Hello yes we are still alive! Im sorry we keep being lazy and not coming up to the internet cafe to say hi. Must try to be a bit better…Sorry!! After working long hours and dragging ourselves to the gym it is easy just to lie on the sofa and not move ’til bedtime.

Well, since we last spoke we had some bad news about the boat. It turns out that the seller did something to the engines between us having the survey in December until the sea trial in early January, as there was some serious damage in there that they had to get repaired. Don’t ask me for the specifics, mechanical talk is all a noise to me, something to do with a cracked head (?!?) sounds painful anyways…We had to come to a difficult decision to either go for the boat and face the consequences of replacing engines at some point in the future  ( think 40,000+ english pounds of engine) or not taking the boat at all. As you might have guessed we are in the backpackers still! This weekend we spent some time looking at houses to buy in an area called Sandringham in Auckland, and are just thinking a few things over about that, so I will keep you posted.

We were both really gutted and miserable for a few weeks, so that was part of our internet silence I suppose. No worries tho, we are ok now and getting excited about a house instead. Mark would still like a boat, but maybe we should settle for a 10 foot fishing boat instead

We have been off on a couple of weekend trips to places we missed on the big trip. It was a bank holiday weekend last weekend and we went to a place called Goat Island, about an hour north of here. It was really beautiful, with a long beach and clear sea, which Mark took advantage off and did some snorkelling. I keep getting the willies about being eaten by sharks, as every night on the news they have ‘Shark Watch ‘ on tv and they show where the latest attack was! Each time a bit of seaweed touched my leg I was terrified.

I did manage to console myself, however, by lying on the beach and getting sunburnt…AGAIN! Im so cross, Im telling you I put factor 30 all over and fell asleep, somehow my bikini went for a walk and I burnt some delicate bits – not my bum thankyou anyone thinking that (Jill, Anna, Suzie, Vicki, or Laura, ahem)  so I’m a bit sore today. It is about 7,0000 degrees everyday and we are not getting used to it at all! The air conditioning at work is rubbish and you just have to drink gallons of water everyday to stay ok. I could even murder an ice lolly now (or a fruju as the kiwis call it) and its half nine at night!!

Mark has got another job, I can’t remember if I said. He loves it there, they seem like really nice people, I think they are Slovakian ( maybe Slovenian) but the get him beers every night after work and they pay a lot more than before so he seems happy! his ‘office’ is about 5 metres from the sea as well, jammy thing. If I stand on a box in the kitchen at work I can see the building he works in, and keep an eye on him Its nice that we are both close to work, we dont have to use too many buses.

Other than that its the same old, same old everyday really, I can’t believe it is 6 months since we left, it seems to have flown by. Really enjoying being here, going out for coffees in the morning before work and just enjoying the little things more. Missing everyone loads tho, it would be cool to just be able to fly in for a weekend every now and then!

Anyway I hope you are all well, I will try and update properly soon,

Lots of Love from us kiwis

( I’m off fro a fruju mmm, speaking of funny lolly names, they call a cornetto a jelly tip trumpet!! how silly is that? I laugh everytime the advert comes on, crazy kiwis!)

xoxox

hello to everyone,

Hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year. As planned we went out for a picnic on the beach on xmas day, but unfortunately it rained so we had to eat our xmas dinner in the van We did get to go to the hot springs in the afternoon, however. Lying around in the thermal pools made up for not having a sunny day like we hoped. Christmas eve was a good night, we did a German style xmas eve ( as lots of the residents are German) which was a big beef dinner with black forest gateaux after. Mmmm

New Years Eve can be an expensive night in Auckland, you have to get tickets for everywhere and the taxis are crazy prices so we all decided to get some food together and have a bbq and lots of wine, which ended being a really nice night. We could see the fireworks on the tower from the back garden, pictures here. It looks like it is exploding, but they were fantastic. Unfortunately one of the housemates had a bit too much fun, and we spent the new year cleaning up sick in the bathroom before the landlady could see it…

Have been in and out of work this last two weeks, but back to normal from tomorrow. Mark has finished at his job now so will be looking for something else this week too. No news about the boat as yet, we think it will be a couple of weeks til we get sorted, but I will keep you all posted.

No real news other than that I’m afraid. Weather is really good, we have been able to go to the beach most weekends, and we had our 1st proper swim in the sea last weekend, it was still cold tho!

Hope you are all well, speak soon

Love from Gill and Mark

xox