School's up... not..-.-

Most of february has past now, geting way closer to the end... ways to fast!

This year I have most subjects the same as last year, just changed my Outdoors to a study... even though I wanted the outdoors more... So I got Physics, Chemistry, English, History and maths calculus. Study is a free periode to catch up on homework, which there is plenty of now. Had some complications joining the desired english class this year. Since last year didnt result in too many credit, the teacher wanted to move me to an english alternative... but thats not the way I wanted, and I worked my ass of to stay, and so far has achieved all assessements in english... hahahah!!!
Kinda ironically that the teacher pulls out a novel... says its one of two we are going to study this year, explains its one of her personal favourites, brilliantly written... The cather in the F****** rye!!! like I hadnt heard that story from an english teacher before... Clever as I was i opened my mouth, and got an even boringer book to study... yeah..

surfing is still prioritised at high level during the weekends, and last weekend the waves were just plain awesome in Ohope!!! Almost jizz in my wetsuit like... hahah

So thats school,... and I got my restricted license earlier this week... so I can drive around alone!! only passengers if one of them has got a full license :P and apperantly this can internationally be converted to something similar as after having passed a practical test, would mean a full license back home, so we'll see about that... Stoked anyway!!

And I need cellphone rehab, been texting far out of proportion this month... good thing texting is cheap here!!!

which brings me to a planned roadtrip in about a month... Going all the way up north, and spend some money there... Luckiely not as expnsive as the one EF suggests, this is privately arranged, but is going to be interesting finding enough pennies in my pocket :P

Soooo, tomorrow surfing again, and then just see what my last months in New Zealand brings me! :D

yeah! jeroen

Surfing, hawkes Bay, Tui and unfourtunatly school

Soooo!

surfboard is fixed! yeah! works all good, tested it at Mt. manganui :P pretty bad waves though...

anyway!
Last weekend we went to hawkes bay, region just south of bay of plenty. And to Napier, hastings.

We had rented a holliday house and spent three days there. First day we drove a little around town, went to a nice icecream place, and my new favourite icecream is mocchachino or however it is spelled! it awesome!
Second day we spent in splash planet. Lazy river, water slides, plenty of fun!!

Third day we drove by a dutchshop, with De ruijter hagelslag on the poster... but it was closed sunday and mondays... -.- badly wanna go there again, but its a 5 hour drive...
kept going and ended up in motueka, where they have the original TUI brewery!

Ice cold beer! even got a couple of free beers from random people :P Bought myself a nice bag, and a t-shirt :P Had a sniff in the tui museum! pictures on facebook!

Then we drove home, and tomorrow its back to school... unfourtunatly!

cya

Surfing!!

Last days I bought myself a delayed christmas present from trade me!

Bought a 120 dollar surfboard!! its really cool, a bit old maybe, but awesome!!

Phil bought one aswell, but a bit more unlucky with the auction and ended up with a 200 dollar one...
I bouht a bag aswell, since I checked Quantas wheter I could take it home or not, so I'll do my best to take it home!!!

some issues with it the first day though -.- managed to break one of the fins of!! and since they are not future fins (where there is a little slot to put a new fin in) looks like I got some cutting to do in the board, before I seal it up with a new fin, and HEAPS og superglue... still trying to find the easiest/cheapest option!!!

The board is a 6 foot 6 inch, Nirvana. Australian made... sometime after the 1970s.

Going back to Ohope on saturday, hopefully some more sweet surfing!! :D
Where in Tauranga yesterday, just after the board pick up..

so thats a surf update, which I hope I will be able to do all into April!! at least :P

Since last time we have bought 4 new chickens.. Phil and I nicknamed two of them... and the dog has ruthlessly killed the two unamed ones... bloody dog!!!

Soo.. see you in 6 months!!

short new years update

So...

I spent New years in Raglan, a surfing town on the westcoast. Nice beach, kinda blackish sand.
waves were awsome, at least some of the time. Went there on Friday the 31 i think... the 31 anyway... that day we saw the raglan new years parade, good stuff... kinda random though... ambulance, tiger, recycling themes...
then we saw a program about the last year in Nz, and some the rest of the world, and the official countdown.

