People and Places
So the people started coming in from all over. Sonja's parents are here for the holidays (FROM SA). Henk's family finally arrived after some delays (FROM USA). The US postal services stuffed around with their Visa's so Mercia only landed with the kids a week later than expected. Henk is now a "whole" man again!! And we also have some family who's been here already for some time, Tiny and Esme. Niel and Ilse have been here since end of July 08. So here are some random pics of faces you may know...

Dennis ready for the big walk up the hills... (FYI - Gum boots are called "wellies" over here). Dennis is still Dennis here, we think...

The neighbour asked to let his heffers graze in our paddocks. We loved their presence, and they helped keep the long grass in order for a while till they were sold. Yep, you may have eaten them by now!

Tiny just could not resist the after lunch snooze in the shade

Pre-lunch, Tiny still with us in some form, Esme and kids (Mia and Minka) posing for the occasion...

If there's a braai, Niel's the man. Chef deluxe on the porch with the Gas Braai...


Re-united at last. LTR Sean, Henk, Mercia and Natasha

Me, taking Minka and Mia for a walk in the hills to go get pine cones. Wellies are essential as the recent rains left certain swampy bits were you slug through ankle deep muddy waters... (really sinister, the whole axe and kids thing in the forest)
Wat was dit nou weer van die aap en die bos?? Nou ja, there it is, some wierd tyre statue on Paekakariki Beach. We were not sure if it was put there for a reason, but Dennis decided that the work of art held some secret at the top.

Ina feeding the dukcs at the Whitby Lake. Well, pond, but keep in mind that NZ is small, so relatively, yeah, this may just pass as a larger body of water...



No lies. We actually walked all the way up the mountain and found the highest spot overlooking the road down to Paekakariki in the background.

The new addition to the Steyn-Swart family

Ilse also gets her turn to play with kittie, but all he wants to do is sleep


Like I say, he was just REALLY tired...

Creature Comforts!

One of the joys of settling in another country is the day when your container full of furniture arrives from back home. Being so close to Christmas it was like boxes and boxes of gifts all wrapped in boring brown, but boxes and boxes of stuff! :-) The off-loading happened on a rainy day, but the guys who did it were quite quick and nimble about it and left us with a house full of goodies to arrange.

For a change we could eat around a dinner table again, sit on comfy recliners, have a bedside table and so I can go on! Yep, that's right, count your blessings! When they're not there you miss them! And also, it just goes to show how little one needs to survive. All we surround ourselves with are just creature comforts really. So, a few picks to just show you guys how nicely it all fits in our new home...

Not a "DINNER FOR ONE". We had some more over for dinner. Don't worry, the 5th chair was added later.

Sonja obviously impressed that we don't have to squat all over lounge floors for dinner!

TV and sound all hooked up. Strangely enough my plans were to have the 5.1 setup done first of all, but the rear speakers are still not hooked up!! Priorities...

We have not found the keys to this display yet. Time will tell. Just not sure where they were packed in...

Ah, they're here! All in one piece and just so much more comfortable than the camping chairs we've been using