Merry Christmas Everyone!!

Just hanging out by the beach, Christmas Day afternoon 2011

Happy Christmas from New Zealand!  It's been a bit of contrast with Christmas Day last year...

Busy busy busy

Where to start, where to start?  Sorry folks, aware we've been lax in posting the updates recently.  We were out and about showing the sights to Dave's Mum and hadn't had time to post on one adventure before moving on to the next.  So, we left you in Taupo.

View from the deck

Our next jaunt was closer to home, when we headed over to Waiheke Island for a few days.

Mum arrives and we do Taupo

Taupo lakeside panorama

So Mum arrived just over a week ago and says the flight 'wasn't too bad', make of that what you will.  I was working the first weekend after she arrived (world cup final weekend - very quiet, there wasn't a Kiwi in the country who was going to miss that match by getting admitted to hospital!), so she, Hannah and the kids chilled out and pottered around our local beaches.  This weekend just gone I was speaking at a conference at Lake Taupo...

Pottering round Piha

We're getting a bit behind with our blogging here, but at the beginning of September we went to Piha for the day.

Q: What is wrong with this jar of Marmite?

A: It is EMPTY.

And at the third stroke the time in Auckland will be...

Just a reminder that it's now officially summer in New Zealand - that is, the clocks have gone forward for summertime, so we are now 12 hours ahead of GMT.  Bear that in mind if you're planning on catching us via Skype (and please do - we'd love to hear from you!)

Photos of Tilly's birthday

Only a month after the event....  Here are some photos of Tilly's party and of present opening on her actual birthday.

We visit the hellhole of the Pacific* and celebrate our anniversary

It's our wedding anniversary on Wednesday and this year it's Dave's turn to organise something, so this weekend we finally got out of Auckland for the first time and went to Russell in the Bay of Islands.

Tilly gets a bigger present than expected...

Momentous occasions down under!  Tilly turns 2 and gets the entire contents of a 3 bedroom house all wrapped up in a big steel shipping container.

Where is CRXU9358170?

CRXU9358170 is the number of our shipping container and it hasn't been grabbed by Somali pirates, but it's starting to feel as if it might as well have been.

Escape from Pirates!!

Maybe if we sit here long enough we'll see our sofa sail past...

Yeah!!!!  The cargo ship carrying all our worldly possessions is currently ambling around in the Tasman sea awaiting entry into Sydney Harbour, having apparently not been hijacked by Somali Pirates or decided to sink in the Indian ocean.  Just a short hop across to Auckland and then the customs to clear and we can have a change of clothes and some furniture again.  At least Tilly's birthday present is easy this year - we can just give her some of her old toys back!

Work going well for me (Dave), survived my first few weeks in charge of the wards and getting to grips with my dialysis teams.  Hannah's job hunting is gathering a bit of momentum and there's a few irons in the fire, but too early to tell if they'll come to anything yet.  Reuben and Tilly still great, both settling into life here really well and being generally wonderful (most of the time anyway).  All in all positive things to report all round, except that it is definitely winter here now and we've had to invest in new hot water bottles or Hannah was threatening to go to bed in thermals - what do they have against decent heating over here?

We experience our first earthquake

Yes, the earth moved for us at 21:09 last night, but only for a couple of seconds.

Why you don't want to be a fish in New Zealand

So, yesterday evening I was off to the Auckland Fish Market cookery school for the first part of my birthday present from Dave, an evening class demonstration of fish preparation and cooking, followed by a hands-on session after which the participants get to eat the fruits of their labours.

We are celebrating

Hurrah hurrah, it's been birthday central here today.  Dave and I celebrated by having lunch in one of the Sky Tower restaurants.  

Just a winter's day on the beach...

A week of firsts

A few notable events this week...

Commenting on the blog

Have just realised that we had this set so only registered users could heckle comment on the blog.  Should be fixed now so no registration required.  Any comments come through to us as emails but if you're not using a google account you'll be anonymous unless you put your name in too.  Thanks

Doing Auckland

We've been here just over a week now - feels like longer because we've been doing so much - and we've really been enjoying getting out to see what Auckland has to offer.  So far we've:

We are not homeless

Hurrah! We've just signed a tenancy agreement for a house in St Heliers, Auckland. That this is a relief is a bit of an understatement!

So what's with the Godzone?

We thought this might need some explanation as a couple of people have been asking us why our blog has the name it does. New Zealand, as its natives know, is in fact God's Own Country (say it out loud!) and they've been describing it as such since 1890. Coming from Leeds, we should feel right at home because Yorkshire is also God's Own Country (or County if you don't hold with exaggeration). And really, what's the difference, apart from the fact that Yorkshire has more inhabitants...?

What a difference a day makes...

Slight delay in service - darn internet, but we wrote this on our first day here...

Made it. And with surprisingly little trauma it must be said. Visions of ejecting children from Boeing 777 mid flight were entirely unfounded - they were both absolute stars. Reuben particularly enjoyed eating sausages for breakfast, still in his PJs and whilst watching Bob the Builder - his idea of toddler heaven. Tilly charmed everyone, and certainly helped getting passed through all the security checks quickly.

Waiting at Gate 43

Just landed at Hong Kong airport at the halfway stage where it's 4.20pm local time.  Got an hour or so to wait before getting back on the plane to Auckland.  Flight so far has been absolutely fine, we've all had a reasonable amount of sleep and nobody has had a tantrum (not even Dave or me!).  Think we definitely benefitted from Reuben and Tilly having recent experience of flying to Israel as it has seemed relatively familiar to them.  From where we are in the terminal we are right next to the gate for an El Al flight - Reuben is definitely into jet-setting mode as when we told him the plane was going to Israel he said 'I want to go to Israel again because it was so brilliant!'.  Maybe next week Reuben... Tilly has been busy saying 'whoosh' at every departing plane and flashing cheeky smiles at a Sikh gentleman sitting behind us.

Dave is currently 'exercising' the children on a travelator, which is relatively deserted, so we hope to have them well tired out ready to do some more sleeping in a few hours time and wake up just before we get to Auckland feeling all perky.  That's the plan, anyway.  When I post again from NZ you'll be able to find out what really happened!

'Ready' for the off!

So, we're off!  Or very nearly.  I'm typing in the kitchen as the house is rapidly disassembled around me by our packers, who are doing a great job and being kept liberally supplied with hot drinks (2 sugars, 1 sugar, no sugar) and biscuits (chocolate) and the odd cupcake.