Dagmar, Jurriaan and Mare
Halfway through November two of our Dutch friends and their daughter decided to move from Wellington to Auckland. We helped them cleaning the place and preparing for their trip up north. We are very sorry to see them go, since we started to have some good fun together. It might seem close by, at least it is the same country, but it is as far away as Amsterdam and Bordeaux are from eachother.

Labour Weekend
A nice long weekend where everyone is taking it easy. No stress and a lot of fun. Like last year we decided to go up north to the Taranaki Wave Classic. A fun windsurf event. And like last year there was not much wind. When the wind hits Taranaki, it hits it well. But we seem to have something terribly wrong with our timing. On the other hand on the first competition day, the caravan hit Waitara and the surfers amongst the windsurfers were treated to tow-in on an overhead A frame. And well, you’re out and about, camping, relaxing and in nature. We did have some nice waves to surf, so no complaints. A very nice session at Kina road with only our surf buddies Nils, Margreet, Fabrice, Ala, and Alan. What more do you want? The sun was shining and the mood was good. To top things off there was also a very nice session at Sky Williams where the waves had to be shared with a couple of ‘strangers’.

The Duck
Our sole mate and companion since we came to NZ has gone to it’s last resting place. The southerly winds have been getting to him and he started to corrode under our very noses. Also the Warrant (NL:APK) didn’t come through. In need for something to sleep in, more economic and environmentally friendly than a 22 year old diesel, we decided to step up a bit. Our newest and latest friend is called ‘The Duck’ (or Duke). A 2003 Holden Combo. Which neatly fits some surfboards, gear, stuff and a place to sleep. All you need.

First visitor
Again this year we have an impressive list of upcoming visits to this neat little place. So many that we sometimes aren’t home when people come by (when we are on holiday ourselves). We feel very fortunate that so many of our friends and family like to travel, and like to travel this far. We know for a fact that there many are other immigrants who live here who don’t have this luxury. Our first visitor of the year has been Stefan Thie. He is travelling alone and meanwhile writing his novel around cognitive behavior. Visiting the most fantastic places. We took him to a bbq hosted by our friends Sophie and Vale who live in Paekakariki (what?). A quiet, stunning, precious coastal town. They live in the old backpackers, which has a hottub (which Stefan knows all about). We spend the afternoon eating and playing Kubb on the beach.

Interview
Meanwhile I had an interview at Springload. A great web development company located in Wellington. I applied for the role as Front End Developer. Since I decided I want to pursue working in web development and teach yoga (see below), I thought I’d give it a go. They were enthusiastic, but I am not there yet. I’d probably wouldn’t have made a good replacement for a guy who was called ‘the guru of JS’ No worries. It just means a lot more of the learning stuff. Keep you posted on this.

Yoga Teacher training
Finally, November came. I had already signed myself up for the course in May. It was worth the wait. Last Sunday was the last day of almost a month full of Yoga. And it was incredible. Our teacher, Nicky Knoff, born in 1938, is inspirational and definitely showed me what good can come from a life full of Yoga. We learned asana’s, pranayama, meditation, philosophy, anatomy & physiology, teaching methodology, nutrition, and much much more. The group was wonderful. All yogi’s dedicated to become a better, more loving and healthier person. You can imagine the amount of energy we brought together every day.
Now my day starts at 5.45am and the first thing I do is step on my mat. No matter the weather or the mood. I have been practicing yoga for the past five years and have seen gradual improvement in my physical and emotional health. The amount of intensive practice I have done over the past month has brought it all together. The improvements I have seen are immense. There is no doubt in my mind that Yoga (in its full glory) is one of the most comprehensive and complete systems that foster a healthy body and mind.

Teaching Yoga
The weeks before Christmas I’ll be teaching friends in our living room. In the new year I’ll be working towards teaching all around town. Wherever people have the space and want to learn the ways of Yoga.

