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!!

I'll try to update more frequently... otherwise it's bloody much to write... and boring for u guys to read :P

soo!

After the south Island we had a german student living with us for 4 days. he's our neighbours student (poor guy), and since she was gone he stayed her. his name is Max btw... so we spent some time showing him a bit around... luge and stuff :P

The other neighbours have this annoying pidgeon... its always outside our door ... constantly... so lately we have been chasing it around :D great fun when we trapped it in the garage, shooting it with foam darts... AWSOME!! soo we thought we scared it of.. guess what... we didn't.. less than 30 min later it was outside the same door again...

and again and agian... stupid animal...

We recently also went to the Hamurana springs, with the clearest water I have EVER seen! next day we returned with our swim suits... There is this whole all the way in the end, where the water comes out of the ground, and people (stupid asians) throw coins in. so we decided to try and dive for them. 2 factors prevented us from getting more than 2.5 dollars and a bunch of asian coins... one: frezzing water... like seriously freezing! and 2: all the water comes out of the ground.. so it kinda pushes you up, and prevents you from getting deeper than 1 meter...

good fun though!

and monday we spent on a beach in Tauranga... just as cold water... but the waves made it funny enough to stay in for almost 20 min :P since only Phil and I out of the 5 of us dared going in, we decided to go to the hot pools as well :P

Today, Thursday, I had a day of school since the buckleys took all of us to a funeral. It was Alans aunty tha had died recently, and I have to say that the maori funerals are cooler than the one's I'm used to!! First we had to be accepted into this house, then speeches and stuff (hard to stay awake!) before a church seremony (simmilar to back home) then a 20 min drive to the cementry with the rest of the church stuff... back to the first house were we have to be accepted on again. some more speeches, and a huuuge feed! Alan explained how they had this feed from back in the days so visitors woud get impressed and spread the word about them... I am now!

Last little funny part about Max.. the family he lives with, my IEC, is really strict! so he got heaps of frightening stories from everyone... about her driving and stuff... since her driving is really bad!! so first day after school for him. He get's picked up, and... she crashes the car!!!!! poor Ma barely could hold his laugh in since we had warned him... haha

take care back home!!!

south island trip

More than a month since last time... srry bout that guys...

anyway! since last time I have had some exams in school. I passed 2 out of 4 in my english, which is fairly decent hench that heaps of kiwis failed them all! Passed the same in maths... and that's about it of exams for me :P

Made some kiwi friends over here... which keeps me busy in school when I can't be bothered paying attention... mum and dad : (does not happen often though)

About two weeks ago there was the south Island tour! I flew out from Rotorua airport, one stop in Wellington and then down to Christchurch. Down there we met heaps of other students, some already familiar, some not. Phil already knew most of them from culture camp, but I didn't.

So the first day was in Christchurch and we went to our accommodation. got our rooms and I got awere of the fact that one guy had particullary smely shoes... like pure disgusting acctually... This smell followed me throughout the trip, and therefore I felt it was mention worthy. later on we had some free time in town, and we went to MacDonalds, and Starbucks :D had a little look around as well.

Next day was up early and crammed in the coach. We had a fairly long drive to dunedin, but once there we stayed at a pretty fancy place. On the way we visited a chocolate factory... but Phil, Phil2, a guy called Nico and I decided we had already seen it... and went to a mall and bought some toy swords... they were a platic pipe, covered by some foam thingy... and in belief of action without to much pain we were wrong... it bloody hurt like hell sometimes and gave some mean bruces!! awsome!! After the purchase of the swords we went to worlds steepest street... and man was that steep!! I tried to run it up... but as you probabl guessed... I failed miserably... Then back to the accommodation. One guy in my room also managed to smash a hole in the wall at this place... he covered it up though.. We had a nice dinner and decided what kind of activities we were going to doing queenstown and later on. In my case the bungee jump and the skydive. In the evening a small group of students headed in to town for ATM's. since we lost the others I ended up walking around with two girls... one of them lived in the town and stated she knew where the closest ATM was... she didn't... we walked around for ages... but since it was nice company I didn't mind :D

day 3 we headed for the doubtful sound. which acctually is a fjord. on the way we had a lunch break and everyone from my previous room were called out of the bus... yeah.. the hole in the wall... we all stood back and let the guilty take the blame... since he also broke our rugby ball the same day .., we started blameing him for everything that broke... haha..
back to the sound... nice landscape and nature on the way... a ferry ride, and then the boat! a nice boat, with heaps of kayaks on the back, which we of course used! we had a nice dinenr on the boat, yummy! and we also got to see dolphines jumping in front of the boat, as well as seals on islands, and a couple of penguins... even a flying penguin...

back from the sounds, where we had some pirate themed sword fights! we got in the bus and headed for our activities center of the trip, yeah, QUEENSTOWN!!! man what a great town!!!

