Well it would seem that Mr and Mrs Bear have packed their bag, they have left the safety of the Cottage and have gone walkabouts, for Easter. FOUND, in the garden, with a couple of yummy hot cross buns! There’s lots of places to picnic in the gardens at Warblers Retreat! The seat they are on is an upcycled ex North Shore Council seat that overlooks
Read MoreThis lovely young couple on honeymoon over here from the UK, were our last guests to stay before the lock down. They were really nervous about flying home and we totally felt for them. They would love to be living here in New Zealand, and I can tell you they are such a lovely couple. They were some of the lucky ones having spent…
Read MoreI am in my element! I have been so keen to cut another track in the bush, up through the gully. Bush gardening is my escape from office work, and will be my gymnasium for a long time! Because we have experienced the driest summer in over 50 years, a lot of the undergrowth is dead, making it a bit easier to navigate a pathway through.
Read MoreDave has plenty of beer and he is making great progress on his project. He’s using up any bit of timber he can find. It’s not as though you can go down to the shop to buy more at the moment. It just takes longer to de-nail used timber, but when you have the time, it’s a great way to go. It’s called being resourceful; using what you have in hand, being creative.
Read MoreCovid-19, Day 10 , Saturday, 4 April 2020. Autumn is a great time of the year for the Kereru as there’s plenty of food to snack on at Warblers Retreat. One food we had no idea they would be attracted to, is the humble old kumara (sweet potato), plant. For some reason the Kereru just love to eat the kumara leaves!
Read MoreCovid-19, Day 9 , Friday, 3 April 2020. We thought it was a great place to get married before covid-19, but now we think it’s an even better place! For someone considering eloping, as we were in 2015, it’s private, hidden away, and now, more so than ever before, it feels very isolated!
Read MoreCovid-19, Day 8, Thursday 2 April 2020. I wonder what will be different? It’s been said many times over, things will be different when we get out of lockdown, well there’s so much that we are doing now that is different in our daily lives, and many of these things will stay.
Read MoreCovid-19, Day 7, Wednesday 1 April 2020. Changing tracks, many of us are going to be doing that in the future, but here at Warblers Retreat, we are changing tracks in a different way!
Read MoreCovid-19, Day 6 , Tuesday 31 March 2020. It’s four weeks that New Zealanders have been asked to endure, to stay home, to help our country, although many of us believe it will be a lot longer. Dave and I have both come from rural backgrounds, we both love being active, and we have both relished this time of being isolated, but for how long? Can we do it without going out for supplies?
Read MoreCovid-19, Day 5 , Monday 30 March 2020. You may ask, what is Pare-dise, where is Pare-dise? The locals around here will tell you the same thing, it’s here, in Pare. Pare?
Read MoreCovid-19, Day 4 , Sunday 29 March 2020. This pandemic has caused many of us to stop in our tracks, it’s an enforced break, time to slow down and time to reassess what is most important in our lives. We are very fortunate here, as we have plenty of nature around us, we are very secluded so it’s easy to isolate, the thing that we have really been needing is
Read MoreDay 3 , Saturday 28 March 2020. Who likes a project? Men like projects, women like projects, so do kids, but some like projects more than others. I think Dave and I might fit into the category of loving new projects, creative ones at that! So what’s the new project?
Read MoreDay 2, Friday 27 March 2020. Up at 5.30, it feels like normal, there’s lots of computer work to be done now while it’s dark so I can get outside when it’s light – well that’s the plan, it doesn’t always go like that!
Read MoreDay 1, Covid-19, Thursday 26 March 2020. The first day of Isolation NZ! It was such a beautiful day here, a bit cooler with autumn just around the corner, but a day of feeling, wow we are so lucky to be alive, so lucky to be here at Warblers Retreat and so lucky to be living in New Zealand with a Prime Minister who is not afraid to
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