2006-02 Feb - Back and forth all over the world

Well lots of things have happened in the past few months. We packed up our place in London, went to Canada for Christmas and then flew 18,342 km to New Zealand.

Farewell England

Packing up our place in London was hard. Monique is a self admitted pack rat so we had A LOT of stuff to either pack or give away. Fortunately we were able to give a lot of it away to people who needed it. It was sad to say good bye to the house we lived in for over three years but it meant that the real adventure was just about to begin.

Christmas in Canada

We went to Canada for Christmas. It was a chance for Monique to be with her family as it might be one of the last times her whole family are together. We were hoping for a white Christmas, which we got, but it really only snowed once in the three weeks we were there and that was Christmas night. Christmas was wonderful, we got to play with our niece and nephews and even met one of our nephews for the first time. We also got to go snow tubing which is incredibly fun. We went in the evening so our pictures are a bit dark, but check them out anyways, Fraser looks great on his tube!

Ready or Not New Zealand, Here We Come!

Well we've finally travelled half way around the world to the place we're planning on calling home: New Zealand. The trip took around 26 hours but wasn't as bad as we had thought it might be. Fraser managed to book us terrific seats which gave us tons of room so we could relax a bit. We landed in Auckland at 6am, just after the sun rose. It was a beautiful sunny and incredibly hot day. We stayed the first night with Fraser's brother and his family and then the next day they drove us down to Te Awamutu where Fraser was reunited with his mum. It's also the town in which we'll be staying for the next few months. Fraser's mum had found us a lovely 1 bedroom house to rent so we were able to move in straight away.

Our first week was hectic as we had to buy a car, a fridge, a washing machine, a couch, and other odds and ends to get us settled into the house. We're definitely more settled now. Monique is still adjusting to the change in season, the accent and the Maori place names which are really stumping her in terms of pronunciation.

We went out to Mount Maunganui on the East coast which was lovely. We didn't swim in the sea but paddled our feet and got rather wet anyways because the waves were a bit higher than we'd thought. The water was gorgeous once you got over the intial cool shock.

Monique really wanted to see a kiwi (bird) up close so we took a trip to the Otorohanga Kiwi House. Monique was surprised at how large they were but really enjoyed seeing them. Because they're nocturnal we could only view them in a dark house so unfortunately our pictures aren't too great. We also got to see many other birds and a few reptiles there as well. It was a really enjoyable trip.

Upcoming Events

Now we're just about to leave on a whirlwind trip to the south island of New Zealand. So stay tuned for the next newletter which will feature the pictures from that trip.