Hi all,
Sorry for the long wait for more news from us, we have been a little busy. Firstly of course with Christmas, with associated holidays, New Years, birthdays for Jolyon, Christiaan and Liam, Inge’s parents visiting and of course with Jolyon’s job that he started on January 18. More follows....
Kees and Rita arrive Inge’s parent’s arrived around 18 December, and that enabled us to take a night off, easy to decide what we were going to do since Inge had won a night’s accommodation in the Sky Tower in Auckland by filling in a survey form at a festival we went to. So, we headed out for an evening, completely luxurious as we also went out to dinner and a movie... first movie in a long time. The Sky tower was very nice, and the following morning Jolyon had to head out for a job interview. Later in the week had a second interview and on Jan 23 signed a short term contract (until the end of April) to manage a project for a small company that was consolidating applications.
Christmas Eve Christmas Eve we all headed over to Jolyon’s brother’s house, where we had an afternoon’s entertainment out flying kites and kicking the soccer ball around in the playground. Then we sat down to dinner, everyone bringing something, and after that the real entertainment began. Everyone who was there had to do some item of entertainment. Jolyon’s brother did a dance, Inge’s parent’s read a rhyme they had made up in English and Dutch, Inge told a story she had written that required some audience participation and Jolyon had his first public performance on the guitar (which was Santa Claus is coming to town). That was nice, all the children there started singing the song which covered up the bad playing....
Christmas and Thomas the Tank Engine
Christmas day we opened some presents in the morning, including a Thomas the Tank Engine toybox. We made this for the boys since we had a lot of time on our hands, and we had seen one in a shop (for over $1000!!!) that we modelled it upon. Christiaan and Liam thought it was pretty awesome, and so do we! Jolyon is now reluctant to let the boys play with it, since you know that it will get broken.....
Late morning we headed to the cemetery where Jolyon’s parents are buried, and had a brunch with Olaf and his family. There are quite a few families that do this actually. After that we headed off on a tiki tour following Olaf to try to get to a secluded nice beach. We made it to a beach, but apparently it was not quite the right one. It was pretty cool though, something for everyone, there was a little kite flying and exploring rockpools is pretty much the bees knees.
Matarangi holiday
A couple of days after Christmas we headed off on our summer holiday, we had rented a house for a week in Matarangi, which is in the Coromandel region of NZ. Matarangi has a nice long white sand beach, family events organised by the locals, local fish life etc to exploit and even some surf to play in.
We spent pretty much part of every day on the beach, with highlights being the ‘Big Dig’, where we split up and searched an area of the beach for sticks that you traded in for prizes. Unfortunately we didn’t win anything, but it was entertaining (and exhausting). The other big day of beach entertainment was a sandcastle competition, which frankly we should have won with our amazing ‘sandcastle sculpture’ of a spearfisherman coming around a rock and shooting a kingfish. It was pretty awesome, and that is not just our opinion, everyone coming past was very impressed. However, unfortunately the judges did not agree with us, they were obviously biased and one-eyed.
Jolyon and Olaf got out a few times free-diving for shellfish and looking for fish to spear. That was pretty much a non-event as the sum total of the shellfish we collected was 2 paua (abalone), and there were no fish worth shooting. Oh well, maybe next time. In any case, it was a nice place to be out snorkelling and we enjoyed that a lot. Inge also got out snorkelling a few times, there was plenty to see like rays, fish, starfish, rocks, water, jellyfish, birds diving into the water for fish etc.
So, we had New Years down in Matarangi, a nice day at the beach where we also had dinner, and then we headed back to the house for a games evening. Jolyon cooked some olieballen (thanks to Kees and Rita for bringing the mix) so we had a little traditional Dutch festivity too. The obligatory champagne was drunk around midnight, and then we collapsed into bed. That sea air really takes it out of you, although that may als
o have had something to do with the kids.
Jolyon’s birthday Jolyon’s birthday was (of course) Jan 2nd, and we were still down in Matarangi for that. We had a wonderful day, we went off to a secluded beach which had some amazing rockpools and was perfect for the kids to explore. It also had a really sheltered part in the water which was maybe 80cm deep where there were fish and lots to see. Jolyon took Christiaan snorkelling in here, which he really liked, although he would look down and then have to lift his head up to tell Jolyon everything he saw...
Jolyon and Olaf tried for some spearfishing here also, to no avail. We also tried to find some crayfish, with no luck. There were some there, but with softshells (meaning illegal to take) or just too good at hiding in deep cracks.
Christaan’s birthday 3 Jan we headed back home, and January 4 was Christiaan’s birthday. He got whole truckloads of loot, kind of amazing, he is a little spoilt I would say. The nicest thing was that Liam got him a little toy car, and Christiaan found that to be the nicest present that he got the whole day! We had Olaf and his family over (yes, again with them!) and Christiaan chose to have cupcakes instead of a cake, with M&M’s on and chocolate icing they were a good choice.
