A very early morning start after a restless nights sleep ..... I woke up to both kittens purring very loudly and fast asleep at the end of the bed at 5am. I had close to a two hour drive to Wellington, and as I could have hit commuter traffic I needed to allow time. I had a great run and arrived with time to spare so had a mojo coffee at the airport then was on my way to queenstown. The weather is just glorious, not a cloud in the sky, warm and the mountains stil...

The family birthday celebration is finally here - we are celebrating grandmas 90th birthday at the museum cafe - a farm and museum in the levin countryside. We only have a small family but everyone has made an effort to come to share this special milestone. Grandma is wearing one of the nice outfits we picked out the last time I was here, and is full of energy and high spirits. Unfortunately Nikki is unwell and could not come, but we had me, Donna, mum, Rochelle...

My last day in levin - why does it go so quickly? First call a coffee at the old court house and a dose of gay wit served by the barista who has left his heart and disco shorts in Sydney. He has a huge heart and is currently fundraising for an irrigation system for the rose garden. Then a quick visit to see grandma - she only has so much energy and we are finding small visits are less tiring. We are happy to see she is having a good day and has opened all the pr...

A lazy start to the day but that's what holidays are for. We stopped in to see grandma, then drove down to Wellington to pick Donna up from the airport. We had lunch first at miramar at the larder, then went to cafe l'affare once we had collected Donna from the airport. By the time we got back to levin it was 7pm, and we just picked up some takeaway fish and chips and settled in with a bottle of NZ wine.

A slow lazy morning with the family. We went to the town of Shannon to see what my cousin Rochelle had done with her shop. She has a large retail space that she rents out in small lots to local craftspeople and small businesses, and has her own secondhand babygear and babies shop on the premise. The town has had some unique clothes designers and homewares shops established and they are attracting the weekend daytripping crowd from Wellington and Palmerston north....