Farewells and fond memories

This has been a bittersweet weekend, as our farewell to Patrick--who returns to Minneapolis after 10 weeks in NZ-- reminds us how lucky we are to have this place and these people as part of our lives. We are winding down work here ourselves and preparing for an 8 day sail along the fjords and a week of other adventures in the South Island. We had a skype chat with our future colleagues at Regions on Saturday, and are eager to begin work there (we're coming, Tracy!).

On Saturday night we visited Rosie and Rob's farm in the hills above Plimmerton. After a memorable evening last night (well, I don't remember the last part, but that's another story), we hiked along the coastal mountain pastures with the whole family this morning. Their children are very sweet, and shared their horses with us to ease the uphill climb. As we reached the ridge, a strong Norwester whipped the waves into whitecaps below and nearly blew us over a couple of times, but we made it alright. We're back home at Mahina Bay awaiting the sunset and feeling very, very blessed, indeed. Kia ora!