New years
Hi everyone, and a happy new year to all of you! We haven’t posted to our blog since christmas, because we’re still not connected to the internets at home. Fortunately, things are really quiet at work, so I’m writing this post from the office, while trying to look busy…
So, what have we been up to? We’ve had our first christmas and new year’s in summer, although the weather has been less than spectacular. Well, I guess you could call the coldest December in 60 years spectacular, but you know what I mean…
We were going to celebrate new year’s at a bach (a traditional kiwi holiday home) with friends, on the west coast north of Wellington. We tossed a mattress, chilly bin and some clothes in our van and off we went!
But not before we added some essential accessories to our car: hawaii leis and our hula girl, transplanted from our old Volkswagen camper:
On our way to the bach, we made a few stops. First up was the world’s most modern dutch windmill, De Molen in Foxton! After fifteen years of planning, development and building, an actual, working, full scale dutch windmill was completed in the year 2000. The windmill features a shop that sells dutch treats such as speculaas, and a variety of flours produced by the mill. It was amazing to stand on the windmill’s platform, speaking dutch to the millers and looking out over the flat scenery - almost as if we were in Holland. But not quite: the palm trees were a bit out of place…
After this memorable visit, it was time for us to move on to our special friends Graeme and Joan in Wanganui. We had a great time at their place last year during our travels through New Zealand and we talked about our intention of moving to Wellington. It was so great to see them again! We had a nice dinner with plenty of wine and a good night, and the next day we left for Waikawa, to the bach.
The bach was packed, lots of people came to Waikawa and we spent our time going to the beach, playing street cricket and touch rugby, or one of the million games everyone brought. We brought Koehandel (Cow trade) which was an instant hit. Sleeping in our van was very comfortable, it’s a great car! The beach was nice, but the weather wasn’t - due to the cold southerly winds.
A kiwi new year’s wouldn’t be complete without lots of barbie food, so Cedric brought his barbecue and grilled food for everyone.
On new year’s day we drove the 2 1/2 hours back to Wellington. The cold weather lasted for a few days, but after that it became fine. Pōhutukawa, or New Zealand Christmas Tree as they’re also known, are flowering around the holiday period and these beautiful trees grow everywhere in Wellington.
While the sun was out we even went for a swim in Island Bay. It’s so nice living close to the beach: Just walk down in togs (what are togs?) with a towel, jump in, freeze your tits off and walk back. It’s great!
