Old pictures and a giant-rugby-Kiwi

 Here is the first picture I took of the kids, at Rainbow Springs. MacLeay to the left, Farrah in the middle and Marnie to the right. The giant Kiwi is wearing All Blacks (the national rugby teams) uniform and holding a rugby ball under it's wing. I love this picture of the kids!

 This is what the Kiwi actually looks like, without uniform ;)

This is a picture of when I went to Rotorua with Mitchie and Farrah, the best sushi I've ever tasted! And they had at least 20 different kinds of sushi to choose from. Nom Nom Nom!

As requested by someone... here is a picture of my king-size bed! I have currently rearranged the furniture but it's not very tidy at the moment so I figured that I wound use this old picture.

Cheers

Cake and decorations

Today me and Farrah made a chocolate cake. All the girls helped in decorating it. Doesn't it look yummi?\

After cake-making and cake-eating I sat in the sofa reading a book when Farrah decided that I needed a little decorations myself. This is the result:

Haha what a great day!

Weta and guitar

Look what Jimmy found on his shoe yesterday morning!

This is a Weta. They are not poisonous but they eat wood, and can therefore give you a nasty bite. This one was big, but not very big apparently, about 1,5 dm between the antennas. Yuuuk indeed!


I took a picture of the guitar as well :)

Lots of love in this picture, including my mothers slippers! Thanks a lot mum <3

Motorcycles and Jacuzzi

Today it has been raining all day. After vacuuming almost the entire house I decided to take a trip on the farm, on the motorbike!
It was sooo fun and I was smiling like a lunatic the whole time. The roads (or paths to be correct) were wet and slippery and sometimes so steep that I thought I was going to start going backwards. I haven't driven a motorcycle in over a year, but I didn't fall even once. Impressive if you ask me :)

Here are some pictures of my little lunch-adventure.

Left the bike to run up a too steep hill and take a picture.

 Happy Kicki

 The yellow spot is the remaining pieces of a not so lucky white water rafting boat.

Some cows (young ones) curious about what I was up to.

As has been requested, here is another picture of Farrah, wearing some things I made her and playing with the iPad.

Birthday-parties and chocolate balls

Yesterday was great!
I went out and met Julia who is an Au Pair for a family that is dairy farmers as well. We had a great Indian dinner and then went to Pig&Whistle (pub) and met a couple of Aucklanders who tried to teach us about the difference between league rugby and union rugby.. Apparently it's cooler to play union x)
Then the other girls came and we had a great evening. Me and Julia were driving home so we left when the others went to the Lava Bar. I was so tired when I drove home that drove past the house and continued for almost 10 minutes before I even realized it. But otherwise it went well, being my first time driving home from Rotorua and all.

Then I woke up at nine this morning and Mitchie needed to go out to the farm because they had some problem and got more than 10 new calves today! I stepped in an watched the girls, including MacLeays friends who had spend the night (she had a sleepover party) from nine to four. We had a busy day and made chocolate balls, and I have never experienced any girls being more messy than these girls. :) There were chocolate everywhere, and sprinkles and coconut and I don't even know what. But it was fun, and MacLeay was happy, so I call it a successful day.

I'm too tired to be uploading any pictures, but tomorrow I would love to go out on the farm on the motorbike and take some pictures :)
Cheers!

Rhythm and Vines

Now I have booked the tickets for Rhythm and Vines festival for me and Anna! I'm so happy and so proud of us, that we decided to do it! It's going to be awesome :)

Rotorua and SD-cards

So I went to Rotorua today with Mitchie and Farrah, and ate the best Sushi of my life. We also got the strings to the guitar fixed, and I bought a new SD-card and an external SD-card reader, meaning.. I can upload pictures again! so here are a few.

 Farrah having a well earned bottle of warm chocolate after a long day in town! My sweetheart <3

 Flossy, being silly as ever, had just climbed up my leg to try to catch my shirt.. Sigh

 The woodshed because.. well, I wanted to try out the camera and had to get some wood for the fire.. 

 Our cows, and the mountains in the back.

 Meggie! Cute little Meg came with me to the woodshed. She is really the cutest and most annoying dog ever

 My accommodation, with the doors open to get some fresh air. Oh crap, it's ten pm and they are still open!

Here is just another picture of the stunning view! All that is not the bush is part of the farm, crazy aye?

Cheers!

Working and being sick

Hi,
yesterday I had my first real workday including on my own driving the kids to school! Now I have to mention that I have only been driving in this country two times before, which made me a little nervous.. But it went perfectly well. I did not know exactly where the school was so the girls helped me. I have been feeling a bit under the weather though and when I woke up today I thought: oh crap! Pounding headache and sore throat, Great.
But Mitchie sent me off to bed after I drove the kids to school in the very beautiful morning frost, and I have had a very relaxed and chilled morning. Now it's my "lunch break" and I've been looking for tickets to the Rhythm and Vines festival that Me and Anna are going to this New Year. It's gonna be so much fun!
I'll buy a new SD-card for my camera tomorrow and an "external SD-card reader" (thanks for the fancy name dad) so I can start uploading pictures!
I had a great skype-date with my wonderful family yesterday!! Or well, the skype part didn't really work that well (bad internet connection) but the good company compensated big time :)
Bye bye

Rain and Driving

So today I went driving with Jimmy. It was fun but very confusing, hehe. I always had to think like I was turning left when I turned right and vice versa. But I'll get the hang of it. Haven't gotten to any roundabouts yet, those ought to be interesting since you are supposed to drive clockwise!

