Dawn and Brian are both in Seattle

Hello from Dawn and Brian. Sorry to all our readers, it's been a long time since the last update, but there has been so much going on.....

First the traumatic bits:

• We selected the kitchen, flooring, lights, etc, etc for the house without at any point putting in jeopardy our future life together.


• The builders originally appointed by the Project Managers were sacked, quite rightly in our view as they seemed to think working between 10.00am and 3.00pm was acceptable.


• This lack of effort, followed by the impact of the change, caused a delay to the house completon date.


• Discussions took place on responsibility for extra costs on the house (my business experience came in handy at this time!!).

Then just as Dawn and I thought we would enjoy the final stages of house build before moving in, tragedy struck with Dawn's lovely Gramma Ree having a stroke. Dawn immediately flew back to USA, but sadly her Gramma died before she could get to Portland. So as you can see our lives have been traumatic and sad over the last couple of months, hence the lack of an update to the blog.

I finally managed to move into the house and get the furniture out of storage just a few weeks before I had to leave for the big events in Seattle and London. The final sign-off of the house by the Government Building Inspector took place the day before I was due to leave NZ, yes, I still have the knack of leaving things until the last minute...... Here is a picture of the final product, along with the view on the first morning I woke up in the house and went bleary eyed onto the balcony (deck for my colonial friends). Having a house built has been an interesting and challenging experience, but one I'm unlikely to do again. Don't get me wrong it's a lovely house, exactly as we planned it, and I hope some of you will visit us to see for yourselves. The problem is it is very time consuming and stopped us doing fun things and you should all realise by now we love doing the fun things....




The next part of this project is the garden, which as you can imagine looked like a building site. Dawn and I made a start at the front of the house, plus trying to mark the boundary at the side and bottom of the land with bushes. After Dawn left for USA I continued digging holes (pick-ax mainly in the clay) and planting things hoping they might be kind enough to grow. It seems like I spent all my time digging and planting, but when I look at the land it still resembles a building site. I now realise why I chose to live in flats (apartments or condos to my colonial friends).

During this time of Dawns absence while I was digging and planting and having "discussions" with just about everyone still working on the house, I was struck down with the "mother of all toothaches". 48 hours of, in my view, pain which must have been the equivalent of giving birth left me pleading with the dentist to get it out (see, same as giving birth...). Luckily the gap's towards the back of my mouth so I will still be able to smile for the camera on the big days. I know this photo will have the ladies drooling, bit like I was for a couple of days........

Getting back to having fun, we did manage to visit yet another truly beautiful place in New Zealand. Cape Reinge is the Northern most point on the mainland and like a lot of areas is of significant importance to the Maori. The name of the cape comes from the Māori word 'Reinga', meaning the 'Underworld'. Another Māori name for this area is 'Te Rerenga Wairua', meaning the leaping-off place of spirits. Both refer to the Māori belief that the cape is the point where the spirits of the dead enter the underworld. As you can see it's a beautiful place to "leap-off" from. It's also the place where the Pacific Ocean and Tasman Sea meet, which we have been told is very dramatic on a stormy day. Perhaps on another visit...

You can get to the Cape by driving along 90 mile beach, as long as you know the tide times as we understand many people have been stranded. The beach includes a stretch of very big sand dunes, where you can enjoy the delights of sand boarding. Because this is done in shorts and t-shirt we were told sand gets into places that snow would never reach.... Dawn and I decided we were not yet ready for such an experience, as you can tell by the fact that Dawn is still smiling in this photo instead of trying to remove unwanted sand.......

Another little delight we had was a trip around the Bay of Islands on the yacht "She's a Lady". This was a surprise for Dawn as a celebration that she had put up with me for four years. It was another beautiful day, although a bit calm for real sailing.... The captain took us out to a small sandy bay, photo below, where we kayaked and had lunch on the beach. Also, as you can see below I got in some practice for when I am captain of my own boat, which will probably not have sails as "sailing" seemed like hard work to me.

We attended the very special event here when they celebrate Waitangi Day, even John Key the PM attended. Listening to the speeches was interesting, especially those in the Maori language which is very expressive. The Treaty of Waitangi was signed on 6 February 1840, in a marquee erected in the grounds of James Busby's house (now known as the Treaty house) at Waitangi in the Bay of Islands. The Treaty made New Zealand a part of the British Empire, guaranteed Māori rights to their land and gave Māori the rights of British citizens. There are significant differences between the Māori and English language versions of the Treaty (what a surprise), and virtually since 1840 this has led to debate over exactly what was agreed to at Waitangi. Māori have generally seen the Treaty as a sacred pact, while for many years Pākehā (the Māori word for New Zealanders of predominantly European ancestry) ignored it. It was very interesting to see the local Maori with their tattoos and the traditional "waka" long boats.

Finally, I mustn't forget the weather report. It was mainly sunny and warm up to the day I left NZ when it became rainy and cold. Now in Seattle where the sun has shone for 3 days, a record I think.

The next blog will contain details of the two wedding ceremonies, honeymoon and the start of our next round the world trip.

My last blog as a single man, Brian