Hello World!

We have been kiwis for nearly ten months!  Time in NZ definitely moves at a slower pace.  So it’s a massive surprise to us that we have achieved ….

Living with Mum for this long…

Sounds nasty doesn’t it?  But all three of us were a little nervous about it!  However, it rocks.  Naomi is super shopper, menu designer and weekend crock pot cook.  Emily is bathroom cleaner, bin lady and left over cuisine specialist.  Alan is wheelie bin manipulator, master chef wannabe and good at lifting things guy.  Washing up is sorted out by a short straw or wrestling.

Alan has been assimilating…He is now officially a member of the Brotherhood of Auckland Magicians (even has a cool little badge to prove it).  Taking up fishing off the old Mangere Bridge with some yummy success.  Luckily even NZ has steam trains (big and small) to keep him interested and he also got himself a membership to MOTAT.  Earning his pocket money by busking down Queen Street has been fun and he is loving the focus on food here – he will always accept an offer to a shared lunch.

Emily has mainly been church hijacking & studying

Its has been great to hang out with our kiwi family and sister blister!  And we've also gained a couple of church families too.

MCC Auckland is a little congregation with a big heart.  Mum goes to Otahuhu Methodist and we go to Papakura Crossroads Methodist in the morning and then we all go to MCC in the evening.  We call it double dipping…

Doug the MCC Pastor is fab and is a bus driver by day (if he is working on Sunday nights he gives us a ‘toot toot’ as he goes past the service in his bus!)  They have also supported Emily as she and Alan both realised on camino that she should give theological studies another go.  So now, thanks to cross-credits,  she is already nearly half way through the papers she needs for her theology degree from Otago Uni (distance learning). 

Crossroads is awesome too.  It’s a bigger church and Emily’s old mate Michelle is involved with the youth.  Alan accepted the challenge so we are now helping out with a homework study group on Tuesday nights and are starting up a Friday night hang out zone in a couple of weeks with a big launch party.

Our main baby though has been Science in a Van. 

Things are going well and we have decided that we need to give it another year to see if it can fully support us.  Check out the map which shows all the schools that we will have visited by the end of 2011.  Not bad considering Science in a Van was dreamt up just before Christmas!

Mum is still chief sponsor and is VERY generous with her rent demands.  However, we have been doing other bits and bobs to keep us ticking over.

Mystery Shopping - free burgers, mechanical checks and we now know all about home medical alarms)

Bollywood Promoters (this is sooo fun.  Not only do we get to go to Bollywood movies for free we also make lots of friends when we go out and put up posters – we’re talking a lot of free samosas … yum)

Casual security work (you may not believe this but we have looked after the All Blacks, helped the Australian Rugby team off their bus and ushered around way too many over excited teenage girls at an Owl City concert)

Extra work .. literally – not extra work … work as extras (We reckon Alan will get bonus points for his NZ Visa due to his speaking part of Shortland Street.  “That’s quite alright” was his line and now it’s a bit of a catch phrase in the house.  He was only on for a bit but gets recognised quite a lot.  The best part was he was a science tutor – weird aye?) 

But it’s all paid off as we just purchased our flights!  We get back to London on Thursday the 8^th of December and leave again on the 9^th of February.  We are really looking forward to seeing everyone we have been missing and are definitely signing up for Crisis at Christmas!