Parenthood

No excuse really but parenthood is a whole new world and we realise that keeping up with other every day things like, oh, I don't know, blogs (!!), aren't always top of the priority list.

That said, we love being parents and Kezia is a wonderful daughter to us.  Here's a few of the highlights of our 2012 year so far.

In Kezia's first 8 weeks of life, we visited Daniel's family in Tauranga 4 times!  Sadly, though, a lot of this was due to the failing health of Dan's Poppa who, after a very brief illness, passed away on ANZAC Day, 25 April, as a result of complications from Motor Neurone's Disease. 

Since then, however, we have had happier times in Tauranga again.  We have also been fortunate enough to see other parts of New Zealand.  In July, we visited Taupo, and celebrated our friend's wedding - beautiful day and a really great chance to catch up with old friends.  Kezia enjoyed her first wedding immensly!

At the beginning of August, we held a special Dedication Service for Kezia at our Church, Glen Eden Baptist.  It was a really special occasion with friends and family in attendance, and we felt really blessed.  

Later in August, we went down to a small town, Ohakune (pron, Owakooneh) for a few days where we managed to take in a scenic drive, do a nice hill walk and enjoy some cold weather.  We drove up to the local ski field just so we could say Kezia had seen snow but it was pretty poor actually.  On our way back home, we stopped off in Waitomo (pron Whytawmaw) to see some of the famous Glow worm caves.  Susanna's parents came down for the night and stayed with Kezia for a couple of hours so we could go ourselves and that was really nice, actually, didn't think about her the whole time!

More recently, we have enjoyed hanging out in Auckland, pottering around the house and garden, and exploring some of the local beaches.  On Labour weekend, we visited Anawhata beach with friends from our Ante-Natal class.  We are really looking forward to spending more time at the beach as the weather begins to fine up - bring on Summer!  Here are a few pics for you anyway from the last 8 months or so!  Enjoy.

2 Months old -
having nice cuddles with Dad 

Motherhood aka Multi-tasking

Huka falls in Taupo

At the wedding in Taupo -
Kezia is 4 months old!

I am a New Zealander but
 I love all things British -
thanks to the Bucklands
 for my cool outfit :)

Glow worm caves, Waitomo, August 

The Old Wanganui River Road, August

State Highway Road,
between Wanganui and Raetihi

New Viaduct on Old Coach Road,
Ohakune 

Father's Day 2012,
Carriages Cafe, Kumeu

Approx 7 months old,
visiting Aunty
and Grandparents in Tauranga

New arrival

We've some very exciting news, we have recently welcomed a new addition to the family. After Susanna was nearly 2 weeks overdue, our baby daughter, decided to come meet us at last. We are very proud to introduce Kezia Creed Barthow to you all. Born on 2 March at 4.34pm, weighing in at 8lb 3oz, we feel truly blessed.

The first five days of her life have been truely amazing with getting to know our little daughter. Here are a few of those moments.... Look forward to sharing more with you again soon.

Ch-ch-ch-Changes

Looking back, we can see it has now been another 8 weeks since we last wrote. Wow. Time flies. We have been house sitting in Tauranga since the beginning of September and we will be here until Daniel's relatives return at the beginning of November. During this time, Daniel has been fortunate to get some short-term contracting work and Susanna has filled her days with volunteering at the local volunteer centre, doing a few hours paid work as well, and all the ordinary day to day things that need doing when you are trying to re-establish yourselves in a new place. In between times, there has beena chance to see more of the local area, more family, more friends, and more Rugby! Some of the highlights have been family birthdays on both sides, checking out local farmers markets and craft stalls, and walking around some of the lovely coastline here in the Bay of Plenty - well lovely up until now - don't even get us started on the whole RENA debacle.

Another major highlight has been watching our baby grow - Susanna now has a definite bump although is still being told she is hiding it well (the photo below was a few weeks ago at about 19 weeks). Now at 22 weeks, we have had an anatomy scan and all is well for both Susanna and baby. The big news for now is that... the All Blacks have made it to the semi finals of the Rugby World Cup but, perhaps, more importantly..... Daniel has a job! So, more changes afoot...at the beginning of November, he will start work in Auckland. We will be relocating then to the "big smoke." We will miss the Bay but we trust that we will establish ourselves in Auckland with friends, fellowship, and community.

Aotearoa New Zealand - Welcome home, the first 8 weeks

Eight weeks ago we arrived safe and sound back in NZ. That means we have been out of the UK for over three months! Since being here, we have spent some time catching up with both sides of our family, getting to know our home towns again, and going on the job hunt. We have also tried to get out and about to see a wee bit more of this beautiful native country of ours.

We have visited Maungatautari Ecological reserve, between Cambridge and Karapiro, and Wairere falls at the base of the Kaimais. Now that we are currently living with Daniel's parents in Tauranga, we have also visited Papamoa beach and Mt Maunganui. We are hoping to go a bit further afield as Spring approaches and the weather gets warmer.

Currently, we still are uncertain about where we will actually settle and live - it all sort of depends on where we can find work. The next big adventure for us though, is parenthood! We are expecting a very welcome addition to our family in February next year. That means Susanna is now 14 weeks pregnant and keeping really well.

