Christmas greetings from Varley's on sabbatical

2010 - a year on the other side of the world (depending on where you're starting from!)

Firstly a very happy Christmas to you all and a God blessed New Year in 2011. We managed to get to a carol service by glow stick (got the H&S tick over candles!) which was a great experience and a great reminder of the reason for the season. Have a look at this video too - made by St Paul's - one of the local churches in Auckland.

We're now in Tauranga for Christmas - plenty of family time. Girls and boy outside on bikes, dolls, push chairs, water fights, balls and hoop-la. It's great to have the space and garden here to have a play in :-)

2010 has had many fun things in it - almost forgotten now that it started in the snow back in January, we hear that the wintry weather is worse this year than last - can't quite imagine that at present as we are enjoying 26 degrees here (sorry had to get that off my chest!).

Lillia has really enjoyed this year, loads of play time with Gran and Grandad, playtime at multiple Mum's and toddlers groups, music groups and lately spending 2 days a week at Kindergarten. A few tears along the way but now she is well ensconced. Christmas party a few weeks back with Christmas songs covering 8 languages!! She now treats us to renditions of the NZ national anthem in Maori-esq!

Nina has been a joy to watch grow and her character is in full bloom at the moment. Big smiles, hugs for everyone, loving food and so active on her feet. Running is her favourite speed. Just this last week she has enjoyed sitting up at the table along with her cousins and suddenly looks like a little girl. Plus for her flight home she will have her own seat now - no more baby bassinets.

Fi has been a tireless Mum, the fruits of her labour being happy and tired children when Matt gets home from work (ok, they sometimes grizzle a bit!). We've enjoyed not being committed to too much this year - kind of a sabbatical for Fi in that regard too. 2011 not far away now though :-)

Matt has learnt new skills in forestry, fork lifts and fruit harvesting and orchards. Work did arrive and has been enjoyed at NZI with many ex-pats with a few home growners thrown in to keep us relaxed!! Plus he's managed to keep up the running and had some 'epic' times out and about in the NZ great outdoors - reason enough to stay...?!

Pictures to follow in the next blog, for now - Merry Christmas - love from the Varley's xx

Cakes and camping

Gosh, well, seems another few months have gone by since we last updated you all… so here’s what we’ve been up to...in words and pictures.


September started off with the arrival of a new nephew (Joshua), born a couple of weeks earlier than anticipated, son to Fiona’s brother and sister-in-law. So Fiona got the privilege of looking after his older brother and sister while that was all happening, which Lillia and Nina were quite happy about as it meant they got to have a sleep over at their cousin’s house, as well as all the excitement of a new baby :-)


September also marked Nina’s 1st birthday and Lillia’s 3rd, and Matt’s …. so lots of fun and presents! We had some people round to our place in Auckland for afternoon tea and cupcakes to celebrate Nina’s birthday… She had a ball! For Lillia, we got together at Gran and Grandad’s house in Tauranga, for lunch, games and cake (a butterfly – thanks Mummy). Then we had Matt’s birthday the following day, on which he went off to run a race around the Mount… got back home just in time to have his cake.


Unfortunately both Lillia and Matt came down with a nasty tummy bug during the following week, and Nina a second ear infection. This was a downer, with both Lillia and Nina having just got over ear and chest infections… thankfully all are good now.


We had a weekend away at the snow booked for mid Sept, with some friends, which we were really looking forward to… Matt keen to get out on his snowboard in NZ.. However, that weekend coincided with the second worst storm on the planet at the time! Gale force winds, rain and freezing cold weather all weekend, the mountain was closed :-( - we got about ½ an hour playtime in some snowy slush! So no snowboarding or skiing sadly… But we had fun playing at our lodge. Thanks J&M and D&M..


Since then we have enjoyed Labour Weekend – bank holiday weekend in Oct – highly recommended! We went and stayed at a campsite with 3 other families – so 8 big kids and 7 littlies to herd around! We found hedgehogs, paradise ducks and ducklings, a possum (now a dead possum) and – oh – sheep. Lots of outdoor play including Burma trail, lighting fires, cooking marshmallows and staying up late.


Next weekend saw an early start for Matt – catching the ferry to Devonport at 0540hrs in time for a 7am start to the Auckland Half Marathon which comes back across the Harbour Bridge. Matt had a great morning run and was cheered home by the girls – 1h23m05s official time. Tired but happy man. Had a fab morning in park with friends after – Neil and Lisa who also ran and had awesome times to write home about. Bit of an Oak Hall reunion for brunch with Jim McInnes, Nina and Himali tucking into Eggs Benedict and pancakes. Marzi we missed you!


Next weekend – Matt being Matt – had booked himself and John Catmur on a 28k offroad race out on the stunning west coast at Bethells Beach. Kind of thing you talk yourself into over a few beers – hmmm, they were only on Skype! 4hrs later and having ascended 1600m, fallen in a river, crunched through flaxes and gorse the boys returned to gladly find the finish and a well earned beer.


