Hi All, Here we are again, its been a long while this time. A lot has happened since our last post. First of all, we walked the track on Stewart island, and not much later we left New Zealand. It was hard to leave our new Whanau, but it was time as well. When we left, we first went traveling in SE Asia: Singapore, Malaysia, Brunei, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia & Thailand. We met some great people, saw so much interesting stuff that it is hard to decide which photos to show, and finally in Thailand we were involved in a massive train crash, as can be seen from the nice photos below After our great trip we went on to Europe. There we have visited the family, but also visited friends in the UK for a marriage, went to portugal, went to Berlin, went to Brussels and of course saw much more of our family. In the mean time we are also looking for jobs in Europe, so if you hear of any openings, please let us know. Some of our many photos during the past year are:

Hi All,

It's again been a while, yip, we have been busy again. We have had a tripto the northern top of New Zealand over Christmas. We have of course had many dinners and nights out in town. We also have had visits from the Netherlands, Edward, Jan and Nell, so it was great to catch up with them all. We have also been cycling in the wine region down south. And of course the big news, we are moving back to Europe!! To show you what e've been up to, here are the photos!!! Once again, just click on them to see the large version

Hope you enjoyed

Hi All,
It has been a while!!
We have noticed that actually writing all the little and big stuff doesnx92t always happen, especially when summer is around the corner and we spend more of our days outside.
Therefore, here are some photos of the stuff we did.
In a short story, what have we been up to..
To start with the big things: We have been to China with the parents of Madelinde!!
We have been there for 4 weeks, on a big tour. That land is massive!! So much to see, so much to do, So many Chinese!!
We have also been doing more walks around wellington and have seen Waiheke island out the coast of Auckland. We have gone skiing for a weekend and we have done quite some going out for dinner..
In short, we have done heaps and are getting ready for summer holiday to do some more..

(full size by clicking on them )

Hi All,
 
It is still winter and cold, so less things happen on this side of the globe. Letx92s see, where to start..

Movies are always a good winter x93experiencex94. We have seen many during the last few months. We saw the Hurt Locker, which is spectacular, but has a very limited storyline. A while ago we went to the screening of MicMac by the same director as x93Amelie Poulinx94. This one is great, has got the same feel to it like Amelie, even though it is completely different, well worth checking out.
With Madelinde now working for the Dutch Embassy we went and checked out some movies at other embassies. We went to the Brasilian embassy, to see a Romeo and Julia-type story set between fans of oposite soccer teams. We also went to see a Japanese flic at their embassy, a kind of Godzilla-type movie. Very weird, engines in the feet of a enormous turtle that treathens the world!? This one was just too long. Than we had many DVD screenings 
at home (rentals), and some at friends. Wellington also hosted the NZ International film festival; so we went to: x93docu: The Rainbow Warriors of Waiheke Islandx94, sponsored by the Dutch Embassy about the Greenpeace crew of the Rainbow Warrior who are now mostly retired and spend their lives at Waiheke Island NZ. Very funny: the captain was exactly as one of the x93typesx94 of van Kooten en de Bie. x93Mammuthx94 a French road movie with Gerard Depardieu. A bit too long but Depardieu was good. x93Babiesx94: a french docu that followed the 1st year of 4 babies growing up in very different cultural societies (New York, Tokyo, Namibie and Mongolia). Very well done; a must see.. x93Turtlex94 a docu about the life of a loggerhead turtle. x93Agorax94 costume drama set in Alexandria around the time that the Christian fait has just become legal. x93Oceansx94spectacular docu about.. right: sealife.
 
Another nice way to spend time in winter is enjoying some food and wine with friends. What beter place to start then the yearly Food & Wine show. We started by going out for lunch with Jono, Elizabeth and David, just incase there was not enough food on the show. In the end that was a good choiche, since we did mostly sample the wine-part of the show. Madelinde did manage to talke to a NZ competitor from MasterChef. Here in NZ it is still possible to see and meet the tv personalities, unlike in most countries.
Last year Madelinde received a voucher from Berrith and Richard for the photos she took during their marriage. We decided to use it and had a great long dinner at Logan Brown. The food was superb (thank you guys!), but the service was on the casual side, with the waitress giving her live story, which we didnx92t specially want to hear.

