Our period in New Zealand went by far too quickly. But
as usual we managed to fit in quiet a lot.
We arrived in Auckland on the 8th of December; where we
picked up the hire car that we used for the duration of our stay.
we stayed with Ewan and Jem, Stanley and new baby Molly.
In that first week of our stay we helped Ewan work on the straw bale house that
he is building near Matakana. Duncan helped with plastering the outside wall and
I did various jobs inside and out as well as the vegetable garden. Ewan has
taken on an amazing project! We also opened a New Zealand bank account, as we
intend to spend more time in New Zealand in the future. Denise and Tim joined us
for the weekend and to move all their gear. (Later in the week Denise told us
that she had broken up with Tim).
Kirsten, Mark and Lanah arrived on the 24th; we were now
complete. Christmas was spent at Ewan's house and on the 28th we moved to a very
nice bach (holiday home) in Raglan. The weather was not great, but some of
the youngsters managed to do some surfing and kite surfing. The little ones also
had some time on the beach. We had a long day touring and visiting sites in the
area on a nice, dry day.
On the 3rd of Jan we moved to Coromandel, where we
stayed in a bach right on the beach. Again the weather was not great, but we
managed to visit places and explore the area. Then back to Ewan's house;
Kirsten, Mark and Lanah flew back to UK on the 11th. We spent one day looking at
3 baches, with the view to buy one some time this year. That was an interesting
experience and we ended up putting an offer on one of them.
We had a few more quiet days with Ewan and Jem and the
kids before flying to Los Angeles with Denise to look for a sailing yacht, which
she intends to sail to Australia with friends. More in the next
installment....
It has been an amazing holiday for us to spend quality
time with our children and partners and above all to get to know our three
grandchildren so much better. Love you Lanah, Stan and Molly.
