Riverstone Castle

18/08/2026

Good morning. Another month has slipped by. The weather is getting spring like, and the daffodils are starting to make a splash of colour around the garden. The first of the flowering cherries has come out into flower. I look at it every day from my upstairs work bench in the old shop and love watching the bell birds and little waxeyes flittering all over it getting the nectar. It is not a pretty cherry like the other big flowering ones but is dark pink and the flowers are very small, but the birds love it. It is the first to flower. All the hellebores are putting on a performance once again. I love walking around the garden tipping up their faces so I can see what the flowers look like. Some of the seedlings flowering turn out cross pollinated and there is often a surprise with the centers. Some have another layer of tiny flowers ringing around the stamens in the middle, while others have spots and blotches.. I have spent many an hour flittering through the seed catalogues choosing what to plant for the summer. There are so many new varieties of zinnias, asters, marigolds etc to name a few that I always order more than I have room to plant. I think I need to have a garden twice the size to plant everything. The lily catalogues are out once more and that is always tempting!!
We have started to renovate our old cottage that we lived in for 43 years. We have taken all the wall linings out of the lounge, kitchen and making it's roof as high as the conservatory. It will be one very big space, which will completely change the little cottage. We will put a verandah on the northside and also the west and add a car port at the south. It already looks amazing. Now there is nothing left in the house I am already thinking I will not be taking much of the old stuff back in. Only the old piano is there as it is too heavy to move. It has been interesting to find out how little we actually need. We put all the old furniture into 2 containers along with our personal items and I have hardly been back to collect anything. We have been living in the castle for the past 3 months with the bare minimal amount of clothes and manage just fine. Wash and wear seems to work well. I will be taking a few loads of clothes to the charity shops. We have got old now and don't need all the fancy clothes we used to wear going to conferences and outings. We are so happy just being at home doing all the everyday things that evolve everyday at Riverstone .It is so busy with the restaurant, gardens, shops, doing all the buying for the shop, creating the flower arrangements, and now I am up in my workroom most days making Christmas wreaths and other table centers. I love being up there, the fire is going down stairs and the warmth rises and keeps me cosey. Clarence the cat comes up to keep me company and sleeps on the rug at the end of my bench.
Mr Bow the cat at the castle got an eye infection and we took him to the vets and they put him on antibiotics for a week, It never cleaned up so they had to take his eye out. He had the stitches out this week and seems to be getting better. He bumps into things until he gets used to it. The sheds are full of new born calves as calving is well under way. The first of them are now out in the paddocks and I love watching them racing around together.
One of the things that I have been enjoying lately as I walk back to the castle from the shops at around 6pm every day is the changing scenery of the evening lights and the castle. Sometimes the clouds are on fire with brilliant oranges, blues, yellow and red and completely reflecting in the lake. Other nights it is black and blue and very dark and moody. It never fails to impress me. This is something I never knew would happen when we designed the complex. Inside the castle the late sunsets shine all through the outdoor room windows and conservatory making the floors glow orange. It is just amazing and I never get sick of looking at it.
I have started reading a new author to me. Fiona McIntosh. I am on the 3rd book now and can't put them down. I read while Neil watches tele mainly and then until 11pm until I feel guilty and know I must put it down and get some sleep. I love the historic element to the stories and as I have travelled extensively over my life I often know where she is writing about which makes them more realistic to me. What with reading Lucinda Riley's books and now Fiona McIntosh, I have never read this many book in my life.
The castle tours have been quite quiet at the moment while the cold is still here so we are able to get some more jobs done around the castle. Things will pick up when the spring arrives and people go on garden rambles and feel like getting out and about.
Well that's it for now. All the roses and hydrangeas are pruned and manured ready for the spring. One of our neighbors have cut down two very old silver birch trees and we have collected all the twig ends and had most of last week making wreaths to use during the Christmas period and also for our dried flowers.
Keep well and take a daily dose of vitamin C to ward off the colds. Cheers Dot