Watch this space for news and updates on NZ travel, parenthood, house buying etc!

Orient Express

We arrived safely in Beijing on the 17th and it was so great to have Susanna's brother, Andrew, meet us at the train station and take us to his apartment where we were to stay for the next week - and oh, what an apartment. Maybe it was the combination of having to travel for 6 weeks staying in random hostels together with eating unusual food, or maybe it was just we were hot and tired but, whatever - it felt like an oasis, the closest thing to home yet. Clean bathroom, large living room, food to eat in the kitchen.... sigh!
When we found our feet, we did venture out of the apartment though! That first night, we had dinner at the Drum and Gong restaurant in the Nuanluogu hutong and, over the last week we have eaten at some other really great restaurants too.
There is a lot to see in Beijing and we had to resign ourselves to the fact that we simply couldn't see it all. What we did see (through all the smog - mm, nice) was very cool - TianTan (The Temple of Heaven), the Forbidden City and Tian anmen Square, the Confucious Temple, and the Drum and Bell Towers were all rather splendid. We also got to do our fair share of shopping at the 798 Art District and some of the cool markets here - Yashow and the Zoo market were pretty impressive.
Probably the highlight of our trip though was not seeing something in Beijing itself but getting out of the city to Mutianyu to walk along the Great Wall of China! It was incredible. It was pretty hot but it wasn't as crowded as we had thought and even with the people around, there was a sense of peaceful magnificence. We walked all the way off the restored section of the wall to a point of "wild" wall and it was just so cool to be there. Afterwards, we had lunch at this really great social enterprise, the Schoolhouse Restaurant, and got to see some of the glass blowing they did there too.
For now, though, it's time to say good bye to Beijing and hello to New Zealand! So, for the moment our travels are over but we will still keep you updated about our next big adventure in NZ... watch this space.

Mongolia - Part 2!

The last 2 full days in Mongolia, we took a trip organised by the sustainable tour group, Ger to Ger, out to Terelj National Park where we met 3 very different nomadic families. Although Ger to Ger had given us a useful orientation, some of the other information they gave was a bit lacking. After getting off at the wrong bus stop in the main town, we just made it (with the assistance of some friendly locals) back in time to get the minibus out to the Park. Then, we got off at the wrong stop (again!) so had to walk further on but we soon met our first host who took us by ox cart to his home where we had a really nice lunch with the rest of the family.

The park is a mixture of forested hillsides and green river valleys with some crazy rock formations thrown in. After lunch, we got to enjoy more of the scenery when we travelled by horse to the next family, where we were to spend the night in their second ger. In many respects, this family seemed the most authentic and we definitely had the best time here. We had a really nice evening meal and played a game with knucklebones until it was too dark to see. The next morning, we got up really early and had a chance to milk a cow, try our hand at archery, have a yum breakfast, and climb the nearby hill to get an amazing view across the valley. Then, it was back on an ox cart for a long trip to our 3rd and final family's ger for lunch before heading back to UB. The weather was stunning until about 20 minutes before we got to the last ger and then it rained. Hard. We spent a lot of the afternoon, sitting in the ger (being somewhat ignored as our hosts had their neighbours visiting as well) trying to keep dry. Fortunately the weather cleared enough for us to get back to the village in time for the bus.

We were pretty tired when we made it back to our hostel but we managed to have just enough energy to pack our bags for our early morning train departure the next day to Beijing....

Running to (?!) the Mongol Hoardes

Okay, so we didn't run, we took the train.... but we did wonder at times if going by foot might be just as quick... We hopped on to the train and were greeted with a much more modern carriage almost entirely full with foreigners (and only a handful of Russians), which was a bit of a contrast from our earlier journey. Our compartment was also a lot cleaner and more modern - it even had a TV (not that it worked but we were still impressed). Probably the most traumatic aspect of the trip was the border crossing - 5 hours on the Russian side and 3 hours on the Mongolian side - this is no joke! Fortunately, we were allowed off the train for some of this time which was great to get some fresh air (30 degrees with a full compartment and no fan or airconditioning is not our idea of the perfect sauna!) and to use the toilets at the train stations as the ones on the train were locked for this entire time. The actual paperwork, though, went very smoothly. This trip was a lot more scenic than the stint to Irkutsk in that there was a lot more variety - as well as forests and grasslands, there were rivers, villages, nomadic settlements with ger encampments, and a lot more sense of the unknown.
We arrived in Ulaan Baator early on the morning of the 11th and were met by our hostelier - this was a huge bonus as the hostel would be a bit of a walk with all our gear. The hostel room turned out, much to our pleasant surprise, to be an apartment with it's own kitchen. The bathroom also actually contained a bath (!!) and we both had the best shower here that we have had since leaving London before heading out to town. The first day was pretty chilled out. We bought our onward train tickets to Beijing and visited the central Suhbataar Square.

Today has been a bit more full on but still thoroughly enjoyable. We visited the really fascinating National History Museum before heading out to the Bogd Khaan Winter Palace before climbing up to Zaisan memorial on the South side of town.

Before we head onwards to Beijing, we are going to head out of town to visit a National Park and spend time with nomad families, sleeping in their gers, and learning more about their way of life.