So, Christiaan is now 4 years old! Wow, he has grown so fast... he is now at 4 completely bi-lingual, learning to write his name, has given up his dummy (since he is a big boy now) and can count up to 30 without needing help... He is also super cute, although I guess all parents say that....
Liam’s birthday
Not long after Christiaan’s birthday is Liam’s... 10 January. In the meantime we had got out to do some things with Kees and Rita, like a boat ride to Devonport on the other side of Auckland harbour. Liam turned two with a bang – and once again we spent part of the day with Olaf and his family – well that is one of the advantages of living here of course , close to Jolyon’s side of the family. Liam got a big chocolate cake creation that Inge spent hours making. He blew out his two candles with no worries at all, and had a great day. We are not sure which was his favourite present, but Christiaan did his best to give him a great car as well.
Wood for table
We took advantage of Inge’s parents being here to go on a hunting expedition for wood for our new project – an outdoor table. We headed off to a saw mill with everyone along and a trailer to choose out a big slab of wood which (one day) will be a table and a couple of benches to go along with it. So far so good, the table has the added advantage of giving Jolyon an excuse to expand upon his power tool collection, something which affirms his status as a real man. Watch this space for photos once the thing is finally put together.
Jolyon starting work
Something slowing down the work on the table is of course the fact that on Jan 18 Jolyon started working. Part time (4 days a week) until the end of Feb, and after that full time. A bit of a shame, the four day week is pretty good, a chance to do quite a bit in the weekend. So far so good, the company is a small Telco which only really has business customers and the project is consolidating two applications into one new one. A package implementation with some data migration etc thrown in the mix for fun. Enjoying the experience so far, wish me luck!
Jolyon going to Hobart
Unfortunately Jols has committed to going to Hobart before getting the job. Was no problem to them for Jols to start on the 18th, work for three days and then bugger off to Hobart for a week to play hockey. Played the Aussie champs for the Barbarians, which was a lot of fun... lots of good, enjoyable hockey and nice to catch up with a whole lot of friends again. We had some new friends also in the team, and some of the young guys really showed us old fellas how it is done... not really. Age and experience will always conquer in the end.
Christiaan starting morning kindy
So, Christiaan if he was still in the Netherlands would now be going to school. Not here though, legal school age is 6 but most kids start at 5. Christiaan moved to morning kindy now that he is 4, 5 days a week for 3 or 4 hours a day depending on the day. Afternoon kindy was only 3 days a week and 2.5 hours a day so this is a big step up. He is handling it well though, and has made friends already – he knew some of the kids there from afternoon kindy so it is not such a huge step up. So, now that Jols is working Inge is having to cope with the two little monsters on her own... harder than working for pay...
Camping on Motutapu
So, we have been trying to get out more, and so we headed out over a long weekend to Motutapu Island to go camping with some of Jolyon’s friends from Auckland who also have young children around Christiaan and Liam’s ages. There are two boats a day, one in the morning and one in the afternoon... we went in on Sunday on the morning boat, and intended to stay to Monday afternoon. Sunday was overcast and we had a little drizzle but the kids all had fun swimming and clambering over the rocks to find starfish, snails, crabs and other beasties.
Sunday night the weather turned to rubbish, and our super K-Mart tent held up to strong winds and rain pretty well. In the morning we had all had enough though and so we packed up wet and headed back on the morning boat. No regrets, it was an entertaining trip... and we got to stress test the tent. Added bonus.
Camping out in Huia
The weekend after we headed out to Huia, which is on the west coast of Auckland, on the northern harbour mouth. A friend of Jolyon’s, Glen, has a house out there and they were having a farm day on the local community farm and a craft sale at the local hall. We left it a little late getting out there, but got to the farm day just in time for Christiaan to have a ride on a little red tractor, which he loved. So, we headed down to the craft hall and checked out some of the local artists products, they know how to show them, lots of cool stuff, but we managed to restrain ourselves.
So, we camped out on Glen’s lawn out there on Saturday night, and on Sunday morning headed over to the local river to have a swim. We had to walk over the farm, and the kids patted a pig, sheep and almost a horse.
Camping out in Kati Kati
The next weekend Inge had a book club meeting down in Kati Kati, which is about 2 hours drive away down on the east coast. We all headed down, as did Jolyon’s brother and family and pitched the tents on a book club member’s lawn. We had a nice bbq there on Saturday night and met some interesting people. It was a little wet that night, but not too bad, all the kids were exhausted and fell asleep pretty quickly.
Sunday morning Jolyon got a tour of a workshop, and collected some tips for the outdoor table. The workshop sure showed him that he has a long way to go in collecting tools.... And we all headed down to the local river for a swim.
