Little Summer Joys

View from our garden - afternoon

Fortunately things have settled a lot and going in a good direction. I've got an extension of my contract at my workplace, Te Korowai Hauora O Hauraki, Thames, until end of 2013. We have sent all our documents to NZ Immigration in order to get Residency status. We feel really at home in our house. All of us are well and we feel in the hands of our creator and trust the guidance of the Living God.
Teresa, a cousin of our kids from Spain, is a real enrichment to our family life.
The Kiwis aren't that strange anymore and the language problems gradually diminish for Elena and me.
We see that we are getting a lot of input especially on the spiritual field, and I am not talking just of us adults.
For me it has been good to interrupt the narrow view of my rat race and to listen more to what is most important here and now in the bigger picture, not only for me.

View from our garden -late afternoon

Chips on the beach

Spontaneous beach afternoon - with real Kiwi friends!

This is not a postcard. He really bought that '67 VW Van!

Papa, would you take a photo of me?

Let's go and have a bath - about 2 km from home

Eva? No, Elena. They didn't have cameras back then...

Nature's Spa

Nature's Spa II

Just the two of us...

Again this year, we enrolled our kids at different camps - and had four days on our own. We made sure that we could convert the 6 back seats of our 2001 Nissan Elgrand into a double bed and off we went: after we had dropped our younger kids at the Kaueranga Valley Christian Camp and our older kids at the Rotorua Horse Camp we toured around the cheap way, mostly free-camping and preparing our own food, cold or hot (the latter with a fuel stove). The only payed campsite was the Top 10 Holiday Park in Napier, which we can recommend.

First we visited the Huka Falls at Taupo, then we visited a small holiday village close to Taupo and finally Taupo itself. We felt like in Switzerland, as clean and as neat (and as cold) everything was.

Huka Falls near Taupo

Kinloch, a village near Taupo

Picknick in Taupo

Then we moved on with the marvellous Tongariro Alpine Crossing. It was most amazing when we descended from the desert formed by the huge volcanoes down to the returning vegetation of lichen, then scrubs and little flowers to thickets and bushes of increasing size growing into a rich rain forest with streams and water falls.

Just the two of us... in front of Emerald Lake

On the next day we explored Napier. It seems that the significance as a monument for the Art Deco style, the emphasis on design and probably a kind of Phoenix From the Ashes-effect made this city so bewitchingly beautiful. Many beautiful parks, attractions and locations to go out and spend the evening (yes, evening, which is unusual in NZ).

Schlafplatz

At the end, as a worthwile detour on our way back, we crossed the Te Urewera National Park, which consists mostly of dense rainforest. 











Brief further information: the landscape of the Tongariro NP is of volcanic origin. The Tongariro Alpine Crossing trail leads you up to 1900 m. The colour of the lakes is due to dissolved minerals.
The city of Napier had been totally destroyed by an earthquake in 1931. It was rebuild within the following two years entirely in the then popular Art Deco style. 

My Cousin in NZ

After the Spaniards were gone, we had a great time with my (Matthias') Cousin, who recently emigrated to NSW, Australia and had to leave her new home for a couple of days to receive her Visa. We were happy for that funny requirement that brought her here!

Our Spanish Family on Visit

In the "Thermal Wonderland" in Rotorua

For exactly 12 days we had our Spanish family here in Thames. Despite of the enourmos distance they all traveled to see us and our new environment. We all stayed at our 3.5 bedroom home and had great fun after all, doing some of the typical tourist attractions our region has to offer: The bush railway in Coromandel, http://www.drivingcreekrailway.co.nz, the Thermal Wonderland in Rotorua, http://www.waiotapu.co.nz, we saw Tauranga, Karangahake Gorge, http://karangahakegorge.co.nz, the Auckland Museum, http://www.aucklandmuseum.com, and many other smaller attractions. 

A bit of text again - about my daily struggles and other things

Workwise: By now, I have gone through different phases with my employer Te Korowai Hauora O Hauraki (the health centre I work at and for). There have been difficulties, particularly as it has not been easy for me to adapt to the mix of time pressure, complexity of the health system, imperfection and the laid-back attitude of the people here. A mix I struggled to accept and digest in my own way, and others had to swallow that...
Well, I'm starting to feel more relaxed now and the communication with other employees I find easier and more delightful. I have come to a shift of my attitude to just accept things more as they are, listen, percieve, and just contribute with a small input where appropriate, unless I am really asked. And to make more use of the possibilities I really have.
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The same applies to my family - I feel that I have become more tolerant (at least more relaxed), without being afraid of loosing influence and control (which are limited anyway!).
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 For the last few weeks the weather has been quite grey, the longest period of clouded skies we ever had here to date. But it is warm and the Pohutukawa is blossoming, only that there are only few days you would like to spend on the beach.
Well, other than that we are all fine. At least some of us: two of our 3 older kids recently thanked us so much for having moved to here, because they are so happy here. Whereas one of them is struggling to strike an overall positive balance of the changes that gave NZ to his life (although we find this hard to comprehend). Our little ones are not very different to him, but time will show... ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To all our readers and friends we wish the best for a new and healthy 2012, full of purpose and peace.  
Matthias

Our cat, one of my good examples

Ein Stück Mittelmeer in Neuseeland - A piece of Mediterranean in NZ: Tauranga, beliebtes Ziel für Auswanderer - popular destination for expatriats

Hierfür haben sich auch gute Freunde von uns entschieden: Familie Steppat, die selbst einen Blog unterhalten. Die Bilder sind am ersten Weihnachtsfeiertag aufgenommen. The same way decided family Steppat, good friends of ours. They have a blog themselves, too. The pictures were taken on Christmas Day.

Clara

Henrik

Steppats und wir (ich mache das Foto)

Kathrin

Andreas und ich

Daniels Hände

Rechts: Luis und Clara

Sibylle und Elena