Lee's holiday recap...

On Sunday evening, Monday and Tuesday this week we headed down to Riversdale Beach to Chris and Denise's beach house. It was a well deserved break for Lee after a busy week of Pastor's conference and Synod.

We drove off past Masterton and headed sea-ward. After a short detour (of MacDonalds for tea and a missed turn in the dark), we got to the beach house (a small 6 bedroom, two story mansion). We settled in, Owen chose his bed with the puppy quilt on it. Imogen got to sleep in the same room as her brother. The kids were great, really, sleeping well, coping with the lack of routine and having fun with Uncle Ben and Aunty Kim.

On Monday, we headed off into the unknown and explored Carterton. We tried to see the replica Stonehenge out woop woop from Carterton, but it was closed - clean up after the pagan festival for the winter solstice. We then figured we'd head to Martinborough to do some wine tasting and have a coffee. Martinborough accounts for around 1-3% of NZ's exported wine. We went to the Schubert winery (see photos below). Nice little boutique winery. Not much, in Lee's opinion to write home about, though.

Then we headed to the town centre. We went to a coffee shop/wine tasting place. The coffee was great, the wines were good too, but the highlight (if I can use that term here) was the guy serving the wine. He was definitely a diamond in the rough. His language was questionable, his idea of a 'time out' was borderline indecent, but boy, did he know wine. After discovering that Lee was a pastor, he said do you want to hear my Christian joke? Lee and Ben said 'sure'. He said 'What does a Christian use as contraception?' ... 'Their personality...' That's a short synopsis of the conversation... VERY interesting.

After that, we headed home, via Cobb & Co for tea. Cobb & Co had a nicely redeveloped playground, which Owen really enjoyed. We all, except Anna, had a climb around in it too. Much to Owen's delight. Kim got some good photos, we'll post some later.

Then Tuesday came (all too quickly) and we cleaned up and headed home. Although, on the way, we had to stop at the Masterton playground, and Owen had a great time. It was sub arctic, so we all needed hot drinks to warm up after it.

Then we began the pilgrimage home - via Breakers for tea. We then saw some amazing snow fall on the Wairapa ranges - very low snow fall. But the photos do not do it justice. Very nice time away, all too short, but very fun.

Here are some shots from the recent trip to Riversdale Beach. Some Schubert rellies in front of the Schubert winery.

The Schubert winery. A small boutique winery in Martinborough. Ben and Lee did some tasting - and found a nice sweet desert wine. Nothing else to write home about.
Ben and Owen playing at Schubert Winery - Owen thoroughly enjoyed a nice long piggy back around the winery car park.

Off to Masterton playground (at the insistent asking of Owen). He went down every different coloured slide and had a ball playing on the huge playground. On the blue slippery dip, you'll hear him ask to go on the pink slide (again) and then correctly identify what colour slide he just went down.

The Wairapa ranges on the way home.

Snow on the ranges - not very visible for all the low lying cloud.

No doubt there will be more at another time - be good. Lee