Glorious Gloucester!

It's been a whirlwind of a week (mostly for Karen & John), but things are finally settling down here at the farmhouse. K & J had a quick 3-day trip to New Zealand last week. They flew out Wednesday night (Aug. 4), arrived in Christchurch at 1 am, had a few hours to sleep at the airport and then flew to Queenstown Thursday morning. They spent 2 days with John's daughter, who works in the snowboard/skiing industry. On Friday afternoon, they were lucky enough to hit the slopes and ski a half-day. From what we understand, the ski "resorts" are very different from what we are used to and this one basically consisted of 3 runs/lifts at the top of one mountain. It took them an hour by bus to drive up the windy roads to get to the top, but I'm sure it was well worth it. The scenery looked breathtaking!

After an afternoon of skiing, they drove 8 hours in a motorhome (the same sweet relocation deal that we did) back to Christchurch, slept at the airport again for the night, then flew back to Sydney on Saturday morning. Zach and I were there to greet them at the airport, pick up our rental car and drive 4 hours to Gloucester. Poor Mom and John were absolutely pooped. And if that wasn't enough, we took them on a 3-hour detour through the Hunter Valley wine country and did some wine and cheese tastings. We couldn't pass that up!

Hunter Valley Wine Country

We finally arrived in Gloucester on Saturday evening and had time to relax and unwind - which were much needed because the next few days were packed full of activities and socializing. Kaye and Grahame (K n G), the owners of this house-sit, have a beautiful farmhouse on 250 acres, complete with dairy cattle, chooks, a fruit tree orchard, a winter vegetable garden, a pool and a beautiful cat named Burma. Zach and I are going to have so much fun here! The views are amazing and the neighbors are few and far between. Town is about a 10 minute drive away and you end up spending an hour getting a few things at the market because everyone knows everyone. But, more about the town of Gloucester later...

View of our backyard

On Sunday, K n G planned a beautiful paella lunch with some friends. We got to catch up with Doug and Valda (who we stayed with in January when Grammy & Papa were with us) as well as meet Jeff & Bev, who will be helping us out if we have any issues. We also agreed to watch their dog while they are away for a week in September.

Some other fun things we did while my mom was here...

~ Walked down to the river, explored our backyard and met the 6 chooks that will give us fresh eggs each morning ~

~ Drove to the coast and had fish and chips in the town of Forster (about an hour away) ~

~ Saw a close-up family of 12 wallabies (small kangaroos) ~

~ Hiked up the Barrington Tops mountain ~

K & J drove back down to Sydney on Tuesday night and flew home to California on Wednesday. Since then, Zach and I have been learning the ropes of the farm and trying to work on securing a job (or two). But for now, we're enjoying our free time in this beautiful part of the world.