Mad couple of months

Sorry it's been so long between posts, it's been a pretty busy couple of months for us settling in to working life here in NZ.

I am still very much enjoying life at Advintage. February was taken up with the launch of a new wine brand 'Frizzell Wine'. We had 4 launch parties in the end- Wellington, Christchurch, Auckland and Hawkes Bay, all in the space of a week! It was an exhausting time- flying all over the country and setting up everything, organising guest lists and venues etc but was well worth the effort. the brand is well and truly out there- as an indication a normal new wine label launch (which are pretty common events here in NZ) would get about 25-50 people attending and they would be all be from the trade, where as our launchs had between 150-250 at each party and they were everybody from celebrities to wine journos to art critics to the general public. It has given the brand a lot of publicity and the first 'editions' have pretty much sold out now. Dick (Frizzell) and the gang are working hard to get a new label out in the next few months. The idea will be that each new batch of wine will have a new label so that they become collectable. As well as just being delicious wine. see the link below for some snaps of the Wellington launch.

http://www.snapstar.co.nz/gallery.aspx?eid=124&cid=1 and http://www.frizzellwine.co.nz/ for the brand website.

Anyway after all that excitement it's back to the day job at Advintage which at the moment is focussed on project managing the rebuild of our website. At the moment the site is really just there as a vehicle for people to order from the ebulletins we send out and we get very little new traffic/customers through it so the challenge is to redesign and rebuild to create a site that will become our main source of recruits. I am working with a really excellent web development company called Jericho in Auckland and if we stick to my timeline (which we will- got to think positively!) the new site will be up by the end of August. Watch this space.

This weekend just gone was the Horse of the year show whiich happens every year in Hastings. It's 4 days of Eventing, showjumping, rodeo riding and everything to do with horses you can think of and is the largest equestrain event in the southern hemisphere so is a big deal for little old Hastings town. I had some access all areas passes as Advintage supplies the wine to the bars so we made use of them on Friday evening and went and watched the Jousting (really), scurry cart racing (miniture ponies pulling carts around a course very quickly), acrobats on horses etc. Then on sunday we watched the Olympic cup show jumping - which attracts riders from around the world with $1 million prize money. It was all very good although i was disapointed to learn that my pass didn't mean I got to go backstage and pet all the famous horses in their trailers. Rubbish.

AJ has yet to find permanent work - the building sector is pretty dyer here at the moment, but he is working at Te Mata estate winery as a general cellar hand helping with the 2009 harvest which is happening here at the moment (NOT a good year by the way- lots of rain just before picking). It's hard work but is keeping him busy and he is working with a good bunch of guys. Hopefully he will find something better soon - He is thinking he might have to change direction slightly until the economy picks up for building so is exploring different options.

We have started looking for a house to buy in Napier. Mortgage rates are the lowest they've been here for 20 years so it is a good time to buy. Think it might take a while to find what we are looking for though - we went to six open homes yesterday and only bothered to get out of the car for one! We are not in a major rush so will wait until we find the right one- not ready to make too many comprimises yet!

Rusty is very well. He is 5 months old now and is certainly a little larger than we thought he would be but is very handsome - in my eyes at least! He has calmed down quite a lot and enjoys his daily walks on the beach; chasing seagulls, digging holes in the sand, rolling on/eating dead sea creatures.

In just over two weeks our friends Alan and Laura will be here with us which will be fantastic - can't wait to see them. We have some trips planned for when they are here - we will spend easter weekend at a beach house at Mahia Pennisular (about 2 hours north) and then have a couple days down in Wellington as well before they head down to the south island.

Then in May we have Kerry coming to visit for 3 weeks and then -news just in- our old housemate Polly is coming to stay with us for 6 months! She is planning on working out here for a while and with any luck will also be just in time to help us paint our new house and dig out the veggie patch! We are very excited Pol. My secret plan to relocate my old life in Bristol to Napier is all starting to come together...Mwuhahahaa (evil laugh).

Anyway, will update this again after Al and Laura have been in about a month. Sorry about the lack of photos, I guess I'm becoming less of a tourist and more of a local!

xx