Sjakie Jansen
The weekend before Sinterklaas (5th of December) Klaas went with his mate Greg to Taranaki for weekend of surfing and an outdoor concert of Jack Johnson in one of the most spectacular parks of New Zealand presenting an almost perfect Amphitheater surrounded by old and large trees brilliantly lit up. The surf on Saturday didn’t seem to be getting anywhere, there was 30 knots of wind! 25 more than expected and no windsurfers in the Duke. The wind died off and we had a few great surf session topped off with aperfectly timed session at a 250 m overhead point with not too many people in. Did I already mention that the weather was great? You guessed it, these weekends don’t get much better!

Sinterklaas
No presents, but we decided to eat some sweets and cry our eyes out at the Sinterklaas classic ‘Alles is Liefde’ with our Dutch friends Willemijn and Geert. No better DVD than that one to mull over the goods of Holland, for an inkling forgetting why we were living on the other side of the world. And especially nice because Wil en Gert hadn’t seen it before. We laughed our socks off! Thanks guys!

What’s to come
The Scholten family is in ‘da country’. We are so very happy. Linda and Mark have travelled all this way with their two kids. We had a great weekend together in Wellington. Tomorrow we’ll pick them up from the ferry and we’ll travel North together. Of course not missing Taranaki
On the 3rd of January we pick up Klaas his brother from Auckland airport and head down south again, in the meantime enjoying ourselves a lot, of course! Let the new year come!

‘May you love and be loved in these special times of the year, and in the rest of your time to come!’

Love
Klaas and Merel
De kerst

Last Saturday Klaas and I decided to join the second round of the Wellington Freewave Competition. Hosted by our club the Wellington Windsurfing Association. With 11 sailors (10 men and yes, me competing against the guys) it didn’t have the grandeur of a Battle of the Generations, but our definition of crowded is also slightly different (30 pieps on the water).
And guess what, armed with our newly acquired set of Severne Blades the Dutch windsurfing team hit the water. Not without succes. A 30 knots onshore wind and 3ft waves proved to be a challenge, but we advanced. And how! Klaas ended up sailing the final and came 3rd, behind Mr pushloop and Mr dry hair backloop. And me, you wouldn’t believe it (even I didn’t at first), I came 5th equal. Beating one guy in the first heat and another in the semi-finals with some wave rides and two jumps. Chicas! You can be proud of me! Here are some shots of the day made by our Ukranian friend Anton (credit were credit belongs).
Click to view slideshow.

As you come out of winter, watersports are not the only thing that turns back to life. Plans, projects, and spending time outside in the sun are among the others.
Klaas is still happy at Deloitte and I’m starting a Yoga Teacher training next month. Very much looking forward to it. More news from this side of the planet soon!

Hope you are enjoying yourselves, we are too!

Love Klaas and Merel

Well, after again a journey of about two days, I arrived on Friday. Safe and sound, back in NZ. I have to say I, because Klaas came a day later.  Check in, Ms Merel was booked on the flight, but no Klaas to be found. Strange… a very helpful, friendly lady who unfortunately didn’t succumb to our charms. No Klaas, no flight. Of course we didn’t read the terms and conditions on our flight booking, which apparently said we could not fly back if we didn’t use the ticket on the way to the Netherlands. Which Klaas didn’t do, as most of you know. Apart from that Singapore Airlines is the way to go. Really nice chairs, legroom (also for tall people), great inflight system and not so bad food. Still, it is a hell of a journey. Not something you do for fun, but it was more than worth it!

In Singapore I had a stopover of 15 hours. More than enough time to explore this crazy little empire. When I tried I found the best matching words to describe Singa is: sterile and surreal. It looks like every effort is made to make everything look and work perfect. And that makes me feel like I’m walking on a movie set. That probably says more about me Top of the bill crazy was the newest iconic hotel with the spaceship on top. See pictures. Really, if you have some time to spare there, take the elevator in the 3rd tower to the 56th floor.

