MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

I would just like to take the opportunity to wish all my readers a very happy Christmas and all the best for 2013.....what will this next year bring?

Please remember to have a look at our Christmas video greeting.

It has been a lovely day to remember the birth of our dear Lord and Saviour who came to love and save the lost.

AdvenTea Day 24...

Today's tea is: Mulled Spice

Smell: of mulled wine

Flavour: quite bland but with a vague hint of mulled spices

Score out of 10: 8

AdvenTea Day 23...

Today's tea is: Sunshine Grey

Smell: Earl Grey smell with a hint of sweet lemon

Flavour: as the smell

Like or dislike: Like

Score out of 10: 9

AdvenTea Day 22...

Today's tea is: Rooibst with Strawberry & Vanilla

The angel at the top of my tree.....its nearly Christmas!!!

Smell: a very summery strawberry smell

Flavour: of redbush tea with a tint of strawberry

Like or dislike: dislike

Score out of 10: 5

AdvenTea Day 21...

Today's tea is: Darjeeling

Smell: like a normal cuppa

Flavour: quite light and fragrant black tea

Like or dislike: Like

Score out of 10: 7

Our Christmas tree & decs.....slightly blurry but will try and get a photo on my camera tomoro

AdvenTea Day 20...

Today's tea is : Wild Berries Black Tea

Smell: of berries

Flavour: tastes like a normal tea with a hint of fruit tea berries over the top

Like or dislike: like

Score out of 10: 7

AdvenTea Day 19...

Today's tea is: Chai

Our favourite tea

Smells: of cloves n all Christmassy

Flavour: very spicy n clovey...very tasty

Like or dislike: like

Score out of 10: 10

AdvenTea Day 18...

Today's tea is: Camomile & Spiced Apple

One of my already known favourites!!

Smell: of winter spices n sweet apple, reminds me of toffee apple n winter spice

Flavour: very similar to the taste

Like or dislike: like

Score out of 10: 10

AdvenTea Day 17...

Today's tea is: Pu-erh

Sounds interesting, a new one to me!!

Smell: very similar to Lemon & Ginger but a bit more citrussy

Flavour: smokey n citrussy

Like or dislike: like

Score out of 10: 8

Merry Christmas...a year in photos 2012

Merry Christmas to all!!!

AdvenTea Day 16...

Today's tea is: English Breakfast

A good gentleman's breakfast tea!

Smell: a normal cuppa tea

Flavour: quite a delicate tea

Like or dislike: like

Score out of 10: 9

AdvenTea Day 15...

Today's tea is: Rose Garden

Smell: very fragranty rosey, it distinctively reminds of Turkish Delight

Flavour: tastes very similar

Like or dislike: like

Score out of 10: 9

AdvenTea Day 14...

Today's tea is: Lemon & Ginger my father-in-laws favourite

Smell: Lemony and gingery

Flavour: Lemon and gingery (no surprises there!)

Like or dislike: Like 

Score out of 10: 7

AdvenTea Day 13...

Day 13 unlucky for some....and for me today but that's another story!

Today's tea is: Lapsang Souchong

Smell: like stale tobacco?!

Flavour: also tastes like stale tobacco

Like or dislike: dislike

Score out of 10: 3

AdvenTea Day 12...

Today's tea is: Sweet Fennel

Smell: quite aniseedy which I suppose is what fennel smells of

Flavour: very similar to the smell

Like or dislike: like

Score out of 10: 8

Can imagine this tea aiding digestion :)

AdvenTea Day 11...

Today's tea is: Winter Spice

Smell: cinnamonny mulled wine....ummm very Christmassy

Flavour: not a strong flavour but a mulled wine hint of a taste

Like or dislike: like

Score out of 10: 8

AdvenTea Day 10...

This morning's breakfast

Today's tea is: Redbush

Smell: quite a bitter dark kind of smell

Flavour: a kind of dirty musty flavour (but not unpleasant). A very distinct unique flavour

Like or dislike: on the fence

Score out of 10: 5

AdvenTea Day 9...

My amazing Battenberg Birthday Cake, thanks Jen!

Today's tea is: White tea with a hint of Pomegranate

Smell: a creamy fruity sweet smell

Flavour: pomegranatey with a bitter ish tea taste behind

Like or dislike: like

Score out of 10: 7

AdvenTea Day 8...

Today's tea is: Light & Delicate Green Tea

This mornings breakfast

Smell: struggling to smell anything but that could just be because I have a cold but possibly a vague green tea kind of smell....I have a friend who would love this tea!

Flavour: a very bland green tea flavour which is nice as green tea can sometimes be a little too strong

Like or dislike: Like

Score out of 10: 9

AdvenTea Day 7...

Day 7 can only mean one thing...MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

Today's tea is: Blackberry & Nettle Fruit Tea

The colour of today's tea matches the colour of my mantlepiece & birthday card

Smell: Very fruity

Flavour: quite bitter in comparison with the smell, not too bad as fruit teas go

Like or dislike: Dislike

Score out of 10: 5

AdvenTea Day 6...

Today's tea is: JASMINE EARL GREY

An interesting tea combination I've never heard of before, but I like Earl Grey and I like Jasmine so I wonder what they'll be like combined together...let's see!

Smell: just like Earl Grey a sweetish tea smell

Flavour: tastes just like Earl Grey although there is a Jasmine tea aftertaste in my mouth, a good mix of the two teas

Like or dislike: like

Score out of 10: 8

AdvenTea Day 5...