Anyways, today's been a great and rainy day. The kids are away at a birthday party and now Jimmy and Mitchie went over there for a BBQ. I'm starting to get sick, with a sore throat and coughing. Just like the kids have been all week. So it's at least not unexpected. Soon I will go out to my accommodation, crawl into my electrically heated bed and watch LOTR :D hurray, thanks dad for making that possible! :)

Partying and Kiwis

So yesterday I went out with the other Au Pairs and we had a blast.

Sweet Kathi let me sleep at her place and then Jimmy (host-dad) picked me up, and I, Jimmy and the girls went to Rainbow Springs, which is an animal and nature - park.. Rainbow (or was it rainforest?) springs is home to the Kiwi birds and also have a Kiwi reproduction and care-center. We had fun and went on a water right which resulted in a very wet bum and shoes for me. Then we went shopping, and the kids got really tired and fell asleep in the car on the way home.

Here are some pictures from the park:
(technical issues have occurred, and the pictures will be uploaded later)

Cheers

Rotorua and Bag returned

Now I'm at an internet cafe in the smelly city of Rotorua!

I'll be able to upload some pictures, and add some to earlier posts, so that's nice.

Tonight I'm gonna meet up with some of the other Au Pairs from nearby, and we will hopefully have a great time. Everyone here is so friendly and welcoming! I got a ride to Rotorua from Michelles brother and he helped me find the bank I was looking for to get a new account started.

Oh, and by the way.. I got my bag back! I was playing operation with Marnie (who had been upset over a fight with her sister and cousin) to cheer her up. At the same time I kept Farrah busy with doing a puzzle (she has done the same puzzle at least 10 times a day since I got here) when suddenly a van stopped beside the house. So I got out and a very friendly deliveryman asked if I had lost a bag, and tadaaa! I was so happy to get my things back :)

First calf and 419 to go

Today we had the first calf! We went to see it (me, Jimmy and Marnie) and it was so sweet! fluffy and clumsy. Really cute.

There are about 420 cows at the farm, and everyone will calve within the next couple of months. So I can see how they need to spend extra time out at the farm.


update!
The day after the first calf we had two more, an Michelle took me and Farrah out to look at them and walk about on the farm. Farrah was sooo cute, running around in her little boots with a huge smile on her face. (she is the one who's three years old).

So here's some pictures of the three calves.

 They are being transported to the feeding machines, that's why they are in a cart. 

In the background you can see little Meg (the dog) and the four wheeler, on which I drove Farrah around. That was lots of fun, and I can't wait to borrow one of their motorbikes and go around the hilly farm! And walk up the mountain! (It takes aboput an hour apparently, and Jimmy's gonna show me what tracks to follow). We will also get down to the river one day to go fishing. You can also fast on some rivers in Marapura, so that's gonna be sweet! 

MacLeay said the sweetest thing to me today, when we were watching Dora the explorer on nick-jr. On the telly they celebrated spring by honoring the "spring chicken", and I said that it sounded a bit like the Easter-bunny. Then she leaned in on me and whispered: "I know about the Easter bunny, the tooth fairy and Santa Claus. Don't tell the others."

Cheers people!

First day and electric blankets

Today was my first whole day with the family. The kids are on vacation so I get a slow start which is nice. The girls are really sweet and nice to play with.

I've been borrowing Michelles clothes since my bag disappeared, but today Jimmy spoke to the baggage support at the airport and they had found my bag! Hurray. So they will send it over tomorrow, which is SWEET!

Jimmy took be on a tour at the farm and it's huge! And full of hills and at the end there is a super clear river and then the mountain with the bush (native forest, a "forest" in NZ is a hand made one, native forests are called bush). Me and Jimmy are gonna go hiking on the mountain, and they have Motorbikes to get around the farm that I'm allowed to borrow!

Everything here is so great. It's a bit cold though but the electric blankets they have in the beds compensates! It's so cozy going to bed in a warm bed, and then you keep the heating on throughout the night, it's heaven :)

My accommodation is also perfect, I have my own shower, toilet, stove sink and a king size bed! And a lot of windows with a view of the farm. So here are some pictures from my place :) Lovely, isn't it?

Hope you have a great time in Sweden!
Cheers (and I'll try to upload some pictures tomorrow, unfortunately I can't connect to internet at my place so I'm borrowing the family-computer.)

Auckland airport and jet lag

Hi everyone!

