Last night, after our lovely meal at the house exchangers, we headed over to seemy cousin Danny who lives here in Sydney. It's easily been 20 years since we last saw one another and it felt good to re-establish contact after all this time. We also met his girlfriend, Sharmilla, who was just lovely and invited us to stay at her apartment on Bondi Beach tonight. Awesome! The weather forecast today promised showers today but sun for the rest of the week so we decided to save the majority of sightseeing for when it would be dry and today paid a [View Full Entry]

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For Christmas this year, Glynn and I received a wonderful present from our friends Liz and Allard - two tickets for a trip to Tiritiri Matangi Island complete with guided walk. We've been itching to go and this weekend we had no firm plans beyond dinner with our new French friend, Cecile, on friday night. We left it too late to book for Saturday morning so had a lazy day at home and instead booked for Sunday. It was an early start for a Sunday - up at 6.30am, on the road at 7.30am and down at Auckland Harbour in plenty [View Full Entry]

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It's been a good few weeks since we set out for a long walk so I was determined to get out of the city this weekend and see some more of NZ's fine countryside. I've been hankering to visit the Karangahake Gorge ever since hearing about it from Liz last year. So with DOC (Department of Conservation) leaflet in hand and Mayuko, our Japanese friend, along for the ride, we headed eastwards, loosely in the direction of Tauranga. We travelled along State Highway 2 which is technically a motorway but by UK standards would barely qualify as an 'A' road. In [View Full Entry]

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With all the recent stresses of getting our resiency application ready for immigration, a long weekend at the beach was calling. Waitangi Day, a public holiday, fell on a Friday this year and like many Kiwis, we decided to take advantage of the time off and head to the beach for a few days. We set off early and found the roads to be relatively deserted. Bliss. Just before we reached our destination, we stopped off at a so-called German Cafe and Motel just outside Wairewa. I was excited to see if there was any kind of bakery inside but was [View Full Entry]

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Ah, another hot sunny summer day, another good reason to get out and go adventuring. This time, the Firth of Thames was calling and the opportunity to visit one of the few regional parks south of the harbour bridge that we've yet to explore. We started out later than planned after looking quite literally for a needle in a haystack of shops. Glynn needed some bits to stitch up a seam in his work trousers but could I find the damn travel sewing kit given to us by ay auntie Margaret and uncle Kevin before we left for the big trip [View Full Entry]

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Can you believe that today, we have been in New Zealand for one whole year? I honestly don't know where the time has gone but it's been quite a journey so far, I can tell you. In these last 12 months we've lived in 3 properties and each had 2 jobs. the culmination of all this though is that we are very happy with our lot - a nice home in the suburbs and decent jobs to boot. As if that wasn't enough, summer's officially here and we've been treated with yet more glorious sunshine. We had a quiet start to [View Full Entry]

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Well hello and Merry Christmas to you all!! Here we are, celebrating our first proper Christmas in New Zealand. The sun is shining and it's warm enough to be sat here in shorts and t-shirt as I write. I have to say, in many ways it just doesn't feel like Christmas at all. I mean, surely it's supposed to be cold and dreary outside? Not that I'm complaining! To get us in the festive spirit, we headed out in search of a Christmas tree. we've both always wanted a black one and were extremely happy to find just such a tree [View Full Entry]

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No Christmas in New zealand is complete without attending one of the many, many Santa Parades held up and down the country. Auckland has by the far the biggest and without doubt most colourful Santa Parade there is and this year we got to witness the spectacle under a blazing hot sun. The streets of the CBD were packed choc full of cheering adults and kids alike and for about one and a half hours, we were dazzled and entertained by all manner of colourful costumes, cheerleading squads and dancers, acrobats, clowns and sporting heroes. Rather than describe the event to [View Full Entry]

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Well, I'm not sure if anyone out there is still reading these blogs except for Glynn's folks (hello Mary, hello Keith!) but for those of you who are, here's the latest news from Kiwiland! It's been busy in the Harris household of late with some new friends and new adventures to enjoy. About 2 weeks ago, we had our second ever visitor to stay, a girl called Ali from Germany. Ali is a friend of my most excellent German friend Andrea and stayed with us for a few days before heading off to explore the rest of New Zealand for a [View Full Entry]

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Well here we are, just nine months in to our new lives in New Zealand and we have already had our very first visitors. Jude's auntie Margaret and her partner Kevin (his surname is Hogg, hence the name of the blog!) popped by for a 10-day visit to sample life in this neck of the woods. For those of you who don't know Jude's family, Margaret is the sister of Jude's step-dad, Edmond, and Kevin is the dad of UK Radio 1 DJ Joel (one half of JK & Joel). There, that's about the extent I'll ever get to name-drop a [View Full Entry]

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