Jenny and Gavin visit us - our first from the UK

So we are 6 months into our adventure to Aotearoa and Yvonne is into her 2nd job, this time hospital based... and loving it! Working out of 2 centres in south Auckland and a town called Pukekohe (45 mins south from home in Kohimarama in North Auckland), Yvonne now travels by train 2 days a week and car 3 days. We are in our 2nd furnished bungalow with acres of native bush as our back garden harbouring bird life including colourful Oz (introduced by accident!) Rosella's - parrots!

We have become more and more involved in scouting here and recently attended a large PR event in the central park and got a sense of the 'bigger picture' - a great day out for the whole city. We have also just started the summer tennis season and hope to play some team stuff once the captain(s) have spotted our potential!! (and my dropshots!!).

Anyway, we are just off the back of Jenny's 21st birthday visit here with Gavin - nearly 3 weeks of activity from which we all needed another holiday to recover! We started with a mountain bike ride on Waiheke Island - 27 gears and I was still walking up some of the hills!! We needed to plan our route a bit more carefully eh? We then had our week down in the mid island lakes and mountains of the Tongariro Nat Park and lakes Taupo and Rotorua. Skiing on an active volcano (Mt Ruapehu last erupted 1996) in searing sun (and melting snow!!) lakeside walks , hot geothermal pools, swimming and general lounging around in restaurants and cafes all part of fun. We finished our trip with a visit to the geysers and mudpools in geothermal areas and a final race downhill on the luge (toboggan) from the top of Mt Ngongotaha (3 graded concrete tracks, the advanced one has a jump!).
More sedately we also kayaked on the Puhoi River (30 mins north) after crossing the Auckland bridge .....and also did a beach walk.... which turned into cliff wall scrambling and quiet coves with the out-going tide lapping at our ankles in places!!
We had our first BBQ together to celebrate jenny's birthday just as they were about to leave, a 'Kiwi' end to a great holiday.

As I (Mike) write this I have had a verbal offer of work! Praise the Lord! My early foray into IFA work didn't 'feel' right and the work at CAP NZ and The Dingwall Trust here in Auckland didn't quite happen. So I await the work opportunity I am supposed to do here - perhaps this one supporting young adults with learning disability in their home (life skills etc), might be the one!
We are planning our first CAP Money course at the church we attend (Nov), a scout trip to help 'tape out' the Far North Car Rally (200kms!!) and a river camping trip in kayaks on the big Waikato River (2 nights out) - Scout Duke of Edinburgh practice.

So more on that on the next post - Christmas is coming! ....... oh ... and our lemons in the garden are ripening up!!

Bye
M & Y