It is a little while ago that I have been writing something on my blog, so in this blog I will give an update of everything that has been going on the past two months.

Cape Reinga and Northland:

Friday the 3rd of February Angelina, Tove, Jule and I left for our big trip to the most northern part of New Zealand after some grocery shopping. We had four days because it was Waitangi Day on Monday and because we all took the Friday off. We left Wellington around 11am to make our 1100km drive. Around 3am we finally arrived at Cape Reinga. We slept outside under the beautiful sky full of stars. We woke up with the sunrise and got the change to see the sunrise from the beginning. At 7am we walked to the lighthouse to see the two oceans (Pacific ocean and Tasman Sea) collide. After this we had some breakfast and we decided to go sandboarding. This was amazing and really sandy. The next thing we did was go for a swim at the Ninety Mile Beach to rinse all the sand off. Afterwards we drove further to the Rainbow Falls. Here we took another dive and we climbed up the rocks behind the waterfall. It was time to go to a campsite. We found one not far away from the Rainbow Falls. We put up our tent, had some dinner, took a shower and went asleep early so we could enjoy a lot of the next day. The next morning we got up early to go snorkeling. This was really cool and we saw some nice fish. After the snorkeling we drove to the Ninety Mile Beach again to do some horseriding. First the plan was that I would do some surfing, but there was no surf so I decided to join the rest. The horseriding was awesome, I didn't expect myself to like it that much. But I liked it, we even did some riding through the sea! I had the most stubborn pony, she tried to pull the lead out of my hands all the time. This evening we slept on a sort of free camping spot on the other side of the Northland. In the morning we drove to the Mermaid Pools to see them and to take a swim. The weather was the whole weekend really good. After this we just chilled on the beach and around noon we drove back home. At 3am we were finally back in rainy Wellington after a really long drive.

Surfing:

The weekend after I went to Cape Reinga I went surfing with a new Dutch au pair who arrived in town. We arranged a surfing lesson at Lyall Bay (near by the airport). The weather was not that good, it was rainy and not that warm. But we had the lesson and it was good. In the beginning I had to get into it again. But by the end of the lesson I could stand again. It was such an awesome feeling!

Art Deco Festival Napier:

In the early morning of Sunday the 19th of February, Jule and I drove down to Napier. But not before we went to Hastings to get some breakfast at the famous farmersmarket there. After we did that we drove further to Napier to pick Angelina up. We stayed in Napier the whole day, everyone there was dressed up as people from the 20's. We also managed to get some 20's headbands. On the way back our car died at the Te Mata Peak. We called the AA service, and the guy said we couldn't drive anymore. So we had to arrange a rental car.... But all the renting companies were already closed because it was after closing time. There were also no more busses or flights back to Wellington, but we had to get back because of our work on Monday. The last option was to call Tove, we did this, and she went on her way to Napier. The only problem was that this is a 4 hour drive, so we couldn't leave until 10pm. The day became a very long day because of this. In the end we had enjoyed the Sunday, that was the most important.

Newtown Festival:

Sunday the 6th of March there was a big street festival in Newtown, one of the Suburbs of Wellington. Lea, Valentina, Antonia and I decided to go there. The weather was really good for spending an afternoon on a festival. We wandered around through the streets, had a look at the little shops that had their products outside and we got a Henna tattoo.

Short updates:

- I went voting for the Dutch elections.

- I applied for my study for primary school teacher with the specialisation for international education.

- Olivia has been practicing riding her bike without extra wheels :)

- I have been helping at the school swimming lessons of Olivia

- James goes into the water by himself now at swimming lessons :)

- I found a winterhockey team, this will start next month. Ready to start playing 11 vs 11 again!

- I went bowling with Valentina, Antonia and Lea for Valentina's 20th birthday.

- Last weekend it was grandad his birthday, so we drove to Otaki to celebrate this with the whole family.

- There are schoolholidays coming soon, so a blog with stories about the activities I did with the kids will follow soon!

Sorry, niet in het Nederlands dit keer omdat de webpagina bij het maken van het Nederlandse gedeelte vastliep.