In June we had been together for 11 years and  to celibrate we attended a big diner at St. Johnx92s. We were treated to a 5 course meal with matched wine, gorgeous.Getting home took some effort, mainly because we had too much to eat, and enough to drink. It was all well presented and we enjoyed some great company at our table.
We also found some friends willing to go with us to Vivo for some wine tasting and food, it wasnx92t x93difficultx94 to convince Linda,Stephen and David.
Recently Jonathan organised a Wine tasting evening at home. This was a blind tasting, with a little competition. It appears to be much more difficult to know the exact grape variety then expected, even though we have practised enough. Than again, in our defence we know French wines better than NZ-ones…

Lorry invited us around for a very nice meal, even though David was disappointed because he had made it vegetarian. While Bas was busy working in Auckland, Madelinde went out with some friends for a 5 course meal and a great wine tasting. Finaly we had Carl and Justine over for a meal last week. Some nice old fashioned roast.
We have been going into town for several festivities. A.o. the Comedy Festival, of which we saw 2 different comedy shows; Dai Kenwood and Ben Hurleyx92s. We had already seen them on several comedy shows on TV. At the second show, we were sitting at the front a few minutes before the start. Ben Hurley himself walked right passed us, saying that it was not part of the show, but he just really needed to go pee. Here in NZ that means that he had to go to the toilet in the theatre, since there was no toilet in the x93artists-loungex94

We also went to a theatre play from the Alliance Francaise, called x93le Sudx94. This was about what NZ-society would look like if the Southern Island would have been occupied by the French instead of the British. They dished out all the stereotypes, which was kind of funny. The Alliance Francaise also had a French singer over from France: Frank Monnet. So we went to hear him play with our Canadian friends. It was nice to hear some French songs again. During the World Cup Soccer we have of course also been dressing up in Orange to see the Dutch play and we also dressed up White to see the only undefeated team of the world cup, the All Whites! The two teams have had a great cup, really enjoyed some amazing times, even though we had to get up at 5 AM for most of the matches!!

Almost forgot, since it seems so long ago, we have had another celebration of Koniginnedag here in Wellington. First Madelinde attended the special x93Ambassadors receptionx94 with work at the ambassaders residence, where she met Ans Westra (a x93world-famous-in NZx94 Dutch fotographer). At the Queens-day itself, we went with some friends to the evening reception in town. Our x93polonaisex94 even ended up in the Dutch press (Telegraaf)! Funny. Good oldfashioned evening of 80x92s-dancing afterwards!
Bas has started a new job, but still within MAFBiosecurity. He is working for the Border Standards-team now. New challenges and he is enjoying it.

Finally, just before Bas started his new job, he needed a 4 day holiday. So he had secretly organised that Madelinde also had 4 days leave and surprised her with a short holiday……..to …New Caledonia!! (Guys..howx92s that for scoring brownie-points:)!!)  Yes, part of France… right here in the Pacific. A nice island with the most beautiful fine-white-sand beaches. We rented a car and fell madly in love with this little red Citroen (we are after all in France!). Drove around the southern most point of the main island for the first day. Red-rocks, sun, palmtrees, not a lot of traffic, pick-nick with good bread, goats cheese and a nice Gigondas! You would say, life canx92t get any better..Yes it can: Next day we took a boat to a smaller island, (Ile des Pins) which just had great white sand beaches and perfect x93inlandx94snorkelling!! Of course we had more of french wine, cheeses, escargots on
such a beach. But above all: we loved being able to speak French again. Rusty, but definately not forgotten. Oh how good life can be….

Further: Congratulations Helene with Lou and Angele with Ruben!! Hugs and kisses from us.

