Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas everyone - we made some videos to post on the blog but I can't seem to convert them to a suitable format but as soon as I can I will have them on here - there will be a way!

For now though here are a few photos from Christmas day on Matai Bay in the Bay of Islands in the North of the North Island - our good friends Iain and Lorna shared our sunny day!

NZ Premiere of Lovely Bones

I went along to the premiere of The Lovely Bones the other day - ok, so I didnt actually get in and see the movie but I hung about the red carpet and pretended to be a bit of a paparazzi type fellow who had obviously forgotten his pass to get a good view.

Anyway - here are a selection of photos from the red carpet, I didn't have a clue who most people were but these folks are the most famous ones.

(for those who are curious we have Kimberley Crossman (from the soap opera Shortland St) Peter Jackson (director) Susan Sarandon, Rhys Darby (comedian), Saoirse Ronan (actress) and some dude who was apparently famous but I have no idea who he is.)

School's out for summer!

Hi folks,

Well that's school all over for the year - has it really been a year since we house sat that mental dog? (yes is the answer if you were looking for one)

It's been a real challenge for Katie and I this year (good preparation for married life I hear) - not only getting used to our new surroundings, moving house 6 times, finding jobs, working out visas/finances, and coordinating all of our travels but actually doing our jobs too (and trying to do them well) - My job has been particularly full on being the Head of PE and Sport in a school where no-one else has been able to give me much info about previous years. Along with teaching 370 pupils how to do PE and running 33 sports teams in the school, not to mention having to work more closely with the parents than I am used to - it has been a bit mad.

I have also been out of school on 35 days this year on school fixtures and trips - which is a huge amount of teaching time lost. Yes, it's been a real effort and I know everyone has a tough job but I wasn't really expecting one this year - still, it's character building - although I am unsure as yet as to which character I am building - sometimes it feels like Mickey Mouse or something similar though ;o)

We head off to Auckland on Thursday to see Iain and Lorna - then we all head up to the Bay of Islands for some camping over Christmas, We then all head down to Wellington for the return leg and a bit of a Hogmany shindig.

it means we will be offline for a couple of weeks but we are thinking of you all and wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New year.

The end of Movember

It's been a long month - here are some photos of the final night!

Pearl Jam

I was in Auckland last week for the Pearl Jam gig - I had booked tickets months ago so it was great that it had finally arrived. I loved Pearl Jam when I was younger but didn't really know many of their less mainstream songs so for the last three months I have been listening to their greatest hits (which I borrowed from the library and copied to my computer)

On the way to the gig I was running late mainly because I had no clue where I was going and partly due to traffic - thankfully I eventually found the right bus and I got chatting to some young builders from a place called Tawa. They had some spare beers that they shared with me on the bus - good guys!



While in Auckland I was being looked after and entertained by Lorna and Iain in their cool new pad - it was great to see them again and we now only have a couple of weeks before we head up to join them for Christmas. We are heading out camping for Christmas - hopefully the sun will shine and we can have a BBQ on the beach. I am sure there will be photos a plenty.

All Whites game

A bit of catching up required again I'm afraid!

A couple of weeks ago the New Zealand football team had a chance to qualify for the World Cup through the "diddies" qualifying section play-offs. Their game against Bahrain was absolutely terrible but the NZ boys managed to score in the first half and then save a penalty in the second half. 1-0 New Zealand - a right good pumping in the World Cup here we come. (for those who don't know, the only other time NZ qualified they were in Scotland's group with Soviet Union and Brazil - NZ only scored two goals at the finals and both were against.....yep, us! But we did score 5 against them.)

Anyway - enough of the John Motson trip down footballing memory lane - the crowd went wild and it was a great party atmosphere in Wellington (where the game was being played.)

Katie and I went out early doors to get a good spot at the big free screening down at the waterfront but we needn't have bothered as only about 100 folk went down to the screen so we went to a pub instead.

The photo is us with Tim and Helen who I met through school - a lovely couple from Nottingham. None of look that happy but we were all pretty drunk and almost asleep due to the quality of football we had to endure.