What a year it has been too. With our latest move (look out for a future blog post) to Mission Bay, we have now "lived" in 5 places since we arrived; while we've also "owned" three cars. Both myself and Amanda have rejoined the rat-race and found gainful employment and of course in November we were both granted Residency.
More importantly however, despite the rather paltry 20 days annual leave that is standard in New Zealand, we have still managed to get out and see quite a lot of the North Island - still a lot to explore however.
With Amanda's job been a little stressful to say the least I think she often loses sight of how much we have done. Last time she complained we were not exploring enough I knocked up this video - it only covers the first 3 months!
Lookout at Opito Bay - Bay of Islands from Rich & Amanda on Vimeo.
Enter The Fatman
We left the UK on Boxing Day 2011 so our year has been bookended by two Christmas's. We had only been our new place a week so our decorations definitely took the more is less approach, but then that's our style anyway - check out the world's smallest Christmas trees! |
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As it happens our first NZ Christmas ended up being an "Orphans" Christmas with our ex-housemate's and their friends and their daughter. In typical NZ style a barbecue was involved as we enjoyed a Christmas Brunch that lasted pretty much all day.
Just as well as there was a lot of food... A leg of ham, barbecued lamb, sausage, bacon, avo and eggs, Croissaints, Christmas cake, Pavlova, mince pies, coffee and of course Champagne. I think there may have been some veggies involved too.
Jemma and Aaron had done a stand up job with the decorations, even decorating the dog's kennel. We even got presents; one of which I managed to set light to - oops!
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A great day finished off with a couple of hilarious games of Cranium. A real shame that Aaron and Jemma are soon to leave NZ to start a new life in Nice, France. We are going to miss them. Stanford the dog and Lilly the cat will also be missed (Never thought I'd miss a cat!) I guess we cannot complain too much though! ;0)
A weekend with the rels
A couple of days after Xmas we drove 3 hours south to a valley south of Rotorua to spend the weekend with Amanda's cousin's Tony and Frances. Frances's brother George and mother Shirley were also in residence and we were joined from the Hutt Valley by her sister Liz and hubby Pete, with whom we had stayed earlier in the year.George reprised his role as a tour guide and took us to the nearby Orakei Korako thermal park which you can only access via a short ferry ride. Interesting place but not as spectacular as Waiotapu which we visited during our visit to Rotorua in June.
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Frances and Tony have a lovely life style block (approx 2 acres) with great views of lake Ohakuri and the mountains beyond. Had a huge barbecue and plenty of wine to finish off the day. Frances also presented Amanda with a pile of postcards and letters that her Mum had sent to Frances and family over the years. I think it brought back a lot of good memories for everyone.
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Next day, despite the rain George and I hit the amazing mountain bike trails in Whakarewarewa just South of Rotorua. Wow, awesome trails through stunning Redwood forest with native bush intermingled. We completed a few grade 2's and then a couple of grade 3's. Must say I was most impressed with George's 'give it a go' attitude. The trails were quite a bit removed from his usual leisurely cycles. I hope I am the same when I myself are more advanced in years!
Another great weekend visiting Amanda's rel's who were yet again superb hosts.
NYE
We decided to have a quiet New Year's Eve as were both exhausted. Enjoyed a quiet night in with mince pies and red wine before heading out to the beach to watch the fireworks off the Sky Tower - along with a lot of Auckland. Following the fireworks there was an impressive traffic jam along Tamaki Drive that lasted quite some time.The fireworks, were, like last year, pretty lame with an pretty insipid 5 minute display. Auckland council could do with watching a few videos of Sydney's show! Or London, this years display may even have given Syndey's show a run for it's money. Although, that said, perhaps it's a good thing that our tax dollars are not going up in smoke...
New Year's Day
One advantage of having a quiet NYE of course is that you do not spend the next day with a stonking hangover. As such we were able to start 2013 the way we hope it will continue.Headed to the already busy beach in the morning and hired some paddleboards. Amanda had planned to get a kayak but they were all out. One hour later and she could call herself a Stand Up Paddleboarder. Great conditions, but getting rather hot, so cooled of after with a quick swim.Even managed to fit in my good deed for the day by rescuing a beach ball for a little girl. It was well on it's way out to sea so proved quite a challenge - but her squeal of delight when reunited with it made it worth it.
A quick shower at home (tis only 90 seconds away after all!) and then hit our fave local cafe for lunch (courgette & mint fritters since you ask) and an allpress coffee.
The beach was really heaving now (though still nothing on a busy day at Brighton) and we spent the afternoon reading in the welcome shade of a Pohutukawa tree (the real NZ Christmas tree which hits full bloom at this time of year).
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With the sun a little lower we took a walk along the coast to the next village center were we finsihed off a great day with an authentic gelato.
What a great start to 2013 - and with steak and mince pies waiting at home our first day of the year is going to end pretty swell too... :0)
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