Exploring the Land of the Long White Cloud

Cuz a Porter party don't stop. No really, I bet if we threw the ball for eight straight hours, he wouldn't stop. This little cutie is a year old today. Happy birthday Porter! We haven't decided how to celebrate, which venue to book or what kind of cake so he'll just have to accept lots of cuddles instead! The photo is from Lucie's party back in October. She just wanted a couple friends and their dogs to go. Porter was top of the list.

We've been enjoying our summer (of course!) so I thought I'd share a couple photos. This was a sunset dog walk at back beach and Dustin was kicking himself for not bringing his board! The waves were stunning and perfect. This was celebrating Rachel's birthday (the actual day of, not the Tarantino-themed party the weekend before!) This was our Christmas camping trip (and incidentally, we returned on new year's eve). We just stayed a night each time but it was only about 45 minutes away so it was easy. Dustin worked through the non public holidays but my office was closed so I was off but went back last Tuesday. This week most other companies are now back too so we're back into routines. Lots of concerts at the park coming up though with the festival of lights on so we're trying to hit up a few more, they are free so it's a great night out with a picnic and some drinks! We're moving slowly through the kitchen reno, bit by b...

If there was one word to describe 2015, it might be hectic, or depleting or full (but good full). (So technically I got away with choosing three words... and I guess the last two contradict each other but well that was the year.) There was plenty going on in our lives from all angles and we certainly grew and adapted and practiced patience. We had both ends of the spectrum from good times and great laughs, to tears and exhaustion - though that's probably accurate to say about most years. January was busy with summer activities and preparations for a February wedding on the South Island . The wedding gave us an excuse to take a week or so off and cruise around a little . Dustin brewed (and served!) beer for the wedding and I decorated the cake(s) . It was a great time with good friends and lots of adventures and kiwi birds and glow golf at night. Then we took a somewhat-impromptu trip to see the Foo Fighters and Rise Against in Auckland which was an incredible show. Then it...

Busy news day today! We are going to go camping on Christmas. How novel! The sun has come out and what better way to spend Christmas than relaxing at a beachside campground! We'll try to remember to take some photos! Love to you all for Christmas!

This is just to accompany my post from the other week about our dolphin tour . I chopped down all of our video footage to a mere nine minutes or so... it was quite a task!

Morning dog walks at sunrise. The new art gallery opening. Punk rocker lemons. And of course, Porter, Porter, Porter! Playing with his mate, Kui. Learning to drive, he's growing up so fast.

Back in March (I'm slowly catching up!) Dustin's mom came out to visit us for a few weeks! We stayed in town a fair bit but we did take a couple little trips out. The first, of course, was driving down to Whanganui to pick up dear Porter! It was a lovely sunny day and we had lunch down by the river there so it was a little tour for Lena as she hadn't been there before. We stopped in Stratford for the glockenspiel show... it was, um, Shakespearean? Then we went to a St Patrick's Day party that our friends have every year (it goes for like 3 days but we only went to one evening of it). After that we hit the road going north. We had booked a bach in Whangamata for a few nights and wanted to show Lena some of the Coromandel. It's about a six hour drive (well, with stops) and because it's the east coast, the beaches have regular golden sand, not the black sands of Taranaki. The town is quite small and we've visited a couple times before...