Back in Aotearoa

So maybe some of you are wondering what we have been up to?

Well the full blog posts of our recent exploits are on their way, but in the mean time heres the executive summary.

We had Xmas with Sue in Amsterdam, then flew to Geneva for New Years. We traveled with her through Switzerland, taking the glacier express through the Alps covered in foot deep snow. Continued through to Innsbruck in Austria and said goobye to Sue - she traveled onward to Thailand to trek into the hills!

We continued through to Salzburg, and then south to Venice in Italy. Wow - crazy city! From there we headed south to Florence and saw saw the statue of David, amongst the vast amount of art there. Next, down to Rome to see the sites, including the Vatican City, Colluseum etc.

Then we flew to London and saw a few mates. Stayed with Chambers, thanks! Finally a few days in Brighton with Toolmans' Grandma, then on to heathrow and homeward. We flew home via Osaka, Japan - an 8 hour layover so we looked around the city.

Landed in Auckland, and stayed with Princess' Dad for what ended up being around a month. The first few weeks were busy, as the family was planning and then celebrating a wedding! After lots of hard work, the wedding came together magically and Chris (Princess' Dad) and Gillie (Stepmum :P ) had an excellent day. Congrats, guys!

During that time, we went down to Otaki to pick up our stuff stored at Toolmans Mums'. Princess drove the car back, while Toolman drove a truck up, loaded with the big stuff.

We have just found our own (rental) place and have moved in. Now, after some trademe deals, we have pretty much got a fully furnished and operational flat. We have also got a sweet new car...

Princess has started her Vet study, and we have got a Chinchilla cage, so next on the list is: "Aquire Chinchilla".

Now that the house is organised and wired up, Toolman is preparing for employment. We are planning to come down to Wellington next month, so looking forward to seeing all the freinds and family that we haven't seen for a while..

So there you have it guys: back to NZ, and on to the next step.

Merry Xmas and Happy New Year!

Hey everybody! Its out last night here in Amsterdam, where did the year go?

Princess' Mum, Sue, arrived just before Xmas. We met her at the airport.



Princess has been looking forward to seeing her Mum for ages!



Unfortunately, we had to say good bye to Heikki the Hampster the next day. :( We found a perfect foster family - Thanks Marco, Maxim and Lois - but we both miss him still.



Our last week involved Xmas with Princess' Mum Sue, and then lots of organizing of finances, travel plans and exit strategies.

We have spent the day cleaning the flat and getting rid off excess cruft. We have packed up our life into backpacks, and leave first thing tomorrow morning for Geneva in Switzerland.

Where ever you are and whatever you are doing for New Years , have one for us! We will be back in New Zealand late January after our travels backpacking through Switzerland, Austria and Italy.

Can't wait to see you all soon;

Toolman and Princess

Toolmans Mum arrives!

Toolmans' Mum has arrived and is staying with us for a couple of weeks. We are luckily able to use our neighbors apartment for Mum to stay in, so we have lots of space.



Mum was awesome enough to bring us snacks! Yes, thats a suitcase full of Shapes, Pineapple Lumps and Burger Rings! Thanks Mum!

We have planned to go and visit Hungary together, so stay tuned for our adventure stories.

Heikki

Look at how cute he is.



Meep!

Kermis

We were invited up to Schagen for the Kermis festival by our Dutchy friends, Marloes and Robert.

We don't know what Kermis is about, but drinking was involved, so we had to go. Before the event, we met Marloes' brother, Erik, and had some drinks at his house. He has a new kitten to play with ...



After the warmup drinks, we headed around to the pub. Unfortunately, we were quite drunk already, and Toolman doesn't remember much of the actual event. This picture explains the general idea:



Kermis is some kind of local village celebration (Spring harvest?). As with most Dutch celebrations, the drinks flowed.

Toolman and Erik toast to Kermis!



Its just beer if you are wondering...

A great night, we think !?!

Shangles

Last week at the market, Toolman grabbed a great deal on a pack of Sharpies; 1 Euro for a whole pack of them!



However on closer inspection, they are actually Shangle(tm) brand!



Doesn't matter, they still work well and still work on the loo calendar. Compare with the original - similar, no?

Red Bull Air Race in Rotterdam

Wesaw an advertisement saying that the Red Bull Air Race was going to be held in Rotterdam. With lots of exciting plane action set to take place we decided to go and check it out!. The race is held out over the water, with spectators along the waters edge.

The weather was a bit grey, but it was still o.k for flying. We caught a tram down to the waterfront from the main train station, then walked to the ticket booth to get some tickets.

The marina is pretty, and there were lots of nice boats.

Red Bull were sponsoring the event (hence the name - Red Bull Air Race), so the PR machine was out in force. Above is a H1 hummer, the original ridiculous size one.

Red Bull Minis are a bit better, though as expected Toolman suggests they should have got the Sport model.

The ticket sales were at one end of the track, and the entrance in the middle. We had to walk back and forth to get into our 'premium' area. Hrmph!

The show goes out live, and the crew have some neat booms in the area we hung out in.

Some nice crowdshots

We grabbed a drink and took a spot where we could see the jumbo TV...

and also the water.

We were close to the chicane in the middle of the course, so the planes came past doing some tricky maneuvers.

The pilots are released into the timing beams with the command "Smoke ON!", and the pilot turns his smoke trail on.



That plane is flying sideways, and it's not in trouble, thats the smoke trail!

Did you notice the helicopter in the left? its got a gyro camera and does some cool chase-camera shots.



At both ends of the course, the pilots do a loop, and barrel roll to go up and down the course twice.

Red Bull plane, no doubt.



They sound great as they speed past.



The half time show included skydivers. The jumbo TV followed them down, and they started their own smoke trail in Orange, presumably because its the Dutch national color.

They need to be careful, as they were all landing on a small section of docks...

but with some precision and control ...

They made it! The jumbo TV also gave some great real time pilotcams, with G force meters and speedos.

This guy on the jumbo TV isn't pulling many G, but during the loops they were pulling up to 11G !

Rotterdams' bridge at the top end of the course was an interesting design.

A plane is hiding somewhere in this picture.

After it was over, we went for a little look around the waterfront area.

Midget golf, guess Toolman can't play?

Rotterdam has a tower (which is almost as cool as the skytower ;) )

And a few other interesting buildings.

All in all it was a great day!

a quickr pickr pos