11/07/2026

Just thought you would like to know the rain has stopped finally. The mountains are covered with snow and look spectacular but the air coming off them is freezing. It is now school holidays and lots of visitors around. Big coats, hats and scarves are the order of the day. The only thing I can say is that it is one day closer to summer every day!!. Tanja is back from Germany and finding it hard to get warm after 38degrees every day. Rhonda is back but with the road closures three days this last week then Friday Matariki day off I only got 1 days work done from everyone. Lets hope this week is more successful. All the pruning to do now. Fruit trees and berries this week I am hoping. Rug up and keep warm
Love Dot

05/07/2026

This is the wettest day for a very long time so thought I would write you a post. We have been shut over the past three weeks while it is the slowest time of the year, too cold, too wet, and a good time to get the staff away for their holidays. The staff have been away all over the world. Rhonda one of our gardeners has been to Peru, South American jungle and the Galapagos Islands, Toni has flown off to Ireland, Tanya the florist has been back to Germany to see her aging parents for 6 weeks, Debbie has had a week off, Kevin's 96 year old Mum has passed away on the West Coast. Raewyn had two weeks off. And so it goes on. Hopefully when the rain has finally abated we can all get back to the winter jobs in the garden pruning fruit trees, training the raspberry vines and all the other hundreds of jobs. Debbie in the shop has just spent the past month getting all the orders from China sorted. It has been a real mission impossible. Our Chinese agent informed us they were not going to process any orders we did at the Canton Fair so we have to deal with the companies our selves. When we thought we had it all sorted the companies emailed to say the orders were not big enough for them to proceed and we would have to increase our numbers. Like from 200 of each item to 400 of every single item. For example if we chose one style of silk flowers and there were 5 colours of the one flower we have to buy 1200 of them. ,and so it goes on for everything we bought. You are the lucky ones and only buy what you want. It is the storage that is the real problem for us. Never mind, we have it sorted now and will have some amazing products to sell for Christmas. Keep us in mind if you want a new artificial Christmas tree. Our new ones are live touch, full of lights and the best I have ever seen. We will put pictures up once we have them here.
We had to drain half of the water out of the lake while we were shut so we could service the intake revolving drum and clean the filters. They were clogged up with silt. We also got the contractors in to put a concrete wall up along the path out of the dungeon to stop the lake water overflowing up into the passage when the moat is too full. Guess what? now the water cannot escape from the track back into the lake when it rains, like today and we now have a flood . The men put a little pump in to drain that water, but today when this should be the big test, the pump isn't working. Now I will have to get all my wet weather gear and try to sort out that. The staff have just rung in to say the roads are all flooded everywhere and no one can come to work and we will not open the shop. Bevan has to open the restaurant as it is the civil defense reception area for the district. The sorry part to this tale is there is no heating in the castle. The heat pumps in the hobbit house which take the warm water from the cold water in the lake then feeds that into the boilers have gone down. We have to get a part from Aussie to repair the heating. It feels a bit like being in an old English castle. Best place is in bed snug under the flannelette sheets. I have finished reading all the Lucinda Riley books, about 12, so snuggling under the blankets reading has come to a standstill. I will have to find another author to take Lucinda's place. I have so much enjoyed all her books.
Before this bout of wet weather Dell, Rhonda, and I attacked the flax bushes opposite the garage at the castle and yanked them all out. We had to get the telehandler to help pull out the biggest ones. They had grown too big and become very scraggy. It took us two whole days. Now I have this big space to decide what to plant next . Before all this rain everyone got together and we dug the spud patch. Neil likes to grow Agria spuds for the restaurant. They put the scrapings of cow manure off the feed pad onto the patch and ploughed it in before planting. We were amazed how enormous some of the spuds grew. . Usually when they are so big the spuds have a hollow center, but not these ones. Bevan is delighted. Bloody rain, it is still pelting down.
We had to take all the magnolia trees out of the white planter boxes around the castle as the bottom of the boxes had rotted from 10 years of watering. This was a mission in it's self. We had to get the telehandler to pull the trees out and get the boxes repaired. We will plant the trees out in the ground by the pump shed off the moat to try to disguise it a little. The seagulls gave us a big problem when the moat was so low as they came in flocks and settled on the moat eating the fish, then flew up onto the castle and settled on all the castellations and s**t everywhere down the walls and all over the paving .It was a nightmare trying to clean it off all the time. They are not here now it is so wet, so that's one good thing today. Now I must get off to put on my wet weather gear and try to see what damage we have around the place. Hope the rain clears soon. Love to everyone Dot

