Smith's Journeys

We said goodbye to the new neighbours at the Belmont apartment. They had made us feel very welcome in the short time we were there.

We then moved south and continued to enjoy summer in Taupo and the lower North Island spending time with our kids and grandkids.

It was good to have Andy come from New York to Taupo with his kids enjoying all the lake had to offer.

We spend a beautiful day at the Waikanae pools with Cath travelling up from Wellington with Jake and Esme, and Ann & I driving down from Palmerston North

We cruised around the neighbouring field on the bikes, it was loads of fun.

We have acquired a 24′ UK caravan and plan to utilise this as we move towards having more spare time in our lives and are still looking for adventures.

Andy headed back to New York for another full on year. He presented at an international conference to statisticians from around the world. I never imagined I would see a picture like this one.

We had to make space at Rach & Dan’s yard to ensure we could “park up”.

Dan is now the Community Constable at Highbury. This gives him “Family Friendly ” hours, the girl cousins just love it when he pops in unexpectedly.

Took Matt & Nathan out one evening to test the model plan Matt had been constructing

We have enjoyed rediscovering the walks and rides around Palmerston North

Ann learnt what goes up must come down. This is the new “gut buster stairs” beside the river.

Towards the end of February we spent a couple of weekends sorting two house lots of “stuff” that had ended up in Taupo. We still managed to find a few rides while we were there. The first was one of the Great Lake rides, the next was to the Huka Falls. The bikes are performing well on the grade 3 tracks, although we will need to make some changes to the configuration now we are getting more adventurous.

Cheers