In the mean time Fiona and the girls had a ripper of a time playing on the beach, black sand on the West Coast though – Nina made full use of it and imitated an ostrich quite well. Lillia also enjoyed playing in the estuary and using her new digger to good effect. Hot pool action at Waiwera to follow, ahhh - nice.


Lillia has now established herself in a new Kindergarten that is just down the road from here. Took a few weeks but she is now loving it with her new friends Yaelle, Aashna, Sophie and Zoe. There's great outdoor play there with the biggest sandpit short of the beach, climbing kit, ride ons and of course water play :-) Nina looks on enviously but has some great Mummy time instead.


Christmas now approaching - how did that creep up on us! Nearly missed the posting date to UK already :-o


Enjoy the lights and Santa's grotto - we have Christmas parade this Sunday - bring it on!!

The beginnings...

Well, here it is. A blog. My first blog and something that being on sabbatical has prompted me to do.

There's lots of things going on at the moment; job apps for Matt, the usual things for Fi (but done in NZ!), lots of play for Lillia, beginnings of crawling for Nina.

Come with us and let's see where we go :-)

3 - the magic number

Crikey - 3 months to post a blog update - not quite sure that's what Justin Hall had in mind when he began blogging back in 1994!

Am glad to say that we have lots of good things to tell you about!

Firstly, we are now living in Auckland in a groovy apartment just off Beach Road. We have lots of space and the girls love it! Nina is well and truly up on her feet and almost running (I kid you not!) around the place. There is certainly no slow in her go!

Lillia is enjoying being the early bird and wandering in somewhere after 6am and saying 'Morning time'! Followed quickly by, 'Breakfast'. Lillia seems to have taken on the role of big sister well and is being v good at getting to bed and going to sleep in the bedroom that she now shares with Nina. Though there have been a few comedy moments where Lillia was found in Nina's cot and couldn't get herself out! Plus Nina has been found cocooned in nappies (clean ones I'm glad to say!) that Lillia has posted through the bars of the cot.

Why are we in Auckland? Matt has landed a job in his field. Just like buses he ended up with 3 job offers all at once! So now he's working as contract PM for IAG New Zealand. It's very much like a UK company in a way - and to make it more like home he's met two people (Allan Dornan and Andy Graves) who used to work in Norwich for Norwich Union!!

Matt's been helped out massively by friends who have put him up for a few weeks while the apartment became available - thanks Lisa and Ian & Himali :-) Lillia has particularly enjoyed finding Daddy at Himali's place as she keeps 3 chickens, mainly for talking to and they also lay eggs - perhaps these activities are related. Either which way, Lillia loved talking chicken to them and chasing them around the place.

Since settling in Auckland life has been lots of fun, meeting up with friends, heading out for dinner and exploring new places. Last weekend we headed to Hunua Falls and had a great walk in the rain - 8 wet adults and 6 wet but happy children - funny how the rain doesn't seem to curb their spirits. Think the treat of hot Milo for them was a definite plus!

Fiona’s getting out and about the place during the day and finding the groups that the girls enjoy – Mainly Music, Play Centre and joining up at the local library. Plus visiting brother & sister-in-law; girls really enjoying having cousins nearby to play with.

One other good thing about being in the City of Sails is that the water is never too far away so we plan to take the ferries over to the local islands and have some days out exploring – Rangitoto is a case in point – a volcanic island just waiting to be summitted!

Ahead, September is already a busy month – just the 3 family birthdays and hopefully a trip to the snow :-)

Until next time, enjoy the photos.

It's all about the numbers - an election free post!

Hey everyone,

Glad to have caught up with some of you by phone this month, thanks too for the emails and Facebook updates - it's great to keep in touch with what's going on. As we compose this update the bank holiday weekend in UK will have just passed - hope the weather didn't dampen the spirits for all of you under canvas!

Since our last update numbers seemed to have dominated - from the minimal amount of water in the rain gauge to the mind boggling number of Kiwifruit being harvested.

I'll see if I can paint the picture in ascending order ....

2 - legs that Nina has found and is happily exercising by pulling herself up on whatever she can find. Her favourite item is playing with her car seat, once on her feet she makes half a turn to see who's watching and gives them a huge smile - v happy with her efforts!

2 - interviews for Matt in Auckland this month. Feedback has been good but skills aren't quite the match they're after. Possibly still in the running for one company depending on what opportunities they are able to start up. So we'll see, also have an application in with the regions Polytec to project manage changes to the student information systems - a good fit on a number of fronts so all prayers for that gratefully received.

3 - number of frozen blocks of baby food that Nina now devours for dinner. Chicken casserole seems to be the new favourite.

3 - lambs that have made it from the paddock to the freezer (Lillia hasn't quite put that story together yet). Though she is still the chief shepherdess around here and is always on hand to help with moving sheep around the place. She's venturing much closer these days and likes to pat one of the old pet sheep.

