Happy Kiwi Christmas 2016

Kiwi Christmas greetings. Hope that you are having a great holiday wherever you are and whoever you are with.

New Zealand (Jan-April & December)
We are back at home in Queenstown, starting and ending the year in our latest renovation project. Work has almost finished on 2 floors of the house with the ground floor (garage and flat) to start in 2017. It has been a test of our resilience, patience and determination, but the house is worth some TLC for the views alone. Come and sit on our balcony and be mesmerised. Tradies generating endless dust or promising what can never be, slips away from the mind amidst the bliss.
My favourite sunset (January)

This is an awesome place to live, with so much to do and see. Sarah up above Queenstown 1 Jan 2016

We headed north in February, to the Abel Tasman track with Marti and Robbie.  Despite work with a physio, Hopalong (Jo) could not carry a full back pack (artificial hip hates pressure) giving everyone else an excuse to get a porter for the bags. The only way to trip-along in future

The end of the Abel Tasman


Back on the bikes near Queenstown, we biked our own Lord of the Rings scenic tour via a place called Paradise and another via Walter Peak station.

There are more sheep than people in this part of the South Island (despite over 2million tourist a year)

Sarah also tackled the Motatapu MTB race in March, but having finished in good time, decided that was not enough so rode home another 35km (completely in character). After a frantic 4 months of tradies every day starting at 07:30, we ended our time in NZ, with Camilla and Linda visiting for a marathon 6 days of golf in the Central Otago Classic (surviving dust, no curtains, no heating). At least golf meant more of a lie in!

Tibet/Tiger Leaping Gorge (April/May)
We are not sure what Joey Kwok said to her sister Deluth to convince her to go on a walking holiday with us, but Deluth did brilliantly despite not having had the trip explained fully (especially the rough walking and steep slopes!).

We had always wanted to go to Tiger Leaping Gorge (probably since the movie) but even this place of incredible beauty is being over-run by construction. Trip blog is here if you haven’t read it: https://afewdaysintibet.blogspot.com. Low point was the airport food at Kunming - we gave "locust bacteria stew" a miss.

UK and Italy (May- Nov)
After a whirlwind tour of London, seeing friends for walks and dinners (Gillie, Ozzy, Hank and Blick, David and Jude) and culture (standouts were "Elegy" at the Donmar and "Red Barn"at the National) we whizzed past family in Upshire, Martham, Yorkshire,  Portpatrick and Graces Barn ending up in Manchester to see the non staged version of The Ring at the Lowry Centre. This was fantastic; nothing to distract from the glorious music. It enhances the quality of the sound to have the orchestra on the stage rather than buried underneath.

It was another fabulous few months for us in Italy, with amazing weather, vegetables in abundance and new skills to be tried. We extended our Italian vocabulary to include: candle making, ironmongery, palette furniture.

We also had a bumper crop of Antipodeans visiting.








Jessica, Danny, Lily and Henry from Sydney managed a quick visit; civilised dinners

(only the honey bees nesting by a 1st floor window to contend with)













Robbie and Marti survived the earthquakes in August, despite us leading them up a mountain close to the epicentre (behind the mountain range)

We stayed in Norcia (birth place of St Benedict) which has since lost its Abbey due to tremors.
Although we live 100km/60m away from the first earthquake, the house shook continuously for days.
The second was closer. We were lucky that we had no major (structural) damage. Others were not so fortunate. It was sad to see so many people displaced from their homes; old buildings were not safe to enter/go near let alone live in. All the aftershocks can best be described as creepy.

Before leaving Le Marche, it started to snow in mid October.

This is the view from our house in late autumn sun shine.

We managed a last minute weekend trip to Rome to see the Edward Hopper exhibition. He often paints lonely empty places, brooding and suggestive; you can see why the house in the movie "Psycho" was based on one of his paintings.

It was a strange year of change for us. Our friend Marcello died of a heart attack early on in the year. Jo's Mum and Dad both had hip replacements (one planned, one not); they moved house for the first time in 40 years and asked us to help pack/unpack in Martham. Barbara was begging us to stop work by 6pm on day 1.
Sarah is now expert in both types of conveyancing (legal and transportation).

Sarah spent 2 months studying for a STEP will and trust professional qualification, requiring 3 x 5000 word essays (meaning Jo did too; we will make a lawyer of her yet!).  We had yet another attempt at understanding the incredibly complicated administrative procedure involved in renewing an Italian health card (as European citizens, we are eligible, although this may not last) but ended up in the same place as we started; none the wiser but with a lot more documents with official stamps on them in the bottom drawer. Its only been 10 years since we bought a house there.
Although shocked by the Brexit decision, we can appreciate the reasons.


We were lucky to catch the early winter sunshine and autumn colours at Austwick Hall.

Congratulations to Michael and Eric for winning the Good Hotel Guide Editor's choice award for the garden in 2017.









We just managed get out of Scotland in November, as the snow froze over the roads.



Scotland is glorious in sun and snow; sadly no chance of golf in these conditions but 'The Marriage of Figaro' in Inverness was great compensation/entertainment.

On our travels south, we squeezed in a few days in Bangkok with 4 rounds of golf (spending hours in traffic jams) and meeting up with Simon Pearson. Followed by an excellent Ring cycle in Melbourne.

We end the year how we started in back in Queenstown. This is the place where  Christmas trees are…free. Just walk up Queenstown Hill and chop one down. If not they will get poisoned as they are not natural to NZ. Just like Broom…Here are the two Queenstown witches with their broom sticks on Sunday 18 December.

Trees targeted for removal in the background…












Traditional Christmas food in this part of the world is Ham; trouble is they only come in huge sizes. 4.5kg this year. Of course we have had to buy another recipe book specialising in Ham and ham leftovers. Its a hoot, with lots of gems. Here is an example (chef reviews a ham recipe): "He gave me that withering look, the one Frenchmen probably practice in the mirror to let you know that no matter how much you study their language you'll never get the subjunctive right"

Our New Year will start 12-13 hours ahead of Europe and 2 hours ahead of Australia.
We will be able to celebrate In New Zealand time, Australia time (with Bev and Simon), Norwegian time (with Kjersti and Cecilie) and Uk time.


Hope that you have a great Christmas and all the best for 2017.

Time to plan your trip to visit us soon whether in Italy or in New Zealand.
Once one renovation project is complete, you never know what we might take on next…and where…

Lots of love
Jo and Sarah

xxx