family.3kiwis.co.nz

A dream comes true - we are flying half way around the globe to find out if New Zealand could be a new home for us! In the middle of the winter we found a sunny and lightfilled Northshore, where no shoes are required most of the time and school uniforms are always shorts. But it can get pretty wet as well, that's where all that lush green comes from! At the end of our long holiday we even took the once-in-a-lifetime chance to fly out to the most beautiful lagoon in the South Pacific. What an adventure for two little boys and their mum!

Because we were pretty sure that we wouldn't see this end of the globe again in the near future, we took the once-in-a-alifetime chance and flew out to the Cook Islands to find what is said to be the most beautiful lagoon in the world. We spend 5 days in a beachfront fale, take a tour around the lagoon, swim in the middle of thousands of colourful fish and feel sorry for the people that were left without a roof over their heads after cyclone Pat had hit the islands a couple of months before. We will never forget these days in paradise! Behind the man with the ukulele you find a video about our stay, done by Elias, who had just turned 8 on the flight out to Aitutaki and therefore having the luxury of a double birthday!

The big move! The boys have their student visa, mum's visa got messed up in the very last minute by the NZ embassy in Berlin, four weeks before we are flying she has a gallbladder infection which needed surgery. Rushed to hospital in the middle of the night with a blood pressure of 200 to something, it was only thanks to Thomas that the hospital finally on sunday decided for me to have the urgent operation. Who knows what would have happened without his professional intervention! After all that scare thee wasn't much time left for recovery and 334 boxes don't pack themselves! It all worked out in the end - have a look what life in Auckland is like in our first 2 years!

In july 2012 we go exploring the southern part of the South Island. I have just been issued my work visa for one year so the boys re considered domestic students!. We fly out to Queenstown and ski on Coronet Peak in the most fantastic weather - same flair as Mayrhofen in Austria - with just 5 lifts and 10 slopes! We love every minute of it, staying at YHA Queenstown Central, right across the road from the skibus. After that rather posh experience we get almost lost in the total remoteness of Glenorchy (only 1hour drive north of bustling Queenstown), find another Youth hostel, very much Hobbit scenery! Our tavel brings us down to the southernmost point of NZ, to Stewart Island and back along the south east corner, through the almost endless greens of the Catlins, we walk along the wild and beautiful beaches of St Claire's and St Kilda's. On the Otago Peninsula we were lucky enough to watch seals playing, we even get to see a Royal Albatross chick and the extremely rare Little Yellow-eyed Penguins jumping out of the ocean and waddling up the beach. A short video is in progress. What an amazing trip!

New Zealand summer is paradise - always warm, never too hot, cooling off at night just enough to give you a good night's sleep. In our first year here we travelled down south along the North Island's west coast, took the ferry to the South Island and spend 2 weeks in Takaka, between Nelson and Abel Tasman National Park. In the following years we chose to rent a bach on Coromandel, just 2 hours drive from us and you will be spoilt for choice when it comes to beaches, our favourite certainly is Pauanui on the ocean side. There is an airstrip, a boatramp, a skatepark, tenniscourts and of course that stunning beach. Jump into the waves with us!

A lot is happening in the next 2 years. Nonna comes and goes, many of our friends don't even notice that she has escaped over the winyer months - lucky her! There are tournaments and birthdays, mum's got a job with dodgy people, the boys are representing their school at AIMS games, thomas becomes a college boy, we get to see the beauty of the Kingdom of Tonga and are so lucky to get away from the wet winter to 4 packed days across the ditch to Oz. And at home there's always the beach, tennis, Long Bay Park and - of course - school! The boys pursue their engineering career, now buildig rc cars and boats. See for yourself what living in Auckland has to offer!

A lot has happened in the past two years. 3kiwis tour through Europe, Nonna is here again, friends from Bonn come to see us, we make new friends here with Andreas' (Elias' class mate) family. RC boats and cars are being built in our almost "pro" workshop, we get to see (and ride) the beautiful dunes at Mangawhai Heads and finally due to a coincidence we are so lucky to move back to our dream house with the stunning views, feeling more at home than ever and for the first time in five and a half year all there are no more boxes to unpack! We get Permanent Residence, Elias keeps working on his Tennis career, Thomas takes to the water and does the Ocean swim. So there is a lot to share with you in this new album - and hopefully this makes you want to come and see what New Zealand has to offer. Enjoy!

In july 2015 3kiwis came to Europe, not just Germany, but all over the place. We have seen eastern german cities, beautifully restored to their former glory, got a free taxi from Dresden to Prag, took the late night flight to Paris, spent 4 days on a bike in Amsterdam, climbed the Acropolis in 40° degrees celsius, met Nonna after a disastrous mishap at Rome airport in Athens, and even saw the sea-turtles cruising around the exotic island of Zakynthos. That is hard to top. Look what we would like to share with you.

The South Pacific Islands - and Tonga specifically - have been our place of yearning from the first time we set foot on Aitutaki. It is that special atmosphere of basicness and beauty, maybe it is still the europeans' dream of an island so remote, that it is hardly reachable. Partly this is still true in an area so far away from everything like Ha'apai, the middle group of the islands, that make up the Kingdom of Tonga. But even there we had a reasonable internet connection, fast enough to check and send your emails and upload your precious yield ofphotos and videos shot when snorkelling the lagoon. Every afternoon the whole "family" (i.e. the guests of the lodge) gathered around the dinner table showing off all their high tech gear like gopro's, high-spec macs and drones, comparing incredible underwater footage. Come with us on a journey to paradise!

From time to time the boys show some artistic streak. Thomas as produced a whole "Birds Series", the originals are decorating Nonna's lounge, the will show up here once she has scanned them. Another example is the butterly. Elias shows quite a talent at drawing, have a look at the "Tintin Phase" as well as his animals.
No captions and comments here, and they come in random order.