Made it in New Zealand!

Made It! Look at the HOUSE!!!!!



Here we are in Downtown Papamoa, nr Tauranga, Bay of Plenty (east coat of the North Island, approx 2 hours south east of Auckland)

Do you like the car? Did some seriuos haggling for it....what a beaut!

Having arrived in NZ on the 31st of October after 4 fantastic weeks of doing very little, it was time to knuckle down and find a job...which i duelly did! Not the ideal job (in stainless steel again!) but with fantastic opportunities in the area we want.....near a beach! So here goes for early Jan'08....will the Kiwis ever be the same again???


Since we have departed Aucklands shores, we have had some great weather...check out the Back lane re-union photo!

Had a great time at the Ball household...even though Bev is on just one glass of Vino a month!

A night out with Nige at the Kiwi equivelant of 'PHOENIX NIGHTS' was an eye opener!!!!!



Off we soon went on our merry way, looking for a new home in the Bay of Plenty. Our dream home by a beach is looking quite expensive, other options are Bethlehem or Judea.......but will I ever be able to read the thousands of sarcastic emails eminating from the UK again???

Not much time left on this dark ages internet thingie we are on. Just a few photos below of the kids enjoying themselves. The race is at Cambridge (where Nige, Bev & Georgia live) on the Armistice Celebration day

The Fireworks where in celebration of my 21st Birthday on the 5th of Nov'07...thanks for all your presents!!!! The boys loved all the Fireworks that could be seen over auckland whist we were staying at Geoff & Vivs (not like me to have a free firework display!!!)














Take care for now, must go and look at some schools, houses etc....but not in Bethlehem!
Senior Wordy signing out!

The Wordies have landed!!!!!!!

Good morning from a wet and windy Auckland! We have been here for 4 days now and it seems like ages - at least we are feeling at home! We have managed a couple of trips to the beach and a trip into Auckland City centre where we went up the Sky Tower. I like to get as high as possible so that I can get my bearings!!!! We watched a couple of people jump off and I have to say GOOD LUCK to you Bev.....just make sure you let me know when you are going to jump and I will definately be there to watch!!! We haven't managed to meet up with our fellow back laners yet but should definately have done so by the end of this week. That will be time for another blog - even though Jane seems to think we are rubbish at this!!!

Anyway...back to our travels......

Last time we wrote we were leaving KL and heading on to Langkawi. Here are some piccies of the Sky Tower in KL (had to go to the top of that one too!) and the Petronas Towers which we didn't manage to get tickets for - will have to go back for that one!

























Petronas Towers



Shy Tower









We were looking forward to traveling 1st class on the train......but it wasn't quite to our expectations! This is a photo of Tom on his bunk and then a photo of our cabin. Tom and I shared 1 cabin and Max and Neil another.





























































The journey would have been good but Max was suffering from a chicken curry that he had in Little India in KL the night before we left! Poor thing suffered a bit but was very good! From the train overnight we caught a ferry to Langkawi and Tom was sick......all in all we're pretty good travellers!!!

We soon settled into life in Langkawi. We were staying at a beautiful resort - thanks to Russ and Lorraine for the recommendation! We spent the next 5 days enjoying island life.....eating, drinking and lazing by the pool. We also manged a couple of walks along the beach - usually to sample the local roti canai for breakfast. Very good it was too!

Max and Tom particularly enjoyed the slides and bouncy castle by the pool but as you can see also had fun on the beach.


All in all we had a fabulous four weeks of sunshine and relaxation! From Langkawi we flew back for one night in Singapore where we had breakfast at the favorite 'Toast Box' - great for thick toast and eggs or in my case peanut butter toast! Another of the boys favorite places for tea - Subway! Oh how culturally aware they have become!!! At least they enjoyed roti canai for brekkie - maybe there is some hope for them!

Now it's down to business here. We will keep you updated of any news but will once again be struggling for internet access once we leave Auckland (that's my excuse anyway!!!) We will probably have the rest of the week here and then look to head south.

At least now the sun has come out here and the washing is drying on the line! Roll on summer that's what I think!