It is a long time since Easter!

Blog 35 ended with us wishing you a happy Easter and now Blog 36 has seen the back of Christmas. So much has happened in between the two blogs and I will do my best to keep it manageable! Our first visitors in April were Simon, Tamara, Lilly and Charlie. They kept themselves busy walking the Mount, kayaking at the outdoor adventure centre and a trip to Whakatane and Edgecumbe. This is where Lynn taught in the 70's and Simon visited as a small child!

May featured a get together with Peter and Suzanne, Dave and Veronica for a lunch time at our house. These all met at Taumarunui when Lynn was first teaching out in the wops! Amazingly they have remained friends for over 50 years.

 My other knee found the responsibility of holding me upright, while my left knee recovered from the operation, too much to handle. With all that we had planned for the remainder of 2024 we bit the bullet and went private. Same surgeon and anaesthetist, same private hospital around the corner and booked in for the op on mum's birthday, 30th July. All went well.....two nights in and now fully recovered and walking without aids or pain. Image was first day home.

Jill was our next visitor in October now I had recovered from the second knee replacement. She arrived exhausted and was ready for a month of rest. We saw friends locally, had coffee and lunches out and drove to Waihi to meet with, second cousin twice removed as we refer to Annie and Graham!  Lovely day out.

We had arranged to take Jill back to Auckland to coincide with us staying for a week at the World Hockey Masters Games held in Auckland. All went to plan and the AirBNB that I had booked was 500 yds from the pitches. 

Firstly we met with Marty and Robbie for lunch to finalise arrangements for Hobbit's visit in January. 

We wanted to go to the games because people I had taught or worked with were going to be with teams at the Masters. We caught up with Midge Pamplin, Karen Richards and Judith Davies. Also, with Lisa Prince who was in the England team when I was coaching and Libby Mound, who was a Berkshire player. Great times. 123 teams from 23 countries.

We had been home for two days when Karen flew to Tauranga for a rest! We are obviously famous for this provision! Karen has been planning a three month long service leave trip. We enjoyed listening to her planned excursion around South America which I think she may well have started, after flying to England for Carol and Janice's 80th birthdays on Boxing Day.

We continue to do increasingly difficult jigsaw puzzles every afternoon and meet regularly with Dave and Vrons, Win and our neighbours. We had a street party two weeks ago which was great.

The next adventure was our Christmas travel with Moa Tours. This year was to be Northland which is where Lynn and I travelled back in 2018 when we first arrived. For those of you who want to see our travel in detail I will leave a link to the tour here.

Briefly, it was from Auckland to Whangarei and the Hundertwasser Art Centre then onto Paihia. Next day to one of the first missions developed in the 1830's, then a whaling museum and staying in Mangonui. Day 3 to Cape Reinga and Ninety Mile Beach. Day 4 to Waitangi Treaty grounds and stay in Paihia again. Christmas Day on a boat to the hole in the rock and a cafe for lunch. Day 6 to Opononi and the Manea- Footprints of Kupe, which was brilliant. he was the first settler from Tahiti and made his journey in a self made wooden boat with a sail and navigated using the stars. Finally finished in a tropical rain forest in tropical rain to see Tane Mahuta, the largest kauri tree in the forest. I have put a link in the email with a few photos our group have put together in Google Photos. Hopefully you won't need to have the Google photo app to access them. Click the link in the e mail.

That brings us to the end of 2024.  The new year brings us more visitors. Hobbit from my Ealing days in January. Flo and Jan from Lynn's Bedford College days in Feb. Jane and Terry for their second visit to Tauranga end of Jan and then Marshy and Steve for ten days in Feb.  We then fly to Sydney for three weeks with a trip north with Jill to a house on a lake. Finally in April, Jessica (Lynn's niece) and Jake will fly from Sydney to us on their way back to England after an 18 month adventure in Sydney.

I hope this has brought a bit of cheer for those living through those long dark English winter days and that you are keeping well. For you all we hope you have had a good 2024 and wish you all the very best for 2025.