Happy new year – Hari Tau Hou,
We celebrated New Years Day in our usual way – lunch with Sandra. Peter cooked a great BBQ and Sandra and Ann had some lovely bubbly.

The mower has finally been repaired (again) and is working well (touch wood). The guy who brought it back said that they’d never known a brand new mower to have so many breakdowns. Thank goodness we have a 5 year warranty for it.

Peter has finished munting the hedge by our new fence. He was held up by the week of bad weather we had. We’re so glad to be living where we are. Flooding is rare, earthquakes are mild and our maunga – Mount Pirongia – will protect us from a tsunami. The thicker bits of wood have been cut up and are in our second wood store drying out for use in 2027. Peter is now planning to create a third wood store as we have so much wood to burn.
We had a meal out at Ann’s favourite restaurant to celebrate 21 years in NZ.

Ann spent a hot, humid afternoon at the bonsai club annual committee meeting. Still it usually means that the committee doesn’t need any more meetings throughout the year. So – a full and busy calendar was planned. Peter dropped Ann off and Sandra kindly took her home after the meeting.
The girls are both fine and spend their days finding the best places for a nap (or three).
Sox doesn’t dream often – this time she must have been chasing possums!

Honey found Peters wood store so interesting and she refused to move – until a car ride was mentioned (of course).

The weather has been variable with a lot of sun but some wet days. Parts of NZ had very heavy rain leading to flooding which had a devastating effect on the East coast, but once again we missed the worst of the weather.
Ann’s latest physio appointment went well. The physiotherapist suggested Ann do a couple of the exercises with ankle weights. Peter got her ones with a kilogram on each weight. We’re both still using the exercise bike each day too.
On the 30th the mower broke again. This time the drive belt snapped leaving the mower unable to move. With this new mower Peter is unable to get at the underside to replace the belt like he did with the old one, so it is booked in for a visit by the fitter on the 2nd of Feb.
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