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| Miri Airport (Malaysia) |
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| Miri (Malaysia) |
An update of our shenanigans is long overdue so with some time
on my hands I have decided I had better keep our nearest and dearest happy.
Life continues to roll by extremely quickly for us over here, even with so much
spare time on our hands we seem to be filling in the days with one activity or
another. A lot has happened since my last update in October - opps, let's start where we left off...
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| Singapore |
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| Singapore Chinatown |
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| Singapore Chinatown |
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| Sydney-Auckland |
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| New Zealand (Finally!) |
A surprise trip
home in December for starters was well executed to ensure our arrival at Dad’s
60th birthday party. His face was priceless, as was the rest of the
family’s as we strolled in unexpectedly after a very long transit from
Brunei-Malaysia-Singapore-Sydney-Auckland-Tauranga with only my sister Amy in
the know of our arrival. Surprising Oma was just as much fun the following day
with two little boys knocking on her door unexpectedly.
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Skin! Something we hadn't
seen a lot of lately. |
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Jas celebrated Dad's 60th
and our arrival pretty hard. |
After a few days in Tauranga we flew to Christchurch to stay
with friends who had moved there from Tauranga just before we moved to Brunei.
They did an awesome job of being our tour guides and feeding us superbly (without
rice!!). I was also able to catch up with my brother and finally met my nephew
while we were there which made the trip all the more worthwhile.
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New Brighton Pier.
Cold. Another thing we hadn't
experienced for a while. |
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Christmas Dinner
Christmas was busy as all good kiwi Christmases should be.
We were thankful to be able to spend it with family, enjoy the great food and
thus eat far too much. |
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| Te Kaha |
A trip to Te Kaha was next on the agenda to stay with Brett, Leigh and the girls. The boys enjoyed hanging out with their cousins and spent most of their days playing on the beach. Jas enjoyed some late nights/early mornings with Bretty that involved staggering to bed.
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| Te Kaha |
We made it up to Matarangi to stay with Shane, Ali and kids
in their gorgeous home away from home. Again the boys were able to spend some quality
time with their cousins on the bikes, out on the boat and dabbled in some mildly successful fishing. Matarangi is such a beautiful spot, I would recommend
visiting to all.
Being home was wonderful; it’s the small things we seem to
miss about home that we took for granted. Being able to open the windows and
doors of the house when it gets hot for one. I miss having a climate that
actually changes! Not having to watch your step wherever you walk (for killer
drains, holes in the pavement or unexpected steps that appear from no where).
Being understood everywhere we go without having to worry about confusing
someone. Mostly though it was awesome just to catch up with friends and family
and be ‘normal’ for a while. I went back to Greenpark to say hello and it
pulled on the heart strings more than a bit to be back ‘home’. I crashed the
end of year dinner and drinks and managed to catch up with most of the crew. I
do look forward to my permanent return to being a classroom teacher once again
(even if I will be doing twice as many hours a day).
Whilst Jason was able to participate in the festive
consumptions of more than a few ales, I had to spill the beans early on in our
trip that I am expecting number three. Although it was still early on in the
pregnancy there was no way I was going to able to dodge the sideways glances I
would get for NOT having a glass of wine connected to my hand for the entire month.
Unfortunately early pregnancy did not agree with me this time around so
although we had a great time I was sick for majority of the trip. The sickness
was not limited to the morning, but lasted most of the day. Much of my time was
spent feeling sorry for myself on Dad’s couch.
After a month at home in New Zealand, coming back to Brunei was not as
tough as I thought it would be, the drive home from the airport was a familiar
one so somehow it felt as though we were returning from a holiday. I don’t
think we will try any more surprise trips as it was quite the mission to
plan, organise and keep quiet.
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| Greenpark Staffroom Christmas Dinner |
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| Brunei Staffroom Celebration |
After a few days in Tauranga we flew to Christchurch to stay
with friends who had moved there from Tauranga just before we moved to Brunei.
They did an awesome job of being our tour guides and feeding us superbly (without
rice!!). I was also able to catch up with my brother and finally met my nephew
while we were there which made the trip all the more worthwhile.
A trip to Te Kaha was next on the agenda to stay with Brett, Leigh and the girls. The boys enjoyed hanging out with their cousins and spent most of their days playing on the beach. Jas enjoyed some late nights/early mornings with Bretty that involved staggering to bed.
We made it up to Matarangi to stay with Shane, Ali and kids
in their gorgeous home away from home. Again the boys were able to spend some quality
time with their cousins on the bikes, out on the boat and dabbled in some mildly successful fishing. Matarangi is such a beautiful spot, I would recommend
visiting to all. 
After a month at home in New Zealand, coming back to Brunei was not as
tough as I thought it would be, the drive home from the airport was a familiar
one so somehow it felt as though we were returning from a holiday. I don’t
think we will try any more surprise trips as it was quite the mission to
plan, organise and keep quiet.
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