From the day we landed in NL until the we left we have been meeting up with people. Sometimes we even had three or four meetings a day. Breakfast here, coffee there, dinner at another place. As I told many people it was crazy, and at the same GREAT! Wonderful hours and days spend with family and friends, trying to remember every minute, making the most of the time. And still it was too short. There is no other way of doing it, other than just enjoying the ride. And we did. Thank you so much everyone for  company, beds, dinners, party’s organized, quality time. For making us feel like we haven’t left at all, for letting us know we have such amazing friends. Thank you, thank you!

At the end, we both longed to go back, like you long for you own bed and toilet seat after a long holiday.  Touching the soil in Auckland, a relaxed feeling came over me. Psychosomatic or not, I don’t care. This country has done something to me, and that is very apparent.  Quite some tension was build up during my visit, which made me very tired. Because of our fully packed schedule, and also because of the speed of life in NL.  We still feel a bit misplaced, as a friend here says: ‘ Your body travels by plane, but your soul on a horse.’ I see this adventure will make us split souls forever, but hey aren’t we all:)

Buys,
Klaas and Merel

ps More foto’s will follow on the flickr site. Will take some time though!

What happened to us a couple of weeks ago felt like magic to me. Klaas and I were sitting in a restaurant having dinner. A nice night together. The waiter approaches us and asks if we know the guy that sat just behind us.  We didn´t  I didn´t even notice there was somebody sitting there and Klaas´s short term memory only went as far as ´ it was a man´. ´Probably didn´t pay his bill,´ we said to each other. How wrong were we.  We finished our dinner and asked for the bill, only to find out that guy had paid our dinner! Thank you for giving us some magic.

The next thing I´m going to talk about is in the adult world way more important than magic and should have been first in our post. Blame me for being a dreamer, but we are residents of New Zealand. During the process we thought it was all taking a long time. However looking back on it, we collected the right documents, handed them in and got the good news. Yesterday we picked up our passports, and here we are!!!

Photo: residency

Storm. A monstrous storm hit WGTN about three weeks ago. I saw it coming while I was at home. A massive black curtain approached the land with amazing speed. Never have been so close to the forces of nature. Klaas was presenting something at the 16th floor with his back to the window and noticed nobody was paying attention. Only when he turned around and had to hold himself to the wall to keep standing, then he realised.  See for yourself!

We had a lot of visitors already this year. Friends from NL. Friends of friends. Couples, singles. Different nationalities. It looks like we already have our little hostel. It started in September with Katja. Then Arjen and Frank came to visit. Thijs and Anniek dropped in soaking and cold and we had to save them Then Annet and Boudewijn (Merel´s parents) came to stay with us several times during their 3 month visit. We also went out to have dinner with the parents of Ilse, which was great fun. Sylvia was here too. Bart and Ilona (brother of Ilse) stayed with us. Esther & Roeland came for a few nights .  Xavier (work friend of Klaas) came to visit us and him and Klaas went on a long weekend to the South Island; relaxing of course. Yannick and Eelke spend a couple of nights at our place. I had been looking forward to seeing Yannick again after such a long time. We had this marvellous weekend together with spirituality (of course), good food and relaxing.  And after our visits to Raglan Ilse en Maurice were able to get time of from work and visit us.  We were very happy with that. Coffees, dinners, fixing cars, looking at brakes, walking, sailing in the harbour. Our last visitors were our friends Antje en Peter. We met them here in Wellington and they are living now in Taupo. They came to Welly for business and pleasure and stayed at ´the Dutch Inn´.  As we call it now.  At the end of April our windsurfing friends couple (Thijs and Anniek) comes back from the SI and will stay at our place. Like they did many times if the weather was to &$”%&$#”( to stay in the van. The counter sits at a solid 22, when I think of that I am amazed.  We new we have travel-junkies as friends and acquaintances, but that they would be able to make it all this far.