Next day we got up a bit late... went surfing the next day... some trouble finding a place to rent boards, but in the end we found a good deal. Stayed on the beach from 2ish till 8... waves were awsome when the tide started coming back in from 7... but thee rips were strong as!

next day we got up at about 10, went surfing again, waves like the evening before, but they turned rather difficult to do anything witharound 4... 5 was time to hand the boards back, and take the evening.

last day in raglan we went out in a little boat and saw lots of the harbor, and an iron beach. really cool sand on that beach!!

back home and to the pool, now we have spent some days fixing a black hose to the roof, and a little pump to suck the water through, that way the water heats up through the day!!

so thats a short update!!! I'm about 2 weeks short of beeing in the country for 6 months...
already halfway!!!!!

cya

desember, christmas times and beach(es)

Better than last time... at least not a whole month!

Since last we have had two EF guests. Thomas from wanaka, and Annika from Auckland.

Had some good fun when Thomas was here, and we took him and max to the beaxh in Ohope. Nice beach, with really good waves!! Good evenings with fun boardgames :P We also went to carols brothers beach house in waihi. Really nice beach, not to good waves though... have been there two more times since last time.

The way to Ohope, I was driving... yeah! haha...

We also went rafting in the hamurana springs, although there wasnt much of a current.. good and cold fun!! We did some quadbiking, shooting... went hunting at the neighbours! hahah got two rabbits the first time, and another one a couple days later :P We also went to the luge again.

then it was time for christmas. Earlier in the month Phil, Max and I put up the christmas decorations :P ahahh... heaps of crap in the roof, lights everywhere... NICE! :D

Chrristmas feeling was rather absent, but came a bit when the calendars came from home, and a bottle of Toomte gloogg brygg :P It is so different to celebrate christmas when you wear shorts and t-shirts ! christmas day, as I see it... 24... we visited the neighbours, played some tennis, couple of beers... good fun! then christmas day as they see it here...25.. presents were opened in the morning, some family over by lunchtime, and meal with ham and pork in the evening!

First and probably last time I will go to subway the 24 :P was nice, but dont think it will happen back home :D

Last days have been relaxing in the new pool alan bought, going to town now and then and basically just living a kiwis life :D

plans ahead:

In a couple of hours phil and I are leaving with max and his hostfamily to raglang, apperantly NZ most famous surfing beach, and we will stay there for three days. In January we have plans for reggea muffin, another beachhouse with splashplanet, a water park :D and some other stuff I cant remember on the top of my head!

Thanks for all christmas gifts!!!!!!!

Cya soon Jeroen!

More than a month since last time, yeah... time flies!!!

Guy Fawkes was about the first event since last time. We made our own fireworks!! yeah! and the coolest we made was sparklerbombs!! Basically just take a bunch of 25-50 coloured sparklers and roll them in aluminiums foil. Then tape, tape and heaps of tape!! ducktape is the king ofcourse!! have one sparkler sticking out in front, but make sure it's far enough in the bomb to ignite the rest... and dont tape to hard around the fuse, but make sure it's airtight!!
Guy fawkes was all good!! huge bonfire, eksplosions and beer :D

after that some more days of school. Exams -.- I did english, maths, physics and history... probably failed them all this time. Funny thing about the history exam was that our teacher paid phil and me 10 bucks each for sitting there the whole time... which we spent on burgerking :D
Exams her are slightly different.. in each subject you get a booklet for each "chapter" through the year, and usually around 4 or 5. Then you can pass each one individually. 4 possible grades, and one that is not attempted, which means it will not count at all. Exams last for 3 hours, but you can leave after the first 45 minutes.

The two-three weeks before and during exams is study leave, so you dont have to go to school at all. Which means I had almost a month holliday before the actuall holliday! During this time Phil and I made a volleyball court in the paddock, and we bought a cheap inflateball pool to have next to it! :P Had a couple of days with heaps of volleyball before Phil and I went to Whangamata.

Whangamata is a village, surfing village/town, 2 hours north from Rotorua. Dad drove us up, accompanied by mom. Once there we met up with 4 outher EF students. we stayed at the bach of Nicos hostparents. Before we went there EF were pretty unfair and claimed we werent allowed to go, since nobody was allowed to travell in november and exam periode. But we would only be gone one day of november, had done all our exams before and heaps of stuff... so eventually we were able to talk us into going after all!!!

