Exploring the Land of the Long White Cloud

News this good is too tough to hold in. I was going to wait until we had a photo to post but decided that I had to tell you all first! Ok, not quite first first but first online. Unless you follow me on twitter @kablally but definitely the first blog post about it! Ok so what is it? I assume you already know you loyal readers... we got our new visa! So that means we are sorted for 12 more months. Which means there's plenty of time for our residency to be processed without us having to leave the country at any stage (except when we choose to). We haven't gotten our passports back with the sticker in them yet but we got the notification email. Good enough for me! What better way to celebrate than to welcome my parents into New Zealand this weekend and tour around a little bit, lapping up every bit of beauty we can handle! Then maybe we should have a BBQ celebration next weekend. Get one in before summer decides to wind down. So the moral(s) of the story are: If you wan...

Last week we finally checked "work visa application" off our list. Well, we submitted it with one piece missing that we're just waiting for in the mail. But the big part is done. We also moved house last weekend which means two major things off our list lately! Almost back to having free time! Dustin's application needed a binder for all the many many papers but luckily mine required a little less information. Not much less but a little less. Sort of a partial virtual tour of our new digs below. Friends of ours own it and they are moving overseas for a couple years. So if all works out the plan is to do some small renos like painting and maybe floors, and who knows what else! The current design is kind of busy so if we are approved for visas, we'll have all sorts of projects to keep us busy through the winter! The property borders the hospital so I am one fence jump away from work now, great commute. Living room that you enter via the foyer -...

Back in December we booked a little house in Kawhia to stay so that we'd go to the Kai Festival this year. Good idea! We had a lovely weekend in a beautiful village and lots of eating and relaxing. Those were the rules, the only activities were either eating or relaxing. Breakfast whitebait fritter and manuka lemonade Hula hoop mania Kapa Haka Mango drink More Kapa Haka Wild kunekune sausage with kamokamo pickles Our place was just down the street from the entrance Lining up for Hangi! Lunchtime hangi back at our place Cool crisp watermelon and ice cream Relaxing Dessert with a view Fire hula hoops! Seafood sampler! Ok, it was impossible to photograph the beauty Hot pools beach - dig your own spa! Marokopa Falls Natural limestone bridge Can't wait until next year's festival! Didn't have enough stomach space to try everything this time!