Tom's Birthday

Today is Tom's birthday. The kids made him some nice cra(p)ft using clay and markers, and they all jumped out of boxes to be his birthday presents. After the kids finished delighting Tom with their birthday shrieks and squeals we got our stuff together and flew up to Auckland where we rented two cars with the combined horsepower of a ’85 Yugo. We sped out of Auckland and down to our Rotorua farm stay. Allie and I ended up driving in the little half-Yugo alone while Tony and Tom had the kids in the bus. Unfortunately (for them), they didn't know exactly where to go for the farm stay. So when we stopped in a little town to get some fruit and wine we (managed to ditch) lost track of them. They drove around until Tony remembered that the farm’s name reminded him of Brokeback Mountain and Maddy recalled that Heaven was part of the name. Eventually they came up with the correct name, Broekhaven, and asked some friendly Kiwis to point the way. We had some fish and chips and Tom and Tony shared a bottle of Scotch for dinner. Once everyone was back on an even keel we called it a night with the ewes outside bahhing us to sleep.