Here we go, our first blog entry in english! Now people on both sides of the ocean can follow our adventures!

“Partir c'est mourir un peu”, “to say goodbye is to die a little”, a famous frenchman once said and that's defenitely how we've been feeling the last couple of days. It has been somewhat of an emotional rolercoaster saying our goodbyes to all our colleagues, the kids' teachers, clients and friends. Moving back to Holland to be closer to family and friends you realize that you are leaving a whole bunch of new friends behind.

The last couple fo weeks we have been incredibly bussy trying to get everything sorted and putting all of our stuff in boxes. The shipping company was being a pain in the bum and only after Marc form Alpha shipping got really mad at them (and earning our eternal gratitude in the process) did they agree to ship our container they way we wanted. Yesterday morning the container arrived and within 2.5 hours everything was loaded up and the container was on its way again! Jeroen was a little bit upset but the preparation of the previous weeks payd off and all in all it went pretty well!

Also MAF has been really silly, insisting that Floyd needed to be microchipped before he got his rabies shots. Ofcourse floyd was done the other way around and even though he had a valid blood titre from when we took him over MAF insisted we gave him another rabies shot and then wait another 21 days before we can ship him back to holland. Bummer. Fortunately Kerry has been very kind offering to take Floyd to the airport when he's ready to go (thanks a lot for that Kerry!!).

Finally we managed to sell Big Bertha to a guy in Christchurch so that means we can drive her down ourselves and that we did not have to go and rent a car.

And to top it all of I got a job at Dierenkliek de Langstraat in Waalwijk! That was a really nice surprise! I start the first of December and am really looking froward to it. It's a clinic that's ahead of its time in an area of Holland where we'd love to live!! Almost too good to be true!

And that leaves us here at Ohiwa beach, sun shining and finally able to start enjoying a well deserved holiday. For the first time we're taking both kids on vacation and the dynamics are a little bit different from the last road trip we had, where we just had Jeroen. The first leg of our trip was trying to strike a balance between where we wanted to go and what the kids could put up with. In the end we managed to drive about 225 km. We ended up at Ohiwa family park and it's great! Our little cabin is overlooking the dunes, with the ocean just a stones throw away. There's a little playground just outside where the kids are having a great time. There's a ginormous jumping pillow that both Jasper and Jeroen love and a nice deck where Esther and I can read a book, overlook the kids and take it easy! We intended to only stay one night but with the weather being so nice we decided to stay another day rather then spend a beautifull day inside the car.

We're now trying to decide where to go next. We want to go in the general direction of Gisborne and Napier, but there's options! we can go the direct route, or we can go through Urewera national park. The last one is longer, but also more pretty.

That's it for now. I'll go and get some pictures ready to put on the website as well.

Hope you enjoyed them! Should anyone need to get a hold of us; we're trying to check our mail everytime we find a hotspot. you can also call us (if you are in NZ) on 021-1516455 or send a text if you're in Holland!

back to enjoying the nice weather!