Larnach Castle - Dunedin NZ

When in Dunedin we visited the Larnach Castle. The grounds were beautifully done and the Castle showed exactely how people lived back then. Even the very wealthy look very poor in comparison to what we all have today. There belongs were so few and the poor had even less. Visiting this Castle made me realise how lucky we all are to live now in these modern, technology savy times. We certainly have more things, we live longer because our health systems and food give us a better quality of life. But we have lost things along the way. People now days are alot less friendly to people they don't know, we have actually become a very self absorb and angry society. On a daily basis someone is abusing someone else and most of the time it is totally uncalled for. I was in a shop yesterday and the women who was waiting to be served behind me was so over the top down right rude mumbling loudly about how long it was taking to get served when she hadn't even been waiting for 5 minutes, she then piped up loudly about the sales assistant " Jesus can you take any longer" only to then say when the sales assistant said sorry I won't be a moment, this rude women in her early 20's roughly yelled back " I wasn't talkin to you!" in a very angry tone. No she wasn't talking to the assistant but she was certainly talking about her to her companion. How rude was that! And so totally uncalled for, she and I had both walked up to the counter to get served at the one time but I got there slightly ahead of her so I put my stuff down on the counter and the assistant started serving me and it was basically immediate that the rude comments started. There was just no need for it. And unfortunately this is a daily occurrence. I work in the retail industry and this happens all the time, but I have also been on the opposite end as a customer being treated like a piece of dirt by the shop assistant. People just need to calm down and go with the flow and not let trival things bother them so much. And we need to learn to respect other peoples rights even if we don't know them.

Queenstown in the Winter

When we visited Queenstown it was summer but they told us that it snows in the main street about 12 times per year and I found this photo. I think it's a stunning photo and I would love to go back in the middle of winter to see Queenstown covered in snow.

Snow capped peaks

Because we visited the South Island of NZ in Feb/March, being summer the only snow that was left was high up on the peaks of the mountains, so I took this photo using my zoom lens on my camera. Although it was Summer we wore sloppy joes and jeans every day whilst we were down the bottom it was only up the top of the Island in Christchurch that was hot.

The Homer Tunnel - Te Anu to Milford Sound`

The Homer Tunnel was completed in 1953 to open access to Milford Sound it is 945 meters above sea level and is 1.2 km long with a steep gradient downwards leading in the direction of Milford Sound. It is only one car width so the lights tell you when it is safe to enter. The road is hilly leading up to the tunnel and then when you come out the other side it is very very steep going down in sharp U shape bends. Going home was fun due to it's steepness and their was another motor home broken down half way up the hill as it couldn't make it. It was fun going through the kids enjoyed it.

What a way to wake up

When we were in New Zealand we toured around in a Motorhome for two weeks. It's fabulous, whenever you are not in a city you can just stop anywhere and stay overnight. This is where we stayed on the way back to Tea Anu from our day at Milford Sound. We just pulled up along side this fast flowing river for the night and woke up the next morning to see all the fog covering the mountains. You can't see it in this photo but the tops of the mountains where all snow covered. It's just beautiful. If you ever get the chance to do this type of holiday make sure you do it. Touring New Zealand was the best holiday we have ever had and we are going back next year to do the North Island.

New Car

On 17th April 2007, we got rid of our 11 year old Commodore and brought our new car -pictured. It's a Mitsubishi Triton GLX-R. It's a manual and turbo diesel and I love driving it. It was a toss up between a red one and the silver. We ended up getting the silver as it doesn't show the dirt as much. And usually the day after you have washed your car it gets dirty so we thought this colour was more durable.

Milford Sound

At the end of February we went to New Zealand. It was spectacular. A beautiful country and amazingly different in many respects to Australia. These photos were taken of a magnificent waterfall that we pulled up along side of when cruising on the Milford Sound which is right down the bottom of the south island

Milo

Milo is another new addition and definately the last one. When we were at the pet shop buying Holly I just had to get Milo too. He is six weeks old. We now have 5 cats and 2 dogs. Not to mention the fish, mice, rabbits and guinea pig.

We have another addition to our ever growing pet family. Holly is 7 weeks old and is an English Springer Spaniel. We got her as a companion for Billy who is now 6 months old. He had been getting very bored when we are at work and school all day and then when we went out to play with him he would be so excited that he was hypo and he would bite all the time until he calmed down. He was especially doing it with Amy my youngest daughter. I decided he needed company and when we saw Holly we brought her immediately. Billy is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel x maltese, so Holly will end up being a bit bigger then him when she is full grown. But they still should get along fine. They fell in love immediately and sleep in the same bed. And it has solved the problem with the biting. He bits her playing and has not biten any of us since she came. You walk out to play with him and he just licks you and rolls over for you to tickle him. I was a bit scared over having two dogs but I now realise I've done the right thing except my lap is not big enough for the two of them at the same time, which is how they like their cuddles.