Last weekend we went up to Taranaki for the Wave Nationals. Camping on the beach side waiting for wind and waves. Cooking on the wood fired French beach oven and smoking your clothes and yourself. Perfect! Some waves, but no wind all weekend. Had a really great time though with the Frenchies Fabrice and Thierry, Itaj from PK who works in Auckland came to see us, nice to catch up. On Monday morning, still no wind, we decided to go down and visit Norm and Matthew in Waikanae. Only to learn after three hours that the long awaited wind finally picked up and they held the competition. It sucks to be a windsurfer sometimes! Decisions, decisions. We´ll live. Pictures here.

Yes, we are quiet! But as we get settled in here, live becomes more and more normal. The same old, same old things are not left in NL. Guess what, you take them with you where ever you go. Going to work, kick you own but to get out of bed, doing the dishes, the washing, getting used to wintertime…. It means we are ok, and we finally get rested. Time to really enjoy the consequences of the big step we took.

´It´s the everyday things that make you happy, not the occasional ones.´

Love joes,

Klaas and Merel

And yes! The second bedroom is available for temporary co-habitation.

Love joes

Klaas and Merel

Short story for busy people who don´t like reading (aka executive summary)

We found a house in Island bay, Wellington! Perfect, almost paradise. Warm, light, great view, surf spot at walking distance, and a veggie garden. What more do you want. (pics coming soon)

Immigration papers are handed in, waiting on a decision. In the meantime we apply for a temporary work visa. Busy with that.

Had a great holiday over Christmas with my (Merel´s) parents.. Sylvia one of my psycho friends (friend from psychology study) joined us half way. Tour around the South Island. Main attractions: Kaikoura, saw some giant ocean beasts. Manapouri, underground power station and Doutbfull sound. Dunedin, Klaas´s student memories. Banks peninsula, visit Double Dutch Tinker and Wim, had a wonderfull time. For pics look at our flickr page. (www.flickr.com/klaasandmerel)

The story in full detail will follow soon as will the pictures of paradise (almost).

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.

The warm up day. The Friday before the competition started was THE day. Klaas had taken the day off. We arrived in Pungarehu in Taranaki fairly early in the morning. And that´s when the ocean told us:

“Back into your cage you bragging Dutchies!”

Man o man, that´s a different ballgame. The first time in my life I had muscle ache from being tense, instead of exercise. I had only windsurfed for one and a half hour and my muscles were completely cramped. Ah well, it was not only from being tense, you know, after surfing a wave of 300 m you do get a bit tired. Especially if it´s mast high. And it´s clean. And it´s sunny. And there are only 5 people out.

And as Klaas knows now… If you get to close to biting dogs, you´ll get bitten. Klaas left the waves often too late and got washed by the rest of the set. It was all worth it. These were the most beautiful waves we have ridden in our lives so far. Without a doubt. Although Wellington has living up to its full potential recently! Cross offshore near mast high conditions with some friends out, ah well, better than working ay!

Back to the Taranaki wave classic. We were happy to score that day. The rest of the weekend was quite quiet windsurfing-wise, but was heaps of fun fun-wise! In a group of about 90 windsurfers we´ve been driving around a bit looking for the right surf or windsurfspot. On Monday there was finally enough wind to hold the competition, but in minimal wind conditions, but in great waves. We both didn´t do really well, wind from the right, light winds, too many sausages from the bbq (oh wait Merel not of course), had nothing to do with the party the night before, blablabla.

Photography

My (Merel) first photographic convention. To be honest, it was a bit of a long shot. I didn’t know what to expect, so I expected the worst. Old people, going on and on about photography, not being able to relate to somebody beside themselves. Dull workshops.

I even checked with one of my club mates if he was going, than there was at least one person I new.

