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