What an incredible month!

Christmas Caroling and picnic dinner at the Fremantle Art Centre.

Night walk with "Bat Man", Joe Tonga looking for bats and eye shine.

Pieter, The Star of Bethlehem, at his Christmas Nativity concert.

Pieter and Marileen on a camel ride, Family Day at Perth Showgrounds.

Ella with some friends. Last day of school.

Christmas concert at the Leemings. Ella on guitar, Abby on flute and Jess on piano.

Christmas at Port Beach, Fremantle.

Christmas Eve dinner at our house with the Duncans

Amelie as an angel for the Christmas school assembly.

Happy 2010. Wow! It's been so long since I have sat down to write on this blog. It truly has been a full and incredible month. I hope that you all had a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.

Since I've last written the kids finished up their school year and they each finished well. Pieter's class put on an amazing Christmas concert which included acting out the Nativity story. Can you imagine that they actually allow public schools to retell the birth story of Jesus?! Pieter was the star of Bethlehem and led the wise men onto "the stage". They also sang in Italian and used sign language, and did an Aboriginal dance. His concert was held outside and everyone brought picnic dinner and just had a beautiful night. The girls each had Christmas parties at school and each class read lots of Christmas stories. So refreshing!

We celebrated Christmas a day early because we left for New Zealand on Christmas morning. The kids had their pictures taken with "Father Christmas", while wearing tank tops and shorts, and we asked him if he'd be willing to come a day early. He was very kind and said that would be no problem. We had our friends, the Duncans, come over for Christmas Eve dinner (12/23) with us. We had a BBQ, which is the Aussie way, and we had a really nice night which ended with us singing Christmas carols to Ella and Janelle playing their guitars. The next morning we woke up and had the best Christmas that I can remember. Everyone was in such a good way and we just took our time enjoying each moment. Rob and I had decided not to get each other anything and it was really nice to not have to ooh and ahh over my own presents. Ella got her own acoustic guitar (which she loves!), Amelie got lots of littlest pet shops (which she continues to love!), and Pieter got an "electric" (battery operated) guitar, microphone and speaker from Mia and Papa (which he loves!) and spent the morning singing "Our God is an Awesome God".

Then, we went to the beach. That's what Australian's do on Christmas. The beach was beautiful and we all made sure to have a swim. Early evening we went to our friends from church, the Leemings, who have 3 girls all one year older than each of our kids. Their girls put on a Christmas concert for their neighbors each year and invited our kids to join in with them this year. They had so much fun preparing for this in the days leading up to the concert. They did a wonderful show with songs, poems, dances and musical instruments. It was completely put together by the kids without any influence of the adults. There were probably 20 people in the audience to watch.

Next we went to church for the Christmas Eve service. The kids from church had written a sort of Nativity Story rap song. All the kids from church dressed up (Ella and Amelie were angels and Pieter was the star) and sang this song. Then we sang a bunch of Christmas songs in a very lively way. There was this overwhelming energy of excitement at church that night. It was really fun and really felt like a celebration.

The next morning we left for New Zealand! I need to back up, though, and explain what happened leading up to Christmas. In the beginning of December, my friend Kate stopped me one day to say that they may have an offer for us to rent their house the second part of our year in Australia. Our current lease did not end until end February, but Kate and her family were moving into a new home, trying to sell their house without success, and knew we would be needing a new place. Also, our landlords of our current house were returning mid-January and would love to move back into their house, if possible, and not stay with their parents for 1 1/2 months. So the weeks leading up to Christmas also included going back and forth to Kate's house, figuring out furniture rental (as the house was minimally furnished), signing a lease and PACKING! Here I had been looking forward to having a calm and peaceful Christmas time and instead it was a bit chaotic. However, we knew that this was such a blessing and that we (I) should just be so thankful. So to fast forward a bit, we returned from New Zealand on Jan 16th (Deena's 40th!), finished packing on the 17th, moved on the 18th and 19th (in 105 degree weather with no A/c!!), and received my Mom, step-dad, step-brother and sister-in-law on the 21st! Thank God for the pool.

