Well here we are again, catching up with life at A Deer Cottage. We have had a whirlwind of a year, and now we are settling back into the swing of things. After meeting our baby grand daughter Luna in Japan being one of this years highlights, I think I have struggled a little to not being able to see Luna every day, and only seeing her from a distance. However, life is a journey, and it sure does not stand still. The last few months have been busy, I have had my sewing machine and knitting needles out, putting a few little items together for Luna, I sent them off with a birthday present for our eldest son, ( a whole lot of NZ chocolate - something that I know he values highly!). Check out the slideshow of creativity below...
When we arrived back in Kaukapakapa, Auckland after our month away in Japan, we came back as empty nesters, I thought it was going to take some adjusting after 32 years, and yes, it certainly has been a little quieter, however, it really wasn't for too long before I had my family fix again!.... I was getting ready for some guests at A Deer Cottage, and Te Kani was giving me a hand, I was racing around, and was still in my dressing gown at 1.30pm, when I told Kani we should stop for lunch..... and then this happened....
It was absolutely fantastic to have Briar home, just to hear her happy voice, and to have one of her gorgeous hugs, it was only just for a couple of weeks, and then she was back on a plane heading to Melbourne, her new home......any time is better than no time!.
On the Monday Briar left , we only had two days before our youngest son graduated with the New Zealand Army, he was excited to let us know that he would be joining the Infantry his first pick, and would now be a Private in the New Zealand Defence Force, his long time dream coming to reality. We travelled down to Waiouru a mere 425.3 Kilometres away from Kaukapakapa and to see our son graduate, we were very excited to be able to congratulate Wiremu, and to meet some of his colleagues, it seemed like forever since we had last spoken with him after dropping him off to join the NZ Army in June.
The night before Graduation, Wiremu let us know that we really needed to be in Waiouru the morning of the ceremony, as it was likely that Waiouru was going to have a snow dump, and both the Desert Road, and National Park Road (the main route through Central North Island) had a strong possibility of being closed. Te Kani my husband, quickly made a call to the Waiouru Army Marae, to ask if we could bunk down there for the night, a perfect place to stay and only minutes from the Graduation.
The next morning, the day of the Graduation, I woke up early, and took a peak out the wharenui (meeting hall) windows, and spied snow! As we do not get snow in Auckland, I was like a kid in a candy shop! I grabbed my phone, and took so many photos, it was just so pretty, and when the snow started falling, I felt so very blessed that not only was our son graduating at something he really wants to be doing, but I was with Te Kani to witness our son's happiness, and the snow just perfected my own feeling of excitement, pride, and euphoria.
We spent a day tiki touring around Taupo after Wiremu's Graduation, and then drove to Palmerston North, his new home to bring him back to Kaukapakapa for a 10 day break, with Briar just leaving and now Wiremu coming to stay, we have had no time to be empty nesters! .
As I said before, time does not stand still, we had such a busy Labour Weekend planned, starting off with a fabulous wedding in Whitianga on the Friday, the three of us stayed at a lovely bed and breakfast, just a few minutes from the wedding and the beach.
The next morning, we had an early start to kick off our next road trip.....we had to get Wiremu back with all his gear to Linton by the end of Labour Weekend, we thought this a perfect excuse to head to Wellington for the Saturday night, and catch up with our youngest daughter, this was made all the more special as Lily & Wiremu could share a few overdue hugs, and laughs before our trek back up the North Island. Once we dropped off our son, we headed to Cambridge to stay at another lovely bed and breakfast, what a treat! I had a soak in a relaxing bath with some epsom salts and essential oils. Te Kani and I really enjoyed using the local bed and breakfasts in Whitianga and Cambridge, we felt being able to support other bed and breakfast owners very rewarding, I find it is the personal touch that makes the difference for me. After Te Kani and I woke up feeling very refreshed, we left Cambridge for Kaukapakapa. This round trip was a crazy 1,692.30 kilometres!! but so worthwhile!
In between all this excitement, we asked our lovely new friend Mariko who we met at the Narita Airport in Tokyo, Japan, (who is in New Zealand for a year to learn English), if she would like to come and stay with us for a night. We had so much fun and laughter, it is a great feeling to show off your homeland, and Auckland, has so much to offer. We started off with a trip to the zoo, and then a visit to Devonport and it's Naval Base, the day ending with fish and chips on Milford Beach. After, a scrumptious omelette the following morning, we took Macy our energetic Catahoula pup, and Mariko off to Muriwai, a favourite West Coast beach to visit, and a stark contrast to the East Coast Milford beach, the waves were pumping, and watching the surfers catching the waves was exhilarating!, Macy was loving the freedom of running up and down the beach to the tune of her bouncy ball, and as an added bonus, the Muriwai Gannet Colony was a great sightseeing stop over for Mariko.
While all this tripping around has kept us busy, I have had some guests come and go at A Deer Cottage, with Te Kani and I being out of the country for a month in July, it has been a little more challenging to fit in all the maintenance that is required to keep things looking spic and span, my list feels like I do not get to the bottom of it....washing the house, weeding the garden, repainting furniture, cleaning the swimming pool and spa, on top of all of this, I want to make a chaise lounge from another old bath, however, I do enjoy notching things off the list as time permits, it gives me a great sense of satisfaction and purpose.
I love all our seasons, however I am loving our Spring , with its bursting of life, not only is the garden going wild, we also have one of our bantams sitting on a heritage "chocolate box" of eggs, I can't wait to see what time will bring.
Check out the following pics, you may be able to spy "Henrietta" - our mumma hen sitting on her eggs., although I do not want you to look too hard at the garden as it is pretty overgrown at the moment.... hopefully next month I can give you an update of a "cleaned up" garden 🦌❤️🦌
To finish off this blog I would like to tell you about a funny little conversation I had with the gas man yesterday delivering our new gas bottle, it went like this: I was telling him all about the wildlife that we experienced in Japan, I told him about the deer around our eldest sons home, the deer were prevalent, and we would have to be cautious at night out driving, I then told him, that we have deer here, something our son and us have in common. He then asked me if our deer were Sika, I said no, ours are Fallow deer, but the deer we saw in Japan were Sika, as I said this, for some reason I looked past where we were standing, and lo and behold, a deer was standing about 50 metres away, I told the gasman, and while we finished off our conversation, the deer just hung around before quietly slipping into the scrub land, I am not sure what the gasman thought, but I was speechless!
Next months blog/newsletter I am interviewing a local lady who is also in the bed and breakfast game. I love having a chat to local identities, if you would like to be in one of my blog/newsletters, or if you would like to hear about something in particular please drop me a line, you can do so via my email adeercottage@gmail.com or on my website: www.adeercottage.co.nz
If you wish to find out more about A Deer Cottage, click here
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