Well, there were old people indeed, and they were going on and on about photography, but I really liked it, haha! There were also a lot of ‘younger’ people. And the workshops and fieldtrips were GREAT.  Those of you who sometimes take a walk with a photographer know what it is like. You have to stop every second, because they want to take a picture of something ‘interesting’. Something you perceive as an old plastic bag for instance. Really annoying! Well frankly, for the photographer it is the same. Therefore it was such a great experience to go to a wildlife reserve and was left alone for 2,5 hours only to take pictures. WOW! Like a kid in a candy store!

They had organized a group of models who would walk around in bridal dresses, and would pose for you whenever you wanted. Bride at the pond, bride with flower, bride with the birds. I think some of the guys only have brides on their disk.

The photojournalism workshop was given by an elderly couple, which had been working together during their photojournalism career. They were lovely. They started with dive photography and they showed us some amazing shots alongside practical tips to write and shoot your own first article.  Their working day is amazing. Packing for a good dive and explore the underwater world. Crazy!

I was a bit hesitant the first day with shooting the brides; shooting people close up in general. That was to change the next day with the workshop of Australian based wedding photographer Julie …. She was amazing!  She chose three shoot locations and allocated three groups of brides (incl two goth brides and a fairy). The only thing we had to do was direct the brides and take up our camera’s. She was not specific on directions, but instead really encouraged us to find our own shots. She gave a free pass to try whatever you wanted to try and that was amazingly liberating. I think I got about a 1200 shots from that day. The workshop finished with a trash the dress shoot. Something she does with a lot of couples after the honeymoon. It is really about making fun in your pretty clothes, without bothering it getting dirty. After all, the wedding is long over.

Julie set up a setting with a lot of brides and grooms who would do a paint fight. Bazooka’s filled with paint were pointed at the beautiful dresses. Look at the pictures to see some results.

Painting

While exploring the depths of my own mind and motivation I decided to start a painting course. Together with five other ladies we take our first (or retake our first) steps in painting.  This is really exciting and especially a good activity in which the conscious mind in not directing the orchestra. I love the Tuesday mornings at painting class. I’ll let you know more and maybe show some of my work (if it is good enough .

Holiday

Yes, although it may sound weird, we went on holiday. ‘Vakantie in eigen land’. Something we will probably do more often. We just finished the purchase of the campervan that’ll take Annet and Boudewijn (Merel’s parents) around NZ, and of course it needed a test drive. The other reason for leaving Wellington for a while was our limited leisure time. Klaas was about to start working, so we needed to make the most of it.

Packed and loaded with our board gear we drove up to Raglan to visit Maurice and Ilse. They were just back from a trip through Australia and we wanted to see their brown faces telling us NZ is WAY better.  Which they (partly) did, lucky us. Apparently the furry, scary, big animals of Aussie did not appeal to Ilse. Especially not if they are of the species spider, are as big as a guinea pig and decide to surprise her by hiding in her wetsuit. Anyway, over there they had loads of sun, nice people, good waves, and bbq everywhere, in one word terrible, so they quickly came back.

Two things really make you feel free. Driving away in your camper van, knowing everything you need is in the back.  The second thing is driving with this incredible camper van into Raglan: The town of the holiday people. At least that’s what it looks and feels like to us. We had some really sunny and warm spring days. Nice, clean, small waves at Ruapuke and no crowd. Just lazy days with good friends, nothing can beat that.

One experience we wanted to have here in NZ was high on our list. So on Wednesday we drove off, direction south, to meet our Dutch friends (NZ-met) Matthijs and Katya on the foot of Mt Ruapehu (better known as Mt Doom from Lord of the Rings) with the intention to do some SNOWBOARDING. Wow, being able to surf a ‘dog day surf’ (for explanation watch movie DOG DAYS by J. Kuijk van Luijk) and a nice sunny snowboard session on a volcano in one week. That was incredible. Meanwhile our campervan helped us through the cold nights, being equipped with a heater (what a luxury, we know).

The van ‘gaat als de brandweer’ according to Klaas, so we nicknamed it Meneer de Brandweer (muneirgh the brand wheir). Of course, totally not coinciding with colour or any other exterior characteristics. But hey, that hasn’t stopped us before.

