Impressions from our Home

This is Auckland !

We are still trying to fit into our new environment - here, a brainstorming of issues that keep our minds/brains going: our very heterogenous family with little schoolboys and with teenagers - when will I (Matthias) fully understand the NZ health system and have caught up in the aereas I didn't have to deal with (gynaecology, pediatrics) - will all our kids make real friends and settle in - will they find sustainable hobbies - how will they do in school in the long run - should we buy a caravan - in the meantime we're explore the surroundings and try to keep in touch with the people...

Sozialising: Fishing Trip at Coromandel

This beautiful fishing trip we were able to assist with staff and colleagues of mine from Te Korowai (my workplace). Our son Lucas was the luckiest in fishing and he caught five snappers, that we plan to have this evening with John, a colleague, and Linda, the woman from South Africa.

The first two months have passed...

14.11.
Today it is exactly two months since we arrived in New Zealand.

In the meantime our container has arrived, and the house and the garage are full of boxes waiting to be unpacked. Elena once more has proven her ability of arranging our furniture in a way that makes me say “yeah, it's here where I feel at home!”. But as we moved from 200 to 120 square meters, and into an already at least partly furnitured house, there are things we don't know where to put. Luckily we have someone to ask to move out things of the owners that we don't need any more.

As we settle in we notice that we hardly have to use the car at all to spend our leisure time in the middle of the most beautiful nature. The last two Sundays we discovered wonderful hikes alongside two different creeks just starting from Thames or very nearby. Within the rainforest full of the most varied and beautiful trees and plants, the water plays with the numerous rocks, forming waterfalls and damming up in waterholes in which you can have a bath. Little shores invite to having picnic.

We start to make friends. Especially since a German, who lives here since more then ten years, encouraged me to just enjoy the friendliness of the people instead of always worrying and being afraid what may come next, I feel a lot more relaxed particularly at work. I feared sometimes that it was only a transient politeness until I drop a brick (in's Fettnäpfchen treten), because there are so many new things, and I sometimes almost killed myself by trying to give my best. Of course there are, as everywhere, bold people with unacceptable behaviour and bad intentions, but the vast majority is really benevolent and helpful.

I must admit that I still don't fully understand the character of the Maori and of some Pakeha as well, but how could I? And did I always understand my German compatriots?