A child of the soil

One of the times I feel happiest is when I immerse myself in nature.

I've always enjoyed being outdoors, among nature - be it the beach, the forest, in a park, in a garden..... anywhere there are plants and trees and wild things. I've found that it's in places such as these that I feel the most at peace with myself.... I can feel free.

Our new house has an amazing amount of Gardens, secret paths and walkways, and native bush, so its been fun exploring all of it and planning what we're going to do with it all! at the moment its just a matter of maintaining what is there and the eternal weeding.

Sunday 13th May

Well, there are two days till we move and so far it's been a slow slow process. Maybe it feels so slow because I'm so eager to move into what will be our first house, I don't know? anyway, it'll all happen tomorrow afternoon when we finally take possession! yeah! and then we'll spend all of Tuesday moving in (with the help of movers, and Tim's parents - who have kindly volunteered their services for the day!). This whole moving thing is so all-encompassing - I don't feel as though I've got any room left in my brain to think about anything else. We went to the house today to give it a final 'inspection' before we take possession tomorrow, so here are some photos that Tim took, using his new camera: I really like the picture he took of the grape vine (I told him it would make a great photo, hehe), and as you can see, there is one of me sitting outside our new house, forlornely looking inside with anticipation of it being ours. Well, I can't remember if that was exactly what I was thinking, although knowing me, it probably was!

Our weekend wasn't entirely taken up with house stuff though. On Friday night, we went out to dinner at 'The Jewel of Nepal' - one of our favourite resturants at the moment. This crazy Nepalese guy called Romie works there, and his motto is that his food will 'take you higher'! god knows what he puts in the food, but I always find I'm in a more positive frame of mind when I've eaten there! he once showed us the herbs that he uses - which he has to import from Nepal, and they were unlike anything I've every seen before. So if you live in Wellington, and are looking for a good place to eat than I recommend going to see Romie. Later that night I got to see Tim's band 'The Moon Whispers', play at the Adelaide, to a very receptive audience. They got their first encore, too, which was awesome (and well deserved).

The rose gardens are very pretty this time of year in Palmy.....

On Thursday 19th April, I accompanied one of my best mates - Alison Williams, to Palmerston North. One of the highlights of the trip (apart from the spa pool adjacent to our room at the motel) was the rose gardens, situated close the city centre. We only had a brief time to explore them, but it was worth it! Here are some images I took the morning we were there:

Christchurch visit - part 2

I'm standing beside the Peacock fountain, in the Christchurch botanical gardens. Originally, it was really despised by the townspeople of Christchurch, however they now seemed to have warmed up to it a bit. I really like it, anyway. Its spectacular!
Long blonde hair is very fashionable down in Christchurch...... Spot the Wellingtonian!
Cousin Mary poses with my Mum at dinner at Robbies.

Our new house!!!!!!

Or should I say, our first house! Tim and I are now proud (and heavily in debt) home owners!

Here it is, we think it rocks!:

There and back again! from Christchurch to Queenstown, part 1

Well, as usual during my annual Easter holidays, I visited my family down in the south island. For those of you that don't know, the majority of the Smith Whanau reside in Christchurch (my Mum, Dad, and sister), while my Brother is in Queenstown - playground of the rich and famous. So last Wednesday I packed my bags and boarded a plane bound for Christchurch.

I spent a single night in Christchurch, before arriving at the airport (again!) thanks to a ride there from my lovely Grandad. I proceeded to board a plane bound for Queenstown, and had probably the freakiest landing ever, where I swore we were going to clip the mountainside as we passed. The pilot said 'sorry folks, more like a Wellington landing!' when we landed, and I couldn't help but agree with him, thinking that the wing had been scarily close to the ground when we landed. Anyway, having arrived safely into Queenstown, I quickly spotted my little brother, and his bright yellow station wagon outside the main building. It was awesome seeing him again, as I hadn't seen him for a whole year, and I was looking forward to all the catching up and reminising on old times we'd be doing over the next few days.

My rather tall 'little brother', Glen.

It was all on that night at the Frankton Arms tavern, Glen's local, where we played many a drunken game of pool (and one that just seemed to go on and on, and both of us had only two balls left to sink, lol!). We were joined by Rod, who we've both known since Glen was kneehigh to a grasshopper, who provided the entertainment for the night, and a guy called Johnny, one of Glen's workmates, who provided us with plently of rude and sexist jokes!
Ah, good times at the Frankton Arms!

Glen had promised me 'an adventure activity' of some sort for my birthday (which was ahem, in February!) so we decided to give luging a go. Of course, he had been luging heaps of times before, but it would be the first time for me. I must admit, I was rather relieved at not having to jump off a bridge or parachute off a hill or jump out of a plane, and luging sounded rather tame in comparison (hey, I'm allowed to be a wuss!). Anyway, speeding down the hillside and trying to ram people from behind turned out to be heaps of fun. I can now quite easily say that if I lived there I would be a luge addict!


Groovy luging gear - complete with WW2 Trench Helmet!

Mark Kevin Bowry

Welcome to Mark Kevin Bowry! born 3rd April, 2007