Our house is gorgeous and a little slice of paradise! It's bigger than our old house, it's also in East Fremantle, it is a closer, albeit all uphill, walk to the kids' school, closer to the river and has a fabulous pool! I also need to mention that Kate (our landlady) was the first person I ever had contact with in Australia before we moved here. She helped in the uniform shop and made sure that we had uniforms for the girls waiting on our front porch when we arrived here back in August. She is also a good friend of Janelle's and Narelle's (our old landlady) and I've been running with her quite a bit. God works in wonderful ways.

I will sit down and write highlights of New Zealand soon. That will take a while and as it's 4:00 AM, I think I should probably try to get back to sleep. Otherwise, I'm not going to be a very nice Mommy in the morning. Night night.

posted by Marileen

New Zealand: Part 2

December 30, 2009

Woke up in Waitomo at The Waitomo Lodge Motel around 8:00 AM. Had a good night sleep. It was a bit hot in our rooms, but very comfortable beds. Were planning to leave around 9:00, but that’s just not possible when repacking the bags for 5, showering and eating breakfast. And, like Rob says, “We’re on vacation”.

Mark and Erin decided to take off while we finished getting everything together. While repacking we realized that we didn’t have Ella’s coat. So, we backtracked to Waitomo and Spellbound, playground, Curly’s Pub and swings, but never found the coat. Bummer!

The drive to Rotorua was beautiful with green pastures, rolling hills, cows, sheep and horses. It looked a bit as I would expect Ireland’s landscape would look. It was a 2¼-hour drive. The weather was perfect. Blue sky, 70s and big puffy clouds. We finally bought an IPod adapter for the car so that we could listen to music and it significantly changed the kids moods. Yahoo! They were all singing the different contemporary Christian songs and loving life.

As we arrived in Rotorua, we immediately came upon the Kiwi Encounters, which was exactly where we wanted to go. They gave us a bit of a deal on the tickets with the “Family” rate and having an Entertainment Book coupon. This was 45-minute tour explaining and showing the kiwi life cycle and the efforts to build up the kiwi population. The kiwi birds were pretty much becoming extinct as a result of predators so there are these organizations that take the eggs from the wild, hatch them and keep the birds until they are about 6 months old. Some interesting things about kiwis are that they are nocturnal, flightless, the size of a chicken, their egg is the size of an ostrich egg (15% their body weight) and they have a long, pointy beak with nostrils at the end of it. They have a big plump body with a tiny little head and they walk very funny.

After the tour, we went next door to the Skyline Ride. First we had lunch on the lawn under some trees and a glass/cup of wine. Then, we went up the mountain in a gondola. This was a much different experience than the last gondola ride that we had with Jeremy Anderson in Stowe Vermont, bundled up in snow gear and face masks in 0 degree weather. The view on the way up and at the top was beautiful. You could see Lake Rotorua and rolling green hills down below. When we got off the gondola we went over to these big bins and found helmets to fit each of us. I continue to be a bit hesitant to put much used helmets on our heads after the whole “incident” this summer, but we had no choice. Then… we got on our carts to go down the Luge!!! Ella went in her own cart, Amelie went with Rob and Pieter went with me. This was amazing! None of us had ever done this before and then to do with such an incredible view! We first HAD to go down the “scenic” route, which was a blast, and then hopped on a chairlift back to the top. On the way back up, Ella said she would only do the scenic route. Then I heard a small voice coming from the chairlift in front of me, “Fine! I’ll do the intermediate one.” So, next we went down the “intermediate” route. This was faster and steeper, but oh, so fun!!
Our plan was to meet Mark and Erin at Rydges Rotorua, our hotel, around 5:00. When we got there, they weren’t back from their stuff yet (thermals and massages) so the kids and Rob went swimming in the pool. The pool was connected to the hot tubs so the water was very warm. Pieter spent the whole time doing dives/belly flops into the pool. I bet he has a bit of a red belly right now.

Mark and Erin came to our room. They’d had a great day and looked very relaxed. We had a beer and played Bananagrams while Erin showered and then headed to The Amazing Thai Restaurant on Fenton Street around 7:00 PM. Amelie was kind of falling asleep on the bed before we left, but rallied to go and then Pieter fell asleep in the car during the 5-minute drive! When we got there, Pieter cried for about 10 minutes “I want to go to sleep!!” I felt like a bad parent, but knew we all needed some chow. Once Pieter got over it all, it was Amelie’s turn again and she cried the whole time their about how she wanted to go back to the hotel and go to sleep. We had an amazing dinner, none-the-less. I got green chicken curry (yum, yum), Rob got some amazing beef curry, Ella and Erin got tofu pad thai and Mark got some chili chicken dish that was so spicy I felt like I was burning my mouth with fire when I took one bite. It was too much for Mark, but Rob loved it. I left as soon as I was done with my 2 tired chickens who did actually fall right asleep as soon as their heads hit the pillow. Poor kids getting dragged all over the place and are completely off their schedules!

