecream. Lizzie helped me organise the treasue hunt at Knottingley Park and we spent an awesome 2 hours following a trail of clues. We spent a bit of time in the garden tidying things up and we painted and tiled Ami's room. This is now the first room to be entirely finished!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!