Exciting news! Living on an Alpaca Farm in New Zealand! Kiwi lfestyle...Here we come!

Pinch me! These are the alpacas that live on the farm we'll be renting in New Zealand. We'll be arriving at the time of the year when the babies are born. Could this be more fun? The owner explained that they are very friendly and will hang out with us as they freely roam about the farm.

After an exhausting search over a period of weeks, we're delighted to have finally found a home for 83 days in New Zealand. Our original plan was to stay for 89 days which has since changed to accommodate an upcoming cruise.

There were many factors that made the search painstaking with price and location topping the list. Partway through, we decided to reconsider our desire for an ocean view. That in itself was pricey and limiting.

The farm house is a saltbox style unassuming but perfect for our needs especially when these friendly occupants hover in the yard.

Renting a house in a subdivision or a condo in the center of a town is definitely not our cup of tea. In reality, it all boils down to having a photo worthy experience for us and for our readers. We weren't having much luck finding anything that appealed to us.

As we finally changed directions, we searched through the filters offered in Homeaway.com as to the "type" of property. The options were many, such as: villa, castle, barn style, townhouse, condo, apartment, etc.

The living room is ideal for our needs with a fireplace, flat screen TV and what appears to be comfy furniture.

Something caught my eye..."farm." What if we lived on a farm in New Zealand? How exciting that could be! There were only two possibilities; both expensive and, over our budget. Perhaps a compromise would work. Both had a lot of appeal to us but for me, one in particular. We appealed to both owners.

One came back at a proposal that was higher than we'd like to pay at US $4500 a month, EU $3296. We always strive to keep our monthly rent under US $3000, EU $2197. Here in Portugal in this gorgeous home, the rent was well under US $5000, EU $3662 total for the full 75 days! This type of reasonable pricing has been the norm for us as we've traveled the world.

The second farm came back at a more reasonable price, here again based on our long term stay, from a kind and generous owner who may have predicted through our email communication, that we'd be decent renters who'd take care of their lovely farm house.

Wonderful kitchen with cozy breakfast bar, modern stainless appliances and all the kitchen items we'll need. There's a dining room table and chairs as shown to the left.

This farm has a magical quality that particularly grabs my heart...it's an alpaca farm. And, when I saw the photo, although somewhat blurry, of the alpacas staring into a camera, my heart melted, my pulse quickened and I was in love.

Yes, I know dear readers, I'll try not to bore you with endless photos of every possible pose an alpaca can make. I attempted to control myself with the rather homely warthogs in Marloth Park. Although early on in our arrival, I had a difficult time refraining when I literally fell in love with their adorable personalities.

If the warthog's homeliness may have tempered my photo taking enthusiasm how will I manage to contain myself with these adorable alpacas? Luckily, the area in which the farm is conveniently located, is close to many attractions allowing us many photo opportunities of a variety of subjects beside the alpacas.

This the master bedroom with an en suite bathroom. There's a second bedroom which I'll use for my clothing and dressing room.

Views of Mount Tatanaki provide an excellent backdrop to our upcoming farm living as mentioned on the Homeaway site, as "Just 10 km, 6.2 miles, from New Plymouth, the many attractions Taranaki has to offer are close by such as such as beaches, mountains, gardens, golf courses, parks, museums, art galleries and more." There are 100 restaurants rated for New Plymouth in TripAdvisor making dining out close and convenient.

We are grateful to have found this setting for the upcoming 83 days from January 19, 2016 to April 11, 2016, when we'll fly back to Sydney, Australia on a less than four hour flight to board another cruise that sails on April 12th. Once booked over the next several days, we'll share the details.

Today, we're posting photos from the Homeaway listing of the alpaca farm which are a bit blurry. I can only imagine how fun it will be to post our own photos in the future.

We realize that this booking seems so far away at this point in order to garner this level of enthusiasm but, it's actually we'll be there in only 18½ months. We left the US 18 months ago today. How quickly that time has passed. Of course, we're not wishing time to fly by. We have the moment, Paris, London, cruises, Hawaii, family visiting, Australia, Fiji and now New Zealand ahead of us, all eliciting enthusiasm and excitement.

Even today, as we venture out once again to further explore this magical island posting new photos tomorrow and in days to come, we feel the same sense of excitement we've experienced in most places we've lived, as we continue to revel in the wonder and beauty in the world around us.

Back tomorrow with more!
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Photo from one year ago today, July 3, 2013:

We walked through the narrow alleys of Boveglio on our way to Bar Ferrari, where the locals gathered weekly for a party. For details of that story, please click here.