New Zealand is finally opening it's borders. This is a HUGE move for us. We have been keeping ourselves quietly occupied and alive in our own sweet paradise while the rest of the world has been dealing with Covid 19. The number of deaths we have had here have been minimal in comparison to other countries but the payment for some has been high. Tourism operators, restaurants and cafes have been hard hit financially. For us locals though it has been wonderful to wander in our own backyard without overseas visitors filling up every space and causing high prices for things. Not that we don't love visitors, we do, but this small breather is magic. We have really been missing the backpackers who do tons of bitsa jobs around the country and often at our place. I will be very happy when those Helpx'ers return and along with chatting about travels and other countries our garden will get tended to and our big retaining walls may get a coat of paint.
It was a bit scary there for a bit as I came here to write a new update and the site wouldn't work. I emailled but got no reply. Sad I thought, this blog is a record of our travels, at first, and now our lives. It has been going for 12 or so years now and the readership which commonly sat at around 1,000 and peaked at 4650 has now dwindled to under 200 which I imagine is mostly family, but someone may miss these small stories from Rotorua, Kiwilandia. As this is a great record of our lives I have been copying and pasting it into a document which I have just brought up to date and it is 253 pages long in a small font. While keeping this blog I have also been writing in diaries, my plan is to combine my diary writings with what I have downloaded and also add in photos taken through the years to create a memory for our families. It might end up quite large...
Even more scary is what some madman is doing overseas to ordinary people going about their ordinary business. We just got over having a weird possibly mad man in another country now another has raised his head. What is the world coming to?
Sometimes I'm so glad we live at the bottom (top?) of the world.
BTW a very happy 7th birthday to my sweet Friday 13th gingernut grandson Darcy who I love with all my heart. I hope your 8th year will be your happiest yet.
