Lemon tree and Kiwi Hot

Hi guys! It has been awhile, but I am proud to say that we have been enjoying New Zealand and have "heaps" to talk about. We went out last weekend and walked the entire length from the beach in the bay from the back of the house the the one in the front. It took 2 hours because of all of the rocks, but it was so pretty. People were fishing and diving right from the rock edges. We found out that Orca's make frequent appearances in Stanmore Bay (the one in the front of the house). We saw an article about 12 of them at once just this past year. I don't know if I would want to be in the water with a killer whale though. But maybe when it is summer we wont see them and we can go fishing.
We have gotten used to our house here. There is still no furniture.... but it is in Auckland now! It will take about 2 weeks to get to the house since the stuff has to go through customs still. That works out just fine for us since we are taking our trip back to the states this week. We leave on Thursday and arrive in charlotte late Thursday. With the crossing of the date line we gain a day, but the trip will take about 30 hours start to finish with layovers in Atlanta and LAX. In house news, our beans were growing great. I saw "were" because something ate them. I think it is the neighbors cat since I have caught it eating out of the compost pile already. But we replanted seeds in little pots and but them on the porch since it gets full light, but the cat is too scared to come up there. We also riged up a little protection for the beans out there with a 2 liter of soda bottle that we cut up. It is pretty ingenious if I do say so myself. The strawberries are doing amazing though. We love them, and the lemon tree, too. We just got a bigger pot for that and I painted it. I did a little picture of our back yard with the water, palm tree, Brandon, me, lenox being a bear, lily watching him, and the ridge. It is very cute!
Speaking of the puppies... I miss them soooo much. I am really excited to see them this trip. We have found a company to transport them here and a place for them to stay during their quarintine time. They will be very well treated and we can visit them during thier month long stay.
We also found a take out place that we have been to once a week since we got here. They have excellent pad thai and we are already regulars. The man who takes are order saw brandon last time and said... oh 2 pad thai with chicken, and American hot. That is how we put it the first time we went. When you say you want something hot, they normally ask you if you want that "kiwi hot" or "thai hot". Kiwi hot I must say is very mild. I would not classify it as hot on any scale. So we said in between since thai is way too hot... so, American hot :)
I want to thank all you guys back at home for keeping up with us! It has been really comforting to know that we have so many great friends and family members. I just caught up with mom on skype, and really enjoyed seeing her and cliff. We are looking forward to getting there this week.
Well, it is nearing 2 in the morning so I should be off to bed! Since I am on Brandon's computer I don't have pictures, but I hope to figure it out soon. Love you all too much and miss you tons!