On our way though we stopped at the worlds first bungee site, and could jump if we liked. I didn't have enough money though... since I was going to do the tallest bungee later, and a skydive... expensive shit! (excuse the language! but it was a total off 940 DOLLARS!! *4 and u have norwegian... yeah... expensive!) anyway! cool to see, and we headed to queenstown and the our two day accomodation. First evening was free, and a bunch of us walked to the minigolf, which is the by far best I have ever seen!! indoors, with amazing obstacles!! then we went to an italian resturant for dinner, which was good stuff!! another night with smelly shoes...
Next day I had to get up at 6 for my skydive! I have to say one of the coolest things I have ever done!! can't say coolest because the bungee was sick as well!!! anyway... after the skydive back into town to a candy shop :D where they sold dutch candy!!! only other place in the world I have found Salmiak rondondls!!! :D:D:D I was sooooo stooked!! couple macDonalds vistits in this town as well! :P
later that day we went to the bungee... I have NEVER been so terrified in my whole life. Undescribely terrified...probably one of the biggest pussy's ever to do that jump.. and it's now clear to me... I don't like heights to much. It took me 4 minutes to get to the edge and jump, whilst others did it in less than half a minuit... I did it though... and got great value for my DVD :P
For dinner that night we had a traditional Maori Hangi, which is food staked on hot rocks under ground, covered by a blanket and more rocks. It stays under there for the whole day. We ate this with the other EF tour group, which included Carol, my hostmom, since she was the leader for the other group.

Then we travelled on to Wanaka, which is smaller town, but some great amusement! we went to puzzeling world, which had a great maze! it also had several illusion rooms with some great effects! I bought a rubiks 4*4*4 cube there... yeah... I have actually bothered learning the 3*3*3 in some boring school lessons... and the 2*2*2... so I thought why not? can't solved it completly without youtube yet though. we also went to shotover jet. which is a pretty fast boat, only needing 10 cm's of water to drive, does 360's and drives damn close to cliffs!

For dinner we went to cinema paradiso. a cinema with couches, dinner, popcorn, break with cookies etc. sounds great... but weonly got 4 slices of pizzaeach -.- too few seats... a bag of popcorn for each third person... so limited amusement... but decent overall :P we also went a short trip back in town later that evening, but generally just chilled back at the base..

next day was Franz Josef. One of two big glaciers. on our way to the glacier one of the leaders told Nico and me about the fact that there was heaps of gold in this river, and mouuntains etc... Nico and I then spent 3 hours looking for gold along the river while the others walked to the glacier... we didn't find any...time well spent though... because we had heaps more fun I guess :P

Evening was hot pools... which I didn't bother going to... xD

Next day we went to Motueka, and the greenstone factory :P I bought someone who recently had a birthday a gift in this area :P in the maill soon! tha factory makes meaningful necklaces according to maori traditions. we also visited the punakaiki pancake rocks! heaps of picturres on facebook! pretty cool rocks, and it was kinda cool since the sea was pretty rough that day! We stayed two days here... and the first night us boys had a terrible surprise... the girls were going to dress us up drag... I have no idea why the girls find this so funny... but damn it felt wrong... I'll do my best to remove every single tag on facebook!!! Next day we went to the abel tasman national park. First we hiked 5.5 km into a nice private beach! see pics on facebook... blog uploader is way to slow for me to be bothered with it... then we took a mean cold swim, before we kayaked back in twin kayaks... which was hard in my case... my partner wasn't to good... couldn't paddle actually... only break...

Back at the "camp" we could enjoy EF2 having their drag night... alot more fun since we wern't endangered... ! we also had a BBQ, and the boys had to cook... -.-

So next day we travelled to our last accommodation, and some friends and I definetly got the best room! the others had like only bunk beds and a drawer... we had a kitchen, plenty beds, tv and our own bathroom ! great! In the evening we had our final dinner, Pizz, but only 3 pieces each -.- we exchanged buddy gifts... we had a buddy each from the start of the tour, which we had to check for each day on the bus. My buddy was a dutch guy who likes salmiak... so he got my last bag.. :P the leaders also had some awards, and I got one for bravery... since the leader had never had someone standing that long waiting, but still jumped... :D :( Then we stayed up long that night, and next day it was back to Christchurch!

Here we had to say bye to everybody, back on our planes... and home!!

that's about it... srry about any spelling mistakes... but it's late... and I'm writting kind fast...!

feel free to leave a comment, and I'll try my best to update before another month is passed!!

bye