A Kiwi Christmas

So it was our first Christmas here in Kiwiland. And what a different experience it was! It didn't feel at all Christmassy to us as it is summer here, we're building nice tans and we opened the curtains on Christmas morning to bright blue skies.

So what did this mean? Well, we had to go down to the beach really, didn't we?! We headed down to Lyall Bay, which is a nice expanse of beach down near the airport and about 10 minutes' drive from home.

As you can see from this pic, it was a lovely day.

After our lunchtime walk we went round to one of Ian's colleague's houses. When we'd been out for Ian's work Xmas do, Johnny (originally from Guernsey - many moons ago!) and his wife Beth had asked us what our plans were for Xmas Day. We were honest and said we had no idea. We'd been so busy in the run-up to Xmas we didn't know what we were doing. And that was it. They insisted we go round to theirs.

So we sat around in blazing sunshine in the back garden, chatting and eating (and drinking a little of course!). It was a lovely chilled afternoon and we were treated like part of the family. Not quite the BBQ we were expecting, but a fabulous day all the same.

And so that was our introduction to a Kiwi Christmas. Not a bad effort even if we do say so ourselves!

Our things have arrived!

After what seemed like an eternity, our container arrived in Wellington. We had been hoping to get a photo of the boat, but it landed in town two days earlier than expected, so we missed it :-(


Nevertheless, on Monday morning we got a call to say the container had cleared customs and they were going to deliver it on Tuesday - great work we thought! The guys didn't turn up until about 4pm though. They unloaded the container and then pretty much failed to unpack and reassemble the furniture they were supposed to.

Still, Ian thought it was probably for the best as we now had to play the game of "Where is all of our cr@p going to fit?!" Over the years we appear to have acquired an awful lot of stuff. Which was fine in our mahoosive American house. Not so much in our NZ house. And we'd have probably had a similar experience if we'd moved back to the UK.

Can you believe that our entire worldly possessions are in that little container?!! No, neither can we. It looks like it would all fit so easily, but just try unpacking all those god damn boxes!

As you can see, it was a pretty wet day - but apparently this is typical of the Wellington summer. A bit like the British one really!

The rest of the run up to Christmas was pretty hectic. Ian has been working pretty long hours to get fully trained up and covering for guys on holiday. Annalie had a mad rush to get work cleared up before the Christmas break (she's off from 22nd December to 10th January!). Annalie went out to see the Rocky Horror Show at one of the Wellington theatres. She only really went as Richard O'Brien was in it and it was a great opportunity (possibly the last?) to see the show's creator actually take part in it on stage.

We've not had a huge amount of time to get out and about yet, but our time will come. And then we'll have some good stories to tell!

Maddy is a Kiwi!

Our little girl completed her journey completely unscathed and arrived in Kiwiland on 2nd December. We have to say a huge thank you to Suzanne for looking after little Ms. M for 2.5 months since we left and being so meticulous and organised with the vet visits prior to her departure. It wasn't easy having that responsibility for someone else's pet.


As you can see from this pic, we were able to visit Maddy in quarantine, which is in Levin, about 1.5 hours' drive from home. They seem to take good care of the animals and we're sure she'll be well looked after. She's staying in a lovely bush surrounding and she can do plenty of her favourite brid-watching activity from her pen! It was hard leaving her behind though, as much for us as it was for her. She was so excited to see us after her arduous journey.

Time to catch up

Sorry we've been away so long. We have a bit of an excuse this time. When we moved house on 4th December, our internet connection took three weeks to be moved (don't worry, we've got them to refund December's fee!) and then it got connected right before Christmas. And things have been quite busy since then! So now we're just catching up with updates and photos for you.