'Old times' in Dunedin

The Butlers = Mike, Wendy, Nick and Justin, Toby the dog and not forgetting Magic the horse.

We'd roughly worked out that I'd not seen Mike since 1998! Back then we worked together in the UK whilst they were completing their OE (overseas experience), local lingo for travelling, which took them
through Asia, Russia, Europe and up to the UK. Travels completed Mike & Wendy flew home after being away for around 2 years and made home in the idyllic spot of Sawyers Bay on the Otago peninsula. Once back they married and 2 kids shortly followed.

We parked the van out back near the paddocks. Looking forward to a nice couple of days being based at a place with a home feel. Not long after we had arrived it was off up to the farm as Sunday night is the
customary family 'fish and chip' night at the Wendy's parents dairy farm. We were delighted to be invited and enjoyed meeting Wendy's family, the chips weren't bad either!

Monday, Mike off work for the day, well he is the boss so why wouldn't ya, we were shown the sights and even taken out for lunch. 'Good as gold' Mike. St Clairs beach had a good looking swell and a shark bell when required! Then onto Lanarch Castle - NZ's only castle. We walked the beautifully manicured gardens, the castle itself looked more like a large hotel than what we'd call a 'castle'. On route back to Sawyers we drove the steepest road in the world. Ever!

Richard Tilsbury, another old work colleague from the UK who is now living in NZ, joined us for supper. We had a good night talking about old times.

Tuesday morning gave us a chance to catch up on admin, blog and skype. The calls home were well received following the recent earthquake. The afternoon bought Mark, the Farrier, he came by to sort Magic out with two new pairs of shoes. It was great to watch a very old trade that we'd never witnessed before. Toby the dog gobbled up the toenail cuttings, dogs love them, yuk! Not that we are superstitious or anything but Mark gave us a horseshoe, a lightweight racehorse shoe no less, for good luck for the rest of our travels.

Wendy took Fe on the back of the quad bike up to her dad's paddock where he was haymaking to collect the boys, they love riding with Grandad in the tractor after school. Then us, Wendy and the boys went
up to the Taiaroa Heads. The sunset was fantastic and the boys loved playing in the soft sand and rock pools. We were trying to spot seals and we saw a few playing in the waves. A group of lads were fishing and had managed to catch a few wrass. Wendy then told us to head for Spit Beach near Aramoana while she took the boys home to bed. We got to the beach just before dusk to do some penguin spotting. As the light faded we were lucky enough to see 3 exiting the sea. They looked very funny, almost like old men as they made their way up the beach and into the dunes. As the daylight moved into night skies we were the only ones left on the beach with penguin cries echoing off the rocks that lined the dunes. 3 sightings may not seem many but watching these chaps in their natural environment made it real special for us.