24/05/2026

Just to tell everyone you can stay at home by the fire for the coldest month as we have decided to close the castle tours down from the 8th June until the 2nd of July. It has become quieter now and my ladies can all plan their holidays during this period. We will look forward to seeing you then. The school holidays start the weekend we are returning to work. Hope the winter is kind to you all. I have been reading lots of Lucinda Riley books and the evenings are passing quickly.

12/05/2026

This is the second installment of the post. You actually need to read the post before looking at the pictures as they will be coming out of sequence to the text. Sorry bout that.

12/05/2026

12/05/2026

Well, Mother's Day has come and gone and I hope all you Mothers what ever your age were recognized. It was an extremely busy day at the restaurant with family gatherings. So nice to witness.
You might be wondering what has been happening in our part of the world. Autumn has arrived with the days getting much colder in the mornings and evenings. An occasional frost but not as cold as inland. The trees around the countryside have been beautiful. Raewyn went for a weekend away to Clyde in Central Otago last week and came home buzzing about the amazing colours in all the trees and the beautiful reflections on the lakes. I would have loved to go for a drive to witness them myself but instead Neil, I and Debbie one of the shop girls went to China to attend a couple of gift trade fairs to do our buying. We flew to Hong Kong, waited a couple of hours then flew to Guangzhou to the huge Canton Gift fair. On arrival the taxi took us to our magnificent hotel where we checked in and collapsed on our beds for an hour or so before rousing ourselves up to go to dinner. Amazing what a lovely long shower, a rest can do for you after such long flights. Every night we ate a buffet dinner in the huge restaurant where every type of food was available. Thank goodness for Neil's sake there was food that resembled his meat and three veges like home, but for me, I love fried rice and could explore the different flavors and not have to cook. We got up early to explore the people's park next door to the hotel where we watched the locals all doing their exercises, gogging, gentle tai chi, ribbon dancing and just enjoying each other's company. In the evenings it was also fascinating as we walked around the lake and enjoyed all the lights on the lake. Next day was always exciting to wake up to.
After another fabulous breakfast, lots of fresh fruit for me, watermelon, mangos, starfruit, melons etc and Neil a full English breakfast we drove in the bus provided to the fair. My god, it is so huge, throngs of people from all countries emerging through the trade entrances. The walkways in the buildings were as big as our highway with side isles leading off them. There are loads of these massive buildings so you have to sort out what areas you want to be in. We chose the decorative areas and spent five days exploring the thousands of stands. We had a Chinese guide with us who could interperate the buying. The amount of each item we looked at was huge. Too big for just a small shop like ours so I was always haggling for lessor amounts. Sometimes successful but mostly out of our league. It is always worth doing though and we have come home with new Christmas trees that have not even been made yet they are so new to the market. All the trees have fabulous lights on. So many light trees, tinsel pop up trees, reindeer, santas, new tree balls and too much to tell you now.
After our time in Guangzhou we flew to Yiwu to do the markets there. We stayed at the Kingdom Hotel where we always stay when here and love seeing the changes around us as old areas are closed down and dozens of new high rises are built in their place. It was spring and all the streets had fabulous roses planted and in full bloom. I am always amazed at the trees in the cities and how well manicured all the gardens are. No rubbish and everywhere so clean. Another five days of market walking and buying and we are ready for the long flights back home. We must have walked a hundred kms and I am feeling great. Debbie has gone on a holiday to recover so next week we will both spend time going over our purchases and confirm orders. It is coming into stock take at our shops now so there will be no time off for a while. I hope I haven,t bored you too much so hang in there and I will back to the normal stuff on the next post The castle tours are slowing down now so we will close for the month of July so all the staff can take their days off.. Keep warm. Pictures coming next incase we lose this post.
Love Dot

