Settling, surfing and safari's

And another week (and a half) has gone by. Time seems to fly here, even more so than it did in Holland, it seems. After settling into our cottage and all the work we did last week finding cars and so on, this week we could focus more on relaxing and exploring Mangawhai and surroundings. The weather has been great. Apparently with the full moon this week there have been massive tides and waves. We could hear the surf roar at night and wondered what that noise was. And we are more than two km from the beach.

Bart and Skyler went on several geocache hunts. Skyler and I do photo safaris. We go to the beautiful beach here and Skyler started surf school. He is enjoying that although surfing is not that easy at first. He is very brave and keeps on dragging the board into the surf to try and try and try. Some classes had to be cancelled due to the high surf.

We explored the local summer market. Surprisingly there was a lot of organic food available and lovely smoothies with fresh ingredients. We also enjoyed some live music at one of the local vineyards. They do Saturday afternoon events were you can taste their wines, have a bite to eat and listen to acoustic live music. Lovely atmosphere.

The four boxes that we sent by airmail with clothes and last-minute-left-behind-stuff arrived safely. Our "landlords" found an extra cabinet for us to put the clothes in and after rearranging the furniture in our petite cottage everything seems to fit, sort of.

We celebrated Bart's birthday in a minimalist way, since there was no birthday cake available, we improvised with a blueberry muffin.

Bart finds it hard not to be in the driver's seat when we go places. Whenever I drive and we get in the car, he grabs an invisible steering wheel on the passenger side. smile-emoticon We are thinking of putting in a toy steering wheel just for him LOL. Driving here is so different from driving the boring highways in Holland. Every turn and every corner gives another beautiful view over the hills, the ocean. The environment is really stunning here. But with all the curves in the road you really need to focus on driving.

I have started Pilates class. The "studio" was actually the teacher's living room with furniture removed, with a beautiful view of the hills. Class was fun and it felt really good to be moving my body again. Bart has been on the golf course (once) practicing his skills. Bart has also had his first work meeting with Elizabeth and got his new computer. And of course we have been house hunting again...

Starting to feel alive!

The completely empty beach at Te Arai

The home office

Traffic!

Praying Mantiss paying us a visit

Surf lesson 1: the zipper goes on the back!

Surf dude

Surfclass at Surf Beach

It's not that easy when you are little

Crowded day at Mangawhai Heads Beach

Celebrating Bart's 49th birthday Kiwi style