Coro gold

A few days with my sister Sarah, Brendan and Sarah's husband Matt in Coromandel at the beginning of the year. We went kayaking... including inside an amazing sea cave with a round blowhole inside.

To the beach... (Coromandel is home to some of the best beaches in NZ, I think)

And of course, a swim in the thermal spring on hot water beach.... was very crowded by NZ standards.

Featuring: Ghent, Belgium

I've got far too many photos... so I've decided to show a couple from each place. Today's feature: Ghent, Belgium.

We were so excited to drive into Belgium. We ended up staying at the Holiday Inn at Ghent, 105 Euros a night, ouch! It was around midnight though, and every other hostel we tried was closed. Oh, well. The rooms were very nice.

At the park opposite the railway station.

Typical street views.

I loved the bell tower here. We weren't really sure about it at first... but I'm glad we went. The view was awesome.

Here's the bell tower from the outside:

And from the top....

The other highlight of Ghent was the Adoration of the Lamb. They were restoring it while we were there. It's amazing to see it in person. This is a sneaky photo.

We're back in Wellington!

We've been back in Wellington for almost 4 weeks now, and loving it. B has had his first week of work this week, and I've just signed the papers for a new job (just waiting on references). Steadily catching up with family and friends has been fantastic, including the simple pleasures of running into people you know on the street on any given trip into town.

Under da sea!

Yesterday we took one last look around our empty and now extremely clean house, locked the door, and gave the key back to our landlady. This was it - nothing now tethering us to the UK except our train ticket out.

(Look! It's mostly clean!)

Right now we're in a hotel in Gent, Belgium... more photos to come!

2 days to go...

It's 2am, and we've finally finished packing. All the furniture has been sold or given away, and the house is mostly empty.

The movers, when pressed, gave an arrival time of "between 9 and 11am" which means either 8am or 12 tomorrow. Hence our semi-allnighter.

Special thanks to L & G for dinner tonight, and S as well. We're really excited about getting to Germany... if the car makes it. It is not well.

And a special un-thanks to the babyfood-yellow slug I stood on earlier tonight in bare feet, while walking outside to get something. I think my foot just skimmed it as it kept moving, but I was traumatised. I will not miss you, oh UK slugs of doom.

And then there was one....

Oops. We've already packed away or given away all our crockery, bar a set each. Earlier, I dropped one of the coffee mugs, which shattered completely. I'm still picking bits of melamine out of my feet. Lucky Brendan barely drinks coffee, then.

Leaving on a jet plane....

Or in this case, the Channel Tunnel, which my work friends tell me is called the Chunnel. :) On Thursday. (!!!) These next few days are going to be a whirlwind, but I'm really looking forward to travelling. I left work at 5am on Friday just as the sun was coming up... home at 6am and off to London at 12pm on Sat to see friends who flew down from Edinburgh. (Photos to come!)

Right, more packing. We have to re-show the house tonight - think the last one fell through. Eek. Missing the fishies already.