Winter is slowly approaching. In the mean time we have enjoyed the sun and warm weather as much as we can. The enjoyment started with us flying to Whakatane (Bay of Plenty) to dive White Island. No, you have not read this update yet, we tried to do this a while back too, but then we could not dive the island because of bad weather. This time…we could not dive because of… bad weather. Luckily the weather was good enough to dive Whale Island, which is closer to the coast. It is also a vulcano like White Island. It was just the two of us in the water, our first full solo dives. We got engulfed by a big school of yellow fish, which didnx92t want to let us swim by ourselves it seemed… quite the experience. We saw many other weird fish and lots of seeweed. The water was a bit chilly, and because of the shallow depth we could stay in the water around an hour. We made two dives that day, so a day well spent. On Sunday we did one of the walks around Whakatane, which has great ocean views and goes by an old Maori Pa (Just google for meaning ). At the end we were picked up by the owners of the Bed & Breakfast we stayed: Alfresco. We got great service there, with a nice glass of porto and cheese every day and a outstanding 3-course meal on Sunday. And before we forget to mention it, we ofcourse drank the porto in our our private spa..how hard life can be. We flew back on Monday morning, which was very unnerving. The plane twisted and turned, went up en down and all that just before landing. We were one of the last planes landing in Wellington before they closed down the airport because of bad weather, werenx92t we lucky ?! For pilots, if you can land in Welly, you can land everywhere! So they were grinning from ear to ear when we left the plain.. another one accomplished.
Easter weekend we were invited to a KIWI wedding. On Thursday evening we went for the x93rehersalx94 dinner with Carl and Justine and some of their friends and family. The day after was a resting day, since Madelinde had been a bit sick all week, she needed some time to get better. The wedding of Carl & Justine was on the Saturday afternoon, so in the morning we travelled over the hill to Martinborough and set up camp at the local camping. We walked into town and were all transported in a bus to the wedding. This was held in a farmstay in x93the whopwhopsx94 (google again). The weather was beautiful, as were the bride and groom. We had a really nice 3-course dinner, some great wines and did some outstanding dancing afterwards. At the end of the night the busses took al the tired and very noisy people back to town. In the morning there was a great big BBQ to get the last of the hangover out and to do some more talking with the ex-collegues from Marketing Impact. After that it was back over the hill to the Windy city, where we used the next day to do some shopping and go out for Thai food.
Last weekend was used to do one of NZx92s x93Great Walksx94 together with Jo. We left Wellington on Friday afternoon, since it takes about 4,5 hours to get to Tongariro. We stayed the night in Whakapapa Village in a cabin on the campside.  Madelinde had the x93brilliantx94 idea to book the bus up to the start of the 7-8 hour track at 7AM, Yes that is 7 in the morning! During the night the temperature went below zero, so you can imagine how happy we were to leave our warm cabin at that time. Luckily there was a blue sky and the sun would warm us up pretty quickly. This Great Walk (there are several) starts off easy and almost flat. After an hour or so, you come to the Devilx92s Staircase, which is indeed a good name for it. Once past this, you reach the first plateau. There you have a great view of one of the vulcanos. This track crosses between several vulcanos. You walk over the crater of one part and than you reach the second vertical part. After reaching the top, the views are just spectacular. A bit further you also see the Blue Lake and the smaller Emarald Lakes. That is where we had our lunch, for which we took our time, you have to, with views like that. There is one more climb and then it al goes downhill, all except for the views, which just stay incredible. We reached the end at around 3pm, time for the pickup and headed back to National Park to look for a nice little lodge. They won us over with the open wood fire that was convienently going and the free use of spa pool. We stayed in for dinner. We met some other walkers, talked and enjoyed the warmth. After an easy sleep, we went for an hour in a hotpool nearby, just to relax after all that walking. Once recovered, the 3 of us drove back to Wellington.
Besides these weekends away we did lots of stuff around the city. With autumn starting, the weather is getting slowly worse, so more time is spend here. We went to see Manu (and Kim) at his studio for an afternoon picknick. There we could see his work, the view over the ocean and have some food. We also participated in Earth Hour and turned on the candels.
We have gone and seens several movies laterly, the brasilian movie x93Muaux94, which was screened at the brasilian embassy. Madelinde got the invite at the dutch embassy. Together with Faust and Jo we went to Alice in 3D, from Tim Burton. Afterwards we ended up having dinner at the Burrito Brothers. David invited us to a Japanese movie (Love Expo), a love story that only took four hours (the original was 6 hours). This movie was interesting and weird at the same time. A new Kiwi-highlight was x93Boyx94set in the 80x92s on the Eastcoast (Maori-smurf . Finally we went to see Winter in Wartime (Oorlogswinter form author Jan Terlouw). Dutch movie set in 2nd World War.
Our weekends were also spent with a bit of walking around town, some shopping and having drinks over at friends or at our place. Together with Linda and Steve we went to a Sherry tasting before having diner. Finaly two more interesting things, the new passport of Bas has been delayed because of the vulcano eruption in Iceland, so you see, that x93inconveniencex94  even influences day to day life in New Zealand. Finally some great warm news, our house has been fitted with insulation under the floor and in the roof. Yes, finally in 2010 we have a house that is insulated (all except the single glazing that is), so winter will be warmer!!

FYI: click on the bottom 2 small photos for big overviews
So, what has happened in your life, leave us a note just below for some updates…