Friends visiting from home....

It is two weeks ago since my dear friends left us to go back to Norway after 10 days in Auckland. Yes, we had only 10 days but wow! did we do a lot of things while they were here!

We did sightseeing in the harbour of Auckland, Devonport, shopping, trip to Rotorua, saw the sheep show at the Agrodome, Wai-O-Tapu geothermal sculptured after vulcanic activity thousands of years ago, Taupo, Huka Falls (even saw a couple of young rafters going down the falls), lunch & dinners everywhere, visit to the farm & the in-laws, Matakana & concert, Omaha beach etc.
Lovely days with lots of laughs.

Here are some pictures:

Auckland on a very sunny day!

House and garden *January*

Hello to you all!

As usual I am a bit slow with my house and garden updates, but as the summer finally has arrived the time is running away to do other things. Very sorry :)

Anyway, here are the last news:

The garden is growing as ever before. Some plants have lost its flowers (ex. bougainvillea plants) and some have had their second blossoming. I cut the tomato plants down quite a bit a few weeks back and thought I had killed it. This also made the access to the tomatoes for the birds a lot easier. Clever little things! However, it made the plants grow even taller and wider and the tomatoes are having a second harvesting. Good fun. The tomatoes are deliciously sweet and are mainly used for salads.

The tomato plants are taller than me now!

Red and sweet

Bruno Mars : The Lazy Song

New favourite... Must be the good weather we have had here today,
Reminded me a lot about summer and the keyboard at work is not very "tempting" at the moment...

House and garden *desember*

December has been a very quiet month for our house and garden projects, so I have only one thing to show you.
The dining room lamps!!! The magician electrician has been here with his electric wand and simsalabim...there was light...
Aren't they great? The walls and ceiling gets this amazing pattern and the lamps looks like big snow crystals.
 

Finally we can see what we are eating!

 

Hakuna Matakana!!!

Hi all!
The title is borrowed from the very known Disney song "Hakuna Matata". I thought the place we went to last weekend, sounded a bit similar. We went to Matakana in the Rodney district about 45 minutes drive north of Auckland known for its art galleries and vineyards. We have been here before when we visited the Morris&James pottery shop a few months ago.

This time we didn't visit the pottery as we had other places to see. Matakana centre is a small place with lovely shops, art galleries and cafes. A place full of tourists during the summer and where it is rather quiet during the winter months. The beaches in the area are very popular and we visited a few of them. My better half has childhood memories from this place when he went on holiday with his parents and grandparents as a kid.

The weather was nice and warm, but a bit overcast as you can see. Anyway, it was way better than the weather we have here now; rain and more rain.

Snells beach

Bougainvillea in blossom

Below pictures are for you all living in winter wonderland who secretly miss the colorful flowers of summer.
These are crawling up our veranda fence and the colors are so strong you would almost think they were fake!

PS. They are real. Promise.

Merry....

Merry Christmas everyone!

We have had a lovely Christmas day celebration with the family here. Lovely lamb leg on the BBQ and a smoked ham with salad and desserts treats until there were no more room left in the tummy. Luckily, the weather stayed dry so we could sit outside enjoying the delicious food.

I never really get into the Christmas spirit during the summer, but since we have our own house I wanted to decorate a bit inside. We moved most of the decorations we had in Norway, but there it felt like we had heaps of it as the apartment was small. Now, I need more of it!!! We didn't get a Christmas tree this year, but I am considering getting a plastic fantastic Christmas tree when the sale starts (probably started weeks ago)...

Below is some decorations from the house:

Big, old Santa with his friends