We are offline

Hi folks - we have an awful lot to report on but our home internet is still not working since our move.

here's a brief summary of what we have been up to...

1) Moved house
2) Eventually had our visas processed
3) Travelled to Melbourne
4) My brother surprised me by turning up
5) Watched the Australian Open
6) Visited the Mornington Peninsula to see some penguins
7) Visited some Koala's
8) back to Welly with Paul and went to ACDC concert.

Much more info and photos to follow,

SB

Beach Volleyball in Wellington

Katie and I spent a bit of this afternoon in the Wellington sunshine watching a Pro Beach Volleyball tour - here are some photos from where we were sitting.

The Wellington wind makes for an interesting game!

recent photo i took of wellington

This is actually 5 photos stitched together using some special magic

SB

Christmas message

It's a bit late due to severe technical difficulties but I have finally worked some magic to bring you our Christmas message (not as well known as the Queen's) from Matai Bay in the North of New Zealand.

Hope you enjoy it

Meeting Eithne

Hi All,

Steph's updated you on what a great xmas and new year we had, but I thought I'd also add our day trip to Waiheke Island on 28th Dec when we went to visit mum's best friend from PE College - Eithne Stirling from Stirling! Not knowing what to expect, we took the ferry to Waiheke where Eithne picked us up and duly whisked around the island on a whistle stop tour of some of the world's best wineries and some beautiful beaches (mum, you may recognise the one in the photo as apparently this is where you, Eithne and Sandy moored the boat to gut some fish you'd caught only to be confronted by a few interesting sights on the beach :-) We then headed back to Eithne's gorgeous boutique B&B to drink bubbles and beer at 11.30am and have a fabulous lunch before she bundled us back onto the ferry. All in all, it was a lovely trip, so nice to meet Eithne and hear all about her and mum's escapades. We also met 12 year old snake that mum you may recognise too......

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year to you all!

Here are some photos from our crazy New year with Iain and Lorna - the highlights were:

1) Free bubbly in the bar we went to

2) Iain and I attracting attention in our kilts

3) Talking rubbish to anyone who would listen

4) Dancing until 5am

I'm sure I will share some stories soon - I am sitting up just now watching the Rangers v Celtic game online on Al Jazeera 3 - who said these guys were bad guys? I just hope they don't interrupt the game for a live beheading or anything!

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!