Wales

We love this wonderful country, and its made us extremely homesick, then happy to be here seeing its outstanding natural beauty of dramatic mountain peaks, national parks and forests, unspoilt coastline and clean green countryside. It has so reminded us of our lovely New Zealand. We had a very welcoming stay at Llanelli, a tiny suburb called Furnace, named for the area's production of coke (from coal), in the local wee pub was a signboard headed "the greatest victory of all" then beneath it, Allblacks v. Llanelli October 1972" truly they won't let it go, they won! Their full team and photos plastered all over the wall, they thought we were just great being there, wanted to know our views on the upcoming rugby world cup.
We of course had to visit the Millenium Stadium (WOW!) lucky those who are going for the World Cup Rugby, the tour took us into the dressing rooms (we saw where Daniel Carter limbered up before his last game!) ahhh, we marched through to the stadium (with authentic crowd noise blaring through the speakers) it gave us goosebumps! WOW! It seats 74,000!
We joined the National Trust here, this is a registered charity and is independent of government, they look after special places for ever, and for everyone, well we have gone to cathedals (Cardiff, St Davids), abbeys, mansions, estates,castles, churches, blah blah blah....but wonderful, truly magnificient grand mansions, all perfectly intact, including the linen, kitchen utensils, the table settings at the formal banquet rooms, the paintings, the books in the libraries (dating back to the 12th century ....)just perfect, you wander through these places, and feel as if you are disturbing what is real, and it is us, the visitor that is out of place.....I am in awe of Great Britain, for its history, its wealth, its culture, its magnificence, it makes one realise our very young our New Zealand really is as a country.

Who knows what "Llanrhaeadr-ym-mochnant" is famous for? Come on, one of you must know! Winner gets ....Mike McKenna you know the story...but better keep it clean, a warm welcome at our Fulham flat!! Give you a hint, a film was made there! ahhhh, but which one.......??

I am keeping short the blurb and wanting to give you more photos to cast your eyes upon. This wonderful country is still developing, it needs to, we have discovered it is well behind us kiwis in a lot of ways, banking, processing of crowds, queing, etc. etc. but we discovered today though that one can purchase spirits and port at the local supermarket and what a selection.....! yes the Houghts are still doing what they enjoy best, drinking the wines (we have acquired a taste for the cheap french and italian ones in the supermarket). It's all good.
ps I phoned Denis Signal from Howick whose living just out of Liverpool, he sends his regards, he and his family are in a 4 beddie house, have bought a car, toured France, and like us, are getting jobs and endeavouring to settle here for a wee while. All is well in his camp....go us kiwis!

Please keep sending us the emails, we truly do get homesick, we miss you lot (sometimes) and we appreciate our family and friends more than we ever have in the past.....hurry up and visit, a wine and bed await! Love you lots, Elsie and Noel

We didn't make much progress in the job hunting, we seem to have hit brick walls in all directions, getting very despondent and decided to rent a car and hit the road southwest! First stop, Stonehenge then joined the National Trust and visited a grand 18th century landscaped garden adorned with a lake rare trees and plants grottoes and neo-classical italianate temples and ridges at Stourhead.

We then ventured south to Lower Godney, near Glastonbury (the place where they have an annual music festival, which was nearly washed out this year due to heavy rain). We found a very quaint and quiet b&b and as we drove down the narrow lane towards our destination at around 6.30pm, Noel commented "you could have found us a place nearer to the village pub" and as we pulled up to this 15th century building at "Two Gates Farm" low and behold a tiny pub called "The Sheppey Inn" was right next door!
We visited Sherborne Abbey famous for 15th century fan vaulted ceiling, Shaftesbury - cute 18th century cottages, cobbled streets, and the ruins of the abbey originally founded in 888 and inhabited by nuns, and later demolished by Henry VIII (a sad story).
We spent a fabulous 2 nights at Lower Godney, the locals made us feel very welcome, we met a famous singer from a band in the 70's called Racy...the song famous "some girls do...some girls don't" a chap called Richard Gower who had many a story to tell and we talked to every man and his dog one night, ventured back to our beds well into the early hours! A lovely place with such warm people. We shall be back!
We ventured south and spent 3 nights in a "static caravan" hey, don't laugh, it was a 3 bedroom lounge/dining with full bathroom with all mod. cons out in the sticks in a place called Lanivet nr. Bodmin a village south of Bodmin Moors. We drove to a National Trust mansion Lanhydrock another grand estate with extensive wooded acres and formal gardens, the house magnificent, quite modestly furnished rebuilt after a fire in 1881, the property illustrates life in a 17th century victorian manor house, we viewed the kitchen, servants quarters, childrens nursery and of course the formal dining banqueting areas, library etc all still original, wow!
Drove to touristy Lands End, on to Mousehole, a maze of narrow alleys and tiered cottages on the sea, up to extremely busy touristy St Ives, a seaside art colony here from the 1920's then met up with Bruce Hawkey who walked us around the coast with spectacular views on a glorious sunny day, near Wadebridge then on to Clovelly, you now pay to visit this ancient fishing village right on the cliff above the sea.
We are now in Wales, a little drier than the Gloucestershire area of England, and will report back further later in the week.
Thanks for the emails, keep them coming, we love hearing from you all. ps Noel and I were fortunate to meet some friendly staff (Mark and Gerry) at Bude Golf course who allowed us in to watch the Bledisloe Cup game on their sky tv here on Saturday morning (8.30am) and to whom we are grateful!