The Konings in Cambridge

After a few wet days in Auckland working on the house, visiting Kelly Tarton and catching up with our good friends John and Judy Parr, we are back in the Waikato. Everyone helped, cleaning, sanding and painting! This plus the help of the Hamilton whanau the week before has made a huge difference to the state of the place!
We are now gearing up for the heat and humidity of Parachute. We are relaxing at Marijon's place, Chris' siste and while the children are missing the Parr's pool (3 swim's a day!), they are enjoying catching up with Erin, their cousin.
We will head back to Wellington on Monday after Parachute, catch the interislander on Wednesday and should be back home by the end of next week, all going well, in time to sort some last minute things for school - like the dry-cleaning!
Mosgiel session is looking at offering Chris a six month contract in the meantime, which is good news for us. As we will both finish our respective projects in the middle of the year, this leaves us with open options for the rest of the year - watch this space, and we'll let you know!

Not in Dunedin, temporarily

The great journey is mostly complete for most of us, although Chris is still planning on being in Kaitaia, a mere 5 hour drive from Auckland on Tuesday for Rob's induction and ordination. We have spent a night at Mum and Dad's in Oamaru, a night at a holiday park in Kaikoura, two nights enjoying the fabulous hospitality of the Purdie's in Linton, near Palmerston North and now, finally, we have come to rest in Hamilton at the new abode of Garry and Kif. The travelling went well, we have had fabulous weather and enjoyed catching up with various people along the way. We have picked up some really cool stones off the beach at Kaikoura, detoured to Culverdon and visited the Prawn Farm in Taupo, very briefly... Gorgeous day for a ferry crossing and we enjoyed a lovely meal cooked by our friend Trev in Wellington.

MJ is preaching at Knox, Hamilton tomorrow and then off to Auckland on Monday so Chris can catch his ride on Tuesday. We are still planning on some sailing and maybe even some camping before Parachute, just to check out if we can actually do this living away from civilisation thing. But then there is the zoo to see in Hamilton and what seemed like plenty of time looks like melting away very quickly before we are able to do everything on the list.

Happy New Year

We went down to the Octogon to see in the new year for the first time. It is unusual for me to even be awake! However, the children managed to not be too obnoxious and we spent a quiet evening with a few friends, doing puzzles and eating ollibollen (yummy Dutch treat) before heading out. There was a band playing and the place was absolutely crowded, being a lovely warm night and all.
The Robbie Burns canon nearly frightened the life out of all of us and I have never been so close to fireworks that the paper falls in your hair! Once they got over all the noise, the kids thought the display was pretty cool - and then we were home in twenty minutes and the kids in bed not long after that.

We've been doing some of the house maintenance that has escaped us in the rush up to Christmas and the children decided a blow up pool in the back yard was going to be more fun than going to the beach, so we've all enjoyed a relaxing day in the sun. There was some talk about heading off to Wanaka but I think we might just stay put until the 7th when we head off for our big North Island tour.

Chris had to preach for me on Sunday as I was unwell, but managed superbly I understand and we have two more services to take this Sunday before our time at Mosgiel is more or less over. For the meantime. We think. The plan is for me to study full time for the first semester this year and hopefully Chris can pick up some work but we will just have to see.