Wonderful

to be back home again..I have a few photos on the camera to update here. I met up with the lovely Julie of Threadbare Cottage for lunch while I was in NZ. We met in Tirau which is famous for the corrugated iron signs in the town. We had a great lunch and then a wander up to the Christmas shop , which was amazing!

Julie gifted me a lovely goodies bag, which I opened this morning

the bag got a bit squashed in the suitcase

but inside was a beautiful candle Julie made and decorated, even  has my name on it, and a lovely handmade soap. I have had one of these before and they are beautiful to use and smell so good!!

Thank you Julie, you made my day.

We took some snaps of the signs and buildings in the town

  the local mechanic shop, and the Info centre

sadly the buzzy bee is a bit hard to see

Mrs Pukeko looks very flash with her pearls and shoes

Mr Pukeko is plainer just sitting here on the roof.

this shepherd was at the local church, you could put money in a box I was told by a man passing by and he would talk to you, I thought that was a little creepy so declined!!

I headed off and drove back over the Kaimais

I stopped at the top to take a photo out over the Waikato and to search for a geocache!

Later that weekend when I went up to Auckland Jenny showed me a book swap fridge at the end of her street

I dropped off two book crossing books and took a thriller. The contents of the fridge were  mostly children's books. Nice to swap books around.

I did manage to get a few more stars sewn

the star family is a wee bit bigger now

I must say that Jenny gave me a beautiful cup (she has the T-shirt to match)

Halloween Chowdy dogs!!How cute are they. I am very blessed to have wonderful friends.

I am off to rediscover my sewing room.

Happy sewing.

Blogging friend

Today we drove (with only a few wrong turns) to Kihi Kihi, just out of Te
Awamutu and to Threadbare Cottage and to Julie. We have met through blogging and we thought it would be wonderful to meet in person this time I was in New Zealand.

Julie made us a beautiful lunch, we had a bit of a chat and then had a look at her wonderful cottage....I  wish I  could put smell into a blog post as the smell going into the cottage was just heavenly!!!

We received a special welcome to the cottage....how good is that!!

Here is a look inside at some of the beautiful things on sale

The other end of the shop, there were so many things I would have liked to take home with me, Julie makes so many lovely things.

We were given a gift each in a personalised bag

I have untied the bow so it isn't as pretty as when I was given it!! Inside was

This, which opened up to

These, which the tablet has put sideways once again!!!

The mug mat smells of cloves and is just heavenly and the soap has lavender and calendula in it and also smells divine!!! It will be beside my bed tonight. 

I did buy a couple of things that I couldn't resist, but they are wrapped jn bubble wrap to get home, so should stay that way for now. 

We had a wander around the garden, the cats Blackie and Pippi kept well away from us strangers, then the time  came to take our leave.  We had a wonderful visit, thank you Julie for making us so welcome and for looking after us so well.

From Julies we drove for just over an hour to Rotorua and I am pleased to say we didn't get lost...thank you Julie for the directions,  they were spot on!! We went to the tourist info centre to get a map to find the motel and found we were not far down the road. We settled in...we are in an upstairs unit so that meant carrying everything yp the stairs......had a cuppa and then it was time to go out again to Te Puia and a Maori cultural evening.

We saw the opening of the hangi, then were officially welcomed onto the marae and into the meeting house.  Then there was a musical performance, with tourists going up on stage to join in, then we had dinner, a feast  of food, including pavlova.....I was sitting next to an Aussie from Brisbane,  so a lively debate went on all evening as to where the pavlova was first made...I won, although I think he thought he won!! Lol!!

To dinish the evening off we went to see the geyser but sadly it had performed before we got there. 

Enough from me for one day, time for bed!

More culture to see tomorrow.

Happy days.