15 - stickers on Lillia's reward chart for staying in bed at bedtime. V good news, and thanks for all who've asked how she's getting on :-) we're getting there! Her potty chart is also taking shape with the rewards of Iggle Piggle and spending more time in her trainer pants.

30 - days in April that Fiona has been a super Mum :-) there's been plenty of baking going on (much by Lillia's request!) cakes, muffins, ANZAC biscuits. The girls are really enjoying Mainly Music (Wed), Playgroup (Thur) and Playcentre (Fri). Lillia comes back with clothes and shoes suitably adorned with paint, sand, food and anything else that’s around.

40 - miles run by Matt, he's glad to get back into running with no ill effects of his painful hip from last year. He's been challenged by some old friends to go and run the Auckland half marathon later in the year! The course heads across the Auckland harbour bridge - apparently the only time foot traffic is allowed on the bridge. Better get training for the invert!

Here comes the biggy ...

22,000 - boxes of Kiwifruit packed and/or stacked by Matt last week! Matt's managed to get some seasonal work to earn a few dollars to keep the wolves from the door - it's in a Kiwifruit packhouse and as the owner keeps telling him, 'welcome to the real world’. So do enjoy your Kiwifruit this summer when it arrives off the boat in a few months time.

Some piccies from this month to enjoy.

A worn out Lillia at the end of a walk...

Waihi beach from our walk over the headland

Humpty Dumpty Easter egg cake - just too tempting for some!

Nina's first swim

Woodchucks chucking wood?

That's a very good question posed in the well known tongue twister!

We've been splitting wood for some time now and there is still a huge mound of it still to go for use on the fire. Thankfully we're using the neighbours oh so cool wood splitter and not the old fashioned approach....I reckon winter would've finished by the time I'd finished that lot with an axe!

Sadly - it turns out - Woodchucks have nothing to do with wood or chucking. Ah, the power of the web; tells you everything even if you didn't want to know!

March - where did that month go?

This month's update comes as a blog entry and focuses on a few topics:

Chat - Lillia continues to chatter away, her most common phrase of 'what you doing?' kicks off lots of conversations and when no one is there to answer she can be seen chatting away to herself. Singing and dancing are also taking a notable part of her life - and are delivered as a performance while standing/bouncing on her trampoline. New music, playgroups and toddler groups punctuate her week and are evidently good fun.

Moves - Nina decided that March was all about moving. She is now rolling and commando crawling all over the place, and sitting up all by herself! Just like her Dad she is surprisingly fast and also seems to have an eye for mischief. In Nina's case this is making a beeline for and then eating newspapers and cables. All this moving has given her a rapidly increased appetite so 3 meals a day is the new norm.

Work - Matt's lost count (or doesn't want to count) the number of job apps that much time and effort has been poured into. Last week saw a positive up turn with agents phoning him and a resultant telephone interview, but alas nothing more. April see's the start of the Kiwi fruit season - which while not 'choice' would be a good fall back plan to get some dollars coming in. To aid his chances Matt is taking his forklift license test and hopes to get some good new experiences through the season.

Travel - as you may have seen from other blog entries we have travelled a few times this month with a great trip to Gisborne to see Derek (Fi's brother) and also to Hamilton to visit friends from Oak Hall and a couple of airport runs to aid Fi's parents holiday plans. Also had a great day out in Karangahake Gorge, tramping with some friends :-)


Here's a few photos and a composed video for you too. Keep in touch, we're only 12 hours ahead now and that reduces to 11 hours this weekend as NZ time falls back into autumn.

No sign of James Herriot

So here's the gig, Fi's parents are away for the week and we're left in charge of a number of animals. My record with animals isn't good; a few dead fish, one v grumpy hamster and my grandparents dog, Lexi, who was v good - but always seemed to throw up when it stayed at our house...

For the record (body count) there's 4 cows, 4 goats (susceptible to getting stuck in ponds), 38 sheep - oh and the neighbours pet dog and cat thrown in for good measure.

To add just a little bit of zest I'll need to manage and move the electric fences, another first.

Hopefully more blogging to come...

....where are all the jobs?

Back to earth with a bump today, 6 job apps all closed off while we had our extended weekend away. (Six, that prompted a fresh brew of coffee.)

So back to the looking again, have opportunity to complete fork lift truck driving qualification next week - would make for some interesting skills acquisition for the CV. But as late Grandpa Varley always said,

Matthew, never stop learning new things.

Where are all the cars?

We drove back from Gisborne yesterday (15/3) on State Highway 2. Firstly it was a beautiful drive; farmland and hills, a good drivers road and a bluebird sky day. What was even more amazing is that we drove for nearly an hour without either catching up with a car or having anyone in our rear view mirror. I could get used to driving like that!

For the record we drove through the Waioeka gorge, stopping off at a bridge crossing along the way. Another beautiful place, this was where some early settlers made a go of living off the land up the valley on the other side of the river. It didn't work for them but the bridge has been maintained and it is a gorgeous spot for lunch :-)