Another totally awesome day in New Zealand!

Well, tomorrow is New Years Eve. We might have to make sure some naps take place so that our kids don’t fall apart again.

Christmas and New Zealand: Part 1

Coromandel

Pieter and Uncle Marky in Whangamata

Whangamata sunset

Our B&B hosts in Whangamata

Ella on swing over the ocean

Uncle Marky

Driving to Coromandel Peninsula.
Jackaranda flowers and Auckland skyline in background

Pieter on One Tree Hill with a Pahukakawa tree

Mark, totally petrified of the cow (pretending to pet it, might I add!).

New Zealand: December 25, 2009 – January 14, 2010.

Merry Christmas! It’s 5:00 AM , our flight lvs at 8:00 AM. We’re all happy and excited. Uneventful flight to Brisbane. Difficulty with customs there because of our Australian visas. Confusion over Rob’s work visa. Takes lots of time to sort out, but people are super nice and helpful. Kids are amazing on next flight, again. Land in Auckland 12:05 AM on12/26. Stand in line for a while to rent car. Drive ½ hour to Waldorf Apartments. Clean, modern, bright, cozy. Somewhere are Mark (my brother) and Erin (his girlfriend). When we will see them? I go to buy some food. Come up on elevator, door opens and there stands a couple. I weakly smile at them and then realize it’s Mark and Erin! Awesome to see them.

Go for a swim in crazy long skinny pool at hotel. Go out to see Auckland. Have lunch. Unsure what we should do. Auckland lacks heart. Walk towards needle. Come across market with great sketches. Wish I’d bought more. See people do a form of bungy jumping off needle. Plan to go up at night. Decide to drive up to “One Tree Hill”. See cow pasture which we can go in. Ella goes right up to a cow and pets it, not Mark. He’s having flashbacks of when the bull tried to impale him in the Azores…hilarious! Memorial at top of “Hill” with a great 360 view of Auckland. Pahukakawa trees all around (NZ’s “Christmas tree” – huge with amazing red blossoms). Mark, Rob and Ella climb one. Sheep and goats sprinkled on the hill. Fun to explore. Dinner at Portofino. Delicious. Kids run around outside restaurant and Pieter trips and smashed back of his head. Thankfully OK! Too late and too tired for night ride up needle.

12/26 Pick up M&E’s car. Start driving to Coromandel Peninsula – 3 hour drive. Scenic route out of Auckland. Beautiful Jakaranda trees, Pahuckakawa trees and Agapantha flowers everywhere. Lots of racy road signs warning you of various consequences of bad choices. Get in huge traffic jam for an hour. One way bridge that they don’t organize well. M&E start digging into the 6 packs of Tim Tams that we brought them. Once through, amazing curvy, cliff side drive along the water. Spectacular views. Pieter spills his yoghurt all over himself and carseat. Stop the car at rest area. Happens to have a swing that swings out over the water and a stream with tunnel under road. Spend almost an hour there having incredible swings. Lv the coast and head inland across to Wangamata. Amazing green mountains with steep cliffs, no guardrails. Around every corner is another breathtaking view. We start to realize that this is what New Zealand is all about. One breathtaking view after another and they are all different! Reach opposite coast – are now on East Coast. Drive to Bed and Breakfast. Randomly in neighborhood. The Bed(s): we have double bunk beds in ours with bottom bunk queen sized. Go down to harbour to playground. Have cheese, crackers and wine. Dinner across the street.

12/27 The Breakfast: toast and cereal. Hmm? We were thinking pancakes and French toast. Maybe not the kiwi way. Off to the hot water beach. Geothermals under the sand heat up the water to “wicked hot”. Tons of people down there digging holes/hot tubs. It was amazing. You needed to let some cold water in so you wouldn’t burn yourself. At first Pieter wanted nothing to do with it and didn’t even want his suit on. In the end he was all bathered up and was “swimming” in the tubs.