These are the lillies we found last month we bought some  this time when we came to Waihi, the whole house smelled beautifull.

Stefan and Isabel loved the beach and the water all though it really was too cold the clothes came off and they had a ball.

Sabine and Darren in the kitchen, cleaning up after dinner and a busy day on the beach.

Spreading our cat, Rakker's ashes ,who died at age 14,in the garden at home in her favourite spot.

From Rotorua we left to go to the Eadt Coast off the North Island and travelled to Te Kaha but had lots of stops on the way. A rugged but beautiful coast line with lots of little bays.

As whitebaiting season was still going strong Darren tried his luck in one of the rivers coming into the Ocean on the east Coast by Haupoto. Darren had made up his own "spotting" device two down pipes with milk bottles as floaters and a piece of led to hold it in place. Did it work??

A bucket full after just a few hours and did we have a nice meal??

The best way to eat whitebait is by making an omelette, called white bait fritters, out of them. Just a little bit of salt and lemon juice and Yummi, thanks Darren.

Great visit to the Lempriere Family in Raglan on their Station, Waipapa, Christopher and Katherine came with us as it was september school holidays, spring break, and they could each take five days of from work. Katherine works in the surf shop after school and Christopher delivers the local rag, Daily Post 6 days a week.

Dina, who is five and will turn six in December and  Luke, who is four  had great fun with Katherine and Christopher playing  and showing us their big farm..

When mom and Darren were gone fishing and dad was docking sheep, Lidi and the kids washed cars, played with the lambs and the puppies and had lots of good fun.

We are the pet lambs and love the kids play house, we get a bottle twice a day!

Tanja took the kids and me over the farm, so we could have a good look at all of the land and the animals. All though it was not cold the wind was strong so we were covered up.

We stopped off on the top of the hill, which is more or less the middle of the farm and overlooks all the land and the buildings. Raymond and his crew were docking the lambs and Luke quickly said hello to his dad.

This is what you see from the top off the hill, when you are not working!, behind Tanja and me is Raglan harbour to which their  land slopes down, and were Tanja and Darren went for their fish.

Before we left, Darren got on the tractor and made a vegie garden for Tanja, out of old posts and than everybody helped fill it with good soil from the farm with plenty of manure in it. The latest e-mail messages tell us of the first good harvest!!

After Raglan it was back to Rotorua for a few days, kids back to their jobs and Christophers  soccer Team played in the finals for the season and came first.

For the last week of the month we went to New Plymouth on the west coast of the North Island another very rugged coast but with long sandy beaches. We had lots of wind and the beaches were full of drift wood.

 Picture perfect, this is Mount Taranaki or Mount Egmont as it is known in Maori or english a dormant Vulcano at which foot lays the city of New Plymouth. The wind had brought colder weather and we had a good dumping of snow. That did not stop us having a bike ride along the coast on the New Plymouth coastal walking and biking track.