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02/04/2026

I just want to say happy Easter. Go easy on the chocolate. See you next week. We have been weeding all day the 4 gardeners and now it's time to have a cuppa. Cheers.

28/03/2026

Wow!! It's Autumn already. We have had the most strange weather. Hot, cold, windy rain. It cannot make up it's mind. Not that I am complaining when I know what is happening everywhere else in the country with all the floods etc, and what is happening around the world. Who ever would have thought we would see all this war devastation happening in our life time. It makes me appreciate everyday in our own little country. You know sometimes I think we need to take a moment and just be grateful for what we have. Who cares if things are not perfect at home, we can live. Most Kiwis have space, for some veges in pots, or a fence around the section that would support beans, fruit trees and pots which can grow all manner of food to eat. But, I seldom see the potential being used and people complain they cannot feed themselves. It is all about education. Where are the TV programs to show people how easy it is to achieve some of these things. Instead we get terrible violent programs which disturb the mind.
At home now it is preserving time with the apples, pears, blackberries, peaches and nectarines all filling up the cool store waiting their turn for processing. It has been a prolific season all round. The pear trees have had so much fruit, same with the apples. So good for stewing and making pies. Yesterday I bottled peacharines which are like golden queen peaches. I don't peal off the skin and spent the day at the castle preserving. People on tours were fascinated to see someone still doing these old skills our mothers used to do to feed us all. On Friday we did blackboy peaches, also don't peel them and they are delicious, Any off cuts I made into jam which I think will be great on icecream. Bevan puts an email out for fruit and lots of people bring out their surplus to the restaurant. I have found a patch of wild blackberries a little way away from home and have spent two afternoons picking them. One of my old time favorite occupations. Out there all by myself with just the wind in the trees and the birds singing. Sometimes I need some space and quiet as my life is full of people and every moment at home is taken up with jobs.
This rain has not been kind to the dahlias and will need a lot of beheading. Some of the huge ones have flopped over their heads and look pretty awful. I have put a picture up of a pink dahlia which has grown ginormous. It is twice my height and we have planted it near a fence to tie it up to. I have never seen one grow so tall. The gardeners are very busy pulling out all the old flowers and re planting spring bulbs now. They multiply so much every year it gets harder to find space for them all. The strawberries are still giving us huge bowls full every week for the kitchen and also picking the autumn raspberries.
We have decorated the castle for Easter again this year. People are enjoying the change. Don't get tempted to pinch my Easter eggs though as I keep them from year to year and put them in the freezer for the next year. Some can be over 5 years old!!!
At the moment I have the huge challenge of clearing out our old house we have been living in for 43 years. The floors are rotten and only the carpets stops you from going through the floor in places. We have had many floods in the house over its life time, leaking shower behind the wall board, header tanks over flowing in the ceiling and running down the walls like waterfalls. someone I know turns the kitchen sink taps on to do the dishes then goes outside to feed the dog. When I come inside the water is coming out to meet me. Life is never boring. The house is getting a total revamp which will be exciting if I ever get the stuff out of it. The roof is coming off so there is no other way out. We are changing the pitch to raise the ceiling in the lounge, kitchen to match the conservatory This will make the little cottage look bigger and more open. Well, I had better stop rambling on and get back to the mess on the floor in the old house. Neil will come in for his lunch and wonder what the hell all the mess is about. Take care and get preserving to feed the family this winter. Love Dot. Raewyn will post up the pictures soon.

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