The Second Year Has Begun... Photos from Auckland, from Coromandel, and Paeroa

We are becoming more Kiwi: we have bought a "dinghi", a small fishing boat, made of aluminium, at first with oars. But before trying it out for the first time we have added a 4 hp motor, and we plan to do our first trip tomorrow, so that you can expect the first photos in a few days. The adquisition has been connected to interesting and pleasant contacts to the Maori and Pakeha people that sold it. We got the boat from a poor Maori guy with a big family (he actually said that he had to sell the boat to pay the rent, which proved not to be true afterwards, but he surely had some problems). The motor we bought of a more than 80 years old passionate boat-addict and boat-shop-owner, who showed us photos of the boats he had owned and the competitions in which he had participated. I have some days off at the moment, which I use to catch up on all sorts of things rather than driving around: dentist (always a bit frightening the first time after you moved somewhere else), barber, acessoires for the boat, a meeting with my locum colleagues, and, the of course time-consuming process of applying for permanent residency. We are into that because we will get more advantages regarding support for the kids among others, and we see that we are probably going to extend our stay here for beyond my working visa. The older kids are confronted with their first serious exams and they notice that it is not like they thought at the beginning, that everything is easy-going, but that the difference is that nobody is pressuring them from outside, and motivation has to come from inside. Sometimes we feel kind of chained especially by the smaller kids - our common interests are minimal, and so either we or they have to make sacrifices whatever we do in our leisure time.... My work has become a bit more stressful recently, as I have to see more patients per day. Sometimes I feel quite like I felt back in Good Old Germany after work in my own practice... I didn't come here for that, I think... The photos are a mix of pictures from a trip to Auckland, to Paeroa, of a small walk after work in Coromandel, and our new boat as I just discovered it... and of our TV showing a screenshot of a rugby game (South Africa vs Australia). Yes, I watched the whole game, and two others, in full, and I liked it!