With Norm at the cabins

Norm, our friend, landlord and fanatic mountain biker, took us with him to deliver and shift some cabins. His one-man company rents cabins to those who need some extra space. The cabins have a floor surface of 7 m2 and come with electricity.  People rent them to move the teenager out of the house. They rent them to have a guestroom for a visiting friend, to hire them to tourists on a campsite. You can imagine the variety of interesting places and people Norm meets every week.  We went with him for one day. Pulling a trailer which fits one cabin over the Rimutaka mountain summit in order to collect a cabin from a lady who breeds her cows somewhere at the end of a dirt road. Klaas found a duck egg, totally surprised, and the kind lady went inside the house to get him a dozen in a box to eat at home. Upon lifting the cabin we found the nest of the duck, full of eggs. Obviously happy that she had some people to talk with, she told me her worries about on of her cows. A bull had escaped and made to of her young cows (not ready to be a mother yet) pregnant.  So I said, to try to uplift the mood, at least you have a calf for free. Of course I was wrong, having spend too much time in the city, it was the wrong bull. She wanted a Scottish Highlander and this was an ordinary Dutch cow.

With the cabin on the trailer we conquered the Rimutaka summit in high winds, only to deliver it two hours later in one of the suburbs of Wellington. What seemed like a big empty warehouse, turned out to be a giant, fully equipped, gym, owned by two South-Africans. Oh no, Kiwi’s, as they were very fast to correct us. They are Kiwi now. 100% NZ and very happy here.  In order to make space for the cabin they first had to take the high powered boat out. Their treasure and weekend past time, cruising around the Wellington harbour.

Tulip day

The botanical garden trees were already blossoming with their colorful flowers, but what really stopped us in our tracks three weeks ago were the beds of purple, red, yellow and ORANGE. They had planted tulips. Read the sign that was posted next to the orange bed. Once a year people come to the botanical gardens on a Sunday to experience a small version of the ‘Keukenhof’ and to get a taste of Dutch culture on Tulip day.  Dutch culture yes, but that of fifty years ago. The Dutch club organizes this event. The club has members with an average age of 50.  You can imagine what it looked like: little kids dressed up in ‘klederdracht’ dancing the ‘klompendans’, old Dutch songs played, wet cake and filter coffee. I wonder if anybody realized that the multicultural public attending the event was more exemplary for Dutch culture. We had a great time anyway and Klaus really enjoyed his only ‘kroket’ of the past 7 months.

First week of work

Deloitte is fine, good employer, nice atmosphere, short walk away, nice colleagues, lunches with the girlfriend in town, sounds good all together. And it is, but … it involves being INSIDE all the time. And that’s something Klaus is not used to anymore. We have spent 7 months practically outside all the time. All the more motivation to change the situation quickly, your dreams are your limits. Working on it.

Sailing

Windy Welly for sure.  Besides windsurfing we decided to take up a second windy sport: Sailing. The Royal Port Nick Yacht club organizes on average 2-3 races a week in the Wellington harbour and the boats are always in need of crew. On a party of mutual friends we met Milan and his wife Daniela. He happens to own a boat, race, and in need of crew. His 11m yacht is not exactly a racing yacht and you sure need to get used to it, but he is definitely enthusiastic and motivated. So from now on we join him in the rum races every Friday after work. Last Friday the race was canceled, but because five crew members showed up (the most he ever had), we went out anyway.  Strong winds (25 knots, with gust 30), but it was definitely worth it. More to come.

