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!!