Today's tea is: Ceylon Breakfast Tea!

My friend's beautiful homemade cards accompanying my cuppa today!

Smell: like a standard cuppa

Flavour: quite a bland flavoured tea but makes a good strong cuppa

Like or dislike: LIKE

Score out of 10: 7

AdvenTea Day 4...

Today's tea is: Assam (milk to be added although I drink all tea without milk!)

Smell: a standard black tea with a funny bitter smell to it

Like or dislike: Like

Flavour: has a sort of metallic (not in a horrible way!) black tea bitter taste but is lovely. Perfect accompanyment to my birthday cake which Luke presented me with today......

Score out of 10: 7

AdvenTea Day 3...

Today's tea is: Cherry & Cinnamon

Smell: Christmassy cinnamon floating smell over a distinct sweet cherry fragrance

Like or Dislike: Dislike

Flavour: very bland, has very little flavour

Smells better than tastes

Score out of 10: 4

AdvenTea Day 2...

Today's tea is: Lemon Green Tea

Like or dislike: LIKE!

Smell: Quite a sweet smelling lemony tea

Flavour: a green tea bitter flavour with the sweet hint of lemon floating through

Out of 10: 9

For more information about AdvenTea, see what other people think about the different teas!

AdvenTea Day 1.....

I am doing an alternative Advent Calendar this year which my beautiful sister-in-law, Maria, has put together!

Todays tea is: African Honeybush with a hint of Lavendar





Like or dislike: LIKE!

Flavour: Slightly bitter flavour, vague hint of mint with a background lavendar flavour too.

Smell: Beautiful lavendar aroma makes me feel slightly sleepy!

Score out of 10: 8

For more information about AdvenTea.

Home!!!!

Well, I left you all in New Zealand on the blog...but yes, we are now safely back in the UK.

Our flights all flew smoothly and we arrived home early morning on 16th August to some summer warmth.

We are now enjoying a few weeks of visiting lots of friends and family before I start a new job and Luke starts his Masters course.

I suppose this is the end of this blog....but it has been enjoyable telling you all about it. I am still blogging on Ruth's Ancestors about my family history researching.

Looking forward to seeing you all soon :)

Day 70 - Tuesday 14th August - Packing and Cleaning

Guess what?

It is still raining!! Thankfully it did not matter to us too much as all we had to do was pack our bags, clean our campervan and return the campervan.

Packing was a challenge, how do we get all these things into our bags again!!! It is like a huge jigsaw puzzle, but eventually we managed it.

Cleaning the campervan was dull and it was quite sad to feel we were leaving New Zealand although we are happy to be on our way home at last as we miss you all muchly.

After all this hard work we had lunch out at a nice cafe near the campsite. Spicy wedges with bacon and cheese...delicious.

Next was returning our van...we had driven 10,327km or 6,416 miles in the 68 days we had the van!!!!!!!!!! That is on average 94 miles each day...WOW!

Once settled and sorted in our cabin at the campsite we watched a film and had tea before getting an early night for an early morning rise tomorrow.

This has been an epic trip and an amazing one, with lots of friendly people, beautiful scenery and awesome memories. Although it is not quite over yet we have to get back to England first...let the journey begin!!

Day 69 - Monday 13th August - Akaroa to Christchurch

During the night we were buffeted by the stormy weather and it did not stop pelting it down all night.

When we awoke in the morning the weather was just the same, so we headed straight back to Christchurch. We are very glad we made this decision as any later and we may have been stranded.

Along the roadside were many small landslips which blocked a lane of the road and huge amounts of water gushing down the steep volcanic landscape of the peninsular.

Maintenance lorry and half flooded road

Washed down mud

Landslide

Just outside the town of Duvauchelle we were stopped by a road maintenance lorry who told us there had been a large landslide blocking the whole road. This was the only road out of the peninsular!!

We were advised to wait for an hour or two as they were clearing it as we spoke, so we parked up and started watching a film. After about 20 minutes a number of cars passed us in the other direction so figured that the road was passable.

At the landslide it was like a whole field just above the road had burst its guts all over the road and down the hillside below the road. It was huge muddy, gushing torrent of water. There was a big digger trying to fight against the huge torrent of mud and water.

Onward we drove quite glad to have passed and be back on the road. The flood waters in the fields on either side of the road were becoming larger and more frequent, which worried us slightly as the next part of the road was very close to a large lake.

Flooding getting worse

As we entered the village of Little River there was lots of activity and flashing lights, then we noticed the little river had grown creating a huge ford over the road and was lapping at the doors of the houses. Thankfully there was a detour avoiding the metre deep water on the road, although there was a car stuck in the water.

Little River village

Stranded car in the flooded road

Once past Little River we drove past the hundreds of flooded fields with very wet and sad looking cows and sheep but there was not much flooding on the road.

The wet drive back to Christchurch

A few rather flooded fields

A very flooded field near the lake...

...more floods...

...and more...

...and more!

Passing a road sign for "Rossendale Winery" reminded me of home.

A reminder of home

Back in Christchurch we breathed a sigh of relief as we had wondered whether we would get stranded and miss our flight.

Fed up of being out in this weather we found a nice, dry and warm shopping centre to wander around in.

Early afternoon with not much to do and the gale still blowing we went to our campsite and enjoyed relaxing in the campervan with a few games of Carcassonne.

Tomorrow we have to return our home for the last 10 weeks so we are now considering packing and cleaning.