Kia Ora

Duncan and Lyn finished their coach tour around NZ and came back to stay with us for a while. As it was Easter, Peter and Ann both had time off to take them out to a few local places of interest. We went for a stroll through the Te Awamutu Rose Memorial Park and found a lovely walk through the grounds with plenty of interesting views. We'll take the dogs back there later on.
	Lyn tried to help out with the tidying up but Honey had other ideas.
A visit to the cinema to see The Second Best Marigold Hotel movie (which was great) followed by a delicious meal at The Redoubt.
We also visited Bridal Veil Falls - a short walk through the bush near Raglan. Unfortunately the dogs had to stay in the car.
	Lunch time in Raglan with hot chips !!!!
We then went onto the beach in Raglan where the girls had a fun time walking, running, paddling and swimming - well Maxie didn't think much of the idea of swimming. This is a lovely beach where dogs are welcomed.
Honey showed off her swimming skills with Duncan but Maxie was more refined and paddled delicately with Peter.
	Honey definitely enjoyed running alongside Duncan
Maxie has found a new BFF (sorry sister-in-law - you're out of favour now).
	Lyn took over the job of collecting the feijoas with a little help from Honey.
Ann bought the girls a couple of new toys - the frisbee lasted a whole 15 minutes before developing a hole!
We also took Duncan and Lyn to Waitomo Caves. Ann and Lyn went on the tour of Ruakuri Cave whilst Peter and Duncan were a bit more adventurous (or silly) and went through the same cave floating down the river.
We also went to Te Puia in Rotorua where we saw a Kapa Haka show before walking round the geothermal park, looking at the bubbling mud pools and geysers.
Back home
On their last day here we visited the Kiwi House in Otorohanga.
	On our way back from Otorohanga we called in for a yummy lunch at the cafe at Pirongia Clydesdales.

After Duncan and Lyn left we had a 'bit' of rain. Hamilton recorded 98mm in 24 hours - one month's rainfall in a day - here in Pirongia it was a wee bit less than that.

With winter arriving soon Peter took the plastic bag off the chimney and replaced it with some fine mesh which will hopefully stop the birds coming down the chimney. At the moment it's very noisy in the house as they all think it's a tap dancing platform.

We ran out of hot water again. Ann called out an electrician and he found a fault with the meter. Apparently we get a cheaper rate for our electricity as the supplier turns off the power to the hot water system every night. Unfortunately the 'smart' meter that does this went dumb and didn't turn it back on again.

Although our feijoa tree has been producing vast quantities of fruit, which we detest and give away to anyone who wants them (and to some people who don't really want them but are forced to take them from us when we beg, plead or threaten them) all the other fruit trees have been a bit of a disappointment this year. We did some much needed heavy pruning on the trees last spring. Our harvest consisted of one apple and one pear (the birds got the rest), no grapes or cherries (the birds got all those too), zero kiwi fruit and nectarines. The 14 mandarins made enough juice for one drink each. The pomegranates are promising more - we shall see next month when it's time to pick them.

We managed to get through April without lighting the fire despite a couple of cool evenings. The girls have started their preparations for keeping warm on the sofa closest to the fire.