The Kiwi Blog Bus is stuck on the drive this weekend

We cannot get away in the Kiwi Blog Bus at the moment for a variety of reasons:

• Sam is mid-way through painting it. The old thing has been in need of some cosmetic work for a while now and the kind people at VTNZ that allowed it through its last COF warned us that we needed to get rid of some rust before the next test or it just won’t get passed. But… it’s looking good I have to say. (I’ll get some renovation pictures on over the weekend)
• The fifteen-year-old is currently sleeping in it. We’ve started ANOTHER job at home – decorating his bedroom. We bought our current house about nine months ago and have been slowly renovating it. Some jobs have been pretty major (painting the exterior, new roof etc) but every now and then we like to get another room done so we feel like we’re getting somewhere. It’s now the turn of Dexter’s bedroom so he’s living in the bus on the drive while his room is emptied and painted. Very handy to have extra accommodation on hand when you need it (and it’s getting a bit too chilly here at night to put him in a tent on the lawn!)
• Flippin’ fuel prices have sky rocketed again. According to this news report petrol is now just 2 cents from an all-time high. The Kiwi Blog Bus is reasonable efficient with fuel but it makes a huge difference when you are filling up and that pump just keeps on going – way past the figure you are used to paying.
• I have a stack of work to get on with. (This is most definitely NOT a complaint or a whinge!) I’ve just been commissioned to write four magazine articles in the next three weeks so I need so get on with it; start my research and just get my head into the right place. The nine-year-old is off on her school camp next week so I should get a little extra quiet time around here for a few days.

If you’ve arrived at the blog in need of a boost and need to see some stunning New Zealand countryside to keep you revived and refreshed, please take a look at some of my previous posts.

May I suggest for you today:

• Blue toes at Blue Springs
• Simple pleasures in Whakatane 
• New Zealand sunsets part 1
• Sky high in Auckland
• On the road again – Pahoia