Brim full of Ashhurst

Hanging out in Singapore airport - the best airport ever

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OK, Ashhurst was not our first stop.  First we arrived at Wellington airport in the afteroon, hopped a bus and another bus to Palmerston North where we crashed at Uncle John and Heather's place.  I say crash because after several late nights in Bangkok (culminating with a near all-nighter of packing our bags, and then sleeping through the alarm for our flight), and then 2+ days on airplanes and in airports, on top of a 6 hour time change, we couldn't help but sleep through most of our stay in Palmy.  Aside from sleeping, we also got to enjoy a visit to John and Heather's tree farm to see the progress of this long term growth project (hyuk, hyuk).  We also got the rest we needed and enjoyed our first taste of NZ air.  We'd like to put out a big THANK YOU to John and Heather for putting us up and outfitting us with a vehicle, and we promise we'll be a bit more charismatic on our next visit. 

playing a very challenging game of Uno

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So this is when we go to Ashhurst to see the next set of family- Aunt Jenny and Uncle Craig on their sheep farm.  Here we were jam-packed full of activities, including tending to the sheep, visiting wind farms (one of the most efficient in the world!), seeing the school Jenny teaches at (another Jenny teacher, can you believe it?), comet viewing, and painting a wool shed, all brought together with fun and informative tours and plenty of scenic views along the way. 

After several days we left Ashhurst, but did not leave the family behind as Ben's cousins Bronwyn and Rhys came up from Wellington to join their parents and us for a long weekend trip to Hastings/Napier.