Masterton

Hi all. Well it has been a while since I have put my thoughts to words but here I am. It has been an awesome couple of months and we have started rooting ourselves into the NZ way of life. Work has been good for both Liza and I and we cannot ask for more. Anyway, enough of this! Let me get into the tale for the day.There is this little town when you drive north from
Wellington over the Wairarapa mountain range and it is called Masterton. It is an hour’s drive to the little town and I must tell you, it is one of the most scenic routes I have seen.  Our tale is about the weekend we spent in Masterton and the friends that we shared the experience with.Liza and I received an invitation from Ben and Sinead Roe to join them for a visit to Ben’s folks place in Masterton. Ben grew up in Masterton and until recently has been a chef. Ben served in the NZ army for 7 years as a chef and I must tell you I have already learned so much from him regarding the preparation of food. He actually got me to eat nuts. NOOO!!! I have learned how to make my own stock so. LOL He works for Nestlé now. In actual fact, it was his first week on the job this week. HOO-HOOO!!! Sinead is Irish and it is great just listening to her speak. Her accent is so cool. She speaks four languages (Spanish, French, English and Irish). She did her degree in
Spain. Sometimes you just feel stupid in her presence but hey,…they are awesome people and good friends at that.So there we went. We left on the Friday evening and when we got there we were straight into a poker game. I had no chance of winning cause Liza was sitting behind me and making all these facial and verbal expressions that just gave my hand away. I lost. Terribly quickly. No Ben has a huge family. The house we stayed was a 10 bedroom house. Yes 10. Ben has a huge family. Ben is the only child that moved out. Everybody else is in the house. It was great. The atmosphere was great and we enjoyed the company. We ended the night with a game of Buzz. It was tight but eventually yours truly and Liza walked away with the honours,…Why? Cause it was the music version. I must say. Ben and Sinead ended a close second. Finally we went to bed but not before Liza visited the bathroom at least 5 times. Every time I had to get up and walk through this dark house to switch the lights on for her to see. As you all know it was fun and we could hardly contain the laughter.Saturday morning we went for a drive and ended up in the mountains and enjoying the mountain streams and fantastic views. This is what I live for. I will enjoy summer because we will be in those streams swimming and tubing and catching trout. I can’t wait. So for those of you wondering if you wanna come, get your butts over here! We then went and drove around the country side and eventually ended up at a bird park where for the first time Liza and I spotted the infamous Kiwi bird. What strange little birds they are and indeed very fascinating. That was most of Saturday. We left on the Sunday and we took the train back to
Wellington. It was a great weekend.This weekend I will be playing my first club cricket game and I will update you on the progress of it. I am playing for Eastern suburbs 2 team. Hopefully one day I’ll make the first team. Hahaha

Well that is me for the today. Enjoy the photos and enjoy the weekend. By the way,… It is Labour weekend here in NZ this weekend so it will be a long one. YEAH!!!!

The Wairarapa Ben in his Suzuki Vitara Natures CanopySky tower was nothing. Liza demonstrates that the raging river below this swinging brige does not stand a chance against her sence of adventure.

Ben the magnificent (WHAT RIVER?)

Ben And Sinead Roe. (Good friends Indeed)… Should I through in an Irish joke here?

The KAKA. A beautiful sociable parrot that will bite of your finger off if you get too close. Very comicle!

Hope you guys enjoyed.

L8r

Pebs