Quakes and Tsunami’s

Probably everybody knows by know that some terrible natural disasters have happened in the past week. One that really struck NZ was the Samoan quake and tsunami. A quake with force 8.6 struck nearby the main island and induced a 3-4m high tsunami wave. For those who visited Samoa (or Fiji/ Tonga which is quite the same) know what the islands look like after a monstrous wall of water hit it. Many Samoans live in NZ and have lost their family; their parents have lost their houses, their businesses. That makes you realize the importance of the dikes in Holland and the size of the disaster that struck us in ’53. Luckily so long ago. NZ send out a tsunami alarm for the coast, Ilse and Maurice were even evacuated, but nothing hit our shores. Although they forecasted only a 1m tsunami in Wellington, so I drove to the coast to have a look and maybe capture it.  Nothing happened.

Visitors

Our first visitors from Holland enjoyed Wellington. Arjen, the partners of Cilia, attended a conference in Wellington. And of course we were very happy to have him inhabiting our guestroom: Fresh stories from home and good company. We also met Frank his colleague, which we of course (for those who know us) invited to stay with us.  Must have been a big change after staying in one of the best hotels in Wellington J We took them to our golf course and played a few holes (see pictures). And big SURPRISE, they took us to an All-Blacks game (rugby). The All-Blacks played the Wallabies (Australia), kind of a Germany- Holland game in soccer.  It was my (M) first rugby experience and I liked it. Of course the ‘Blacks’ performed their famous Haka (Maori war dance to impress the opponent, see picture). And it worked. The Wallabies got nowhere. ‘We’ smashed them with 3 successful tries (run like crazy man, with ball, to end, don’t get caught-move), and lot’s of kicks in a score 30 something to 6. What was even more incredible was the atmosphere after the game. Kiwis and Aussies leaving the stadium together, chatting, chanting, so peaceful. And afterward the city was full of celebrating people, Aussies joining. Great experience. Thanks again guys for taking us there.

Last Thursday Katja arrived. Our happy, enthusiastic, I always want to do something neighbour. We could sign from our window that coffee was ready and she and Rolf would come over for a ‘bakkie’. How convenient that she HAD TO go to a kite surf event on the Cook Islands, which of course was terrible with the crystal blue water, warm temperatures and tropical island lifestyle. So she quickly took a plane to NZ to travel with her parents and to visit us in Welly. Jippie! Friday Katja and I (M) visited the Wildlife sanctuary just 5 mins walk from our house. This is a bird sanctuary with an abundance of bird sorts, and several 1-3 hour tramping tracks. We spend the afternoon sailing in the harbour (see Sailing).

Klaas finished his second working week and wanted to get out of town, so we emptied our storage and took ‘Meneer de Brandweer’ for a second trip. This time to test the special surf gear storage we designed for it. It holds perfectly, even when you don’t take it off all weekend. Not true, Klaas did windsurf 10 tacks, in gusty, no wave conditions. But hey, it’s weekend. Katja spotted a really nice walk along a riverside. It led up to giant sandstone pinnacles created through erosion by the river. One of the many unexpected surprises NZ holds behind every tree, bend or mountain range. Later somebody told me these were the pinnacles starring in Lord of the Rings. (When they enter the Underworld to awaken the dead).

Thanks for visiting Katja, and bringing a little bit of Scheveningen to Welly.

Klaas has a job! After months of networking finally they realized he was too good to be missed. Monday 21st of September he will start at Deloitte, Wellington. He’ll be working in a small team (actuarial services) and the office is within walking distance of our house. His job is going to be to generate some number crunching business. He told those guys at Deloitte he is good with numbers.  We’ll see, anyway, it keeps him away from too much windsurfing. Although that is still to be seen, as his new manager appears to be quite relaxed about Klaas his habits…

A great relieve, because this not only changes our account balance in a positive way, but will also bring us residency soon. Which means our emi/immigration will be definite. Once we have our residency we have the right to work and live in NZ. Hopefully the process will go smoothly, keep your fingers crossed. The process is going to be intensive. From what we understand the New Zealand immigration office is going to X-ray us, both physically and on paper.

In the meanwhile the start of Spring has transformed the country and the nature, farm life and bird life are living up to its full potential. A little impression of Spring starting: