Blue birds and Guinness lambs

While we're waiting for our Guinness and lamb stew to cook, I'll use the time to tell you about our most recent investment. A car! We are now the proud owners of a 1996 Nissan Bluebird SSS. Green in colour it is in very good condition except for a small dent on the left hand side. But that's just aesthetics and we don't care about that.

Our new ride

A funny thing happened when we were finalizing the deal. Turned out that the seller was a good friend of my flatmate Matt! None of us knew that until the seller Sam turned up with the car at the house the day the deal went down. Sam stepped out of the car and said "This is my mate's house! I thought 23A Valley Road sounded familiar!"

What a coincidence! Anyway, we were all the more happy to hear this. Now we can ask Sam for help if a problem arises (he's an amateur car mechanic).

Of course we had to take the green lady for a spin this weekend. In fact, we took her for several spins as the weather has been absolutely fantastic! The summer really is here now, and what we've seen so far promises some scorching heat-waves later on. We reckon it should be quite cold, dark and miserable at home in Finland right now... Anyone jealous?? :-)

Rarrrrrrrrrrr!!! What a monster!

Those wheels are gonna take us around NZ!

Yesterday evening we felt like eating out. Matt recommended a restaurant called Zeytin in the Mount, so we headed there. Zeytin proved to offer excellent mediterranean cuisine at even better prices! It was a true joy to enjoy a beer each, starters and main courses knowing it only cost $63! We'll have to go back there a couple of times at least, because the menu held several dishes worth trying (they have a wood fired oven!). The evening was rounded up by going to the movies to watch the new Bond - Quantum of Solace. Wish we could say it lived up to our expectations.

Today we cruised to a small town called Katikati. Wasn't much to see there except some nice murals, but the drive was lovely. The whole Tauranga area is actually an ancient volcanic crater. Mount Maunganui is one of the lava domes. The mountain rim to the south is the remaining crater wall. In Katikati we drove up to a lookout situated on the crater wall and had a fine view of the greater Tauranga area. It's not hard to understand why a lot of people retire here; the climate is one of the warmest and most pleasant on the North Island.

Snow, rain and freezing temperatures? Quite the contrary!

The green and fertile Bay of Plenty area

Mural art in Katikati

Stay tuned for a story on the farming from Giigan!

Oh, our stew turned out extremely well. Appetizing?

Lamb and beer stew according to Jamie Oliver "The Naked Chef"