New Zealand - Ter land, ter zee, en in de lucht (on land, in the sea,and in the air)

We are quickly making New Zealand our new adopted home. We have a house and a car. I started work a week ago in Tokoroa, and because the NZ health care system is based largely on the UK system,  work is  similar to that back home. Jo and the children have started home schooling in earnest this week; not quite like life back home but very stimulating.

The title of this post is named a famous Dutch amusement programme, because it feels we are creating our own show here for ourselves in NZ.
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Te_land,_ter_zee_en_in_de_lucht


We have been surfing in Raglan.

And jumping off sand dunes

We have climbed volcanoes in Tongariro National Park (and are living on one in Rotorua!)








We jumped into the Wellington Harbour from a scarily high platform.

We are mountain biking daily in the famous Red Wood forests of Rotorua where we are living.

New Zealand is very beautiful and we are very lucky to be able to enjoy the great outdoors so much - we're off camping on the beach this weekend!

Christmas in Thailand

This year we had a Christmas we will never forget. We spent the time on two tropical islands in the Andaman Sea. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day we spent on Ko Rok. We shared the beautiful island with a handful of others and quite a lot more monitor lizards and monkeys.

'our' beautiful island, with 'our' boat in the bay

Benjamin jumping off 'our' boat. Sophia is in the water, Helena is climbing the stairs out of the water.

our neighbour - a one and a half metre long monitor lizard

Father Christmas managed to find us even there.

We spent the days snorkeling around the beautiful reefs. On Christmas eve whilst snorkeling we were very lucky and saw 4 black tipped reef sharks swimming around a lime stone rock (see below) in the middle of the sea.

Happy New Year from New Zealand

Saw this at Bangkok Airport. Happy new year to you all, and I hope you won't have to apply for a VAT refund there in 2013.

We have finally arrived in New Zealand. We are in sunny Raglan, on the beach on new year's day. Excellent surfing.