Now I'm at the airport in Auckland, waiting for my domestic flight to Whakatane. I cannot describe how good it felt to sleep in a bed after 30 hours of traveling and on top of everything a night without sleep (pretty much) before I left. It might seem strange not to sleep before one travel but I figured that if I hadn't slept all night I might have an easier time falling asleep on the plane. Ha ha ha, bad idea. Note to self: you can not sleep on planes dumbass! (more than possibly a couple of hours in total)

Anyway, I'm jetlaggin pretty bad, but it could have been worse. I actually got two-three hours sleep last night and tonight I will get more sleep hopefully.

I hope you enjoyed my tired post about sleeping...
 Goodnight people

Flights and lost luggage

Now I'm at a hotel close to Auckland!

The flight went well even though it took forever and ever. Only one thing though... my luggage (as the title reveals) disappeared :/

So now i only have whats in my handbag, which is not to much unfortunately. But it's okay, it's actually kind of funny. Like an adventure. Let's just hope I get it back soon ^^


Hugs and kisses from New Zealand 

Goodbye and see you next year

Now she is almost two in the morning and I have decided to stay up this night. Might allow myself a couple of hours sleep, though I'm not even sure I could fall asleep even if I tried.

In a couple of hours I'm off to Copenhagen, Munich, Singapore and then finally Auckland. Here I will spend the night at a hotel and then take a flight to a small airport closer to the family. Going to midwinter it is with a faint tint of regret I leave this behind:

 Viggo in Höjeå

Home 

The flat landscape of Skåne

Goodbye everyone, I wish you all the very best! Hope to hear from at least some of you at some point ^^ And no worries, I'll be back.

Updates and BBQs

It has taken me some time to post our weekend in Madrid, but now it's finally done!


Today is Saturday (well, it was Friday until two hours ago) and I'm leaving tomorrow. The only problem is that I have not yet packed everything I intend to bring, and I'm not even sure what I am supposed to bring. 


In NZ it is midwinter and I have been advised to bring warm clothes, not too much clothes (since there will probably be plenty of shopping) and party-clothes. And to be honest, I have packed party-clothes and not so much clothes (pretty much nothing else). Two out of three is not too bad, is it?




Yesterday I had some of my friends over at a BBQ in my garden. It was very nice to see everyone for the last time this year, and we had a great time. We could not have been luckier with the weather, and the food was great, not to mention the company! A successful evening with other words. 

Yummie indeed!

Lots of love to you guys, and thank you for a nice wrap up of my time in Sweden this year.

Chilling and Free Baileys

Sunday we were all a little tired from the Pride festival and we decided to spend our last day derping around having fun. Here are some derp-pictures, just for fun:

First we have me trying out my aiming skills. I ended up with more water on the outside than on the inside, but it was very warm outside so it was actually not too bad.
Anna tried to do the same thing, and I just want to take a moment to point out that she failed even more miserably than me! Yay, maybe?

Here we are messing around at the river in Madrid. I constantly forget its name, but if you are interested I'm quite sure you can google it. In the background, to the left, you can see Palacio Royal (the royal palace, obviously).

Then of course, we had to eat ice-cream. The result was very colored tongues, and a lot of laughter. But to be fair, it doesn't take much to make me laugh.

 That evening we had our last supper together in Madrid, at no other place than Plaza Mayor! The food was great but the drinks were better.

Here we met another very nice waiter who even gave us Baileys on the house! To the left is the yummiest Mjito I ever tasted, those Baileys were also tasty. But then again, when are free drinks not the tastiest? 

Sometimes it pays off to be blonde!

Saturday night and Pride-festival

On the Saturday night we went to the Pride festival. I got use for my new blue dress, and we had an awesome time!

There were several festival areas in town, with Mojito-tents, but the highlight of the evening was the parade!

Some kind of Spartans in the colors of the rainbow.

We saw lots of funny costumes, none including very much clothing though.

For the parade there had been prepared flatbed-trailers on which the participants were dancing and celebrating. It was almost like graduation week in Lund, but with more color and less clothes. ;)

Here's another fancy dress for you. 

We really had a blast, and I must say that this was one of the highlights of the whole weekend. I am very proud to say that I support "gay-rights" (sound silly since I consider it human rights) and this event just made me want to support the Pride-movement even more. Here is a picture of Eva and Anna before we enter the parade.

While in the parade I took a picture with some half-naked sparkling cops. (That is not something you do every day). What positively surprised me was that there were no threatening feelings whatsoever and the festive atmosphere could really sweep you of your feet. The joy and pride coming from every openly exposed gay-couple, couples which usually stayed in the dark, hidden from the rest of the world, was rather overwhelming. (Of course the single guys and gals where beaming with pride and happiness aswell.)

To show my support I bought a pin, which now permanently will be sitting on my suitcase or my clothing, and a bracelet (both my sister and mother bought the same bracelet, so that makes it even more special.) 

A better Saturday would be hard to find (though that one Saturday in Blekinge might top the list, but that's a completely different story!). 

Goodnight everybody and stay proud <3