First day we did some body boarding... basically just catching the wave when you have a tiny board to lie on... Next day we had surfing lessons, and I actually got up on the board severall times!!! impressed by myself!! The beach was really nice, and the third day we went to a place an hours drive away. First Cathedral cove (will uploade pics on facebook soon) then to hot water beach. Hot water beach was mean cool! because of thermal activity just under the sand, you digg your own pool on the beach with hot water!! last two days we just chilled out on the beach!

Back home we found out that our watermelon plants have grown well! Capsicum is kinda green, but not growing... tomatoes are growing, pea's are growing, strawberries are all good, the garlic we planted just before we left has sky rocketed and passionfruit is going good. In addition I have learned that the family has Grape plants, advocado, cherry, lemon trees and feijoa. Last thing is a fruit unique to NZ!!

And I dont know if I mentioned it last time, but I finally shot a rabbit!!! required two shots... first one made the rabbit run down the hill, so the second had to be a standin shot, but I got it!! once I had taken the rabbit up I saw that the first shot had gone through the ear!! kinda cool :P

My computer is dead :( or... not the computer, but the charger... So no photos will be uploaded till after christmas, since I will give it a try to find a new charger then!!!
Christmas presents for family back home are posted!!! had a hard time finding it all, but think it's gonna be all good!

Half lazy days ahead... Thomas, dutch guy, living on the south Island is coming to stay with us from the 10th till 19th of december. and we are going to a beach house somewhere else with him and Max. And then a summery christmas. Can't promise anything... but a christmas photo wearing borat thongs and santa hat on the beach is under consideration... depends a bit on how crowded the beach is... :P

Christmas decorations are up in the house!! lights and (glitter) everywhere...christmas tree is the smaellest I ever had, and the fakest.. but it's cool as!! full of lights!!

Thats about it for now... hope I dont forgot anything... probably did..:P

cya all in 6-7 months!!

more frequently... yeah... not gonna happen ey?

two weeks since last time... since then i have been up to heaps.

short pidgeon report: finally dead... dog got it ... eventually! for everyones but Haleys great amusement! :)

an inside joke her is that the family now has 2,5 students, since max spends so much time her :P hahah...social guy:P and we have bought watermelon seeds, which we planted today... so in 14-16 weeks we are gonna have some huuuuge melons... hopefully :P

Last to weekends we have spent some time doing firewood. chainsaw, quadbike and beer! yeah! maybe not always in that order... heheh..

last weekend was busy... first firewood on saturday, on sunday some geysir thingy then agrodome with a sheepshow... about all kinds of sheep... then agroventres with a swing, bungy etc... into town to buy some food, and a big bag of lollies (=)) <--- bracket smiley, then to the luge, and finally a couple of hours in the hot pools! :P

Something that has been going on lately... Phil is on a mission to make me fit... which basically means exercise everyday... and my new pushup record is 25 proper ones in a row... hahah... but considered it was like 14 before I came her it's all good!! :P

week or so ago us boys were forced to do the pink walk... supporting breastcancer... so I got dressed up in pink.. and was able to cover my face ! (score) and was unrecognizable.. :P :D

Schoool is going good... subjects are going better...maths is easy as! but mum or dad... possible to get hold of a year 2 physics and chem. book? would help me out heaps!!!

Driving is going all good, though I like cruising on the quad better :D

this is all just like a little update, so in a huge mess... but hopefully you will understand :D

Upcoming is Guy fawkes!!! FIREWORKS!!! and I have bought some fireworks... some... hehehe

we have a huge bonfire, and are determined on beating the neighbours!!! will update sometime after guy fawkes :p

also in 3 weeks time it surfcamp in whangamataha something ...:S with EF mates for 5 days. And yeah! in two weeks... summer hollidays!!!! YEAH!!

far to many summerr holliday plans, so we'll see what goes through!! :P

that's it for now... feel free to ask if it is tooo confusing...

and yeah! dad! birthday gift is posted!!