Tag: English

It’s been a while since we posted our last New Zealand update… We left New Zealand almost 2 months ago after an amazing year (and it’s only 2 weeks till we leave the Netherlands again, on our way back to Canada… but that’s another story!). So, I think it is about time for an update on what’s going on in our lives and to show you some pictures of our last few weeks in NZ.

Bas’ last school day was on December 12th. We left Auckland on the 13th of December for a 2 week trip to the Southern part of the South Island. This was our itinerary:

After our Summer Holiday – the last few weeks in NZ
We got back in Auckland on the 28th. After unpacking our stuff, we packed again for a few days camping with Aaron and Val, in the Coromandel. We had a wonderful time together and we enjoyed a memorable New Year’s celebration! (on the beach!!). We also went to White Island (an active volcano!) with them, before heading back to Auckland on January 2nd. After that, we had a few days to pack and sort our stuff. Fortunately we had been able to find a South African family who were moving to New Zealand for a year and who wanted to buy all of our stuff (furniture etc) and even including our car! So, we spent our final weekend in Auckland moving our stuff to their place. They were very kind and let us stay the last few nights of our time in NZ at their place (in our own bed). Quite an amazing arrangement! The last night, we spent with Marten and Mirjam, Dutch friends who we also met at the very beginning of our NZ year. We didn’t fly till 11.30pm on January 9, so we decided to spend the day with Marten and their children on the beach (and it was the warmest day of the whole year that we were there, +38 Celsius!) Such a fun way to end our year, before heading to the snow back in the Netherlands!

Back in the Netherlands – for a little while
So, at the moment we are back here in the Netherlands. We are spending those two months travelling all over the Netherlands seeing lots of family and friends, and cleaning out and packing up our stuff in our home in Groningen (where a friend of us is living at the moment). Meanwhile, I (Judith) have a lot of work to do for Talaria’s clients as well. No wonder we haven’t really been able to update as soon as we would have liked! Anyway, we have 2 more weeks left in the Netherlands before we head off again, on our next trip. As we have said before (see blog on future plans) we missed Yellowknife and Bas will try to find a job and land a permit during the 4 months that we are there. I think the biggest adjustment may well be the weather: It’s not as cold here in the Netherlands as it will be in Yellowknife…, but of course much colder than sunny and summery New Zealand was!

Picture time
I will try and post more pictures (still almost 1700 to sort out…) soon! But here you can already find some pictures of the first few days of our Summer Holiday on the South Island.

1) Christchurch

2) Akaroa (daytrip from Christchurch)

3) The drive to and our stay in Arthur’s Pass

4) The drive to Franz Josef and a glimpse of the Franz Josef Glacier

Before we head off on another trip to the South Island tomorrow, we still owe you pictures of our trip to Tiritiri Matangi Island. We tried to go there on December 2nd, but due to stormy weather, the trip was cancelled. Since we were in the area (about an hour drive from where we live) anyway, we decided to take the opportunity to walk around in Shakespear Regional Park, which was just around the corner from where the boat departed. So, the first pictures you’ll see below are from Shakespear.

We tried Tiritiri Matangi Island again on Saturday December 8th, and this time the weather was perfect. The guided walk on the island was awesome. Our guide took his time and we spent approx. 3 hours walking around, (trying to) spot birds and getting to know more about the bird sanctuary island. It was difficult to take pictures of the birds, so you’ll see more photos of views and so on, but they are worth looking at nevertheless! 🙂

After our last blog update about our future plans, it’s not like we’ve been just waiting around till we can get out of New Zealand! No, on the contrary! We are trying to make the most of our time here in this beautiful country and we are making a lot of beautiful (day) trips. I’ll be posting a few blogs this week with pictures of the things we did over the last couple of weekends.

First of all: Rangitoto!

A few weeks ago we were supposed to go skiing with the Science department (Bas’ colleagues) for the weekend, but unfortunately the mountain had just closed on the previous Monday, partly due to the wonderful summery weather. So, we decided to take a day trip to Rangitoto Island instead with our friends Aaron (Bas’ colleague) and Val (his wife). Rangitoto is a volcanic island just off the coast of Auckland. It is a very young island, formed only about 500-600 years ago and pretty spectacular! Such a very different landscape, so close to where we live! We hiked for a couple of hours around the island and up to the summit. The views were stunning.

Since we took the early-bird ferry (at 7 am!) we took the 1pm ferry back to town and still had a few hours in the afternoon to relax before heading out to Linda and Neil’s place. Linda is Bas’ head of department and they had offered to host a BBQ for the science teachers. It was a beautiful warm evening and we sat outside on their porch till past 10pm, enjoying delicious food!

Have a look at the pictures to get an idea of what Rangitoto looks like and what fun we had that day!