Hi Everybody,

We have been back in Europe for a little while now. Below are some foto’s of all the things we have been upto. For those of you we have already seen, great to be in touch again, for the others, let’s meet up soon!!

And for all you Kiwi’s, you better get over here quickly!

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.