They landed. Almost two weeks ago. It was so nice to see them again after 8 months. I think this was the longest period ever. But there they were: My parents!!!
I was nervous the whole day. Luckily there was a lot to do to keep me busy. Picked up Klaas from work and the airport waiting started. And there they were….
We expected two incredibly tired, moody people lost in yet another new airport. Nothing was farther from the truth. They spotted us first. Cheerful and energetic they started chatting about the flight and Boudewijn quickly picked their luggage from the belt as if they have never done else. Helllo, New Zealand.
I begon to wonder if my parents were jet-lag immune, but after dinner excitement dropped down and they could enjoy a long sleep in the guest room we had been preparing for them.
Busy week
Of course it was bound to become a busy week. Lot’s of catch up time with Annet and Boudewijn, and lots of site seeing. Te Papa (the museum), drive around the bay, meeting with café culture, Makara golf (twice J), beer at the Mac’s brewery, and so on, and so on… On Saturday we were invited for dinner at Vicky and Norm’s, that was wonderful.
Car trouble
In the midst of all this there were also a few problems to be fixed. Our van needed a WOF (apk) and it turned out to be one of the bad ones. You know you own an old car, but somehow you’d like it to pass the WOF smoothly. Well it didn’t, and it costed 900 dollars (450 euro) to fix it. Au! After hearing that news I discovered a work truck had driven into ‘Meneer de Brandweer’. Resulting in quite some panel damage and a malfunctioning backlight. That was a thing to be sorted out by the insurance, which of course takes a while. In the same week the front brakes of the same van broke down. Something that shouldn’t happen because it has a fresh WOF (apk) and was serviced recently. That really added to the despair, because you can imagine I wanted to hand over my parents a fully functioning, safe and beautiful campervan, ready to rock. After a call to the seller, he arranged everything; pick-up, completely new brakes, payment. Thanks Graeme. That was service.
While the van was at the mechanics we managed to get a new backlight, so the van was (almost) as new.
After this busy, sometimes car-stressed week, we filled the Brandweer with the stuff of the new inhabitants and they were ready to go, happy as kids 
First stop Waikanae, the bach we stayed in a few months ago. They loved it, and how can you not. It is an amazing place. I travelled up there to spend one last afternoon and evening with them. Now they’re on the road. And the last time I spoke to them, there was too much to tell about. They are having a great time. We didn’t expect anything else
Windsurfing
We hope it is not getting boring. But aaaahh, it was good again. We´ve had some pretty rare conditions. Cross offshore about masthigh waves normally only happens a few times a year. The lost months we´ve had 5 of those. The wind just keeps swinging around from south (creating waves) to gail force north (offshore) waves.
We are starting to find our way in the windsurfing community as well lately. It´s a very welcoming group of people, trying to help everybody with local knowledge. No secrets, everybody is welcome at every spot. And they are incredibly well organized to get as much as real time updates as possible, because sometimes you need to respond quickly. It is not uncommon that you see a handful of guys with full time jobs surfing from 2 to 5 in the afternoon. “Business lunches”.
The consistency is incredible. I think I could have surfed almost every day last month if I wanted to. But, I guess, I surfed almost every second day. It´s the best time of the year now. Wellington is truly the windiest city in the world.
