Well what a week I've had! On Monday, the company I have been working for since August decided to offer me the chance to stay in New Zealand and work for them on a more permanent basis, apparently I qualified for a visa to stay here which I never knew.

Before you all think that I'm now going to be moving over here, I asked for a couple of days to think about the offer, it was a rather big decision to make! I spoke to my parents and some of my close friends & family, yes you can probably already imagine my mum's reaction, my dad did the typical man thing and asked how much the salary was! I decided in the end that the offer had come at the wrong time and my family and friends would be too far away. It may sound pathetic to some but I have no problem in admitting that I've been raised in a close family, and I have a family and close friends who I value and like having close by.

So by Friday night, a drink was definitely in order, but I couldn't drink too much as I was due on a sheep farm yesterday and didn't think that would be too enjoyable with a hangover. I went on a day tour yesterday with Taylor, a young American girl from San Francisco. The tour was done by a local couple, Donna and Stuart who own a sheep farm about 40 minutes away from Auckland. Stuart has lived and worked on this farm since he was a child, the land was given to his father on returning from army service after World War 1 and was passed down to Stuart after his father died.

We went to the Rainforest, did a bit of Wine Tasting at Noblio, had lunch at a honey centre, headed over to a beach to see the Gannet colony and then headed up to Donna and Stu's sheep farm for the afternoon.

I had the chance to bottle feed baby lambs which were only a couple of days old, they were adorable and then we had a tour of their farm. I planted a native tree at the end of the day, which has been put in my family's name and is on protected land on the farm, so no one will ever be able to cut it down. We got taken in for afternoon tea before heading home, where I was told that kiwi fruits don't come from New Zealand, they originated in China! Pavlova originally comes from New Zealand, which I was a bit surprised about (was thinking I should probably remember this for family quiz nights back home in future). They sent me home with a Pavlova recipe which we had sampled with our tea, but I don't think they realised that I'm no Nigella Lawson and the most I usually rustle up in the kitchen is Spaghetti Bolognase!

I'm on a 4 day week at work this week, I'm heading to Napier for Labour Day weekend on Friday, to visit a whole heap of vineyards for lots of wine tasting, a must do for a young Brit like me apparently. I'm thinking I will be glad to have the day off on Monday to recover.

That's all from me for now, will be in touch again soon. Hope you're all having a good weekend.