Visitors, moving and Emma's 40th

After complaints from our public (well Ali), we have finally had time to add to our blog!

This posed pic is from the Coromandel where we went for the weekend to celebrate my (ahem) 40th. It's a beautiful peninsula with more hairpins in the road than Marge Simpson's 'do. Just as blue though. (The sea, that is.) We had a great time walking, eating, going on a weird train ride and to a hot water beach. Hire a spade and you can dig your own hot pool in the sand. It was a bizarre experience especially as there was no tepid water - the hot water really was scalding. You could stand on the beach with one foot freezing cold and the other so hot you couldn't keep still.

We were thrilled to have Tim and Phil visit us in April. We had been looking forward to it for so long. We ate out lots so put on loads of weight as we mistakenly tried to keep up with Tim's pudding consumption. Simon went with Tim and Phil to Rotorua and did all the tourist bits - couldn't get them to do the Haka though!. Also, Tim, Joe and Emma went to White Island (one of the many local active volcanos) by helicopter. This was an amazing experience - like something from a sci-fi film. We had to wear gas masks in case the smell of all the gases was too strong!



We introduced Tim and Phil to hot pools, locally in Omokoroa, then in Rotorua and they went to Hanmer Springs when they toured the South Island - in style. We expect them to be ordering their own spa for their back garden any day... We also walked up the Mount ( our local legendary mountain and beach) and enjoyed the views... (Er, pic to follow!)

In the last fortnight we have also moved house, as you will know. No pics of this yet as we haven't really been here much in day light. We'll add some when we can. We were sad to leave Omokoroa as the house was in a lovely location though the convenience of where we now are outweighs that......and our new place is really posh, with it's own guest wing, in case any of you were thinking of visiting.....

And as for the more mundane stuff. Simon is still enjoying working at CAMHS and now particularly works with children and adolescents with drug and alcohol problems. He's getting very good marks in his assignments for his Masters so far, an A last time. Emma is settled into her post at Child Youth and Family (though that should hardly be advertised as they have a worse reputation here than children's services in the UK) and gets very good feedback so must be doing something right. She'll even be doing some training for new care givers soon. Anna loves her course and it only takes her 3 minutes to drive in now. She has a new job in a designer clothes shop in town which she managed to get by personal recommendation from one of her tutors. Joe remains very happy at school and the rugby season has now started. He is playing lock and being lifted in the line outs. They won today, 34 -7, and Joe got player of the match. They play on Saturday mornings here and after the game, they just go home. Most strange!! And have we mentioned that we're going to see the All Blacks next weekend against France?? Just thrilled to bits about that.

See you soon.

The Lowes