Horses and Chocolate

So we're finally settled in to our room...feels nice to be unpacked :) We're staying with Andrew's family for the first 4 weeks of the trip and then we will be staying in Auckland for the last week.  We have a few side trips planned as well.  One to Queenstown and then the other is a loop from Nelson to Greymouth down through Arthurs Pass and back home.  The first day was a whole lot of staring at the amazing landscape around me.  Andrew's familys house is on a beautiful 65 acre (ish) farm with about 15 horses, some cows and some sheep.  We also have Diesel.  The most adorable little dog.  With fantastic hair...

The view from outside our room is absolutely beautiful.  From this side of the house you get to see the cows :) On the other side you can look out and see the horses.  The mountains are off in the distance but you can't really see them from the house...there are big tall trees to block the wind that are in the way.  If you walk a bit up the property though you can see them.  And they are BEAUTIFUL!

Andrew's stepmother started our week off with some cornbeef and potatoes with a salad.  Definitely delicious.  The cheese on the salad is so addicting. I absolutely love their cheese haha. We ended up going to bed around 9pm...not too bad considering we were up at about 3am haha.


Monday was a pretty relaxed day...because we went to bed at 9, we got up quite early around 6 or 7am and had some tea, relaxed, and I did a bit of work.  Andrew decided that he wanted to go in to town...I was quite excited but definitely nervous.   Andrew hadn't driven on the left side of the road in about 4-5 years... Eeeek!  He did great though haha.  That is one nice thing...I never have to drive here!  1. No license 2. I drive on the right side of the road 3. All the cars around here are manuals!   Anyway...he drove me in to the closest town of Ashburton.  On the way there I couldn't resist snapping a picture of the mountains...they just take my breath away.
Once in to town we decided to exchanged some money and do some looking around in local shops.  Andrew told me I had to take a picture of the clock tower...so there it is ;)

Got to go in to The Warehouse...like a Walmart...and that was quite exciting. They have fantastic candy here...especially the chocolate...I couldn't resist and had to get some.  I did realize that everything here is a wee bit pricey.  I wanted to get some shaving cream and some coffee creamer.  I learned that people don't do coffee cream here.  It's just milk.  But they do have cream...its just...not the same. But I got it anyway.  And then the shaving cream...talk about expensive! $8 for a can! And only 3 choices! Guess I'm using soap or lotion to shave haha.


Then we decided to go home and on the way up the driveway I snapped the cutest picture of the horses.  They have a cute little foal here at the moment and it's always lazying around, laying on the ground.  They all just happened to look when I was snapping the photo.

 Later we went back in to town with Ashley and I got to try my first custard square.  They are FANTASTIC.  Oh how I love custard squares.  I have a feeling I will crave them once I'm home...We also went to a man-made lake and ate at a restaurant called The Lakehouse for lunch.  Talk about expensive.  Andrew and I decided to split our meal...had a beer each...and it totaled about $40.  I about died. But hey, at least you don't have to tip here! Haha...

Later we went back to the house and just hung out for the rest of the day.  I did some work and Andrew did a bit of riding with his dad, practicing polo.  At the end of the day Andrew snapped this great picture of the girls riding out, carrying all the horses with them to let them in to the paddock.  Very cool.  Check out the skills...

We ended up having another early night...getting in to bed around 9pm haha.  But I'm going to have to admit I'm ok with that because that means waking up nice and early!  Oh and did I mention its not dark till like 10pm? Yeah...talk about a change...Until next time!!