Gisborne with the Kirkpatricks

Our friends, Tim and Sarah, and their sons, Joel and Zack, emigrated to New Zealand last year. They now live in sunny Gisborne on the east coast of the north island, just minutes away from the beach and Tim’s parent’s sheep farm. It was so nice to stay with them and to see their new home and home town.

We were given a tour of the local school (NZ schools have much more exciting playgrounds), and also the farm. At the farm, we rode motorbikes to take a tour. The scenery was breathtaking. We also had a tractor ride, checked out the shearing shed, and then had a go kart ride to finish!

We were treated to some lovely home cooking by Sarah, and Tims mum, Caroline, too. And as their ex-housemate, Olly was also allowed to take over the kitchen a few times. With help from Joel, he created his first “plane” bread, and a pavlova!

Sarah acted as tour guide and took us for a few day trips as well. We visited Tolaga Bay, the botanical gardens, Kaiti Hill and a local vineyard for wine tasting! All topped off with evening spas in their garden. Needless to say, we had a very relaxing and fun stay. The sad part was saying goodbye 🙁

The Cook Cove walk

Welcome poster

Kiwi fruit pavlova

Driftwood beach

Plane bread!

Soph, Colin and Joel

Views from the farm

With the whole family